Tom DeLonges Guitar Rig Rundown from 2004 in Blink 182

In today's episode they guys dive into Tom DeLonges 2004 rig. This Gibsons, Fenders used and the Mesa and Marshall Amps. With the new footage from the unreleased Blink 182 Documentary and a post that user jtdg182 on Reddit posted we thought, what better time to talk about what was used in 2004!
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Song used: “Don’t always dream for better endings” for the intro & outro!
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[@krisoliver6202]

I watched the camera streams from the house all the time as they made that record, and then seen several of the shows on that tour. Enema is iconic, but the self-titled and everything surrounding that record was such a one-off and special time

[@davidjohnsully]

The iconic era! ❤

[@Gear182]

Agreed!! Top tier for sure !

[@blakescovers5131]

I actually bought one of the gcx switchers on the reverb sale. Im pleased to know it had this much use during the tour.

[@NukNuk013]

IMO, EVERYTHING about this particular era was the band at their ABSOLUTE BEST. and tonally, i think this was Tom's best rig. especially the Gibsons paired with the Mesa Boogie's. i don't necessarily hate Vox amps, but i like the aggressive tone of Rectifiers more.

[@Gear182]

One of the best rigs Tom had

[@diddyfaplord]

Strats through the recs was better!

[@richmeier]

Mesa was wayyyy better

[@joesheridan8135]

The one we have all been waiting for!

[@Gear182]

Hope you enjoyed!

[@slimkickens]

He also went direct with the first AvA rig, which was essentially this rig without the Rec or BF-3, so I don't think going direct was the problem with the reunion rig

[@snapascrew]

Going direct definitely wasn’t the problem lol people have gone direct with Palmer PDI’s for years with AMAZING results. If you’re going to release a live cd or dvd it’s best to re amp and use a cab but at the show through the pa the di is incredible through the PA system.

[@alwaysevolving281]

Bunch of people going to sell everything they have to recreate this setup haha. This was Tom's best live tone, in my opinion. I wonder how much influence Jerry Finn had for it too. The flanger thing seems like a Jerry Finn studio choice that Tom really liked for the clean tones and that made it to the live rig and more.

[@Gear182]

You could have re created the whole thing with the stuff from Toms reverb sale

[@gibsonprs]

I think the jcm 900 was retired after the loserkids tour.. I think it was the jmp 1 from the MTTS tour onward

[@hunterguzenski2443]

So from what i understand is that all three amps were being utilized and all added different elements to the sound. Usually the marshall was cleaner but still distorted and loud. The mesa was dirtier and had lower mids. And when he wen to clean the Marshall when to distortion but low and the mesa went to the clean channel. Which is how his blended sound was very articulate with such a high gain setup. That was his Enema TOYP sound. With this its essentially the same. Running three heads to blend all of them together to make one sound. In the article he mentions that with midi he can change the sounds to fit the guitar. If we take that and combine it with what doug said in an interview from the reunion tour where he said they only used to use two banks on the midi switcher, we can essentially assume the one bank was for the gibsons and all the tone controls were set normally for them. BUT the second bank would have been for the baritones. To shift the eq structure to fit the lower eq input from the C# tuning. That all makes sense to me. But the Rectifier can’t change it’s eq settings so that is why the Tri Axis and the JMP1 were essential and most of the tone. We might be able to assume that the G force had flange sounds, but a lot of built in flange sounds can’t be dialed in to be subtle. They usually have a set sweep freq and thats why lots of people who only have modelers tend to not like flange because it isn’t subtle or usable. So the Boss could have been implemented for that reason. OR the gforce was sending stereo signals or a wet dry to the other amps. Like maybe only sending wet to the mesas and the marshall was always dry. And the Boss was a mono set for all three amps when he wanted it really flangey. That we can’t know without doug really unfortunately. Also would help us more if they were labeled properly and not “testicle” lol

[@slimkickens]

I think the Mesa power amp was the 2:Ninety, but it's hard to tell from the scans. This was such a golden find, though

[@Gear182]

Yeah it was crazy that it surfaced all these years later

[@hugovafo]

Absolutely it was the 2:ninety, there's some pictures of the rack. But in the boogie forum people are saying he paired the power amps with the opposite: -marshall jmp1 with mesa 2:90 -mesa triaxis with marshall power amp.

[@slimkickens]

@@hugovafo I remember reading that too, but is there any evidence of him swapping them? Or is it another neck Invader thing? My gut instinct tells me a Marshall would sound off with 6L6s

[@hugovafo]

@@slimkickens without further evidence we cannot be sure of anything. There are some users pairing the jmp1 with mesa power amps; Billy Corgan from smashing pumpkins was doing it with a mesa strategy 500. In Tom's tone I think the recto in vintage/orange mode was doing the heavy lifting in the crunch.

[@bofa83]

I sold my Gibson Tom delonge. Really wish they would bring those back. I miss that guitar. Didn’t even sell it for as much as I could have. And I wrecked my epiphone, never thought that would go up in value like it has.

[@Gear182]

Yeah it shocked a lot of us with the value going as high as it is

[@BigBlinkBoy182]

Documentary watch party!!! I would care lol.

[@Gear182]

Maybe we should do this haha

[@Blinkerd00d]

Also, Tom had a les Paul in the Josie music video, I believe. So I'm pretty sure he had the les Paul, then went to a fender, then later Gibson again. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[@jarredbaca8112]

You are correct, sometime during dude ranch and beginning of enema recordings he used a les paul with a Seymour Duncan invader. However for recording he often used Jerry’s les Paul’s and other guitars, hardly ever his own LP and the Strat.

[@richmeier]

Yes he had a few Les Paul’s

[@adamc585]

I can get blink through my mesa roadster on vintage channel, tube screamer (vol max, drive min) through a Marshall 1960…. Almost 🍻

[@JaaySnipes]

Love you guys and what you're doing for the community! However these videos seem to just draaaag on. I always play these in 1.5x speed. Much love guys

[@thatbrianwallace]

I can’t imagine my talking at 1.5 speed. Lol

[@Gear182]

Noted! We will try to speed it! Thanks for watching!

[@kolbytatom1334]

Good stuff!!

[@Gear182]

Thanks !

[@MisterZavala7]

Is there a similar video of his current live rig? I’d love to hear your thoughts of that!!

[@slimkickens]

What do you think he'd switch to if he does leave Gibson? I'm gonna assume something semi-hollow, since he seems to really like how they sound and feel, and prefers their size for his big ol' self. I could see him using a Starcaster with his specs, or a Gretsch. I'm sure no matter what it's gonna be one decently hot humbucker in the bridge, and one volume knob. The variable is really just make and model

[@LouSassles]

In the Ernie ball documentary with Tom, he said he stopped playing strats bc they started to feel like a violin to him. They felt tiny to him (Toms not short he’s like 6 foot something) so I guess I understand why he would switch. There was a theory that he switched to a hollow/semi body around that time because the guitar is lighter weight and was easier on his back (he supposedly had a bad back injury around this era). Also to make sense more, he started to play his guitar higher up and not so low which could help support this theory

[@ThatBrendonGuy]

Ibanez make some nice semi-hollows but don't seem to have many artists attached to them. Tom would be a good get for them...

[@slimkickens]

@@ThatBrendonGuy they do, but I just can't see Tom playing an Ibanez

[@jarredbaca8112]

@@slimkickens he could totally rock a Starcaster , basically a fender version of the es335

[@slimkickens]

@@jarredbaca8112 a single pickup Starcaster with a racing stripe would be fucking rad

[@jakeomara_]

What was the leaked new documentary yall are referring to?

[@Gear182]

It was one that came out a couple years back from their time in Europe

[@NintenDub]

Sweet

[@Gear182]

Thanks!

[@Theevilbeat]

Great video dudes. What’s this doc? I need to see it

[@slimkickens]

Here you go: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqe4aohpnbxkeMk

[@Gear182]

Soooo good

[@horace9958]

🙌🏼🙌🏼

[@Blinkerd00d]

I'm sure he had the boss pedal for its buffer.... the buffer is always on with a boss, even if the effect is off, and without a buffer it's a lot of line to push for just the instrument, ya know?

[@AL_1991]

he could've use the boss tuner or any other boss pedal for that though. It was to accentuate parts with that flanger.

[@Gear182]

Yeah that could be!

[@AL_1991]

@@Gear182 you guys could do an analysis of the mtv icon the cure performance, tom supposedly used a mxr flanger and the ehx q tron for "A letter to a Elise"

[@jonnycap7974]

What do we know about what he used on the albums?

[@Gear182]

It was mainly Jerry Finns until the reunion in 09

[@mil182]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know the last time Tom got a new 333 from Gibson?

[@Gear182]

2006 I was told. But he had a ton. We will be talking about all that in a vid coming up

[@mil182]

@@Gear182 word, thanks! I figured it had been a while but I couldn’t remember.

[@RobertSmithsShoes]

What's the deal with him and Gibson? Is there talks of him leaving?

[@Gear182]

He hasn’t been an active artist with Gibson for quite some time.

[@justingalloway8001]

19:15 switch to the Jazzmaster 👌

[@Gear182]

Haha

[@zaysef]

Now he's using starcasters LMAO

[@HouseDaddyHouse]

Anyone have the link for that Japanese article detailing his rig?

[@Gear182]

If you join our discord, I posted a Hi-Resolution photos on their

[@matthermon5056]

Where can you watch the blinkumentary bits that have been leaked??

[@Gear182]

They are hard to find. A few bootleggers have them.

[@MirrorevO]

which ones?

[@artvandelay837]

Sorry if i missed this in the video... Did he only use 1 triple rec to power all those cabs?

[@Gear182]

There were 3 different.

[@artvandelay837]

@@Gear182 so he used 3 mesa boogie triple rectifers to power a total of 6 cabs?

[@miserableunoriginal]

@@artvandelay837he used one triple rec, one mesa preamp, and one Marshall jmp preamp to power all three cabs.

[@artvandelay837]

@@miserableunoriginal any pics?

[@richmeier]

Thank god a video that doesn’t play “all the small things” that song should be deleted from history and I’ll vomit if I ever hear it again

[@TommyToboggan611]

Why are you doing gear breakdowns when you have no clue about the gear that makes the tone? You guys need to use your ears and not your eyes

[@TommyToboggan611]

there is no blink song before the selftitled that would have a flanger... its for the sound of the pedal