Recycler Hombre: Billy Gibbons

It's near impossible to pinpoint the source of ZZ Top's distinctive guitar tone on the platinum selling Recycler album. While Billy Gibbon's beloved 'Pearly Gates' Les Paul, a pocket full of Mexican peso-picks, and a wall of Marshall JCM 800s may have something to do with it, the trucks of rack mount effects ("pedals" in the minds of Pedal Nuts) are certainly an essential component of Gibbon's tone. If you find that your ZZ Top covers leave your audiences' heads in Rhode Island, not Mississippi, it's time to double back to check out the following overview of Gibbon's effects set-up:

• Furman AR-117 Line Voltage Regulator - helpful for regulating the voltage of your amps to ensure that you're getting a clean, usable signal. Necessary? Not really, but it looks nice in a rack.
• T.C. Electronics 2290 Dynamic Digital Delay/Effects Control Processor - you'll need to sell your home or stiff the landlord for a couple of months to afford this unit (note: recently found on Ebay.com for US$1,999.00). Buy this unit, move into the RV, tour the country and grow a beard, and you may get mistaken for Mr. Gibbons himself.
• Roland Guitar Effects Processor - while available three years after the release of the Recycler album, the Roland BOSS SE-70 has become a favored rack mount effects processor of Billy Gibbons.
• Bisarktone Ring Modulator - good luck finding this rack unit in your local music store, so seriously consider buying a MoogerFooger MF-102 Ring Modulator (pedal!) instead. Woohoo!
• Digitech Mono 28 MIDI Programmable Graphic Equalizer- we think this Digitech rack mount effect is an optional item. Apparently, Gibbon's uses the Digitech Mono 28 to comp the tone of his Pearly Gates Les Paul when touring and playing with his stage guitars.