Wednesday October 22nd, 2003

Goldtones get Trick treatment in Rick Nielsen's 'Checkerboard Wall of Sound'
by Paul Van Name for gibson.com

Even the picture frames in the front hallway of Rick Nielsen's midwestern home are checkerboard. So is some of the bric-a-brac. The checkerboard pattern permeates Nielsen's life, and these observations would soon signal the shape of things to come.

But when he called Gibson during Cheap Trick's recording sessions at Bearsville Sound Studio in New York, where the band was working on their new CD Special One, it wasn't about his love for the checked motif. All he seemed to be interested in was the gear, which has always been the root of his passion. "I want to try one of those amps that Joe playscan you send me one?" Joe is Joe Perry of Aerosmith, who has been using Gibson Goldtone amps from the moment he first plugged into one.

Gibson was happy to oblige. The man in the brown truck answered our call, picked up a Goldtone GA-30RVS and delivered the amp to the right address. But with a reported 36 amplifiers already in the studio, ranging from vintage tweeds to massive plexis, it was hard to imagine a brand new Gibson amp fitting into the recording space, let alone being of service.

Nielsen wound up using this Goldtone GA-30RVS for the bulk of his sounds while the other amplifiers remained mute without drawing a single kilowatt. Two months later he joined the roster of high-profile performers who employ Goldtone, a list that includes Joe Perry, Eric Johnson, Avril Lavigne, Kid Rock, Mick Jagger, Johnny Lang and many others. "What I love about these amps is that they're simple to use," reported Nielsen. "There's only three knobs: Volume, Tone and Reverb. I don't use reverb so that makes it even one step easier."

Meanwhile...back to the Nielsen front hallway, where an official Goldtone endorsement was being solicited following a delicious Japanese meal. Gibson agreed to provide the colorful guitarist with a custom-made checkerboard amp for use in his game room. A hardy handclasp and a warm goodnight sealed the deal.

Then it started. First it was one. Then two. This quickly grew to six. Finally, the concept for The Checkerboard Wall of Sound was born, which featured 12 separate Goldtone and Super Goldtone components. These include three GA-30RVH heads and nine GA-30RVS combos, all equipped with Class A construction and Vintage Celestion 30-watt speakers. Nielsen's dream setup was manifested - but it didn't stop there.

The dream setup continued on the Cheap Trick 2003 World Tour, where Nielsen used the checkered wall of Goldtones for all of his guitars. "Sure the amps look great, but they sound great, too... I wouldn't endorse or cheese out to anything with strings, tubes or a plug just to get more gear, which I have plenty of already," Nielsen stated. "The fact of the matter is that I change guitars for every song during a typical Cheap Trick set. We're talking 20 guitars a night, and it isn't just a guitar fashion show either. I tailor my choice of guitar to fit each song. Single-coils sound like single-coils and my vintage humbuckers have a tone all their own. The Goldtones bring out all the colors in my best guitars."

The Goldtone sound is contagious. Nielsen was introduced to them on a Cheap Trick tour with Aerosmith, where Joe Perry was running his considerable arsenal of guitars through Goldtones. Just as Perry's Goldtones impressed Nielsen, Nielsen's checkered amps have made a favorable impression on Blink 182, The Datsuns, The Star Spangles and Good Charlotte, all of whom have shared bills with Cheap Trick. The staff members of  The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, where Cheap Trick performed earlier this year, had to be shooed back to their duties by producers after ogling the awesome back line for too many union minutes.

Other similar stories abound, but Cheap Trick production manager Colin West summed it up best. "We keep a black tarp over the amps until right before show time," he reported. "When we finally lift them off, the audiences lose their minds I mean, they totally freak out."

Often, Nielsen's amps get the first applause before the band has even taken the stage, but it's all in the larger name of showbiz, which Rick Nielsen understands exceedingly well.

Dreams really are best in black and white.

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For more information about Goldtone and Super Goldtone amps, call Gibson Customer Service anytime at 1-800-4GIBSON or send us an email.