Sonny’s backline blueprint, pt.2

Last time we checked out Sonny's stripped down "air rig." This go 'round, we'll take a look at the rig he carried with Hiatt and The Goners on the B.B. King tour. We'll take it step by step.

Guitars:

(The "Tunings" section details the Hiatt songs and tunings associated with each axe.)

Two Fender American Standard Stratocasters, a black 1988 model with a 2-Tek bridge, which increases sustain and clarity, and a sunburst 1989 model with the Trilogy tuning bridge, which allows Sonny to move each string to any of three positions with the flip of a lever.

A black 1970 Custom Les Paul for flatpicking (with .10-.42 strings).

A red R&B custom built for Sonny by Mark Riley that features a neck-through-chambered-body design and a shape patterned after the National electric "map of the U.S." models. "It's one of the best sounding guitars I had on the tour. It's got a big sound with a lot of tone, and it's very dynamic," Sonny explains.

And then there's the sometimes primary, now all-purpose backup and radio gigs guitar, Sonny's Les Paul with the TransPerformance tuning system by Neil Skinn.

Effects:

From the guitar the signal first sees a Boss CH-1 Super Chorus then a Demeter Tremulator followed by an Ibanez Echo Machine Digital Delay which leads to an A-B switch for changing guitars without unplugging.

Amps:

A 100-watt Dumble Overdrive using the half-power setting "basically became the mainstay of the tour," Sonny reports. Also onstage were Sonny's Matchless Chieftain, a 1970 Marshall 50-watt head refurbished by Holger Notzel of Komet Amplification Products in Baton Rouge, La., and Sonny's tried-and-true 75-watt Demeter TGA-3. All of the above ran through Sonny's Matchless 2X12 speaker cabinet loaded with Vintage 30s to Mark Sampson's specs.