Brad Delson, guitarist for Linkin Park, is best known for his simplistic and chunky style riffing, which is a perfect fit for the Linkin Park's music.
Since Linkin Park first hit the big time, Brad Delson has been seen playing Paul Reed Smith (PRS) guitars. Up until the 'Minutes to Midnight' Delson used PRS Custom 24's almost exclusively, with the exception of a Ibanez RG470XL guitar and Ibanez RG7620 7 string guitars. His main stage guitar was a red PRS Custom 24 with a Hybrid Theory soldier graphic on the body. This guitar features a DiMarzio D-Sonic pickup in the bridge position. A majority of his guitars are strung with D'Addario EXL110 XL strings.In a September 2007 interview with Guitar Player magazine, Delson discussed his approach to recording on 'Minutes to Midnight' and in particular his shift toward Fender guitars.
"I’ve played Ibanez guitars pretty heavily in the past, but, this time, I used various Strats, Teles, and a Jaguar. The idea was to create a collage of guitar textures that evoke sounds from the ’50s to the ’80s. I also used my PRS Custom SE with DiMarzio D-Sonic pickups, because it’s such a versatile guitar.”
In an interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com Delson confirmed that his PRS guitars did play a role in recording 'Minutes to Midnight', whilst he abandoned a lot of other gear that had formed the core of his signature tone.
"I did use my Paul Reed Smith guitars because they’re so versatile. But I also supplemented them by relying on a lot of vintage gear. Stuff like a 1950s Stratocaster, a vintage Les Paul, a fender Jaguar, a Fender Telecaster and I completely abandoned the amps I was using. There really is no Dual Rectifier or any new Marshall on this record. I mainly used a vintage Soldano, a vintage Hi-Watt, a Sears amp and an AC-30 for my clean tones."
The September 2007 Guitar Player magazine article also provided a further insight into the amplifiers used in the studio for the recording of 'Minutes to Midnight'.
"Working with producer Rick Rubin on the album further sealed the quest for vintage-style guitar sounds, as Delson plugged into ’72 50-watt Hiwatt Custom, Soldano SLO, and Marshall JCM 800 heads—as well as a mysterious and extremely rare “Bo Diddley” amp with an onboard tape delay that was either made for, or made by, the early rock legend."
When it came to duplicating the tones from 'Minutes to Midnight' live, Delson was faced with a few challenges. It also meant incorporating tones from Linkin Park's two previous albums. Rather than transporting countless vintage heads to duplicate the tones, Delson has adopted Randall MTS preamp modules. This has allowed him to run multiple preamp modules into a stereo power amp and through to a single speaker cabinet. Delson uses the following Randall MTS modules:
It's important to not that the modules used by Delson have been modified by Dave Friedman.
His previous rig was featured in the Guitar World column, Vulgar Display of Power. As you can see from the scan below, his effects and switching where all handled via midi.
Source : www.guitarfxdepot.com
