EXPENSIVE Guitar Rigs ! 

“Tone is in the fingers” -plays through $50,000 rig.

All things considered, I'm actually surprised how low the cost of even the most expensive rigs are, considering that the concerts themselves cost millions to put on. I wouldn't be surprised if just one light fixture for the bigger shows cost upwards of $10k, not to mention the control board and generators needed to power them. You'd think most of the cost would be in the guitar sound, but it's not.

While Richard Shaw was still in Cradle Of Filth, his live rig consisted of only two Mooer micro pedals: "005 Brown Sound 3" and "Radar", and Shure GLXD wireless unit, totaling around 700 dollars. He joked that he could carry his rig around in his pockets.

I think one of my favorite expensive rigs was from my old guitar teacher. It was a First Gen Powerball, Orange 4x12, and an older TC Electronic Multi effects pedalboard which was surprisingly good

Saw a band in a tiny bar where the fire code was well under 100 people. The lead guitarist was playing through a Diezel VH4 half stack, so around $6100 new. And he had a pedal board, with a couple of Strymons, wah, EVH MXR phaser, tube screamer, controller, etc. Probably another $1500 including the board, ps, etc. The singer/rhythm guitarist's rig was a Boss Katana.

Megadeth's Rust in Peace tour is still the loudest concert i have been to after all these years.They had their sound down pat and dialed with suspended Marshall stacks on scaffolds.

I'd love to see a part 2 to this KDH, some suggestions: Matt Pike of Sleep and High on Fire, Man has a wall of orange heads, with a few Laney and Green and Matamp heads thrown in. Amber Valentine of Jucifer, she has a wall of daisy-chained cabs so large its known to damage the structural integrity of buildings they play in. J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. also comes to mind Is known for his notoriously over-driven marshall stacks.

I like Guthrie's setup, sweet and simple. 😁

My live rig consisted of a Roland cube on top of a plastic garden chair!

I wonder how much George Lynch's 80s rig would cost nowadays.

I would be interested in the Def Leppard for the endless sonic possibilities but at the same Nina Strauss shows it's all about the playing and that is good.On the other hand you understand that big productions imply top notch gear.

One of the best guitar channels on RU-vid. Love the variety and coverage of current events in the guitar world. Always dig your new videos

Should of checked out Tommy Emmanuel’s rig. A single Boss Tu-3. Great video mate, cheers.

Tech is making really killer sounding guitar rigs much more accessible....I heard a live show right hear in Richmond Indiana two days ago just walking by and the singer/ guitar player sounded amazing he had a pedal board and a 4/12 Marshall Cab that's it and he could have played a far bigger show with no problem at all.... awesome! It's an amazing time to be a guitar player!!!!!

Don't forget the wireless belt pack for the Shure Axient ADX1 coming in at $1668.00 each. That's a 4 unit rack of receivers. Most likely used for backup, but I imagine a Hand Held Mic as well. Those are 1K to 2K. Anyway, absolutely love your channel! I'm wishing you the best of success on RU-vid. Your needed here! Thanks

also, I would love to see John Frusciante's gear up on the block. That's gotta be close to 6 figures before touching the guitars

I definitely would like to see more of this. Fun video, good work! The contrast in price between professional musicians gear is pretty astounding.

Great video, as always! Could be fun to look at some other rig rundowns. Thanks!

Honestly there's no need for rigs more expensive than Guthrie's. Much less stuff to worry about and much less painful to replace if gets broken or stolen, and the audience will not tell the difference

That is not guthries permanent rig, he’s only trying it out for this particular tour. Says in an interview he still prefers his victory amps and such, but wanted to experiment with the FM9 after working with Hans zimmer on some soundscapes for film

this has been one of your best vids, do more!

Cool video. I definetly appreciate all the work you put into this. Nice job man

This would be a cool series. Talking about different guitarists and different parts of their career. Zakk Wylde now versus 1992 with Ozzy?

Love your videos and your brutal honesty no bs or crap You rock bro please keep making awesome content.

This rig analysis was freaking positively informative 👏🏻 👌🏻 Thanks.

this was interesting indeed, love to see more from this kind of videos my friend!! :DDD

The 1960dm cabinets were priced at 1300.00 USD when they were released in 2012. I loved those cabinets. The Dave Mustaine cabs are wonderful, mid heavy beasts, perfect for life work.

absolutely love this, please do more of these!

I thoroughly enjoyed this. I remember reading Guitar World that had rig setup in most issues. always found it interesting

Guthrie Govan is also using a powered FRFR stage wedge style cabinet (behind him) to hear his guitar. That was on the current Aristocrats tour. I was lucky enough to get to hang out during sound check and meet the band.

Excellent video concept brother.

EVH’s last touring rig as a bonus would’ve been nice, but maybe you could do a whole video on every EVH touring rig. Great video!

Good shit man, great idea for a series… more pls :)

Most of what they're paying for are wireless systems, power amps, and speakers. They're all using about 1500-2500 in modeling amps, which is relatively affordable, and only expensive because they often have 2 of them. It's amazing that the average teenager could work a part time job, save up for a good modeling amp and a great guitar in the 800-1200 range, and never complain about "their sound" again. Or at least, not have any excuses other than their playing. It was not always this way.

I would be happy to see more of this. It's like lifestyles of the rich and famous but for guitar. 10/10

Great idea for a series!

Hell yeah great video man

I was a tech in the 80's. The average racks back then cost $50k or so with some (like EVH) spending over $100k. Touring has gotten a lot less expensive.

Great video idea. Keep 'em coming

Keep doing this! Very interesting.

Awesome video concept

Just saw Dave and Kiko in Raleigh NC. They used every penny of that equipment. Kick ass show. Thanks for the video 🤙🤙

Very interesting vid KDH. Nita and Guthrie are my two new favorite guitar players! 😁😁😁

This was a really good video! I’m running an Axe Fx III Turbo now…. it’s unbelievably amazing!! Took a long while to save up for it, but it’s very, very worth it!

Great video. it may be interesting to see some of the guys using vintage gear- Eric Johnson, Robben Ford, etc.

Great video! I'm sure the Malmsteen back line alone would crush the list lol!!

Cool video 👍👍 Those road rack cases are expensive as well!!

You’ve genuinely become my favorite RU-vidr :))

Love the vids mate! Would be curious about Angus Young’s off Rig Rundown but then I guess like you said you can’t really put a price on the vintage stuff…

great video. some of my favorite players, and actually , the last 3 concerts i saw were nita strauss, john 5, and megadeth.

Cool idea to look at the big rigs. 👍 I am building high end guitar rigs in Germany. I want to add some things, that are not always obvious to see. A rig is not just the "big" parts like the rack units, tube heads or a pedal board. A lot of money goes into installing all the components in a professional way e.g. connectors, cables, switching, buffers, signal routing, electric isolation, noise gating and so on. A lot of the cables have to be custom made to the needed length, soldered to connectors and fixed with cable ties. All this has to withstand the torture of touring and still be maintainable, just in case. Some rigs have more than one foot controller for wide stages or / and for the guitar technician who in some cases does the switching during the whole performance. Then - depending on the rig - there's a lot to pay for pro touring flightcases e.g. I have four Engl 4 x 12 guitar cabinets - the custom build cases for them add over 1200 $ easily - and a crazy weight. Usually you have multiple guitar transmitters. The list of things which are not that obvious to be added to get pro level goes on and on. And then for the very very big guitarist - some of them have rigs in different parts of the world as the fright costs are incredible expensive. So 20 k$ or 30 k$ for a rig without guitars and the guitar techs equipment is not that crazy. Of course, you can have e.g. an Axe-Fx (and a spare) straight to the PA and in ears and it would be not that expensive. A lot of guitarists use modeling or profiling because of ease of transportation and setup, but maybe more because of consistency of tone. I have to stop - I could write for days here. 🙈

I saw a rig walkthrough with Angus Young a short while back (1-2 years) and he has several vintage Marshall heads along with various wireless and switching items. I would love to hear the breakdown of a mixed rig like his.

Great video! I'd love to see a breakdown of Larry LaLonde's (Primus) rig from a while back... Dude had 3 pedalboards and 2 super sonic 100s. Also, I remember a rig rundown of the (I believe) Imagine Dragons guitarist which would likely blow Megadeth's price total out of the water...

Great video, I'd love to see a breakdown on Matt Pike from High on Fire

Great video!!!!!!! Now I know what wireless unit on both sides of the spectrum to look into in the near future.:). Really curious on a guitarist that uses Kempers as that’s what I use and a custom Dr Jekyll guitar works 2x12 Legosa cabs..:)

Saw J5 live a couple years ago and was super fascinated by his rig. All boss, nothin overly fancy for sure. COOL fuckin player

The Edge. Never been a fan of u2 but I watched a rig rundown with it and it’s mad fascinating.

Great video I loved it and all your other videos too. You should look into some of the jam guys Rigs. For example Trey Anastasio’s - the guitar player from phish - dry amp alone is $150,000+ Trainwreck. I think in the touring world overall - just from my point of view - it’s either Trey, John Mayer, or Joe Bonomasa who have the most expensive rigs. They use a lot of vintage gear though so it definitely tips the scales.

Cool concept. It’s all in good fun.

great vid! plus take into consideration the cost of The Guitars as well :)

Great series.

i actually have the same rig as one of the people you mentioned today, Nita Strauss, ive been using a gt1000 since they came out and its just fine, i was amazed listening to her talk about hers though, she uses some presets and away she goes, when i got mine, i researched relentlessly on how to get the best sound out of it then built my patches from the ground up, it took me about 3 weeks tweeking it before i started gigging with it

Great video mate. Would love to see a rig run down on Jeff Loomis from Arch Enemy. Do one on Dimbag too.

I was SO ready to be converting this entire video to Euro lol (it's actually pretty close to 1:1 right now anyway)...thanks buddy!

I'd be interested to see a version of price of guitars brought on tour! But this was a great watch too!

great video!

Great video. I'd love to see what value was involved in assembling Little Manhattan, as well as the cost of the Buzzard basses.

Lol, i have an old SKB Pedal board with a 15 watt Eminence equipped solid state amplifier built in. It also checks the health of the Patch cables and can power up to 8 or 10 pedals. I' think i'll dig it out. It's like new in the box.

can you find out what a metal core band like beartooth is using price wise? love the effort and quality you put into these videos

I saw Kiko this year in Montreal and i must say not only was he a mindblowing musician, my friend and I noted how great his guitar sounded. (By the way between us we've seen almost A LOT of guitarists!)

Steven Wilson's rig prior to the Porcupine Tree reunion would be interesting since it's a fairly complex and high-end pedalboard into a Bad Cat halfstack, and then a little practice amp just because.

Kool video man

Awesome Vid!!! Seen some of these rigs on RU-vid. Never would have tried to add them all up. I just figure when you're making like $20,000 a show these are fair prices for them. Also it's like buying F-14. You're really paying for skilled personnel to run them behind the scenes. so $140,000,000+ is just an infinite payment plan that comes with upgrades, repairs, and what not. its probably almost new gear every tour too. Question??? does that Wiesel chew the fur off your face or do you have to shave with a razor aswell?? 🍻😜🤘 you get a like and a sub!!!

Dude I was hoping for Matt pikes rig cost. As many orange rockerverbs and dual darks as he can find and a literal wall of 4×12s. Also I wonder how much the grateful deads rig used to cost. Great video

Excellent video. Cheers from Argentina

Cool video! Fun!

Great video. Interesting. I run Furman power conditioners, a JX-44 into 2 Quad Cortex units, an FM3, and an old Digitech GSP-2101LE, and I slave the power section and speakers from two old Fender Red Knob Twins. What I don't have is that sweet wireless. Clearly it must be the best one. Good grief, it's half the cost of rigs that had one. I never even knew it existed, but I think I'll stick with my 12' Mogami cable. I don't have any stadium shows lined up at the moment. 🤣

Such a cool video, thx

I liked and subscribed solely for the Warwick hanging, similarly to me swiping right on dating apps for T&A 😬

Very interesting Video. I wouldn't have guessed Megadeth as being the most expensive. Especially with def Leppard being in there. It's cool to see some people just using a Guitar Processor.

Great idea for a Video which has to be hard to come up with. 🤘 Vais was nuts... John 5 is a good player.. ♥️🤘♥️ I heard Dave Mustaine say his cabs were custom made and given to him by Marshall. Kiko said he was using two cabs I believe. I sub'd his channel because he answers questions such as these. I would like to see what Reb Beach and Joel use in Whitesnake. I think just Marshalls or Friedman's for Reb and I'm not sure with Joel. I'm winger I've seen Reb using Marshall back lines and a Surh riot pedal stacked on top of the amp for distortion and Reb was adjusting it during the show. 😂 Joel Hoelstra I'm not sure what he uses with Whitesnake. Joel is one of the hardest working most under rated guitarists alive man.. Great video brother. Best regards from Indiana ( the hills and swamps and woods of the south central part of the state. 😂) USA. 💪♥️💪 Be well and safe sir and thanks for bringing value to my life with these videos brother. ♥️

Those Powerstages are amazing for just a straight clean signal. I had the little 100w floor model, with mono, and that thing would SCREAM!! I couldn't imagine standing in front of a set of amps pushing 1400w of that lmao!! I will say that if it were me I would use those for recording since it's so clear, but I'm betting Dave wants that clear signal/sound everywhere he goes so I bet he uses them in both applications.

i use: marshall 1960a & b cabs, two marshall origin heads, pedaltrain flight case, ernieball volume, korg tuner, wolf computer, aB synthe, empress superdelay vintage, eventide space, zvex tremorama, zvex ringtone, zvex lofi, walrus slotva, electroharmonix cathedral and holiest grail into little dipper+vox delaylab (looper)

Best video I could see online. 👍

You got to do another one of these. We know it's not completely rooted in reality as you explained, but as you hoped.. it was fun. I would love to see Iron Maiden.

Not that its expensive or anything, but i have a full 21u rack of pure 80s hairspray metal

When I was touring my rack rig w/ axe FX was around 13k to 15k. I stopped using pedals to simplify my setup and had everything programmed into the axe FX and used the axe FX floor controller and custom Ernie Ball expression pedals.

i think Petrucci's rig, with 2 mesa mark V signatures, 2 axe fxIII, a bunch of pedals and isocabs, plus micellaneus, would put all these in the ZOOM 505 category XD.. but that shure axient is putting a heavy weight on those rigs, it is ridiculously expensive, but i've heard marvels of it

Good interesting video, be interesting to see how much the Edge's rig coast from U2 or john frusciante rig because I know they use a lot of equipment

I'm fairly certain the Mustaine cabs are just 1960Vintage, with a metal grille added. The stock 1960AV is a couple hundred $ more than your standard 1960A.

GREAT VIDEO 🤘🏽❤️🤘🏽

I enjoyed this video. It was very well put together. I was just thinking, what about David Gilmour, Steve Lukather, Jimmy Page? Those can’t be cheap at all.

More of this, please

It would be interesting to do like a "guitar heroes" rig line up for cost. Pink Floyd's alone would be worth just seeing the early gear and if it is still available or what is equivalent. Zeppelin, Robby Krieger from the Doors...oh and to add Ritchie Blackmores, Blackmore knight rig, with all the lutes and classical instruments

Cool vid!

I've seen Vai once and he sounded absolutely amazing. I severely overestimated his rig cost. Those custom shop guitars might drive that cost up a few dollars... 🤘🤘🤘😄😄😄

I thought the price of the Shure Axient was a typo. $7,000. for a wireless system!?! Holy smoke!

That was awesome 😎

Half the players are already using digital, this was unthinkable a few years ago. It won't take long to see a full switch, at least live.

Please do a part 2! Including Tosin Abasi's rig.