Keith also used a new Ampeg Dan Armstrong. Johnny Starbuck elaborates, The new Ampeg Dan Armstrong was brought to us by our friend Ted Kornblum who is the Ampeg company representative and brought it to Barcelona this last summer. Keith used it that night on Midnight Rambler so Ted would dig it, but we went back to the '57 Les Paul TV Jr. after that and for a little while Pierre would insert it into different songs once in a while just for fun. Sometimes Keith doesn't know what guitar Pierre is going to hand him. Not very often, of course... but sometimes as a surprise Pierre will bring out the Dan Armstrong or something he acquired that day that KR hasn't even seen yet, and Keith will give it a workout and see what happens.

The Strings

 5-String - Ernie Ball Custom 5 String Set. The strings for those guitars are custom made by Ernie Ball to Keiths exact specifications as far as gauge goes and are not for sale anywhere.

 Standard - Ernie Ball Power Slinky. The standard tuning 6-strings are 11's while Ronnie Wood uses 10's. (That's the gauge of the thinnest string... the high E.)

The Amps

Johnny Starbuck told us, Keith plays primarily through Fender Twin amplifiers. Sometimes Pierre does a little mix and match with other kinds of amps, but it doesn't usually last very long. One of the Twins that Keith uses has the serial number #00003. It's the earliest known Fender Twin since we've looked for numbers 1 and 2 and been unable to find them anywhere. We figure they got thrown away years ago when they got old and beat up and before the concept of Vintage Amps drove their value up.

Which Guitars are Used for Which Songs?

 'Micawber' is used on songs like Brown Sugar and Honky Tonk Women.

 The ES-355 Mono Black Keith uses on Satisfaction, Oh No Not You Again, She's So Cold, Nearness Of You and Little T&A.

 'Malcolm' is used on You Got Me Rockin.

 'Sonny' is famous for Tumbling Dice, You Can't Always Get What You Want

 'Dice' is used on Midnight Rambler with a capo on the 7th fret

 'Dwight' is heard on Lets Spend The Night Together and Get Off My Cloud

 Tele Custom is used on Jumping Jack Flash most of the time

 57 Stratocaster is used on Miss You and Under My Thumb. Keith, Mick and Ronnie all play Stratocasters on Miss You.

 64 Martin Acoustic is used for Keiths ballads like The Worst, as well as Ruby Tuesday, Angie, etc.

 2006 Guild Custom 10 String Acoustic is used on Wild Horses, in place of the 12 string Keith used to use before.

Who is Johnny Starbuck?

I started working for the band in 1976 when I came with Billy Preston. I was his keyboard tech and the only guy on the Stones crew at the time was Chuch Magee so they told Billy to bring his own tech because the Stones didn't have enough of a crew to set up Billy's stuff. Chuch and I became best friends and I remained with him on the crew ever since, even after they replaced Billy Preston with Ian McLagan and then Chuck Leavell. As keyboards became more complex what with synthesizers and sampling and the use of computers, I didn't keep up and Chuch hired hot-shit keyboard guys while I moved to other areas of responsibility. I've changed my duties, or at least added to them, on every tour ever since. I'm in charge of the load-in at the beginning of the day and getting all the cases to the right spots on the stage -- and at the end of the night I'm at the truck making sure all the cases get back in the truck in the right order and that we haven't lost anything. I'm responsible for the security for all the instruments throughout the day while everything is on stage. Chuch died of a heart attack during the rehearsals for the Licks Tour and Keith and Ronnie had me take Chuch's place as Ronnie's guitar tech. Not being a guitar player, it was quite a responsibilty for me, but I learned a lot and did the whole tour without getting myself or Ronnie into too much trouble. For the beginning of The Bigger Bang Tour I bowed out of that position telling Ronnie that he deserved a real guitar tech that knew more about guitars and amps than I did, and Pierre thought it would be a good idea to have one guy just to do the re-stringing and tuning of all the guitars... Keith's, Ronnie's, Mick's and even Blondie's. So I took that on. It's a big job,since there are about 65 guitars on stage every day that have to be show ready.

Pierre and Johnny in Prague

Pierre de Beauport is Keith's main guitar tech and also the crew chief for the Backline. He's the one that does the guitar changes and stays on stage during the entire performance keeping an eye on the whole band. I ferry the guitars up and down the stairs to Pierre. When the show starts, I have the first two guitars needed on guitar stands behind Keith's amps and as songs end, I bring the guitars back down the stairs and look at the song list and get the next guitars ready.