History & Technical Info on Blue (Including Replicas & Backups)

[localinsomniac]

Don't have the liner notes handy, but I want to say he was the engineer

[greendepent]

3 hours ago, Todd said:

I’m friends with Kevin Army, I’d be happy to pass along any questions about the Insomniac sessions. 

I got one: Was No pride recorded with standard tunning guitars? I always have that doubt. The oficial tab guitar from the album says that the song is played with E tunning guitars and when BJ played the song back in 2009, it sounded lower than the record. 

This would also mean that other guitars were used in Insomniac, because re-tunning a guitar is not a good idea, specially when you record.

 

[papa]

17 minutes ago, greendepent said:

I got one: Was No pride recorded with standard tunning guitars? I always have that doubt. The oficial tab guitar from the album says that the song is played with E tunning guitars and when BJ played the song back in 2009, it sounded lower than the record. 

This would also mean that other guitars were used in Insomniac, because re-tunning a guitar is not a good idea, specially when you record.

 

my dude, you do realize that a band like green day uses a ton of different guitars when recording, right? billie was not sitting there retuning a guitar for every song. of course other guitars were used! also, why on earth is an engineer going to remember how a guy tuned a guitar over 20 years ago for one song? lol.

[Drink Coffee And Destroy]

Also meant to add this to the list of instruments:

Off-White Fender Stratocaster (1994)

- Played by Tre during All By Myself and Dominated Love Slave

- Possibly a backup for Billie Joe

- Seen in Jaded In Chicago

- Fitted with Bill Lawrence L-500XL

- Black strap

https://imgur.com/a/9N1BvCe

Edited December 19, 2018 by Drink Coffee And Destroy

[Drink Coffee And Destroy]

So maybe someone could clear this up for me, but something I have never understood is which of these Strats is properly named 'Frankenstein'. I've read several debates over whether the other Blue Billie mainly played (my profile pic) or if the Pink/Natural Strat is. What do you guys/gals think?

Edited December 27, 2018 by Drink Coffee And Destroy

[Maddie86]

8 hours ago, Drink Coffee And Destroy said:

So maybe someone could clear this up for me, but something I have never understood is which of these Strats is properly named 'Frankenstein'. I've read several debates over whether the other Blue Billie mainly played (my profile pic) or if the Pink/Natural Strat is. What do you guys/gals think?

I don't think there was ever an official answer for that. Was Frankenstein definitely a strat though? When I was a kid I thought that maybe Frankenstein might have been the black tele from the nimrod era.

also, I put together a Warmoth bass a while back and named it "Herman" after Herman Munster because he's a Frankenstein lol

[Todd]

On 12/19/2018 at 9:25 AM, WhiteTim said:

Was he the engineer or the mixer? (I forget the credits and don’t have the booklet on me at the moment) 

if hes the engineer ask him if he remembers what guitars Billie used 

“one channel is Billie's green Fernandez (the one with all the stickers), the other is a what was then a new les paul custom”

[Hammie Stein]

On 12/20/2018 at 12:50 AM, Todd said:

I’m friends with Kevin Army, I’d be happy to pass along any questions about the Insomniac sessions. 

I have seen conflicting opinions on the amps used, any chance you could clarify if the Dookie and SE Lead Heads were both used, and if any other amps featured? Only if he remembers obviously  

[deleteduser7593]

On 12/27/2018 at 5:47 AM, Drink Coffee And Destroy said:

So maybe someone could clear this up for me, but something I have never understood is which of these Strats is properly named 'Frankenstein'. I've read several debates over whether the other Blue Billie mainly played (my profile pic) or if the Pink/Natural Strat is. What do you guys/gals think?

I thought, back then, that Frankestein was a black SG full covered with stickers. I even had a picture of it but, sadly, in my past computers. Then, recently, I read (can't remember where) that actually Frankestein was a nickname for Blue 2, the guitar you have as avatar picture.

[Drink Coffee And Destroy]

On 12/27/2018 at 8:46 AM, Maddie86 said:

I don't think there was ever an official answer for that. Was Frankenstein definitely a strat though? When I was a kid I thought that maybe Frankenstein might have been the black tele from the nimrod era.

Frankenstein always seemed to be the peach strat to me because all the holes on the pickguard (including the neck and middle pickups) are covered up except for the bridge humbucker and volume knob. It’s very well that quite a few of these instruments were parts guitars. Blue 2 being another example because of the left handed bridge.

I will add that the ones I definitely know are not parts guitars are the Blue and Red guitars from the HMV Alley show and the Maroon telecaster from the nimrod cycle.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Drink Coffee And Destroy

[Maddie86]

I listened to Insomniac today through headphones for the first time in forever and my guess is that Blue is in the left speaker and the les paul is in the right. the guitar in the right channel sounds a little darker, and usually when there's a break in the drums and bass, the guitar in the right speaker breaks with them while the one in the left speaker keeps playing, so I'm guessing the left channel was recorded first and I'm assuming that Billie would have used Blue as his first choice. also, there's some pretty sloppy palm muting in 86 lol

[Drink Coffee And Destroy]

21 hours ago, Maddie86 said:

I listened to Insomniac today through headphones for the first time in forever and my guess is that Blue is in the left speaker and the les paul is in the right. the guitar in the right channel sounds a little darker, and usually when there's a break in the drums and bass, the guitar in the right speaker breaks with them while the one in the left speaker keeps playing, so I'm guessing the left channel was recorded first and I'm assuming that Billie would have used Blue as his first choice. also, there's some pretty sloppy palm muting in 86 lol

One thing I did note was that the guitar sound on Armatage Shanks sounds different than the rest of the album. If you listen to that and Brat, there’s a noticeable difference to me.

[Maddie86]

On 12/29/2018 at 3:55 AM, Hammie Stein said:

I have seen conflicting opinions on the amps used, any chance you could clarify if the Dookie and SE Lead Heads were both used, and if any other amps featured? Only if he remembers obviously  

I just finished reading this new book called "smash", it's about the 90s punk explosion and there's a lot of green day stuff in it, and Rob cavallo was interviewed. There's a chapter about insomniac and Rob actually mentions the amps they used. He said they went to Bob Bradshaw to help them find a harder sound for the album. The book says "Bradshaw took the dookie model and added to it a hundred watt Marshall amplifier and an SE lead modification. "It has more claws on it, and sharper teeth", says cavallo. On the album's meatier moments, the tone the listener hears is 60 or 70% Armstrong's new rig, and 30 or 40% of the sound produced for dookie. "Billie liked it hugely", remembers the producer."

[Jet Taman]

Wait, didn't he give Blue away to a kid in Philly when The Longshot played in the basement of a tiny church....?

 

😋

[WithLibertyMusic]

On 1/7/2019 at 1:46 PM, Maddie86 said:

I just finished reading this new book called "smash", it's about the 90s punk explosion and there's a lot of green day stuff in it, and Rob cavallo was interviewed. There's a chapter about insomniac and Rob actually mentions the amps they used. He said they went to Bob Bradshaw to help them find a harder sound for the album. The book says "Bradshaw took the dookie model and added to it a hundred watt Marshall amplifier and an SE lead modification. "It has more claws on it, and sharper teeth", says cavallo. On the album's meatier moments, the tone the listener hears is 60 or 70% Armstrong's new rig, and 30 or 40% of the sound produced for dookie. "Billie liked it hugely", remembers the producer."

This is killer info. Thanks for sharing. I was re-listening to this album a lot the past year. The guitar tone kept bringing me back. Its so meaty, dark and cutting. My favorite of theirs.  

[Drink Coffee And Destroy]

So I have a new theory about the mystery guitar behind Billie in this picture:

I just remembered that Timmy Chunks (Billie’s guitar tech from 1994-04) would come out to play guitar on King For A Day and would use his own guitar as seen here (to the left of Billie):

My theory is could the mystery guitar be the one Timmy is playing?

[Drink Coffee And Destroy]

Black Fender Strat (1998)

- Fitted with Seymour Duncan SH4 on angle.

- Played by Timmy Chunks (guitar tech) while Billie sang (i.e. King For A Day)

https://imgur.com/a/b4fsm26

Edited August 10, 2020 by Drink Coffee And Destroy

[Drink Coffee And Destroy]

Here's another Strat I forgot to list:

Olympic White Fender Stratocaster (2009-10):

- Backup on the 21st Century Breakdown Tour

- Originally olympic white, since faded to a yellow-ish color (very common with vintage strats finished in this color)

- Fitted with Seymour Duncan SH4 on angle

- Class of 13 icon sticker placed underneath the bridge

- Currently for sale on Reverb from Paris, France HERE

Now I have a theory about this guitar's origins. I firmly believe this was originally the "peach" strat from 1997-98. It has the exact same neck as the latter, and the body being more faded with age (here's another example of a very faded olympic white Strat from 1973). If it's not the exact same guitar, the neck was recycled to this guitar.

Edited October 5, 2019 by Drink Coffee And Destroy

[W_FInkThePlatypusHunter]

4 hours ago, Drink Coffee And Destroy said:

Here's another Strat I forgot to list:

Olympic White Fender Stratocaster (2009-10):

- Backup on the 21st Century Breakdown Tour

- Originally olympic white, since faded to a yellow-ish color (very common with vintage strats finished in this color)

- Fitted with Seymour Duncan SH4 on angle

- Class of 13 icon sticker placed underneath the bridge

- Currently for sale on Reverb from Paris, France HERE

Now I have a theory about this guitar's origins. I firmly believe this was originally the "peach" strat from 1997-98. It has the exact same neck as the latter, and the body being more faded with age (here's another example of a very faded olympic white Strat from 1973). If it's not the exact same guitar, the neck was recycled to this guitar.

I’d put my bets on that “peach” guitar, If it actually was Olympic White, to be the one we see here.

[Drink Coffee And Destroy]

On 10/6/2019 at 12:29 AM, W_FInkThePlatypusHunter said:

I’d put my bets on that “peach” guitar, If it actually was Olympic White, to be the one we see here.

Thank you for reminding me of this picture. If only I could go through the rest of that bin to see what else is in there. I can spot in the back what possibly was the Maroon/Dark Red Telecaster from the nimrod days. I'm willing to bet the olympic white seen here in the IG photo is a different leftover body, but anything is possible. Only Billie or Timmy would probably have the answers.

Another discussion: is it possible that Fender tried to get BJ on board to be a signed artist around 1997? I mean why else then would they have made two Blue duplicates for him? That's something to think about; a Billie Joe signature Fender. 

Edited June 17, 2020 by Drink Coffee And Destroy

[Drink Coffee And Destroy]

On 7/12/2017 at 2:09 AM, Ham Pascale said:

Also...

Fender Stratocaster (1993)

Used as a back-up guitar for Blue in 1993. 

- Has a red strap, likely an Ernie Ball

- Fitted with Seymour Duncan L-500XL, albeit not angled

- All other parts appear to be original.

http://imgur.com/a/o4ND8

This guitar was an American Standard Strat c. post-1986, when Fender reopened their USA plant in Corona. The remaining specs for this one are:

- Black P-bass style knobs

- White switch knob

- 8 hole black pickguard

- 22 fret rosewood fretboard

- Two stickers; Tilt (the band), and "YUCK" in a stylized font. 

Edited August 10, 2020 by Drink Coffee And Destroy

[W_FInkThePlatypusHunter]

12 hours ago, Drink Coffee And Destroy said:

Another discussion: is it possible that Fender tried to get BJ on board to be a signed artist around 1997? I mean why else then would they have made two Blue duplicates for him? That's something to think about; a Billie Joe signature Fender. 

I could have swore there was a picture floating around the Internet of his Fender Custom Shop file, and it was misspelled as “Billy Joe Armstrong”. I too would be interested to know if a Billie Joe Signature Fender was ever in the works. 

[Drink Coffee And Destroy]

On 10/6/2019 at 11:39 PM, W_FInkThePlatypusHunter said:

I too would be interested to know if a Billie Joe Signature Fender was ever in the works. 

I'm guessing the only people with that answer would be Fender. I'm actually thinking of emailing them at some point to ask about all that stuff.

Edited November 14, 2019 by Drink Coffee And Destroy

[Lenny]

On 10/6/2019 at 11:39 PM, W_FInkThePlatypusHunter said:

I could have swore there was a picture floating around the Internet of his Fender Custom Shop file, and it was misspelled as “Billy Joe Armstrong”. I too would be interested to know if a Billie Joe Signature Fender was ever in the works. 

I'm surprised they never jumped on this opportunity. Blue is one of the most popular strats in rock as a whole. Not to mention that as GD gets older you're gonna see a whole market of cover acts coming up like how The Beatles have Rain. There's a ton of ACDC ones too. 

My first guitar was a strat. I sold it so that I could get a Fat Strat. If there's no extra pick up I'm not interested. 

[Todd]

On 10/5/2019 at 7:40 PM, Drink Coffee And Destroy said:

Here's another Strat I forgot to list:

Olympic White Fender Stratocaster (2009-10):

- Backup on the 21st Century Breakdown Tour

- Originally olympic white, since faded to a yellow-ish color (very common with vintage strats finished in this color)

- Fitted with Seymour Duncan SH4 on angle

- Class of 13 icon sticker placed underneath the bridge

- Currently for sale on Reverb from Paris, France HERE

Now I have a theory about this guitar's origins. I firmly believe this was originally the "peach" strat from 1997-98. It has the exact same neck as the latter, and the body being more faded with age (here's another example of a very faded olympic white Strat from 1973). If it's not the exact same guitar, the neck was recycled to this guitar.

No longer for sale on Reverb. Do you recall how much it was listed for? I wish I had seen your post earlier, I love that guitar!