By now you’ve probably heard that Them Crooked Vultures—a super group consisting of Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) and Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana)—are worth a serious listen. Sometimes these all-star mashups just don’t gel like we want them to or can’t live up to the hype, but by most accounts this most heavy of heavyweight trios is kicking some serious ass and taking names. Put together by Grohl after working on some enjoyable projects with the other guys, the Vultures played their first gig in early August 2009, and haven’t slowed down since. A self-titled album was released three months later and as of this printing, the band is in the midst of a tour that is scheduled to play the biggest halls and arenas in Germany, England, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand. As the band describes itself on its own website, the group basically sounds like “the guy from Queens of the Stone Age singing and playing guitar with the bass player from Led Zeppelin and the drummer from Nirvana.“ If that weren’t so brutally truthful and still cool, we’d be tempted to take them less seriously. These guys are dead serious, though. Pedigrees and star power aside, they simply bring it. You could say the same thing about their gear, too. We had a chance to get up close and personal with much of the gear in their touring arsenal (except Homme’s pedalboards—he wasn’t big on divulging all of his secrets) at a gig in Detroit so we thought we’d snap away and share the photos with you. As you’ll see, these guys play out with some pretty interesting stuff. Joining them on this tour is guitarist Alain Johannes, a producer and sideman who has collaborated with Queens of the Stone Age and Chris Cornell. All of John Paul Jones’ stringed instruments are custom made by his bass tech, Hugh Manson. Manson is also a luthier and sells instruments under the Manson name in England. John Paul Jones’ amp rig consists of SWR SM900 heads, SWR Goliath 4x12 cabs (with Eminence drivers and a Foster horn), SWR Son of Bertha 15” cabs (with a Custom SWR driver and a Foster Horn), a Bad Cat Black Cat amp head and a Bad Cat 60-watt combo.

 

 Jones’ pedal board is fairly simple, containing an Electro-Harmonix Bass Big Muff Pi, a Boss SD-1 and a switcher.

 

ALAIN JOHANNES Touring Musician

Touring musician Alain Johannes fills out the Vultures’ sound on the road. He uses a wide range of gear which includes a hollowbody Les Paul that he recently picked up in L.A.

 

Pedals: MXR CAE Boost/Overdrive, Voodoo Lab Pedal Power Plus, Electro- Harmonix Holy Grail Plus, Electro-Harmonix POG 2, Moog MoogerFooger Lo Pass Filter, Moog MoogerFooger Analog Delay, Ernie Ball VP Jr., Dunlop MC-404 CAE Wah, MXR ten Band EQ, GreedTone Overdrive, ZinkyTrue Grit Overdrive, Fulltone Ultimate Octave, another MXR CAE Boost/Overdrive, Voodoo Lab pedal switcher, Radial J48 Active Direct Box

 

DAVE GROHL Drums
Normally we’d have no business including gear shots of a drum set in our magazine, but considering the fact that we’re showing everyone else’s stuff, and the fact that we like Grohl as a guitar player (he even has his own Gibson Custom Shop Inspired By guitar, the DG-335, which is modeled after a Trini Lopez signature model), we figured what the heck…

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