JJ's guitars

On the gear side of things:

JJ's guitars:
- On the classic side JJ mostly played his $50 he bought in the late 60s, either miked as an acoustic or then with installed pickups (more and more pickups as years went on: Gibson humbuckers of low and high output, P90-type of pickup, Danelectro-type of a lipstick etc). This guitar was broken by airlines on an Aussie tour, IIRC. So it's been gutted, and don't know where the pickups in it went.
- he also played an ES-335 or a Japanese knock-off of a Les Paul (with a Bigsby) on those classic tunes.
- on the 1979 in Studio live DVD he plays also a 70s Stratocaster with a maple neck. One maple necked strat was also on the cover of one of his albums of that era. He also sold a 1979 strat in one of Eric Clapton's auctions. Nowadays he also sometimes plays a red strat that has a rosewood fingerboard. He did on the 2009 tour in Eugene.
- on the tours in the late 80s and nineties, after the Harmony broke, JJ played a Casio 360 MIDI guitar. I think he still prefers one of those for big venues, as he played for the Clapton shows this decade. Like he says:
"I have a Casio synthesizer guitar I bought in I guess about 1980. And that was one of the first synthesizer--Roland come out with a guitar synthesizer and you could put it on your guitar and plug it into a Midi device and make it sound just like a piano. But Casio come out with one called a 360. So I went and bought one--in fact, I bought two. And I just like the guitar.

The guitar is Japanese made. It's a Stratocaster imitation. I've been playing it all these years. If I want to add some strings, some synthesizer, instead of playing keyboard, I would just run the Midi out into a synthesizer module or a keyboard and I could do it on the guitar, which I understood a little bit more than the keyboard.

They don't make them anymore. I tried to buy more of them. And the synthesizer generally goes bad after a few years. I don't know what happens. It hasn't on this particular guitar. I took one of the pickups off and put a Gibson pickup on it, so it's been modified. I'm not as much into lead guitar as I used to be, but it's really a good lead guitar. It gets real close to sounding like either a Stratocaster or a Les Paul, I have both of those. And it's got a Floyd Rose thing on it, so it stays in tune real good. So when I go on the road, I play that thing with a band. Number one, it stays in tune, right?" http://www.puremusic.com/cale6.html

- This decade he has been playing a Korean Danelectro Covertible reissue. With a piezo added in addition to the Danelectro lipstick pickup. JJ really likes them lipsticks, and I do understand it, from my little experience with ten, they do have a sweet (compressed?) tone . Though I've heard that the reissue supposedly don't, but who knows, sound good when JJ plays!
- On the #8 album he is playing a Gibson SG on the cover. This album is the first digitally recorded album of his, and it sounds quite thin to my ears... so I thus never liked the SG. :D
- He played a bowl bodied Ovation acoustic in the ca. early 90s as well. Those things look so eighties to me. On the 2004 tour he played a Tacoma guitar (as seen on the Tulsa and Back DVD radio interview bit).
- on the cover of a 90s album he is playing a Gibson L5-CES in tuxedo black.
- On the old live VHS he plays a Carvin (AE185?) semihollow (like a '72 thinline Telecaster).
- He at least used to have a telecaster, as a Texan pickup manufacturer site says he used their Rio Grande Muy Grande telecaster pickups.
- He had a Martin made to his specs, before the Guitar man album. And said he wrote like half of the album the day he finally go it. Has "JJ Cale" inlaid on the fretboard. Also has a Taylor:
"
- On the Road to escondido trailer vid JJ is playing a Moonstone guitar, and in some old photos he or Christine is seen with one too. The one on the Road to... vid was a mor recent one, and look to be a semihollow design slightly similar to the Danelectro Convertible but 100 times more classy.
- Christine used to be seen with a ES-335 all the time, now she is carrying either solid body Variax or a an "acoustic" Variax model. She wasn't playing on the 2009 tour.
- Bill Raffensperger usually plays a worn out 1960s Fender Jazzbass, but on the 2004 tour he played a Tacoma acoustic bass.

So basically JJ likes a hollowbody electric for a little more acoustic tone, and humbucker or Danelectro pickups. Tribute band Talktothecat.nl's leader played a 1990s Gibson Les Paul through a Rivera amp, to come somewhat close to original JJ touch and tone. So I think Gibson, maybe a semihollow like ES-335, is the way to go. Danelectro Convertible are not available anyway. :D

As for amps:
- lately he has been playing a Fender Blues Junior live. The live tone he gets is NOT the classic tone of his, I feel. But it's still great! :)
- On the live VHS he plays a Blues Deluxe. Or so he says. "Must've had a roadie on that gig", he adds. :D
- earlier he must've played the old Fender Pro he has. Don't know if it's a 50s style tweed pro or a later Pro Reverb. Completely different animals. I assume it is a tweed style amp, for more compression of the old overdriven tubes type.

more on JJ gear here:
http://jjcale.org/jjbooks.htm#books