Kelly Jones

Kelly Jones (born 3 June 1974) is a Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist and the lead singer of the band Stereophonics. Influenced by classic rock bands such as The Who, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and the Sex Pistols, ¹ Jones is noted for his strong, gravelly voice, which has been described as “whisky” vocals.²³As a lyricist, Jones is also strongly influenced by Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Otis Redding.¹ Jones is also known in the media for his cynical view of fame and criticism of manufactured mainstream pop music.

Jones uses British style amps, mainly playing his Matchless’, Badcats and Vox AC30s, whether playing solo or with Stereophonics. He loves the “clean British sound” of the AC30s and the “dirty crunch” of the Badcats and Matchless’.

He uses limited FX pedals, but in solos he has used a Dunlop CryBaby wah. He also uses Boss effects pedals, including a chorus, delay, flange, phaser and various distortion pedals, although he is gradually relying on distortion pedals less and just using amp switching pedals using the built in crunch and clean settings, mainly using his AC30 for clean work and his other 2 amps for distortion.

His main guitar is a cherry red Gibson SG. His use of a Gibson ES-339 is becoming more and more common along with his Fender Stratocaster, his Fender Telecaster is also making more and more appearances (which was actually made by Hugh Manson as a custom guitar) his Fender Jaguar, used extensively on ‘Language Sex Violence Other’ looked to have been made redundant on the latest ‘Pull the Pin’ tour but was used a lot more towards the end of the tour, most notably on the single You’re My Star. He owns one Telecaster clone built by Manson Guitars⁵ He is also known to use Gibson Les Paul Goldtops, especially on heavier tracks such as Bartender and the Thief and Vegas 2 Times. His acoustic guitar of choice is a Gibson J150 and rarely uses anything else, but owns various other Gibsons and Takamines.

Source: Wikipedia