Geordie Walker Gear Guide
Geordie Walker’s Killing Joke guitars, Burman amplification, ADT units and delay-based wall of sound.
A period-by-period quick reference to guitars, amplification, effects and songs. Specific equipment can vary by recording, tour and year.
Guitars
| Gear / reference | Details | Era / use |
|---|---|---|
| Gibson Les Paul Deluxe | Main instrument during the band’s first three albums; compact humbuckers and solid body. | 1979–early 1980s |
| 1952 Gibson ES-295 | Gold-finish hollowbody with trapeze tailpiece; became his defining guitar. | 1982 onward |
| Gibson ES-295 | Often strung with heavy-gauge strings and tuned down a whole step or more. | Killing Joke core rig |
| Contact microphone concept | Walker explored blending an amplified acoustic/hollowbody character with distorted electric tone. | Sound-design idea |
Amplifiers
| Gear / reference | Details | Era / use |
|---|---|---|
| Pair of Burman Pro 2000 heads | British heads used together for a broad, forceful sound. | 1980s–mid-1990s |
| Custom Burman 8x10 cabinets | Each head drove a custom 8x10 cabinet, producing a large stage rig. | 1980s–mid-1990s |
| PA reinforcement | Signal could be split and enlarged through external ADT equipment and the PA. | Live sound |
Effects
| Gear / reference | Details | Era / use |
|---|---|---|
| Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man | Short slapback delay with repeats and subtle modulation; also part of the split signal chain. | 1980s onward |
| PA:CE / Bell Electrolabs ADT units | Two units added stacked delay and chorus-like doubling to widen the guitar. | 1980s |
| Heavy strings and lowered tuning | Helped the ES-295 sustain and retain note definition under distortion. | Many periods |
| Amplifier saturation | High-output twin-head setup supplied the dense distorted foundation. | Live sound |
Song and era references
| Gear / reference | Details | Era / use |
|---|---|---|
| Requiem | Early Les Paul Deluxe period and sharper, more direct guitar sound. | 1980 |
| Eighties | ES-295, Burman heads/cabinets and layered delay/ADT character. | 1985 |
| Love Like Blood | Wide, sustained guitar layers associated with the ES-295 rig. | 1985 |
| The Wait | Early-era Les Paul Deluxe sound and tightly controlled riff attack. | 1979 |
| Pandemonium | Later guitar textures use dense distortion and spatial processing. | 1994 |