Stage
Richie has been performing live for over 20 years. Currently, you can hear him on guitar, keyboards, and vocals for the legendary rock band, Blue Öyster Cult. Check out the tour dates section to see when Blue Öyster Cult is playing near you.
Richie also plays with his original power pop band, 2 Part Invention, and the cover band, Hit Me With It.
Here's a list of some of the amazing performers Richie has played with:
Blue Öyster Cult
Bumblefoot (Guns n Roses)
Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge/Rod Stewart)
Steve Augeri (Journey)
Al Carty (Taylor Hicks)
Jeff Cook (Alabama)
Paul Crook (Meatloaf)
Spencer Davis
Liberty Devito (Billy Joel)
Mickey Dolenz (The Monkees)
Sue Foley
Sharon Jones
Michael Hill
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Bruce Kapler (Late Show with David Letterman)
Bobby Kimball (Toto)
Chris Kuffner (Regina Spektor/Ingrid Michaelson)
The Lounge Brigade
Tommy MacDonald (Blues Brother Band)
Dave Mason (Traffic)
Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden)
Mark Meadows (Edgar Winter)
John Miceli (Meatloaf/Rainbow)
Danny Miranda (Queen)
Vinnie Moore (UFO)
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Bobby Rondinelli (Black Sabbath/Rainbow)
David Santos (Billy Joel)
Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy Osbourne/Quiet Riot/Whitesnake/Dio)
Paul Shaffer (Late Show with David Letterman)
Chris Slade (AC/DC)
Joe Vitale (Joe Walsh)
Alan White (Yes)
Tommy Zvoncheck (Blue Öyster Cult)
Peter Tork (The Monkees)
Bernard Purdie
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Guitar Gear
I'm very proud to be endorsed by these fantastic companies.
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DiMarzio pickups are on almost every guitar I own. I use Air Norton, Norton, Tone Zone, Fast Track, Cruiser, Chopper, Virtual, Air Classic, HS-2, Acoustic Model, and Custom pickups. |
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Axis, Silhouette Special, Eddie Van Halen Model and Sterling. I also use Ernie Ball strings on all my guitars. |
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E 656 Steve Morse Signature Head and Standard 4x12 Straight Cabinet. |
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G Force, Nova System, Nova Delay, and Correct. |
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M2 Wireless Ear Monitors, AEW 4110D Guitar Wireless, and I also use Audio Technica microphones in the studio. |
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LeCover custom amplifier cases. |
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2/50/2 Power Amp, and GP3 Preamp. |
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Revalver recording software. |
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Sony Vegas Pro for Video editing and Mixing in 5.1 surround, and DVD Architect |
Blue Öyster Cult Rig
Setup
There are 2 different types of setup depending on whether we're using our local gear or fly out gear. Ideally, I'd love to use my own gear all the time, but on some gigs that's just not possible.
When using our own gear, the setup is as follows:
My guitar goes into my Audio Technica wireless then straight into the input of the Engl amp. My Nova System is my main effects unit, and that goes through the effects loop. The Nova System is also connected to the Engl via MIDI and controls the channel switching in addition to effects. The Nova System is also my tuner. I plug the Ernie Ball volume pedal into the Nova System and use it as an expression pedal to control the delay mix.
When using rental gear:
I try to get Engl or Fryette amps on gigs where we use rental gear, but those can sometimes be hard to get. In that case I'll end up with a dual rectifier. The dual rectifier has no MIDI capabilities. To solve this problem, I use the Voodoo Lab control switcher. This cool little box lets me send MIDI program changes to it, and it converts them to relay messages that are sent to the amp's footswitch jacks. This turns a non-MIDI amp into a MIDI-amp. When we use the rectifiers, I don't get the same type of sound that I'm used to, so I use the Nova Systems EQ to compensate for this and it works quite nicely.
Monitoring
My vocal microphone, guitar amp microphone, keyboard microphone, and an aux out from the keyboard rig gets sent to the inputs on the P4M mixer. The stereo outputs of the P4M go into the Audio Technica M2 transmitter. I wear the M2 beltpack receiver and hear it with Shure SCL3 earphones with Sensaphonic molded sleeves. Since I only have my guitar keyboards, and vocals in my in ears, I depend on stage volume and wedges to make up the rest of the mix. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because it makes me keep the volume down on the beltpack so I can still hear what's going on around me.
OLD Home Rig
my guitar rig has been through many changes over the years.
Here's a current setup.
Specs
(Rack gear shown in signal flow order)
Ernie Ball Music Man
Silhouette Special
- Blue Pearl Finish
- Custom Dimarzio Pickups ('Cruiser' in the neck position)
- 5 way switching
- Music Man Tremolo
- Maple neck/fretboard
Ernie Ball Music Man
Eddie Van Halen
- Translucent Black Finish
- Custom Dimarzio Pickups
- 3 way switching
- Floyd Rose Tremolo
- Maple neck/fretboard
VHT Valvulator GP3 Preamp
- 3 All Tube Channels
- Complete MIDI switching functions
- Graphic EQ
- Effects Loop
- Tube Dynamics Control
Digitech IPS-33B Super
Harmony Machine
- Intelligent Harmonizing
- MIDI Controllable
- Basic Delay, Pitch & Volume Effects
- Built In Chromatic Tuner
TC Electronic G-Force
- Advanced Effects Processing
- 8 Effect Blocks Per Preset
- Relay Switching
- MIDI Controllable
- Intelligent Harmonizing
- Built In Chromatic Tuner
VHT Two/Fifty/Two
Guitar Power Amp
- Two Channels
- 2 EL-34 Tubes per Channel
- Class A & Class A/B
- 50 watts per Channel (class A)
- 62 watts per Channel (class B)
- Voicing, Presence, and Depth Controls
VHT 212A-P50E Speaker
Cabinet
- 2 Eminence P50 12" Speakers
- Closed Back
Behringer FCB-1010
MIDI Foot Controller
- Fully Programmable
- 12 MIDI pedals and 2 Real Time Expression Pedals
- Each Preset can control 5 different MIDI parameter
- 2 Analog Switches
