DSP Rig

Barney Kessel Tone — Plugins & Amp Sims

Barney Kessel's tone is polished, articulate and clean — built around his signature Gibson Barney Kessel model or an ES-350, running into a clean amplifier with no effects. His sound is brighter than many jazz contemporaries, with a crisper attack that cuts through ensembles and busy pop arrangements. He used both neck and bridge pickups depending on context: neck for ballads, bridge for rhythm playing in pop sessions. The clarity is important — as a session player, his parts had to be heard on the first take.