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GUITARS
1) 1966 HARMONY ROCKET - with three
D'armond gold foil pickups, a Fishman ebony bridge transducer pickup
with Fishman powerjack preamp. Refretted with Fender medium frets,
Bone nut,Waverly tuners, .001 mf capacitors added to each volume
pot. strung with DRSTRINGS Pure Blues 011-052.
2) AIRLINE ROCKET - with 2 Darmond pickups. Gibson 335 tuners.
No other modifications. Strung with DR STRINGS Pure Blues 011-052
3) KAY LES PAUL STYLE GUITAR - doused in Coleman lantern fluid
and burnt to a charred finish(don't try this unless you have plenty
of room for mushroom clouds of flames rising 60 feet into the air.
And stand back you crazy fool!). After aging the body with fire
(also excercising the punk demons out from previous owner) I hollowed
out the body from the front pickup cavity to the bridge leaving
the Maple top piece in tact. I screwed two single coil blade style
strat pickups right into the wood for as close contact with body
vibrations as possible and wired them in series with two volume
pots and no tone pots. Chrome telecaster knobs. The nut, floating
bridge and violin style tailpiece are carved out of antique ebony
hairbrush handles.Waverly tuners. The neck has been shaved, sanded,
oiled, and epoxied to the body. The action is set at 5/8 inch off
the fret board which makes fretting anywhere beside the first three
frets out of the question. THIS IS A SLIDE GUITAR DESIGNED TO HAVE
ACOUSTIC RESONATOR QUALITIES. The actual sound is somewhere between
a banjo and resonator. The entire body is a tung oil finish. Strung
with the heavy-set round wound electric strings I can possibly
find which at the moment are Dean Markley jazz heavies I believe
014-062.
3) DANELECTRO BARITONE GUITAR - new stock
4) YAMAHA FG150 ACOUSTIC GUITAR - My brother Andrew was in the
navy right at the end of the Viet Nam war. In the last week of
the war he was on leave in Hong Kong where he purchased this guitar
and case for $55.00 which he mailed to me. I basically learned
on this guitar and owe much of what I do now to his thoughtfullness.
Over the years, this guitar has aged beautifully and I have done
sound comparisons with many high end guitars (Taylors, Martins
and more) and never found one that comes close to the warmth of
this great guitar. It may not play as well as those guitars, but
I personally like to have to really squeeze some tone out of an
instrument. And this one records beautifully. Also I've noticed
that most of the new high end guitars have no wood on the neck
and play like a strat. This is acoustically all wrong. The laws
of physics say "more mass - more tone". That is why most
of those $2000.00 and up guitars have no bottom end. You want tone,
you got to work harder that's all. Taylor and the others probably
know that but they wouldn't be selling as many guitars to rich
weekend players if they made their guitars harder to play.
5) NEW!! Eastman 905 arch top guitar.
www.eastmanstrings.com
The new angel of inspiration-fully hand carved 16'' hollow body
arch top guitar with gypsy style cutaway I am still discovering
this guiat's secrets but acoustically is capable of sounding fat
full, funky or pianistic depending on what strings I use. still
experimenting with many types; acoustic and electric. Look for
it featured on every song on my new CD scheduled for release spring
'06
6) The Dragon guitar- A beautiful cheap chinese arch top with built
in piezo pickup and on board pre. Has a great gypsy sound and funky
acoustic blues thing. Not the easiest guit to play but worth the
struggle. Not bad for 260..00 on ebay!!
AMPS
MY CURRENT LIVE AMP SET UPS
ARE AS FOLLOWS<
1) FENDER VIBROKING and FENDER PRO JR. in stereo through Chandler
digital echo (this unit is designed to sound like a tape echo but
can get leslie, phlange, and whacked echo effects). Most of the
dirty mid range honk comes from the pro jr and most of the bottom
end and high end comes from the vibroking.
2) two FENDER PRO JRs in stereo through the Chandler. I'm liking
this set up more and more.
3) One PRO JR. through the chandler. Sometimes I will combine both
set ups with switching for more sounds.
4) I also sometimesuse a POLYTONE MINIBRUTE for jazz sounds.
5) An old solid state HARMONY BASS AMP with a fifteen in it.
FX
1) The previously mentioned Chandler Digital Echo Cry baby wah
2) electro harmonix octaver
3) Danelectro fab tone- I use this for feed back only.
4) Boomerang sample/loop pedal- I usually run an out from an amp
into this and directly into the PA so that the drummer can get
plenty of it into his monitor for playing syncing up to it.
5) Korg rackmount tuner
If you have gotten this far you must be bored.
.88 NYLON PICKS - Sadowsky used to have the best sounding Nylon
picks available ever but they were discontinued. I've had to settle
with Dunlop. I used to hold my picks fat end out for a bigger tone
which I picked up from Pat Metheny. But I found that I wanted my
technique to be more precise. (Pat pulls off and hammers on a lot
of legato notes) I wanted a cleaner sound with higher action which
requires more aggressive picking. I finally found Nylon picks turned
around point first combined with my fingers on my right hand could
get me that fat tone and faster technique.
On acoustic Guitar I almost always play finger style.
My SLIDES are the heaviest brass possible for recording, the heaviest
glass possible is nice too. For Live I prefer chrome. My friend
Mike Sweeney gave me some slides which he cut out of BMX bicycle
seat posts. These are the best! Just the right thickness,weight,
and balance for my fat fingers, high quality chrome with a smooth
but aggressive tone.
THE CAN - o.k. here it is. B&M baked beans 22 oz. size. No other
sounds the same. With either a Shure bullet or ATM25 installed
about an inch and a half deep. I run it through a Digitech harmonizer
for FX.
I write my own effects but all of them require plenty of limiting
for live. My last word on equipment- Stay away from Music stores.
The best most original sounds you can find are inside your head.
Force yourself to make them come out with the most basic gear.
Music stores want you to keep up with the latest sounds as if that
is what music is about. Invent your music. Don't let them do it
for you. That said....I'd really like to try one of those new hybrid
acoustic/electric guitars that runs a synth mod....... Really though,
gear is an ongoing torture quest for me to try to reproduce what
is in my head. I hear my ultimate guitar sound as a cross between
an acoustic guitar, Django Reinhardt's acoustic staccatto, and
an over driven harmonica.
Someday....... |