Instruments

(For fellow musicians and gear-freaks everywhere)

Electric guitars:
1) My “Go to” electric guitars are Parker guitars. I have two made in USA “Niteflys” (one a prototype; it weighs slightly more than an average telephone pole, but has a wonderful. “glassy” sound). Both are equipped with factory Seymour Duncan pickups. My prototype has three single coils, and my newer model (wooden body, ash, I think) has two singles and a hum-bucker in the bridge position. Both are stereo guitars with piezo pickups built in under the bridge. Both came with stock “tremolo” bars (sorry, but down here in Texas we call them “Wiggly Sticks”!) which I have bent to fit my own playing style. Ernie Ball strings.

2) I also own/use and heartily endorse Ibanez “Artcore” guitars, of which I have two:

Artcore AF-75 (My big orange jazz box)

Artcore AF-73 (think Gibson ES-335)

3) Other guitars come and go! Currently I’m using an old Ibanez GIO GAX70 for open tuned slide guitar.

Acoustic guitars:
1) Taylor 310ce. My “go to”, live gigging axe.

2) Takamine EG-334SC. Very versatile and sounds great plugged in.

3) Sears Silvertone f-hole archtop. 1963 or 1964 make. This thing is a trooper!

I installed two piezos inside and occasionally use this old battle-axe live! Has a wonderful woody, bluesy tone that I just can’t get from anything else.

Bass guitar:
For “Short Stories” I used my much beloved American made Fender Jazz bass exclusively. It is set up fairly slinky and modified with EMG active pickups. On bass I use GHS Boomer strings. Some cuts were recorded direct, and some were miked up through an SWR rig. (see below)

Amps:
1) For your basic guitar amp there is nothing that beats my little Fender 40 watt Hot Rod Deluxe. With 2 dedicated pre-amp tubes I can go from that “clean twin” sound to the overblown feel of a large stack.

2) For my bass amplification needs I use SWR amplifiers. My personal favorite is a 400 watt head hooked up to a four 10” SWR speaker cabinet.

3) Crate GT100 dual triode for more heavy metal type sounds. Twp pre-amp tubes and a solid state power amp. LOUD!

4) Laney stereo GC 60C for clean and jazz sounds.

Effects pedals:
Cry Baby wah-wah, Line 6 loop sampler/echo unit, Boss compressor, Ibanez tube screamer.

Percussion:
In addition to hand played maracas, tambourine, and an old Rogers drum kit, I also used a Boss DR-770 drum machine. Evans heads on the Rogers.

Keyboards:
All the keyboards, strings, etc. on “Short Stories” and “Polar Bear” are made with an ancient Boss DS-330 general midi machine. To get this thing to sound the way I wanted it to sound, I sometimes passed it through a tube screamer foot pedal distortion unit before mix down.

Harmonicas:
1) For diatonic I use Lee Oskar harmonicas exclusively. They’re simply the best sounding harps on the market today.

2) For chromatic I’ve got a “Herring” 5148 model.

Microphones:
I use Oktava condenser vocal microphones extensively. (Inexpensive but they sound great!)

Other microphones used include a beta 58 on the guitar amp, as well as a Digital Reference DR-150. I used an AKG D-770 on the bass cabinet. Also used for occasional vocal and acoustic guitar ambience was an AKG D-790 dynamic microphone.

Recording console:
Roland VS-1880 DAW with 2 factory effects cards installed. All my CD’s are recorded, mixed, and mastered entirely on this one amazing machine.

Studio monitors:
A pair of KRK V-6 powered near-field speakers. Of course I still make a final check of everything on a good car stereo!

Outboard gear:
Alesis and Lexicon effects units, DBX compressors, Behringer equalizers and filters, Behringer mixing board.