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Guitar #1. A 1980 Les Paul Standard that I've had since I was 15. When I first saw it, it only had three strings on it and was in a right mess. I replaced the bridge pickup with a Seymour Duncan JB to give it some more rawk and a Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck to give more rawl.
She plays beautifully and sounds even better. |
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Mandolin #1. Built for me by my good friend and master luthier, Phil Davidson. Maple back and sides, spruce top with a 200 year old piece of birds eye maple for the neck.
Headway piezo pickup providing my live sound. |
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Guitar #2. A G&L ASAT that belonged to my late friend, Malcolm Howard, tiny little neck for my lady-like fingers. Not as 'twangy' as a regular Tele due to it's MFD pickups.
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Acoustic#1. So as I was saying, I had taken Mandolin#1 for some work when I asked Phil Davidson if he would be interested in adding a cutaway to my Taylor, 'sure' he said and took me off to his workshop to look at some different types of cutaway. This guitar was handed to me and I fell in love immediately.
She had a bit of a rough start to life, which if you buy me a beer I will explain all. |
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Taylor Baby. Many years ago I got fed up carting my old Yamaha acoustic around, it was enormous. So I got this Baby, fitted a Fishman pick-up and the rest is history.
In January 2014 Phil Davidson very kindly added the cutaway to it and inlaid an ebony pick guitar as I had worn a hole through the sound board. In 2016 she returned to Phil's workshop to have her head repaired and her body slimmed down. No guitar I've ever owned has earned back it's value as well as this one. Despite being small it is very loud (guitars become just like their owners) and once it's running through my pre-amp/PA it may as well be a J-45 or a D-18. |
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Ashbury Mandolin with retro-fitted Headway pickup and Gibson bridge. My main gigging mandolin now as mandolin#1 was getting a battering.
Designed my Phil Davidson and made in a fair trade workshop in Vietnam, if you need a mid-range work horse mandolin and you don't get one of these, well you're a......... |
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Antoria Jazzster. A big ol' jazz guitar. Always loved this guitar but the pickups let the side down (as they often did on Far-Eastern guitars). So I replaced them with a pair of Seymour Duncan Jazz pickups.
A word of warning, anyone wishing to replace pickups in a big ol' jazz guitar should undertake a degree in gynecology first, it will help. |
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Hohner Frankenstrat. My first electric guitar, heavily modified since it started life as a salad cream monster.
Never been a big fan of whammy bars (not since my hair fell out) so I've stuck extra springs on the unit and bolted the bridge down. Replaced the single coil bridge pickup with a DiMarzio rail humbuker, got rid of the middle pickup, and stuck a single coil from a 60's Strat in the neck. She's a bit rough'n'ready but you gotta love her. |
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Regal Resonator. I'm the worlds worst slide guitarist, but when you're playing a purely acoustic set and you have a desire to be three times louder than everybody, and I do, this is the guitar for you.
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Lanikai Tenor Ukulele. Amazing sounding Tenor Uke, (bigger than the Uke your thinking of right now, unless you know what size a tenor uke is, that is). Simple but effective Shadow pickup system.
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Takamine Electro-Acoustic Nylon. Not my favourite guitar but a very useful one. I like to attack it with a stubby pick for those John Mclaughlin/Willie Nelson moments.
People assume you're a serious musician when you have a nylon string, excellent Takamine pre-amp/tuning system. |
One side of the pedal board. All Boss stuff, I like their simplicity. Graphic EQ, which I use as a volume/middle boost for solo's; My brand new TU-3 tuner which supplies tuning & power and the Pièce de résistance the SUPER Feedbacker & Distortion for those Parisienne Walkways moments.
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...and on the other side a Harmonist which I use as a glorified chorus pedal, a Tremolo and the DD-5 which has had the same delay setting on it for the last 6 years.
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Wow a Korg A5, not the 'Guitar' version but the 'Vocal' one, great chorus, usable delay and some wonderful weirdness, simple programmability.
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A Dunlop Wah, nuff said
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LR Baggs acoustic pre-amp, worth it's wait in gold, as is.....
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My Mesa V-Twin pre-amp. Got a pub gig, don't want to cart your back breaking guitar amp about, stick this bad boy through the PA.
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Ashbury Tenor Banjo. Not a proper banjo as it only has four strings. Did you know it's tuned the same as a mandolin only an octave lower? You did? well please don't bore me with your tuning talk when you bump into me. x
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Five watts of unbridled joy. Great for playing at home, loud enough to cope with most drummers, 2 channels, lovely digital reverb, FX loop and line out to feed it through the PA. Got it a bit cheaper cuz it's white, what's a matter with people? is nobody Rock'n'Roll any more?
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