|
- This page is dedicated to my stuff.
The gear on this page is some of my favorite stuff, now and from the past!!!!
This guitar was my main axe for about a year. I sold it and bought it back. It's a G&L Will Ray Tribute and has a Hip Shot B-Bender. I haven't used this one for a while and have two of my stage guitars in the shop for fret work. I've been using all 1st act guitars ( Not the expensive ones.), and getting great results; although I've also been getting a lot of crap from other players. It seems that if you don't play a Fender or Gibson, you're doing something wrong. I will have photos of these guitars along with details within a few weeks. |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
 |
 |
I work as a solo act with backing tracks and have for a number of years. The money is great, but it can have it's difficulties. The gear you use becomes even more important than when you're with a band or doing a studio date: It not only has to sound great, but it has to be extremely flexible and easy to use. You have to work the crowd, load the tracks, monitor the mix, focus on your playing and (In my case.) sing. Here is some of the gear I've used over the last few year. I know what you might think about the 1st Act guitars and I don't need to hear any noise about them. The Walmart ME 520 is one of the best guitars I've ever used for slide work. |
I bought the 1st Act VW Garagemaster for 80 bucks at a pawn shop. I liked the way it felt and figured it would be a good backup guitar. I found myself using it while my Strat and SG would sit on their stands. The only real problem with it is the noise I hear from other (Players). I guess most (Guitarists) don't think it's cool or dignified. I have since, bought 6 of the ME series cheapies (Even the one from Walmart.). I've tweaked them all a bit and modded the one from Toys 'R' Us. It's a gas to see the looks on some faces when I pull one of these out! From what I can guess, there are 30 or 40 different models and I'm collecting them all. I figure that I'll pass them on to my sons to sell for a rediculous price in about 20yrs. |
My Amps
The first amp (Below) is a Matchless SC 30. It has one job: It amplifies. There are no effects or
reverb. It does the job better than any other amp I've owned. I went a bit crazy back in the 90's
and spend a ton of cash on amps; all at once. I bought a couple of Mesa DC's, a Fender Dual
Pro, a Tone Master with a 2x12 and 4x12 cabs. a couple of line 6 amps (What was I thinking?), a
Mesa Blue Angel 4x10, a Fender Vibro King and several others. I had them in my studio all at
one time. After playing around with them for several months, I sold them all and kept the
Matchless. If you have one, you know what I'm talking about: There is no other amp like it. Mine
is black with a light green face and it's a Sampson era SC 30. I don't use it on all my gigs,
because it's too heavy. It's still my favorite and I use it whenever I have the chance.
The first amp (Below) is a Matchless SC 30. It has one job: It amplifies. There are no effects or
reverb. It does the job better than any other amp I've owned. I went a bit crazy back in the 90's
and spend a ton of cash on amps; all at once. I bought a couple of Mesa DC's, a Fender Dual
Pro, a Tone Master with a 2x12 and 4x12 cabs. a couple of line 6 amps (What was I thinking?), a
Mesa Blue Angel 4x10, a Fender Vibro King and several others. I had them in my studio all at
one time. After playing around with them for several months, I sold them all and kept the
Matchless. If you have one, you know what I'm talking about: There is no other amp like it. Mine
is black with a light green face and it's a Sampson era SC 30. I don't use it on all my gigs,
because it's too heavy. It's still my favorite and I use it whenever I have the chance.
The amp below, is my early 60's Gibson Discoverer Tremolo. I picked it up at a local music
store for $200.00. I had a bit of work done to it. For you purists, all the mods are
non-destructive and can be reversed (Although I have no intention of changing it back). The
tremolo section has been put in a separate chassis on the rear of the amp and there has been
a 3 band tone stack installed in the original chassis. It's a killer little amp for small gigs. In the
near future, I'll be having a matching cabinet made for it, with a solid state slave amp. There will
be a tap off the tube section to allow for the tube sound to be reproduced through the slave
amp. All the workhas been done by Lars at AWR in Melbourne Fl. He assures me that the
additional mods will be killer. He has never steered me wrong.
To the right is a Fender Super Champ XD. It's a very cool little
amp. It has a tube channel and a channel for overdrives and
the like. There is an effects section with chorus, reverb, delay,
etc. It has no midrange control (Which I don't understand.), but
it is still very useful for small gigs. There are custom cabinets
for a 12" speaker and I think that would improve the sound a
bit. I use it with an Egnater Rebel 1x12 and it sounds fairly
good. It is what it is, but for such short money, it can't be beat.
I use it for my nursing home gigs, because I have to set up
and tear down quickly. It's the best sounding amp of it's type,
that I've found sofar.
| 1ST ACT 'TOYS 'R' US MODEL Here's where the fun begins! I mentioned before that I've taken a lot of heat for playing cheap guitars. I couldn't pass this one up. It was (as far as I know.) originally sold at TRU. I don't have any pics of the one I'm working on (They will be posted soon.). It's currently under construction and will have a DiMarzio Al DiMeola pickup in the neck position, a Seymour Duncan Strat pickup in the middle and a Seymour Duncan Hot Rodded Humbucker in the bridge position. The neck and middle pickups will be 'Under' the pickguard. I am currently doing the necessary routing. I will then form brass plating to fit inside the openings to direct the magnetic field towards the strings. When finished, all you will see is the bridge pickup. I have been using this guitar with the Duncan strat in the neck position and a push-pull volume to couple the pickups. I will likely go with a 5 way rotary switch in place of the pot that I currently use for tone (A 1 meg pot.). It has been a bit of a problem to design the switching setup and keep the stock appearance. The whole point is to create a 'sleeper'. When I'm done, my total cost will be just over $325.00: Not bad for a guitar that will screw up a few heads. |
Tradewind D8
The Tradewind is similar to the Fender Stringmaster.
It's not the same build quality, but is very well done.
If I had to compare it to anything, I'd say it was like
my G&L (The Tribute one.).
I like the tone as much as any of the Fenders I've
played. Just like the G&L, the sound is great, but
the construction is superior on the G&L ASAT and
the Stringmaster. I couldn't shell out the extra bucks
for a vintage Fender this year and won't buy one I
can't play first. This was a good starting point for
me. I've already had a National D8, Mckinney 6,
Fender Studio Deluxe and now, a Tradewind. I'm
considering a Gibson Console (Don Helms style) for
next year. Right now, this will do nicely.
It's not the same build quality, but is very well done.
If I had to compare it to anything, I'd say it was like
my G&L (The Tribute one.).
I like the tone as much as any of the Fenders I've
played. Just like the G&L, the sound is great, but
the construction is superior on the G&L ASAT and
the Stringmaster. I couldn't shell out the extra bucks
for a vintage Fender this year and won't buy one I
can't play first. This was a good starting point for
me. I've already had a National D8, Mckinney 6,
Fender Studio Deluxe and now, a Tradewind. I'm
considering a Gibson Console (Don Helms style) for
next year. Right now, this will do nicely.