THE BLUE STRAT
This is my main guitar, and has been since 1992. It's the only guitar I know how to play without thinking, and it feels like a part of my body. If you've heard any of my recorded work, it's probably this guitar, as it's the only guitar on These Blues Are Mine, it's on all but two songs on Axe to Grind, a little more than half of Catch Me, and it's the only electric guitar I used on Adding Insight To Injury, as well as the bulk of my guest appearances on other people's CDs. For the non-technically minded, it's a Fender Stratocaster, but if you're interested in the nitty gritty, here goes:
- 1992 Fender Japan reissue body, basswood, routed out under pickguard for resonance and weight reduction. Between the basswood and the additional resonating chamber, the Blue Strat is a much darker, meatier sounding guitar than most off-the-shelf Stratocasters, but it's got a ton of high end sparkle on top as well.
- Lindy Fralin pickups, measuring 6K (neck), 6.1 K (middle) and 7k (bridge). The bridge pickup has a metal baseplate like that of a Telecaster, also by Lindy Fralin. The baseplate gives the bridge pickup a nice mix of the subtlety and "wiriness" of a Strat pickup with the fat mids and explosive high end of a Tele pickup.
- USA Custom Guitars neck, maple, "boatneck" contour (measuring 1" deep all the way down), with Dunlop 6105 frets and a 7.25" to 9" compound fingerboard radius. The huge neck and tall frets give a lot of support for bending strings and playing for long periods of time.
- Callaham bridge assembly
- Sperzel locking tuners - these are great for quick string changes.
- Electronics: 5 way switch, master volume, master tone, Lindy Fralin blender knob, push-pull phase switch for bridge pickup
THE "EUROPE" STRAT (updated)
With the release of Cryin' Hey in Europe, I needed a guitar to fly with. Airlines are much less willing to allow guitars on board these days (most of the time, you probably still can, but it's that percentage that they don't that screws you), and the Blue Strat is too irreplaceable to check as luggage. So I went about creating a touring guitar that I'd be happy with the tone and feel of; with the record out over there, my European gigs are somewhat higher profile than their American counterparts.
- Fender Japanese Standard Stratocaster body and maple boatneck with Dunlop 6000s. The neck's largely the same as what's on the Blue Strat, and the body is similar. It's a very familiar sounding, and feeling guitar. It's blue.
- Fralin pickups.
- Callaham bridge assembly, Sperzel tuners, 5-way switch, master volume and tone
OTHER ELECTRIC GUITARS
Gibson SG VOS - this guitar isn't mine, sadly enough. It belongs to Matt Malikowski, who engineered my last two records, and coproduced the upcoming Just Like It Is. I used in on two or three songs on the new CD, and it's just so good. Plus, it looks good in photographs. Matt's got a Telecaster of mine that I converted to an Esquire, so it all evens out in the end.
Gibson ES-333 - If you can find one of these, you should probably pick it up. It's a 335 with some cost-cutting measures (satin finish, no pickguard, crappy pickups and hardware), but the parts are easily replacable (I added an Allparts pickguard, Burstbucker 1 and 2 pickups, and better electronics), the satin finish and plain top are infinitely preferable to the glossy Paul Reed Smith-like tops and finishes on the current 335s, and the quality of the wood and construction is the same as the higher-end instruments. I love this guitar to death.
Squier Affinity Strat - it's like a hundred and fifty bucks. I picked it up recently on a whim and because it sounded phenomenal at Guitar Center. I'm trying not to mod it, and see if I can do gigs with it. I did set it up and tighten the output jack, though. Very Stratty and snappy in a way that neither of my other Stratocasters are.
AMPLIFIERS
Fender Pro Reverb (1966, blackface)- This was my main amp for years, and I'm coming around to using it again. It's just my favorite sound ever. It is a little loud sometimes, so I often prefer the Victoria, which is also a beautiful sound, but more manageable.
Victoria Victoriette (2005) - A great little amp. 20 watts of 6V6 power, mismatched speakers (12" and 10", one each), great reverb and trem. I'd say that I use this amp about half the time these days, if not a little more.
Fender Pro Junior (1996) - heavily modified. The chassis is largely untouched - Pro Juniors are the best amps Fender makes in the under-$2000 price bracket - but everything else is non-stock. The cabinet has been replaced by a larger finger-jointed solid pine cabinet by JD Newell Custom Cabs, and the speaker by a 12" Weber Alnico 12A150T. I put a New Old Stock RCA 12AY7 tube in the first position to lower the gain and reduce the breakup, which has the added benefit of making the clean tones deeper and more three-dimensional. It's now one of the house amps at the Johnny D's Sunday blues jam that I'm running.
EFFECTS
The Barber Custom Cool overdrive. It's a huge change for me to even have pedals in line, but David Barber (www.barberelectronics.com) is an unbelievable genius. I needed an overdrive pedal for some of the overseas gigs, because unfamiliar rental amps are just about always too loud for any room (even a festival). I tried a couple of great Barber pedals, which were close to what I wanted, but I contacted him to see if he could tweak a pedal to my tastes. He not only rose to the occasion, but he went above and beyond in creating the best overdrive pedal I've heard for what I do. (Emphasis on "for what I do" - there are other great overdrive pedals out there!). I'm even keeping this thing in line at local gigs with my own amps.
I asked him for the openness and clarity of his LTD SR pedal, but I liked the "dynamics" control on his Small Fry, which allows you to add compression like an amp does when it's turned up. He came up with something better than either, frankly. I guess he's making a Custom Hot version as well for people who need higher gain, which I'd recommend sight unseen if you're into that sort of thing.
The controls of the Custom Cool are volume, tone, dynamics, and gain, left to right. There's also a mini-toggle for clipping symmetry that I keep in the center for the clearest sound, and internal trimpots controlling Bass (I keep it halfway), Mids (I scoop 'em out altogether - there's enough midrange in my touch), Note Shape (a pre-OD bass control that I keep all the way up for the loosest, most vintage sound), and presence (all the way off - again, my touch and gear don't need added treble!) I recorded some clips in a few different blues styles just to show the range of tones you can get with the same guitar and amp, as well as the touch responsiveness - you'll notice that the pedal settings don't change that drastically between clips). "Little Wing" was included just because I've never seen a pedal demo without a Hendrix clip. Hope you enjoy!
Clips of the Barber Custom Cool!
Guitar: The Blue Strat
Effect: Barber Custom Cool overdrive
Amp: Fender Pro Reverb (vib channel, bright off, volume 3, treb 5.5, bass 3)
Mic/Recorder: Beyer M160 ribbon/Digi001 interface and pre/Pro Tools LE on a Mac)
No outboard processing except for Voce Spin plug-in at the very end of "Little Wing"
Slow Blues in D (bridge pickup)
Settings: vol 12:30, tone 10:30, dynamics 9:00, gain 11:00
March in E (neck pickup)
Settings: v 12:30, t 10:00, dyn 10:00, g 12:00
Mudslide in G (neck pickup, open G tuning, tone rolled down to 2)
Settings: v 12:30, t 7:30, dyn 9:00, g 1:00
Blues in G (middle pickup)
Settings: v 12:30, t 10:00, dyn 10:00, g 11:00
Claptomania in A (bridge pickup, tone rolled down to 4)
Settings: v 12:30, t OFF, dyn 9:00, gain MAXED
Little Wing in Eb (neck/middle pickups, volume rolled down to 8)
Settings: v 12:30, t 11:00, dyn 11:00, g 11:30
ACOUSTIC GUITARS
Gibson J-45 - My favorite flat-top in the world. If I had a Martin 000-size
for more subtle textures to go with it, I'd never need another acoustic again.
STRINGS
For the last year or so - .011, .013, .017, .026, .036, .046 sets for electric and .013-.056 for acoustic, but I'll use whatever feels comfortable under my fingers that day. On electric, I do like having the high E string one gauge heavier than what comes with the set - it sounds more balanced to me.
PICKS/SLIDES
Fender standard shaped heavy picks, and double cut real bottlenecks by Delta Slider and Big Heart.