Gear

I am in the early stages of a condition that is costly to treat and tends to put a strain on family relationships. GAS also know as  Gear Acquisition Syndrome has hit me hard.  There are 7 stages of GAS and they progressively wreak havoc in an endless cycle 1-7-1-7-1…

Specifically, I really love guitars and all the equipment that goes with using them. The equation that best describes how my syndrome works is   n+1 = S  where n equals the number of guitars I currently have and S equals satisfaction. The trouble, as GAS sufferers know all to well, is that S is only a theoretical concept that cannot actually be reached. It is kind of like infinity. Recent research into the 7 stages of GAS has shown that the real, and often hidden, equation (hidden until it is too late) is:

n + 1 = n + 1 = n + 1 and so on

This is a concept that makes sense to me… good sense!

Here is my stuff…

Acoustics:

2013  Webber

This is a hand built beauty by David Webber of North Vancouver British Columbia. This is a short scale OM with a dark cedar sound board and black walnut back and sides. The ebony fretboard is lovely with graduating shades of colour. It plays… so much better than I do! I had David Webber customize it for me putting on these lovely mini Gotoh 510 tuners. An he installed a K&K Pure Mini passive pickup that, I think, really captures the true sound of the instrument. It has a very warm sound, very pleasing to the player. Probably best for finger style but… I just like to play it… kind of a spiritual experience to strum this guitar and let it sing to me. This guitar in open D literally rings like a bell and urged me on to write the finger style instrumental A Time To Reflect . The Drop D sound is deep and rich and inspired the music that expresses my gratitude in Lucky Man

2003 Seagull Solid Wood Series (SWS) Maritime

This Seagull Maritime SWS has a Canadian spruce sound board and Mahogany back and sides. Great sound, great value. I have added chrome Gotoh 510 tuners, bone nut, saddle and buffalo horn pins. I also installed a Fishman Matrix infinity pickup. This is a lovely sounding guitar… my first serious guitar that I used to start playing at open mics and my first gigs. I wote most of my early songs on this guitar: Broken Hearted Joy, Cognitive Surplus and Little Things were written on this guitar. It is a good friend indeed.

1985 Lawsuit Takemine

This is a 1985 Takamine. It is based on the Martin D18 and even used the same headstock script. Fun guitar. Sounds great. I bought it with Kennedy (middle daughter) as a shared first guitar. We found it at a pawn shop in Walla Walla… a very nice find! It has left me for college and is making friends with Bailey (youngest daughter). She plays it to unwind from her very busy school schedule so that is great!

1987 Takemine EN10

I love this 1987 Takemine EN10. It is my daughter Kennedy’s. Darlene and I found it in a local shop and gave it to her for her 16th birthday several years ago. Cedar with Mahogany. Lovely sound and a very high coolness factor. It seems that every band we encountered in Ireland someone was playing a version of this guitar. This is a true working musicians guitar! The 1987 Takamine Electronics are still great! I am thankful she lets me play it when I visit.

I also have a beginners Fender Acoustic hanging on my office wall. I don’t play it much… no time to play at the office!! It hangs, however, as a clear reminder of who I am.

Electric Guitars:

Godin SP90

This lovely Godin mahogany solid body was my first electric guitar. As a Canadian living in the USA I seem to have a thing for Canadian guitar builders. With Seymour Duncan P90 single coil pickups this beauty kicks out a classic sound… great. The short scale build makes it easy to play and the through body string loading adds tone and sustain. This is actually a pre production prototype so I think that is kind of cool. I love it!

Fender Telecaster

I also have this Mexican built Tele. For whatever reason I don’t play it much but it is lovely. I have the hard case to go with it.

Amps and PA’s

My main PA system is a Turbo Sound iP2000. This 1,000 Watt Powered Column Loudspeaker with a 12″ Subwoofer, and 17 Neodymium Drivers, is an array system that fills small to medium large spaces very well with an even sound from the front of the room to the back and a 180 degrees dispersement profile… which means everyone in the room hears equally well. This is a fabulous system! I also have the little Ibanez T35 Troubadour Acoustic amp for small venues. Nice warm sound.

I also have a very cool  Crate Palomino V16  class A tube amp. This retro looking beauty has a really nice clean sound and can crunch rather aggressively with the gain dial up a bit. Very nice! A friend in town collects… I got lucky with this! Very hard to find these days!

I record onto my MacBook Pro using Garage Band. Voice is recoded using a Sure SM58 mic, acoustic guitars are recorded direct via K&K Pure Mini into a mixer and with a sure SM57 mic. The mixing board feeds the signal to the Mac via USB. Home recording made easy!