Guitars (Past)

Heritage H535 Natural Maple "335" from the original Kalamazoo Gibson folks who chose to not move to Nashville. I swapped the Schaller roller bridge and tail piece for a more solid Gibson type tuneomatic, and the tailpiece for an aluminum Gotoh. I swapped the rather lifeless stock Schaller pickups for Dimarzio PAF Classics. I found these upgrades to drastically improve the tone

Audio Clip

Swamp Ash Strat Warmoth, birdseye neck, 5105 steel frets (no they are not too bright), Gotoh 1088 trem with callaham steel block (Thanks John Suhr for your help), Warmoth chambered swamp ash body 2.6 LBS and still balanced! All pickups are Dimarzio Virtual Vintage

Pic's fail to capture the color correctly. We used a yellow dye stain, then sprayed the edges with a dark blue. The over spray created the coolest gradient greens! All nitro cellulose lacquer. A good friend is a pro finisher... how convenient :-)

Audio Clips

Many thanks to Carlos Lorenzo for his ability to make one of my crazy pickup switching ideas a reality! Take a look at this wiring diagram... you'll see what I mean

Also thanks to Steve Blucher for the most excellent pickups! They absolutely KILL... take a listen for yourself.

Wiring Diagram Schematic Switching Map

Very nice archtop for the money. Spruce top, Figured Maple back and sides Pickups will be upgraded

Godin Flat Five A solid carved AAA curly maple top, solid maple center and hollow poplar sides, mahogany neck, rosewood board. Dimarzio Air Classic in the neck and Air Norton in the bridge

Pickup combo list Wiring Diagram Thanks to my new friend, Carlos Lorenzo from Germany! It is superb Audio Clips Here

Godin Artisan TC (Handmade) Quilted thick carved maple tobacco sunburst top on a limewood (basswood) body. With Killer Dimarzio Pickups (see Audio Clips Page for Details)

The insane wiring diagram

Peavey Generation 3 Tele (USA) (chambered) A very light weight chambered alder body with flame maple top. This guitar is superb! One of my most tone-full, and resonant guitars Dimarzio Virtual hot tele bridge, DP401 middle, protrack neck (one of my favorite Dimarzio pup's)

Godin SD XT A flame maple top, maple center and poplar wings (snap of maple and warmth of poplar) Love this guitar Dimarzio Virtual PAF's

Washburn HB30 A sycamore top with maple back and sides. This mid '90's model is a surprisingly good guitar for 'pocito dinero' It does have a very flat fingerboard.

Blueburst ash strat with hollowed chambers , Birds eye neck (reshaped), rosewood fingerboard. Dimarzio Pro Track (neck pickup) Fender middle, Dimarzio Pro Track (Bridge) After 4 years of experimenting with designs... I got it where I want it! Totally awesome tone and sustain! This body was a VERY heavy, and somewhat bright sounding northern ash body,. I painstakingly created chambers using a good ol' dremel in the horns, sides and behind the bridge, as well as reshaped the body a bit. This both added warmth and resonance to the tone, as well as lowering the weight.

Gibson '61 Melody Maker , PAF's (converted to 4 conductor) (was my main guitar in mid 70's) Very resonant, light weight mahogany...Tone and, sustain for years! I added a Dimarzio VV 401 in the middle for "Strat Quack" A DPDT 3 way switch allows me to choose which coil of the buckers are active. Also added a low gain preamp to add great sparkle when I want it)

Gibson L6 Deluxe , (Dark Red), Bartolini bridge pickup, Dimarzio Multibucker 4 coil neck pickup, dual rail pickup in the middle. Maple body and neck with rosewood board

Casio PG380 Midi Guitar This guitar has a very sweet tone with a pronounced attack ( ebony fingerboard ) I still use it for MIDI (when I want to travel light) as well as good ol' guitar. Was my main guitar for close to 20 years.

Fender HM Strat

Fender USA Roland Ready Strat with Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Alnico II's DP407 neck, DP 401 middle and a higher output pickup in the bridge

Peavey Firenza The best kept secret (shhh) these guitars are amazing. Feather weight basswood body, string through body hard tail bridge, 25" PRS scale maple neck. One of the most resonant guitars I have. Dimarzio Fast Track-1 neck, stock middle and bridge (so far)

Washburn Bantam (Basswood Steinberger clone) picked this up at a flea market. Still experimenting with the pickups. I bought this mostly for air travel

Peavey Firenza AX Swamp ash body

Yamaha Pacifica 312 Tele with VV tele set and middle VV pickups, upgraded to Gotoh bridge

Yamaha Pacifica 312 Alder Strat with Dimarzio VV's and Air Norton in bridge. Great strat tone

Godin Artisan ST (Strat) A solid maple guitar that is surprisingly warm sounding, tons of sustain

Kubiki Strat customized by John Suhr, main guitar in the 80's

Gibson '58 335 (not reissue) dotmarker < used to be my main guitar in the late 70's.. Gibson '52 LesPaul Special <Flat top, P90's, Main axe in early seventies> Gibson '61 SG / LP with P90's Fender Tele <gotta have one!> Gibson Firebird Gibson '60's ES345 Kramer aluminum neck Koa/ Maple body Gibson '70's Les Paul Custom Martin HD28 <sweet acoustic> Fender California Strat ,Fiesta Red (John Suhr humbucker and 2 Dimarzio

'66 Fender Bassman in custom made 1X12" Tweed combo cabinet with Celestion G12H-80 This amp started out life as a black faced amp head. It was then modified by none other than Mr. James Stewart... Well not that one... the one behind the Chandler Amps line. Mods included: Amp converted to a hybrid of the AA864 and AB165 designs (I believe this is referred to as the Allen mod) channel 1 is voiced like a tweed bassman/JTM45 marshall channel 2 has the sweet yet chimey tone that IS the "black face" Fender sound. A mid tone control was added to channel 1 A presence switch was added to both channels. The cap values of the bright and deep switches were changed. The cabinet was made by Ken Freeman rockon4ebay@harryj.net I very highly recommend both his excellent craftsmanship and professional service.

Marshall mid 70's 2 12" <Main recording amp> Was modified to use EL34's Input 1 was revoiced to plexi, the other to a fuller warmer Fender tone.

Short audio clip straight into M audio Audiophile Firewire with a touch of delay added

Fender Princeton '74

MusicMan 50 watt 110RD <Main giging amp in the '90's>

Silvertone 1957 Model 1331 Man what a sweet amp Class A single ended 6V6, 6 watts

Peavey Special 130 (Scott Henderson's old setup)

Reverend Hellhound 60/40 My current gigging amp Great tone!

Amps (Past)

Silver tone <Airliner> Man did that thing sing <first amp> Kustom 100 watt ( you know... the naga hide special) Marshall 50 8 10" <main amp in the early 70's...no master volume> Sorry Mom!! Marshall 100 stack (even more sorry Mom) Fender Twin <Main amp late 70's> (pulled 2 output tubes to lower wattage) Tranor Twin Sundown ( hated it) Musicman 100/50 (hated it)

Midi Guitar

Axon AX-100 midi guitar converter (for bigger gigs) Roland GR-30 (for med gigs) Casio PG-380 (when I travel light) Roland JV-1010, Yamaha VL-70, Alesis S4+ Roland VG-8

Pedal Board (laptop computer case)

Preamp (to convert to line level) Modded '80's Dynacomp compressor Tech 21 Sans Amp (original version) Boss SE70 digital effects processor George L cable

Snow Drift

All MIDI was recorded using the Casio PG380 MIDI guitar. Guitar tracks were recorded with the PG380 into my '56 tweed Fender "Super Amp" set to clean all distortion was generated with the Sans Amp(classic)

R.J.'s Blues

All MIDI PG380 Slide guitar was '61 Gibson Melody Maker (G tuning) into '56 Fender Super Slide solo was Melody Maker into Musicman RD110 50 watt amp Guitar solo was PG380 into the same Musicman amp (12AT7 preamp tube replaced 12AX7)

Rock It

All MIDI PG380 All guitar tracks were PG380 into Musicman amp with Sans Amp

Off The Block

All MIDI PG380 All Guitar PG380 into '70's Marshall 50

Tristar

Jordan plays keys on this track Melody line and chords are Kubiki Strat with Roland GM-70 Midi interface into Peavey SP-130 (Scott Hendersons old amp of choice) with a Rat distortion Melody line is Midi guitar

Da' Funk

All Midi Kubiki Strat with Roland GM-70 All guitar Kubiki Strat (EMG's) into Marshall 50

Mr. H.'s Blues

All Midi PG-380 All guitar PG-380 into Marshall 50 with Sans Amp

Really and Truly

All MIDI Kubiki Strat with Roland GM-70 Guitar Kubiki Strat (EMG's) into Marshall 50

Revival

Jordan plays keys on this track Melody line and chords are Kubiki Strat with Roland GM-70 Midi interface into Peavey SP-130 (Scott Hendersons old amp of choice) with a Rat distortion

Holiday

The only track with out MIDI guitar Jordan plays all MIDI Guitar Kubiki Strat (EMG's) Peavey Special 130 with Rat

Coconut Grove

The only track without any natural guitar All MIDI Kubiki Strat with GM-70

Midi Gear I still use an Atari ST computer for all music applications < I love all 8 Mhz> Creator 64 track sequencing software

Midi tracks are then ported to my Pentium using Cool Edit Pro

Roland U220 <mostly piano, horns> D110 <pads and organ>

Korg M3R <bass and saxes> EX-8000 < fat analog warmth>

Yamaha TX81Z <Clavinets> TQ5 <More way cool FM stuff> TG-33 <pads>

Casio VZ-10M <Sparkle>

Kawai K1-r < more warm pads>

Recording Gear Tascam 644 Midi Studio BBE Sonic Maximizer Ibanez stereo EQ Fostex Line Mixer

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