I
play through a 1961 Fender Twin Amp which has been refurbished by the renowned
amplifier designer and manufacturer
John
McIntyre. For effects I use a
Dod
Overdrive Pedal, a Boss PW-10 wah pedal, an Ibanez UE405 multi-effects
rack and an Alesis Midiverb II. I've been using GHS
strings forever - GBCL-B Guitar Boomers -
009-011-016-026-036-046.
Non-guitar gear: Casio
PX-130 digital piano, Roland TD-4 electronic drum kit, Yamaha DX7 synth,
Zoom H4n digital recorder, Adobe Audition PC recording/editing software
(Windows)
These days when I go to a jam
session such as Mikey's Juke Joint I'll choose one of these units and just the
Dod pedal. I'll use whatever amp is available.
1962
Fender Esquire.
When I bought it
(used - in '69) it had a P90 copy neck pickup installed which sounded horrible. I
replaced it with one of the mini humbuckers from a Gibson Firebird III I used to own which I
bought in 1964 from The Kingsmen's lead guitarist at the time,
Darrel Partlow, and also replaced the stock bridge with a brass Badass
unit. Somewhere along the line I installed a
Tele pickup in the middle and 2 micro-switches so that I could get all 7 combinations.
Then I moved the stock bridge pup
to the middle position and replaced it with a custom built Seymour Duncan unit
which had a coil tap adding a few more tone variations. I then replaced the
bridge and middle pickups with
Bill Lawrence
L-290TLE and L-290SL pups. I built a new pickguard to accommodate this configuration which
included a split-coil humbucker from a Series A
guitar in the neck position (the weak link in the chain but still not bad). With the four microswitches I
had installed there
were 27 different tone combinations available! In late 2006 I decided to put the
guitar back to as much of it's stock configuration that I could with the
original parts kicking around including the heads, single pickup, bridge and
wiring. I had to substitute a few components including the toggle switch. I have
the original but it's hooped. I never did have the original pickguard so I built
one myself.
Sometime last year (2010) I installed a Tele style pickup and
then replaced that with a damaged Bill Lawrence Strat pickup (only one coil but
still sounds great). Had to take the plastic cover off so that it would fit. I
also rewired the controls to Tele spec.
This
unit sings. A
1959
Les Paul SG Special.
I got this one around '67.
Originally with a cherry red finish, somewhere around 1968 I sawed off the 'horns' to give it a Vox
teardrop-like shape!!!! A few years later I had
Ed Rohner,
then with Fury Guitars in Saskatoon, re-attach the pieces and refinish it
with black lacquer. He added a nice personal touch in the red fret markers on new
wood binding. I added a microswitch to phase-reverse one of the pups to get that
gronky out-of -phase sound.
Almost totally modified
1952 Les Paul Model Gold Top!
Again, forgive me collectors!
I've always considered function over form when it comes to my guitars - to
a fault as I do realize it would be
worth a mint if it were stock. I traded a Mosrite Ventures model
guitar and some cash for it in 1970. I put it through several changes including
installing a pair of Yamaha SG1500 dual-sound humbuckers and one of the
mini-humbuckers from the Firebird III. The Firebird got the original P90's. (I
recently saw Mike Campbell playing that exact configuration at a Tom Petty
concert. Hmm.) This
has been a very versatile axe. Once while playing with Crowcuss at The Savoy in Vancouver, a
fellow approached me after a set and told me he couldn't believe my setup. The previous
night he had heard a live FM broadcast from the club and thought I was playing a
Stratocaster through a Marshall. I was in fact playing this Les Paul through a
Roland JC120! I have recently replaced the pair of
mini-humbuckers at the bridge and neck positions with Mitey-Mite P90s and I
replaced the Tele neck pickup
in the middle with a Bill Lawrence Strat PU. I have it set up with a master volume and tone and a pair of
push-on push-off controls for the middle pickup and reverse phase. It still has
the original
control knobs and a stop tailpiece (initially incorrectly positioned) with a
tune-o-matic bridge.
I call this my
Telestrat
Assembled
in 2007, I put this together as a substitute the modified Esquire which I
have reverted to stock (almost), to get most of those sounds again. I bought the body (Charvel
Strat copy) and the neck (Peavey Predator) on Ebay and used the parts that I
pulled off the Esquire. That's the Bill Lawrence
L-290TLE at the bridge, a 1968 Tele bridge pickup in the middle and the
custom Seymour
Duncan at the neck. The pickups are all slightly staggered. I built a
custom pickguard to accommodate. The tone control is push-pull so I use it
as a coil tap for the SD. It has a standard 5-way Strat pickup switch and 2
micro-switches, one a phase reversal switch and the other a direct on switch for
the TLE. Lots a tone variations, feels and and plays great. She rocks!
Modified
Series A
A 'Cash Converters' special. I removed the Floyd Rose tremolo, etc, blocked in
the cavity and installed a Strat bridge. Since this picture was taken it has
been disassembled. I'll be mating the neck and hardware with another body yet to
be determined. What can I say? It's a hobby :)
The 'Moon
Unit' (with apologies to Ms Zappa)
New picture coming up soon. My designed and constructed pickguard. Bill Lawrence
pickups: bridge - L290, middle and neck - L280. Jimi Hendrix played a
right-handed Stratocaster upside down but
with the conventional lefty string orientation. I thought I would try this reverse
bridge pickup orientation. Works pretty good. This one has been stage tested and
it plays very well and sounds great, again with the micro-switches. I went to
the Experience Music Project in Seattle this past summer and among other great
exhibits was the Strat Hendrix played at Woodstock!! He did NOT play an
unaltered right handed guitar upside down like Doyle Bramhall II or Albert King!
Modified
Fender Squire Stratocaster
New picture and data coming up soon
Gibson B-25 acoustic.
A lovely sounding little unit.
Gibson Epiphone FT79N Texan.
Very similar to the J50. This is the same model acoustic Paul McCartney used on The Beatles'
'Yesterday' recording. Hmmm!
with stock finish replaced by Swedish oil. Back pickup is a DiMarzio. I designed the pick guard. The strings are tuned as if it were a five or six string bass - without the 1st or 2nd strings - (low to high) B-E-A-D
