My Gear Story

My tale begins in 1972, when at 14 I moved from Milwaukee to Scottsdale, Az. Somehow in that move, I finagled acquiring my brother’s old Fender dreadnought 6-string acoustic. It was on this guitar that I learned to play and write songs, such as it is. The Fender Dread was my main 6-string steel until 2005.

 

In 75 I bought an Epiphone electric and a small crap amp I forget the name of, and a fuzz pedal or two. With this I started recording 2-track bounced instrumentals on cassette tape, with many nice results. 6 months later, G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) officially commenced, when I took a summer’s factory job earnings and bought a brown ’74 Fender Strat, my first proper axe (I know, crappy 3-bolt neck and all...wish I had it now)

 

 

I’d get off work at midnight in the Phoenix August heat, come home, have cookies, and set up and play on the patio at low volumes. I started seriously jamming and song recording with Derrrick Bostrom on drums that fall.

 

In college in Tucson, I spent many an afternoon at the awesome Chicago music store in dilapidated downtown Tucson, a long walk from my student apartment, but well worth the stroll. Rooms of guitars and amps piled high for the playing made an early motif for many a fevered dream. At some point I took my boyhood Milwaukee Journal paper route earnings and bought a $750 Marshall tube 1x12 combo amp, a real screamer, to make a bigger sound with a drummer. Feedback was a real possibility now, as well as many classical Hendrix tones (if not the playing). This amp got lugged and left during summer break in Bostrom’s practice room, where a large ensemble of dabblers could enjoy using it. Since it was a free-standing guesthouse away from the main house on the side of a desert mountain, one could crank into pure noise and wail away. At some point, I replaced the stock neck pick-up in the Strat with a stacked DiMarzio Fat Strat, which brought on even earlier distortion for the punk rock of the day, though oddly in the rhythm position. We played a handful of gigs as a duo at full volume, with hilarious results. (see the Atomic Bomb Club tracks in the archive).

 

In 1982, college and tech school completed, I moved to Dallas for work, but the Marshall tube amp did not. The 74 Strat and the dreadnought came; those and a pair of headphones were my home woodshedding rig for a decade. In 91 G.A.S. returned. I sold the 74 Strat to a guy at work, and bought a 90 blue Japanese Fender Strat and a red Les Paul Custom. More BOSS pedals of all varieties showed up. Recording was done to cassette, then 4-track portastudio, then 8-track portastudio with slaved MIDI tracks on a Mac, etc, etc… somewhere along the line the Les Paul got sold for a computer gear.

 

1998. Laid off for 2 months, I bought a 74 Silver Faced Fender Deluxe Reverb at GC and fell in love again with the tube sound. It’s old, way loud even on 2, and crackles and pops, and the reverb doesn't work, but the tone is gold. Did some wonderful tracks with mic’d amp (a rainy day). Jammed a bit with work friends. Bought a Squire P-Bass. Bought a series of better condenser mics, ending with the BLUE Dragonfly, great for guitar amps with its midrange bump.

 

Changed the stock pick-ups in the 90 Strat to Van Zandt vintage set – wonderful. Added Fat Pbass pickups to the Squire bass. I bought a tiny Blackface 1968 Fender Champ for the 10 inch speaker sound.

 

For 6 months I played in the “house band” at MCI using the Deluxe. Got a California Tele with a humbucker in the neck, and a black Les Paul Deluxe. I quit the band but 6 months later got a vintage Marshall 100W Super Lead head, and then a reissue 1960 4x12 cabinet. Wife climbed the walls as practice bedroom is not in freestanding building. After a year, decided I didn't like the reissue Celestron speaker shrillness, pulled them out and sold on Craigslist, and replaced them with 2 Weber speakers, very, very nice. But as the Marshall and Fender both require a lot of volume to sound their best, in 2007 I got a Mesa Boogie Stiletto Ace combo with master volume and tube effects loop. Great sounds. More boutique pedals were added, a Seagull 6 and 12-string acoustic replaced the old dreadnought, string gauges fluctuated from light to heavy, tuning ranged from concert E down to D, and I switched from Digital Performer to Garageband for simplicity. Acoustic guitar ends up stereo mic’d X-Y with a matched pair of small Octavia condensers; the Mesa close mic’d with the Dragonfly through a PNP preamp & compressor into a Mackie board into a MOTU 828 AD to the Mac; vocals mic'd through a Neumann TLM103. Done right?

 

No.

 

2004-2005. I shopped extensively for a better 6-string steel acoustic guitar, trying Taylors, Martin, and settle on a natural cedar-top Seagull S6, without pickup. A rich, warm, intimate tone, lovely action, and a lovely price. The next year I get the cedar-topped Seagull S12+, which has a piezo bridge pickup. Tracks very nice. Also picked up a Keeley compressor (great) and Zvex Fuzz Factory (wild), and the complete Hendrix and basic Amplitube Plugs for Garage Band (just for headphone jammin').

 

Dec 2009. I’m in Guitar Center buying my magnificent wife a better metronome for her classical piano studies (in 3 years, she’s advanced to 22 level Liszt and Chopin while I'm still playing the same chords and riffs I came up with 30 years ago…) and I see the li’l 1-20Watt Jim Egnater tube amp head. It catches my attention immediately because it has 2 6V6s and 2 EL84s, master volume, and effects loop, and costs only $400 on a 40% off promo. I grab a Strat and sit down to play a bit and… …it’s magic, cotton candy, milkshake, single coil Strat magic.

 

 

On the all-EL84 setting with the treble up, it chimes unlike any amp in my collection. (I realize now my original Marshall combo was EL84-based...) On the blend setting (half 6V6/EL84), it's also wonderful. I buy it, and a used Egnater 1x12 cab for $100, bring it home, and more amazement follows. All of the “Bold as Love” tones are here in spades, with no pedals, OMG. To hear the slanky treble opening jungles of “3rd Stone from the Sun” – wow, so, so pretty. So is Santa done? As Steve Jobs would say, “one more thing”… watching the used guitars at Guitar Center, I come across a used Seagull Artist with glossy spruce top and mahogany sides – just the bright focused rhythm guitar tone I was look for. With the glossy spruce top it rings and projects much brighter than the natural finished cedar S6, and with a rich clear tone, and also easy action all over the neck.

 

 

 

 

Current Gear

Guitars

• 1990 Fender Stratocaster, Van Zandt pickups
• 1998 Fat California Telecaster, stock
• 1981 Les Paul Deluxe, stock
• 2005 Seagull 6-string cedar natural
• 2004 Seagull 12-string cedar natural w Baggs pu system
• 2004 Seagull Artist Spruce Mahogany Cutaway/Baggs PU
• 1996 Fender Squire P-Bass
• 2001 Fender Deluxe Jazz Bass

 

Guitar Amps

• 2009 Egnater 20W Head (6V6/EL84) and 1x12 Ported Closed Cab - Strat candyland!
• 2007 Mesa Boogie Stiletto 1x12 combo - Mesa out 4ohm into the Marshall 2x12 Weber'ed cab, with just a Keeley Compressor from the guitars, and a Nano verb in the Mesa effects loop. Heaven.
• 1972 100W Marshall Super Lead Head/4x12 bottom modded to 2x12 50W w Weber speakers
• 1974 Fender Deluxe Reverb, silverface
• SWR Workingman's 12 bass amp

Guitar EFX

• Boss Metal Zone, OD-1, Delay, Gate, FLanger, Phaser
• Zvex Fuzz Factory, Super HO
• Vox Wah, Cry Baby Wah pedals

 

Microphones

• Neumann TLM103
• B.L.U.E. Dragonfly
• Octavia matched mk012's small condensers

 

Electronics

• MOTO 828 Firewire interface
• PGP mic pre
• GRACE mic pre
• Mackie 1604 board

 

Computer/Software

• Mac Powermac G5 Quad
• Garageband + Packs, software eq, efx, and mastering
• MOTU DP