Music Gear
After listening to my tracks (you have, haven't you?) then I'm sure you're bristeling with curiosity as to what gear I use to make it. Well, even if you are not this page gives me a good excuse to use my digital camera to take a few shots of my equipment and post them here. Just click on any of the images to see a larger, alternative photograph.
Yamaha Pacifica Electric Guitar
First up is my main electric guitar, a Yamaha Pacifica 102s, one of the cheapest models in Yamaha's excellent Pacifica range. It's modeled on the classic Fender Telecaster shape with two single coil pickups that produce a suprisingly nice tone for the money.
What I like about this guitar is that it's unpretentious, has excellent build quality and sounds fantastic for the money. Why pay over the odds for a 'name' guitar when the Yamaha offers better quality for less money? A great work-horse that suits any style of playing and yet still retains timeless good looks.
Ibanez Electro-Acoustic Guitar
Next is my electro-acoustic guitar, a lovely Ibanez with a blue stained-wood finish. I like it because of it's low action, the fact it's easy to record and, mostly, because of it's colour :)
Well, I figure if you aren't a brilliant guitarist then at least buy a guitar that looks good...
Aria Pro-II Bass Guitar
The Aria been the bass I've used for quite a while. You can tell that because the paint's peeling, the selector switch is damaged and it's seen a fair few knocks in it's working life. OK, the styling leaves something to be desired, as it conjures up some nasty heavy-metal type images, but I kinda like it anyway :)
It's not the greatest bass, and indeed I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone, but it does the job. Guess it sucks in a nice way :)
Evolution MK-149 Keyboard
This is a pretty basic master MIDI keyboard. It doesn't have any built in sounds, instead it just triggers MIDI notes, which makes it ideal for using with other synths and software like Reason.
Though quite basic the Evolution does have a full-size, velocity sensitive keyboard with pitch wheel and modulation wheels, plus a few nice features such as the ability to easily transpose octaves. Why use a keyboard with inbuilt sounds which will soon be obselete when you can create all the sounds in software?
Marshall JCM-800 Bass Amp
This is a classic Marshall bass head. Powered by four valves (or 'tubes' as you American's call them) it delivers a fair bit of clout whilst retaining the classic Marshall warmth. I use it with an Ohm cab, with 2x14" speakers, which can make good amount of noise :) Though it tends to gather dust at the moment as I can't really use it in the house much as the neighbours don't tend to be impressed!
Love them or hate them, Marshall make the definitive timeless amps that are part of rock history. There's something about the shape, weight and looks of these beats that implies they mean business. Can't say fairer than that, eh?
Line6 Pod II
Not an insrument and not simply a guitar FX processor, the Line6 Pod II is an amp and guitar cab modeller, which uses advanced algorithms to simulate the sound of the most famous classic amps and speaker combinations.
Want a Messa Boogie sound, or a Vox, or perhaps you prefer a sweet Fender sound or the crunch of a Marshall? Well, the Pod recreates them all, and does an amazingly good job of doing so. Don't believe me? Well, check out this site that features samples from some of the simulated amps and judge for yourself...
