- Walden SupraNatura G3030CE acoustic – Really nice even tone, very playable neck. It has a mic and a piezo pickup that you can blend.
1970s Ibanez Artist Series – has spent the last few decades being treated very, very badly. It ain’t pretty no more, but it sounds absolutely amazing and plays well too. If you’ve seen Brehaut’s guitar, this is very similar (same pickups, similar shape, similar hardware) but with a set neck, a more symmetric shape, and it’s eaten a few more pies.
Maxon OD808 – standard nice boost/drive.
Cheap-arse Daphon volume pedal
Ibanez UE-305– a totally sweet analogue effects unit from the 80s. Compressor -> delay -> stereo chorus. I pretty much only use the delay right now.
Expandora 2 – y’all know what this is. Loud noises.
Epiphone Valve Junior Head; an awesome class-A 5 watt EL84 tone machine for $239! The stock eq was quite flat and it didn’t have much clean headroom, so I’ve done some simple mods: increased the input impedance, added a bright switch, added a master volume,and swapped a couple of other resistors. Its Brown/Bier index was originally 100! Now I’ve added another knob, so it’s dropped to a BBI of 50, but it’s better that it was, which is where the current formulation of the BBI falls down. I’ve re-housed the amp in an old Fender Stage Lead II box (that was a small, crappy 80’s solid state combo) with a Celestion G12T speaker.
Whichever piano is at hand
A selection of cheap harmonicas
Comments
How good are the Sky P-90s, would you recommend them? - Stephen
Well, I don’t know - they’re the only soapbars I’ve actually played. They’re fairly cheap - $190 for a set. They sound pretty good through the different amps I’ve played them through, which include my old Peavey Triumph, my new amp, Greg’s Matchless and a JCM800. - Fraser
RIP :-( Boutique amp based on a Vox AC15 – Made by some guy in Auckland, it could run either 6v6s or el84s; sounded really good. Was capable of making Vox and Fender sounds, and something approximating Marshall and Mesa sounds. I broke it. At least it wasn’t expensive.
RIP Garrison AG 600 CE Acoustic – Spruce top, carbon-fibre top bracing, Grover tuners, active eq. Garrison is a Canadian company who make their fancy guitars in North America somewhere, and their cheaper ones (like mine) in China. It has a good sound - quite bright, though not as much depth or sustain as I’d like. Quite nice to play. Died of a broken neck on Monday, December 10th 2007 :(
