Acoustic Guitars
An old SX, only notable for three reasons; it was Stephen’s first guitar that he learnt on, it gets taken to the beach and other places he wouldn’t take his other guitars, and the action is obscenely high, leaving your hands very sore if you play it for an extended period of time. Currently strung with D’Addario EXP Phosphor Bronze 12-53’s, which I would highly recommend - they can make even this guitar sound semi-decent.
A Martin & Co. 000X1 auditorium size solid spruce top acoustic guitar, made in the USA. Very nice, many people have played it and decided it was the nicest guitar they’ve ever played, some even deciding to purchase the exact same model as a result. As it has no built in pick up I use a Fishman Rare Earth humbucking active soundhole pickup, which sounds fantastic. Currently strung with D’Addario EXP Phosphor Bronze 12-53’s, which I would highly recommend.
Stephen’s latest major acquisition, a Larrivee L-03-12 12 string guitar, hand built in Canada, with a solid spruce top, solid mahogany neck, back and sides and a solid ebony fretboard. Has a Larrivee B-Band active pick up, sounds fantastic and plays very nicely. Currently an 11 string, until I get around to buying more strings.
Electric Guitars
- An Epiphone SG400, modified with graphtec saddles and set up by a professional guitar tech. A reasonable, reliable workhorse, which could perhaps do with new pickups. Strung with D’Addario 11-49’s which are pretty decent.
Amplifiers
A Mesa F50, made in the US. Runs on two 6L6 power tubes at 50 W and has a Celestion Black Shodow 12 inch speaker. Surprisingly for mesa, the F50 has a fantastic clean channel that rivals many Fenders, and actually manages to do justice to both the Martin and Larrivee mentioned above (they sound amazing through the F50 despite the fact that it is not at all designed for acoustic guitars). The distortion channel has plenty of gain on tap, ranging from very nice ballsy rock tones to the typical high gain mesa distortion that is so overused by nu metal and pop punk bands. All round it’s a fantastic, very versatile amp.
A Fender Frontman 15, made in Mexico. A reasonable beginners amp, but nothing to write home about. Currently sitting in some unknown location in Rotorua, gathering more Sulfur in its circuitry.
Pedals
A Crybaby Classic, with a Fasel inductor. Nice Wah sound, with a decent sweep range. Very useful when pretending to be able to play funk or being a wanabe Hendrix.
A Boss DS1 distortion pedal. Bought largely because it was only $99 and Stephen had $100 worth of Rockshop Vouchers. It sounded pretty good in the shop, but much experimentation still needs to take place. Go anything that’s coloured orange! I’m starting to get ideas about possible distortion pedal designs, and might use the DS1 as a robust shell once I’ve come up with something I like. I’m pondering the use of a multiple diode waveshaper circuit, and what that might sound like.
A Belcat DLY-303 delay pedal. Seemingly analogue, dirt cheap, it will provide that Edge sound for playing worship songs (essentially U2 covers, the chord progressions at least) at church. It might encourage purchase of better, more expensive delay pedals eventually, but it’ll do for now.
Other Instruments
A Roland E-16 keyboard. Plenty of options, most of them don’t sound particularly great, but occasionally having a keyboard available comes in handy. Sometimes the sulfur build up resulting from too long a time in Rotorua is noticeable.
A drum stick bag with several pairs of drumsticks in it. One day when Stephen has enough money and somewhere to put it he will buy a drum kit.
Gear transportation
- In order to transport the above gear Stephen has a 1999 Mitsubishi Lancer. It doesn’t really have any use other than transporting musical equipment, especially guitars and amplifiers. It can fit two guitars and the mesa in the boot, provided it’s not still filled with other random crap from moving.
More will be added, when Stephen can justify making more purchases or gets given more gear.
