pad gear

*Crimson Guitars - 'The Serving Brother'* - the brand new and hugely exciting addition to the family. Ben builds guitars for Robert Fripp and when I had the opportunity to look at a custom job, Ben won head and shoulders against an encouragingly big UK independent luthier field. i was really impressed by his ethos and skill as well as his enthusiasm for a very complex brief, which at present stands as a GR synth enabled, Sustainer equipped baritone 6 string with AA tuning. Ben's built GR/Sustainer guitars for Mr Fripp and so the esoteric electrics are no problem and his understanding of guitar mechanics make me confident that the baritone is going to be a really great tone. the name comes from the fact that the guitar is going to be a tribute to my father who died last year and though he eventually acheived the higher rank of Officer Brother in the St John, there was something about Serving Brother that just spoke much more of what his 70+ years of service for StJAS actually meant to him. the guitar is my way of saying thank you to him for unshakingly encouraging me musically from an early age, though he didn't play an instrument himself and even though i'm sure he would rather i hadn't gone down that noisy rock route at an impressionable age! stop press - 'serving brother' guitar now finished!
*Parker Fly Deluxe* - the green meeny in the piccy above - now just about my main guitar for nearly everything. features heavily on the new EatG and Enygmartyr albums as well as Helen Turner's album. I can't say enough about the Parker it is just the most beautiful and soulful instrument in the world. There are times when i'm tempted to think i'm dragging it down and it'd be better off without me!
*Ibanez Red RG550* - an old chunky style RG550 - heavy but still a really nice instrument - recently had a refurb with a set of Dimarzio Evolution pickups and so will probably get dragged out for Enygmartyr gigs from now on. Was the main guitar for most of PfAC though I got the Parker just in time to do some of the late overdubs. Was my main guitar for about 8 or 9 years. solo in To The Shore on QESS was the RG550.
*Yamaha RGX Custom* - beautiful purple beasty! the RGX was one of the last US built models before Yamaha 'reframed' all their models and downgraded them a little in my opinion. the Pacificas are impressive for their price band, but the RGX series were fantastic and very very classy instruments. this was my main guitar for the early Ascent days into early days of EatG. main guitar on most of Quiet Earth & Shining Stars album. 'whale' solo from Swept Away on QESS was the RGX. it has a really nice feature which is like an 'instant solo switch', whatever volume, tone and pickup you have selected, this little switch allowed you just to tap straight into the bridge pickup untapped at full volume. Swept Away uses this switch in the middle - sadly missed on every subsequent guitar.
*Westone Thunder 1A* - my first serious instrument when i was about 17 or so. eagle eyed viewers will note that the westone still gets dragged out every now and then for some blues work as it's the only fixed bridge electric i have and still has a beautiful rolled blues tone - the solo on Moonrings from QESS was done on the Westone and i think one of my better ones on that album. (but just take a special moment to clock the strides in this picture! i went through a happy three weeks of truly believing i was channelling for nik kershaw! worst part was there was a silver shiny shirt that went with 'em!)
*Musikalia Bouzouki* - this poor 8str devil needs so much attention but still manages to hold on to the vague vestiges of playability. it's the source of amusement and apprehension during PfAC live solo sets as i change from the Bouzouki to the Fly during Just This Side Of Happy. it's a great sounding instrument and though a bit tricky to play at the mo, is still a favourite to kick around on. i just used it on matt dixey's latest demo, on a track called 'beautiful girl'.
*Chapman Stick™* - a new and confusing addition to the arsenal, but i'm having a lot of fun figuring out how the darned thing works at the moment. it's a mid 80's all polycarb 10str model but it sounds fantastic. where possible i'm trying to force myself to do any basslines on Stick at the mo. strangest thing about the stick is having to remember to wear the right pair of trousers to slot the clip into - anything less than a respiration suppressing waistband and the Stick tends to drag your trousers down!!!
*Washburn Status 4str bass* - been using this one for a couple of years on long borrow from steve gale, but 'doing a deal' at the mo. it's a great sounding bass and lovely to play - records really well straight through the focusrite trakmaster or Bass Pod. used extensively on PfAC.	dodgy picture coming soon
*Others* - also in the arsenal are a battered but beloved Tatra classical guitar that was my first ever guitar aged 10! still much loved but now a little sickly and creaking gently into retirement. i've just replaced it with a beautiful new Admira Artisan electro-classical, which is utterly wonderful and thanks go to The Music Room in Nottingham for helping me choose it. i have a Kimbara 6str acoustic, which though not the classiest instrument and lacks playability and class, is whoopin' loud and so gets dragged out for Helen Turner acoustic gigs from time to time. i think i also have a knackered old banjo that i borrowed off phil rainey about 7 or 8 years ago.

for about 4 years now i've been using the line6 pod as my main guitar processor. though i have a whopping great peavey heritage 2x12 amp (recently replaced by the beautiful Tech21 Trademark 60 combo), this now just gets used for on-stage monitoring. the pod gets fed straight into the desk. with a good monitor engineer this rig works really well.

the pod has it's own pedal board with wah & vol pedals which work just great. the pod gives just such a great range of tones right at your feet - very useable and incredibly expressive. i've reined back some of my effect excesses of years gone by and the pod delivers some really nice subtle workhorse effects.

this is soon to be replaced by a Pod X3 Live as it lends itself much better to some of the stranger instruments in the chicken shed, particularly the Stick which really needs processing separately bass and melody side.

POD v2

just recently i decided to add a few stomp boxes in for immediacy and for just a little bit more control when i need it. the natural choice was to go back to boss as i always used to swear by them. these go right in front of the pod using the theory that the pod is acting like an amp and it's only what you'd do anyway. would be nice if the pod had an effects loop for the mod/delay lines though.

on the right is the digitech whammy pedal. this is just a fantastic and expressive toy. i was inspired to get one by listening to alan morse's playing and haven't regretted it. it tends to get left on the octave up setting for those little string skips and jumps beyond 24th fret.

very recent additions have also included a raft of Electro-Harmonix pedals as well - Small Clone chorus, Electric Mistress Deluxe (flanger), and Big Muff (original). soon to come are a Holier Grail and a 2880 Looper. i just love EH pedals, the sound that comes out always feels so much more natural and part of your sound than the slightly 'effected' digi pedals i also use.

in the rig r-l: distortion, compressor, st chorus, st delay

also in the armoury is of course, the e-bow. this has been a key element in my sound for over 10 years now and is the most expressive gadget you could wish for. it acts like an electric bow and allows infinite sustain on a single string. with a bit of practice it becomes really easy to start moving strings with it. tones from violin, cello, flute, to a whole range of utterly unique and other-worldly sounds can be pulled from this great little handheld device. extensive use of the e-bow can be found on helen turner's album - keynote tracks include: helium & experience.

the new guitar, the serving brother, is fitted with the Fernandes Sustainer system which

the brand spanking new toy in the box though is the AdrenaLinn II from Roger Linn Design. I had the immense joy of meeting Roger recently at a demo he was giving of this amazing little box - i was so utterly impressed i bought one, and Roger even signed it for me!!! (i'm easily pleased!)

it's difficult to describe the appeal of this bundle of joy without hearing one, but it's basically a guitar effects box, with amp sims - similar to the POD, but it's the effects that set it apart. from Roger's years of experience designing amazing drum modules, he then became interested in the potential for beat synced filters for guitar and this box has them in barrowloads. wahs, filters, envelope followers, talkboxes, phasers, flangers, delays - all beautifully synched to either the internal beatbox, or via midi from your sequencer.

it's deeply inspirational and huge fun, but best of all - it sounds utterly fantastic too.

AdrenaLinn 2 (also available in smooth purple)

- a wonderful Visual Sound LED volume pedal by Bob Wiel, which is stunning and very accurate for leaving in a set position;

- the replacement for the poor old beloved but ludicrously heavy Peavey combo. in its place now resides a shiny new Tech21 Trademark60 1x12" combo, which is warm and vibrant - the amp equivalent of a well rounded Cabernet if you will.

- a Tech21 American Woman pedal designed by Randy Bachman. it emulates that amazing amp into another amp, 'edge of mayhem' feedback overtone sound that Bachman is renowned for. great pedal.

- digitech x-series dimensional chorus pedal. beautiful pedal giving multi-voice chorusing from a gentle shimmer out to a wobulotastic tremolo sound.

- EH electric mistress deluxe! i've been after one of these for years since hearing alex lifeson use one on 'hemispheres' and loved the big whooshyness of the pedal - but the reissue is just so much more stable and tuneable. wonderful if embarrassingly named pedal.. and speaking of which...

- EH Big Muff Pi. again, this has been on the wish-list since hearing kevin peak when i was very young playing a gibson L5S thru a Big Muff and the sustain was just astonishing. the reissue american pedal is just lovely and takes me right back to those 'sustain thru next week' violin sounds i used to love Sky's music for.

For the most part the gear i use in the studio is an amalgamation of the rig i use live and preamps and outboards that i have in the studio anyway.

The common link is the POD as the rough sound still gets dialled up into the POD though i'll tend not to use any of my existing patches, but always make something up new for the track in question. if it's a clean picked rhythm sound i'm after, i sometimes even drop the POD and just use maybe the chorus and compressor pedals and then go into my favourite line channel - the tfpro p2 stereo pre then straight into my MOTU digital interfaces.

Fine tuning of the sound and the addition of reverbs and special effects i tend to do within software now. DIGITAL PERFORMER has some great plug-ins now, and there's usually something in there to complete the sound. I try to record the guitar with as dry a basic tone as possible and then add everything later on - especially if i'm only just building the piece up when the guitar parts go down.

there are a few other old favourites that get used 'indoors' as well - stuff that's just too unwieldy to use live i guess - i still use the older pre-POD, sansamp gt2 pedal, which for certain american tones can't be beaten.

there's a fantastic tc electronic chorus/flange pedal which is just wonderful. even the virtually antique Roland GP16 gets trotted out for certain tones and particularly late guitar reverbs.

Reverbs also come courtesy of an Alesis WEDGE which is a very versatile little reverb box, and it's really easy to use as it's a desk unit rather than a rack so it's very easy to ride faders and make subtle changes during mixdown. for the most part though, Waves TrueVerb and tc MegaVerb are now the reverb plug-ins of choice.

i tend to swap guitars more in the studio too, again dependent not only on the song, but also on the specific guitar part. though the parker fly is main guitar for all work, the westone gets used a lot for little bluesy fills & runs here and there, and the chapman stick gets used a lot for bass notes beyond conventional 4str and tapped bass parts, though i'm also just starting to compose on it as well now i'm a bit more confident.

well - that's all for now folks, but i'll keep adding to this page as and when. hope you enjoyed this lil trip round my toybox - come back soon - but don't forget to click the links here to keep exploring the rest of the tollbooth site!

	Visual Sound Volume
	CryBaby Wah Classic
	Digitech Whammy Pedal
	Boss DS1 Distortion	Line6 PODv2
GUITAR	EH Big Muff Pi	Floorboard
--->	Boss CS2 Compressor
	EH Electric Mistress	Tech21 Trademark 60
	Boss CE5 Chorus
	Boss DD5 Digital Delay