Featured here will be some postings I've written on product reviews and other music related topics. (At least, that's what I claimed when I started this page years ago.)
I have some scans of a photo of my custom Strat-style guitar. The photograph was taken by Douglas P. Gingerich, Professional Photographer and Geddy-Worshipping Rickenbacker 4001 Player. You can reach him (Doug, not Geddy) at piranha_studios@hotmail.com. The photo, while dramatically dark, looks good. Unfortunately my scanner can't pick up all the details, and I'm sick of trying. The scans are too dark and grainy, making it look like the guitar is black around the edges. In real life you can see the wood grain clearly all the way out to the edges. So you'll have to use your imagination a bit.
One is a colour photo in tiff format that's a bit too dark; another is a colour photo in gif format that's a bit grainy and also too dark.
The body is one-piece swamp ash from Warmoth (not "Warmouth"!) who also provided the maple neck with compound radius ebony fingerboard. The neck is finished in nitrocellulose lacquer, by the skilled professionals at The Twelfth Fret in Toronto. Local luthier Al Husband made the graphite nut. The beautiful transparent brown-burst body was painted by the very talented Brad Freiheit of Kitchener, Ontario. For other examples of his work, check out the custom Tele-style mahogany-bodied maple-topped Floyd-equipped guitars he has made for Phil X (Rik Emmett's replacement in Triumph), and see his web site at freiheitguitars.com.
The bridge is a Wilkinson VS100C . Three-ply bird's-eye maple is used for the custom-made pickguard. I selected the maple veneer, and Brad Freiheit made the pickguard. The pickups are Seymour Duncan: two Classic Strat stacks plus a HotRails in the bridge. (I eventually switched to a Duncan Lil '59 in the bridge position.) The volume and tone controls are pull-pots that let me cut the HotRail to single coil, and also allow the neck pickup to be added regardless of pickup selector position. Strings are Maxima Gold to complement the gold Gotoh machine heads, gold pickguard screws, and gold bridge -- I couldn't resist. Maxima strings are relatively expensive and hard to find, but I had good luck buying them from Matt Moucheron, mmmmgtr@aol.com.
My other guitar is a 1969 Gibson Les Paul Custom, Have a look (60KB jpeg) if you like. It seems that the large rectangular bridge was retrofitted in the early 1970s when it was a stock item on some SGs and other models. This guitar has a three-piece top, and a five-piece headstock, with no volute on the neck. Originally it was a Fretless Wonder, but after struggling to play it and agonizing for ages, I finally had it refretted by the skilled people at The Twelfth Fret in Toronto. They did a great job and now the guitar is very playable. I can't resist equipping it with gold Maxima strings. (In the background is my 1972 50-watt Marshall head and late 1960s 4x10 Marshall cabinet.) Thanks to Doug Gingerich for this photo too.
Les Pauls like this are often thought to be fairly heavy. Here's an amusing assessment of that.
I'm quite happy with my Taylor 510E. That's a dreadnought with mahogany back and sides, Engelmann spruce top, and Fishman Natural saddle pickup.
More recently I picked up a Taylor 356ce 12-string, and a limited edition Taylor 514ce in walnut (so shouldn't it be a W14ce?).
My friends call me a gear pig. I have a lot of stuff, some of which sits idle most of the time, and some of which gets used when my Boston tribute band, "Hitch A Ride", is active. See my band's web site!
My most commonly-used rig consists of a MESA/Boogie Studio pre-amp and MESA/Boogie 20/20 power amp. Pedals, effects, and speakers vary depending on the nature of the gig, and are most often chosen from such components as: Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal, Ibanez TS808 tube-screamer pedal, Rockman Sustainor, Rockman stereo chorus, Rockman stereo echo, MESA 2x12 half-back cabinet with EVM12L and Celestion V30, vintage Marshall 4x10 cab, MESA 1x12 Caliber extension cab with Black Shadow, MESA 1x12 Thiele cabs with Black Shadow.
In addition, I have a MESA/Boogie Studio .22 combo that gets used a lot. I've written a bit more about some Studio .22 service items. Also in the fleet is a vintage (1972) Marshall 50-watt JMP head (model 1987) that doesn't get used as much as I'd like to. After that comes the collecting dust list: Rockman MIDI Octopus and foot controller, MESA Professional High Gain Amp Switch, Chandler digital echo, Chandler Tube Driver (rack), ...
