GuitarNerdDomain!


Probably way more information than needed, but oh well — some people love this kinda stuff. My arsenal currently includes:

  • 2007 Fender Deluxe American Cherry Sunburst Stratocaster with ash body, locking tuners, abalone inlays, S-1 coil tap, maple neck. My new favorite guitar!.

  • 2002 Alvarez Yairi Koa steel string cutaway with electronics (my main guitar for teaching and acoustic performances)

  • 1998 DeArmond (Guild) Starfire "jazz box" with trapeze bridge and semi-flatwounds

  • 2005 Blue Agave Fender Jazz Bass with frets 8-20 replaced with brass strips and a Bad Ass bridge

  • 2003 Schecter doubleneck bass/guitar combo, modified heavily by Frank Schmitt. Peavey guitar neck, Fender guitar pickups, Fender Jazz bass neck.

  • 1988 Paul Reed Smith custom with half-moon pearl inlays

  • 1986 Kramer Explorer guitar with added Seymour Duncan 'vintage' neck pickup and filled-in floyd rose cavity, fine tuning bridge, de-fretted neck and mounted kill switch

  • 1991 Danelectro/Peavey frankenstrat with deliciously cheesey built-in effects (reverb, tremolo, distortion and chorus)

  • 2000(?) Shipman Fretless bass with EMGs and violin/horn body (would love more info about this company/model!)

  • 2005 Fender Jazz Bass with Badass bass bridge (Jeff Berlin was right: they merit the acclaim), rosewood neck and blue "agave" finish.

  • 2001(?) Fernandes Les Paul with a sustainer pickup in the neck and a mirror fingerboard! The glass and sustainer combo are killer.

  • 2006 Raimundo classical guitar

  • 1988 Kramer strat with added seymour duncan neck pickup, removed floyd rose, added kill switch and fine tuning bridge. custom painted by Angie Poynter and made fretless by Sal Rael.

  • One-of-a-kind (japanese neck, italian body, motorcycle glitter paint) short-scale Frankenbass with Music Man pickups and a Bad Ass bridge

  • 1991 cream-colored Kramer strat with a HOT seymour duncan replacement in the bridge

  • 2004 Fender Franken-Tele with EMG pickups and a Parsons B bender crudely routed within.

  • 2006 Fender Nashville Deluxe Telecaster with Guitar Fetish overwould pickups (my new fave pickups!) in neck and bridge and brian may-esque alnico pickup in middle.

  • 2011 Eleuke electric Ukulele with classical guitar strings 4-1, tuned to DGAD

 
Amps

Ever since I sold my Mesa Boogie MarkIV and its replacement bit the dust, I use a Fender Blues Junior tube for guitar, esp. lower-volume type gigs. My bass amp is a Roland Cube 100 (which I also use live for bass, guitar and the Roland Handsonic), I also use a 15 watt Roland cube for lessons and acoustic guitar performance. For more punch on guitar lately I've lately been playing through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with new groove power tubes.

 

Picks

I play straight fingerstyle (no more fingernails, though) but mostly with finger and pick combination, my picks now officially being Clayton 1.26mm, If I can't find those I'll try the teeny Fender or Ibanez heavy tortoise shell teardrop numbers or Jim Dunlop Jazz III's or 205mm . Sometimes I'll use a paper clip, my thumb, drum stick or coin or something for different textures as well.

 

Strings

For my steel string I'm all over the Elixirs, even after trying the less-coated Cleartones. For electric I've recently fallen in love with Kurt Mangans, though I've always had good luck with Ernie Ball, esp. heavy bottom slinkys. For bass, I 'm using DRs that are getting a bit old but perked right up after a recent boil and witch hazel soak. For my short scale bass, I was surprised that short-scale D'Addario strings worked much better than cutting regular bass strings.

 

Effects

Vox wah
Boss equalizer
Boss chromatic tuner
Boss TR2 tremolo
Boss NS2 noise suppressor
Boss MT2 metal zone distortion
Fulltone OCD distortion
Ernie Ball stereo volume pedal
Ernie Ball mono volume pedal
DOD volume/wah pedal
Tubeworks tube distortion
ProCo Rat distortion
Digitech Jam Man stereo looper
Digitech RP50
Digitech synth/wah
Electro-Harmonix Small Stone phase shifter
Electro-Harmonix Bassballs
Electro Harmonix micro POG
Electro Harmonix freeze
Electro Harmonix frequency analyzer
Electro Harmonix chill switch
Electro Harmonix micro muff distortion
Boomerang Phrase Sampler, model 1 and the Rang III

 

Prepared/Table Top guitar

For the past 11 years I've been doing a lot of performance with the guitar in abnormal positions. Many of these have been done on a massage table, allowing me to approach it from all angles. Oftentimes I'll incorporate looping into these performances (with a Jam Man or Boomerang) and they're always improvised. In these instances, I use a lot of diverse tools to attain different textures and sounds. Some of these include: clarinet reed, blush brush, chopsticks, wood screws, radio antennaes, vibrating toys, feathers, clothespins, etc. If this sounds interesting, youtube "Fred Frith" or "Keith Rowe" to see some masters at work!

 

Some of my favorite guitarists/bassists include:

Michael Hedges, Bill Frisell, John Dietrich, Nels Cline, John McLaughlin, Django Reinhardt, David Rhodes, Marc Ribot, Fred Frith, Frank Zappa, Ben Mink, Prince, James Jamerson, John Frusciante, Jeff Beck, John Sykes, Tim Sparks, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Bireli Lagrene, Kaki King, Dean Magraw, Edward Van Halen, Matt Deason, Snooks Eaglin, Jeff Berlin, Bootsy Collins, John Williams, Steve Vai, Ani DeFranco, Charlie Hunter, Brian May, Jimi Hendrix, Buckethead, Jamie West-Oram, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Hubert Sumlin, Steve Morse, Jon Damian, and Bill Laswell

 

Perspective

I've been playing guitar for well over half my life, and it was definitely the first tool I explored for expression and catharsis. For a long time I'd take classical lessons (which my parents approved of and paid for) and electric lessons every week. My teenage need-for-speed was fueled by the whole Mike Varney neo-classical metal niche (Yngwie Malmsteen, Vinnie Moore, Tony MacAlpine), but luckily it only lasted a couple years.

I admit I went through a (necessary?) phase of jazz snobbery in my early 20's as well, and then I only listened to "new" music like Partch, Stockhausen, Cage, etc.. Nowadays, midway through my third decade, I listen to and play all sorts of stuff. While I still go through smaller-scale phases, I try to keep my mind and ears open to everything.

Recent loves include the 6 CD Ligeti Project, Soul Coughing's "Irrestible Bliss" and the ever-nostalgic "Joe's Garage" and "Studio Tan," both of which remain in my top five of all Zappa's output. Another cool thing to do is randomly page through the CDs at the Candyman in Santa Fe, visiting as many sections as possible and always asking the record guys what's been flipping their wigs lately. I'm a huge advocate of independent, locally-owned businesses and hope that tendency might rub off on folks as well.