Amps:
In this time of digital music and digital everything, there's something homely about turning on a valve head; feeling the warmth radiate as it warms up. The tone and characteristics of valve (or tube for my American friends) amps stand miles ahead of anything digital, and thus I only use valve amps.
The current lineup consists of:
Mesa Boogie F50 - an older Blues / Rock amp.
Cornford Mk50 Mk 1 - British hand-built Blue legend.
Selmer / Kelly Treble & Bass - an original 60s British head, great for sparkling cleans.
Cornford 2x12 cab - with Celestion V30s
Pedals:
Well, where to begin. As with guitars, I like to have all bases covered, and employ a selection of pedals to ensure this.
My current board setup includes the following:
Maxon Compressor - gotta have that Country twang!
Fredric Effects Vombie Clone - a true replica of the legendary Klon Centaur
Fulltone FullDrive Mosfet 2 - a warm overdrive
Ernie Ball VP Jr - volume pedals for pedal steel and ambience effects
Strymon Timeline - a behemoth Delay pedal
Strymon Mobius - name an effect, and this thing does it! Well, nearly
Strymon Bluesky - the Daddy of reverb pedals
Sitting to the side I hold onto a growing collection of overdrives and effects, which I won't bore you with. To be honest, if you've read this far you're either as geeky as I am, a friend, the missus or really bored!
Those who know me will know that this page will never stay the same. I'm forever hunting for "that sound". The problem is, no-ones knows what that sound is, let alone me! However, here's a rundown of what I'm currently using for recording and live work:
Studio:
Let's start from the beginning: the input. Decent preamps are a must, and I rely on the clarty of the Focusrite products. There's something about them that makes everything seem more 'alive' than other products I've used.Monitoring everything are a set of KRKs. Some people dismiss these as 'DJ' speakers. However, their clarity and range are unequaled in their price range, and thus are employed in hundreds of studios around the world as near-field monitors.
I run Pro Tools 11 on a custom built Mac Pro. All projects are recorded at 64 bit, 48kH, so there is no lose in signal clarity.
Linking everything together is the Two Notes Audio Engineering "Reload". This is a clever little box, designed as a loadbox for valve amps, and an interface into the Focusrite. The included software uses the highest quality IRs from the greatest cabs and mics used in music, and allows you to create any combination you can think of. Essentially, I have over £100,000 worth of mics and cabs in my computer - and you'll have a hard time telling the difference! What's more, it's customisable; download IRs from hundreds of different sources, and you'll never need to buy a mic or cab again.
That said - for the purist in me - is still have the good old SM57 and ribbon combination to use with my Cornford cab, just in case.
Guitars:
I like to be able to cover anything thrown at me, and thus I have a good array of guitars.
The main "go-to" guitars are my Gibson ES335 and Fender Telecaster. There aren't many genres you can't cover with these two; from pop to blues to country to soul...to metal...
For added variety I turn to my Fender Stratocaster (no self-respecting guitarist can be without one), a Gretsch Electromatic and an Epiphone Les Paul. These are greatly underestimated guitars, and hold their own against their more expensive American cousins.
And when a subtle touch is called for, I turn to the Martin 000M, solid mahogany acoustic. This has a really warm, smooth character, ideal for carrying the rhythm under brighter guitar or string lines.