My rig has changed quite a bit in the last couple of years, as I evolve my tone. I’m actually thinking of removing some of my pedals – though that’s kind of a tough deal because I just love all of them. We’ll see…
In any case, I’ve written a review about every single piece of gear in my chain, save my Ovation, which I probably should review, but it’s so old, Ovation no longer manufactures the electronics in it! Oh well, it sounds great just the same, and it’s the only acoustic I’ve played that sounds great through an amp.
Guitars
- “Pearl” Fender (MIM) 60th Diamond Annivesary Stratocaster
- “Sharkie” PRS SE Soapbar II
- “Sunset” Ovation Celebrity (Super Shallow Body)
- “Sugar” Prestige Heritage Elite
- Others that I don’t gig with but use in the studio: Yamaha FG-335 Acoustic (”Betsy”), Ibanez Strat Knock-off, Epiphone 58 Korina Explorer (”Sunny”), Fender Squire Strat (”Candy”)
Not shown (because it’s being built): Saint Guitar Company Goldtop Messenger (”Goldie”)
Effects (in order on my board)
- BOSS TU-2 Tuner
- Tone Freak Effects Abunai 2
- Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer
- Creation Audio Labs Holy Fire Overdrive/Distortion
- BOSS CE-5 Chorus
- Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe
- Creation Audio Labs Mk.4.23 Booster
- Hardwire RV-7 Reverb
Other Effects…
- Maxon CP9 Pro+ Compressor
- Digitech DigiVerb
- EH Sonic Stomp
- Digitech Bad Monkey
Amps
- Aracom Vintage Rox (VRX) 22. Switchable 22/11 with 6V6’s – Awesome freakin’ amp! Check it out at Aracom Amps!
- Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (JAN-Philips and Sovtek 12AX7/12AT7 pre-amp tubes/ EH-NOS power tubes), various modifications
- Roland Cube 60 – great small venue amp, and great for acoustic guitars!
- DigiTech Vocalist Live 4 (I know, not an amp, but it’s what I plug into first with my acoustic)
- Fender Champion 600 for studio work
Strings: Wyres Strings for both Acoustic and Electric (These are the best strings I’ve ever played!)
Picks: V-Picks “The Snake” (Electric), Red Bear B-Style Gypsy Jazz (Acoustic); soon to add Red Bear Tuff Tone (4mm)
Other Stuff: Presonus TUBEPre preamp, Morley A/B/Y box, DigiDesigns MBox2 Digital Interface
Wish List
Guitars: G & L Comanche, Baker (Fire or Earth model)
Amps: Aracom VRX18, Acoustic Image Corus+
Currently Testing:
Aracom Attenuator – This is a completely new approach in attenuator design – so much so that Jeff is working on a patent for his design. This invention is going to turn the industry on its ear!
March 31, 2009 – Updated my rig yet again. I just added a Prestige Guitars Heritage Elite, which is just a sweet, sweet Les Paul-type of guitar. It has a bright, smooth voicing that took awhile to really grow on me, but after playing with it for the past couple of weeks I’ve really come to love this guitar. I had to modify the action just a tad, and dial in the intonation, and I adjusted the height of the pickups so I could get a more even response when I switched between them. Now the balance is absolutely perfect!
Notice that I also now completely bypass all my pedals and go straight into the Cube 60 with my Ovation. I was only plugging into my board because I was using the tuner, but I have a little tuner that I can hook up directly to the amp that takes care of that.
June 30, 2009 – Will be adding the new attenuator invention by Aracom Amps later this summer. One thing this unit allows me to do is daisy chain my amps together. Talk about creating a huge, fat sound that’s got definition and sustain! Haven’t experienced anything like it! Once I have the go-ahead from Jeff to talk about it, I will be adding it to my signal chain diagram.
This page has the following sub pages.
Oscar Shmidt Delta King – original pups pulled and replaced with Gibson 57′ reissues. 10 gauge string, sometimes 11’s.
Oscar Shmidt Shallow Acoustic/Electric
Fender Standard Strat – refinished by hand (in the process), scalloped maple neck, Texas Special pups, grover pegs, new pots and wireing, 11 or 12 gauge strings with action raised a bit for slide.
Digitech GNX3000 – multi effects unit, really good for recording and writing for me to be able to create tons of sounds in one unit.
Steve Vai Bad Horsie Wah Wah
Washburn Bass
Plus a closet full of old gear and stuff I trip over constantly….
Later, McStrum
Homebuilt “Telecaster” butterscotch blond finish.
SX 24″ scale strat copy, powder blue finish with rosewood fingerboard.
Modded Vox AD30VT…I added an effects loop and replaced the cheap looking metal grill with black Vox grille cloth.
I run a Digitech RP-200 through the loop as an effect unit.
God bless,
Matt
Guitars:
PRS Singlecut – wrap-around tobacco burst – strung with 11s (main baby)
Hamer USA Eclipse – black strung with 10s (electronics need some TLC)
Taylor 310ce – strung with 12s
Amps:
Mesa Boogie Heartbreaker Combo (bone stock) run at half power for church
Epiphone Valve JR combo (modded)
Effects:
E-bow (newer model, not as smooth as older model I used to have)
Boss Chorus Ensemble
Boss Phaser (the newest one, not as rich as the older ones but does David Crowder stuff pretty well)
DigiTech digital delay set to emulate tape delay
Ibanez TS-9 Tube screamer (still stock my amps are warm enough this adds edge when I need it)
All effects are run in front of signal as apposed to in the effects loop.
Nice, DuhDewd!
My Current Equipment:
Guitars:
- Fender American Standard Strat, Lake Placid Blue,1986
- Taylor T5 Custom, Tobacco burst
- Ibanez EP9 elec. acoustic
- Ibanez Jem7vwh Vai signature (white)
- Ibanez AF105 NT archtop elec. acoustic
- D’Aquisto New Yorker (2006) archtop elec. acoustic,
Natural
- Gibson L-6 Custom, black, 1976
- Hagstrom Oval Hole Jimmy, archtop elec. acoustic, cherry
burst
- Parker P-38 tobacco burst
- Custom Fender Tele thinline with Peter Florence voodoo
- pups, cream swamp ash body
- Samick heavily modified LP copy, with all gold tonepro
hardware, Duncan Lil 59 neck and Screamin demon bridge.
Cherry Burst, 2 mg pots upgraded electronics.
(Not your typical Samick!)
- Neal Moser Custom, hand built SS ST #1, black opaque
quilted maple body, quilted maple fret board and head
stock, Kahler trem, lace drop and gain pups, and built in
booster switch (only one in existence and my favorite!)
- Neal Moser Custom, hand built Wraith neck through, white
poly over mahogany wings, with cocobolo fretboard and
headstock with lots of custom, built in Moser electronics.
Only one like it in existence and still in production.
- Vox Virage black with new 3 way Dimarzio pups and
special 3 position effect switches, one for each pup (brand
new model and not released yet, but paid for).
Amps:
- Mesa Boogie Mark III red stripe 100 watt head 1986
seperate 12″ speaker, Mesa boogie cabs
- Fender Blues Deluxe with varnished tweed covering 1993
- Fender M80 300 watt solid state
- Behringer 120 watt solid state modeling combo
- SWR Strawberry blonde acoustic
Effects:
- Electro Harmonix POG
- Electro Harmonix Synth
- Boss DR-880 drum machine
- Digitech JamMan loop station
- Vox Wah
- Teese Wheels of Fire Wah
- Sun Face Fuzz
- Line 6 POD 2.0
- Line 6 X3 Live
- Fulltone Vibe
- Fulltone OCD
- BBE Sonic Stomp
- others
Recording:
- Fostex 8HD – 8 track with built in 40 gb hd and cd burner
- VF160 Fosstex – 16 track with built in 40 gb hd and cd
burner
- Sennheiser E835 Mic
Yowza!
Yeah, I know…. nuts…. and I just added a new HarmonyMan and a Fulltone Octafuzz.
Now for the cool news… my Vox Virage showed up today (been waiting 6 months). Here’s the scoop so far:
=====
Black double cut. Let me start by saying that it’s everything Vox said it would be. Unique in many ways. First looks. IT’S BEAUTIFUL! all the hardware is very cool, even down to the “S” shaped tuners. Yep… S shaped. Your thumb and forefinger fit perfectlly to adjust. Actually, fits so well, that I felt I had even etter fine motor control of the head. Jut the way it fits gives excellent leverage for fine adjustments. Never heard abbout this and didn’t expect it. The plastic covers for the three blade pups, that some people didn’t like, look extremely cool, and match the volume and tone knobs. Very different look. The bridge is also a real looker, very different and extremely clean. The craftsmanship is excellent. No flaws of any kind. Excellent inlay and fret work. Solid wood throughout as promissed. Inside of body is very clean, without the normal bracing structures. The guitar is extremely comfortable and light as hell. It fits right into your mid section/rib area and feels very natural. Puts your picking arm and hand a really good angle.
The action came adjusted just where I like it, right from the factory. I appreciate that. The Dimarzio 3 way pups sound great. With the pup switch and two tone changing switches you have an amazing combination of voicings, with out adding any pedals. Can’t wait to start playing this bad boy through some of my pedals. No mud on any setting, and I tried them all. The tone is excellent, with exceptionally nice sustain. All tone settings are sooooo clear. Now one thing I didn’t expect…. the tone switches both work in combination to change the sound, regardless of where you have the pup selector set. I expected that each pup would be effected in some way by one switch or the other, not all pups effected by both switches. Can’t wait to here my Octafuzz, Tue creamer, OCD, POG, etc, with this baby.
Well, that’s all for now. Need to get back to my new friend.
Cheers,
Al
OMG!!!A Vox Virage?!!! Dream guitar! I’m jealous!!!
That is SO awesome!!!
yeah, I freakin love it! the designers did an excellent job. great look, feel and sound. so comfortable, light as hell and great contour.
FYI -Just took delivery this weekend of my PRS DGT. I’ll give you a complete field report after I gig with this guitar a few times. First impression: This will be one of those “legendary” instruments. I think it is PRS’s crowning achievement. Grissom was spot on when he designed the PAFs for this baby. Best neck I ever played. The finish is flawless, thin and hard as glass nitro. The neck instantly felt like an old friend. P-ups are the clearest most open sounding PAFs ever. Single coil tones sparkle and are nicely blend able with the dual volume controls. Clear, bell-like sustain forever. You can rap your knuckle on the back of the neck and the wood rings like a bell. In a word, impressive.
Dawg – drop me an email and I will send to you directly if you care to post it.
Tweed. I don’t have your e-mail address!
Congrats on the DGT!!! That is one awesome guitar, and I’d love to get your feedback. Email me at:
thedawg@REMOVETHISgoofydawg.net
Will do, look for it around Sept 7 or so. It would only be fair to really critique it after a few Saturday night gigs under the belt -with that axe in tow. I haven’t been this pumped about a guitar in a long time.
‘59 Double cutaway Les Paul Jr. refinished in tung oil. Nickel Grovers, Leo Quan Badass bridge, jumbo fretwire, EMG-85 under a modded chrome P90 dogear cover.
Sound City (Dallas Arbiter) 200 watt tube head (circa 1970?) GK deep straight front 4×12 cab loaded with EVs wired in stereo. (the amp is a push-pull type and has to have both outputs connected)
If I crank it past 3, it makes the little nibs on the textured ceiling fall like snow. Louder than a hotrodded Marshall and twice as creamy.
I’m thinking about selling the LP Jr if anyone is interested.
samhill@myrealbox.com
Guitars:
* Gibson Les Paul 1960 Classic Reissue – Sunburst
* 2003 Fender American Standard Stratocaster – Cream
* 2003 Martin HD-28 Acoustic guitar w/ LR Baggs iBeam
Amps:
* Fender Twin Reverb
* Behringer Firebird GX108 Practice Combo
Pedals/Effects:
* Tube Works Real Tube Overdrive designed by B.K Butler (this is the best overdrive pedal of all time)
* Line 6 DM4 Distortion Modeler
* Keeley Compressor
* Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
* BBE Sonic Stomp
* Electro-Harmonix Hum Debugger (necessary for playing single coils)
* LR Baggs Para DI
* Boss FV 500H Volume Pedal
Sean, I imagine you’re using the Para DI for your HD-28. Is that to plug into your Twin?
Correct, I use the Para DI for my Martin, and it sounds fantastic. However, I don’t plug my acoustic into my Twin. I use the DI mainly in buildings with sound systems and what not, just so I can control my EQ and other settings.
Gotcha. Made me wonder when I saw that box in your pedal listing. I’ve yet to hear an acoustic guitar that sounds great through a tube amp. My buddy has a Genz-Benz Shenendoah that’s half-tube/half-FET. He tends to later more FET than tube.
Myself, amp-wise, I play my acoustic through nothing but my Roland Cube 60, and line out to a board if I need to go to a PA. On the other hand, for most gigs where I use an acoustic, I plug into my DigiTech Vocalist Live 4, then use the balanced out to a board.
Suhr Hss strat with a full “C” Neck
American Fat strat Deluxe also Hss
G&L bluesboy “Tele” with F holes
A fender Prosonic (the best Amp I’ve ever played through)
I have 2 seafoam green combo’s and a head that I play through a Marshalll 1960 412 cab (not all together either or)
budda Wah
Od3 boss super overdrive
Hughes and Kettner rotosphere ( through the effects loop)
killer tone!!!