Guitar Gear

I have this thing about gear and that is that it has to “speak” to me, and it’s probably why I’ve taken so long to get gear the last couple of years. I’ve pretty much found my sound, so I’ve become incredibly discerning. It used to be that if I thought something was cool, I’d just get it. As a result, I ended up with a lot of stuff that I just didn’t use and ended up selling usually for less than I paid just so I could move it.

But the universe works in mysterious ways, and it brought me a 1994 Simon & Patrick Luthier “Pro.” It was a gift from a friend whose uncle passed away 15 years ago, and it had been sitting in storage for all that time. As opposed to giving it away to charity, she asked if I’d like it, and if not, find a home for it. Well, it wasn’t an “either-or” thing for me. I fell in love with the guitar from the moment I first sat down and played it; 15-year-old strings and all!

When I love an instrument, I write music with it or do sound tests. Here’s something I recorded right before writing this article:

This was recorded pretty much raw with no EQ. I laid down the backing track yesterday when no one was home, but this morning, I recorded the solo – there were kids and dogs moving around in the background. I recorded both tracks using a Nady RSM-2 Ribbon Mic. Pretty cheap, but it does a great job. I just have to be careful about proximity as this mic is really prone to proximity effects.

For this next one, I was actually re-working a reggae song I wrote several years ago. My third son heard me laying down the tracks and asked if I could put a hip-hop beat underneath it. He’s an aspiring rapper. So I played around with some beats, laid down a big sub bass line with my trusty Squier “P” bass, and mixed it down. I don’t even know what to call it, but it’s cool

Here’s a new song I wrote last weekend, using just this guitar for all the guitar parts. It’s called “Shine Your Love.”

Funny thing is that I haven’t changed strings on the guitar yet. I know, I know… I’ve just been extremely busy this past week with work. Plus, I’m going to have an LR Baggs Anthem SL pickup system installed in it and have a full setup done on the guitar. I don’t want to put on a new set of strings, only to have them replaced when I get the setup done. So… I’ll live with the strings on it for now.

All in all, every time I pick up this guitar it’s like magic. There’s a great spirit in this guitar and this is something that I will lovingly care for in the years to come!