CONTEMPORARY G.A.S.
Modern tools to create sonic mayhem!

GUITARS

The humble beginings and continued saga......



I didn't start collecting vintage guitars until the late 1990s but I have always maintained a nice collection of contemporary players. It all started back in 1975 with a suburst El Degas Les Paul made by Ibanez which was purchased at a now defunct music store in Paramus, New Jersey named Bronen's Music. Actually manufactured for the Canadian market, it was an excellent "lawsuit" era copy that came out of the same Japanese factory as its Ibanez cousins. Traditional sunburst it had a bolt on neck as compared to Gibson's set neck and mine even sported the Gibson inlayed diamond peghead ornamentation. 

I sold it, now with GREAT regret, to buy my next guitar, an Ibanez Artist, which I consider to this day my favorite player. I remember my dad taking me to Sam Ash and throwing in a few bucks towards the purchase price of $350. They also had the doubleneck version but at $800 was to much for my 16 year old wallet. Guess I could buy the reissue with a retail of $3999 for nostalgia sake. Nah!

My father also installed a Dimarzio Super Distortion pickup in the bridge position with a coil split switch. Along with a Big Muff, Small Stone Phase Shifter, Cry Baby Wah and Yamaha G50-410 amp it was my "rig" and signature tone of the mid to late '70s.

Fast forward to day and the recent sale of my Ibanze JS1000 and JEM 7V (sorry Satch & Steve!), I'm back to playing my Artist full time. I also use a "sample" guitar from the Chinese manufacturer who handles my line of DIY guitar kits for Guitar Fuel. This was a special model made for the 2008 Music China show held this past October. I'll just say that Chinese guitar manufacturing has come a long way in a short period of time!  

She's a real beauty with a stunning carved spalted maple top. The body style looks striking similar to a very high dollar guitar played by the likes of Santana and most recently, Al Dimeola. Some guy named Paul Jones...no Smith perhaps or something like that. LOL Anyway, I upgraded with a set of hot Giovanni Custom humbuckers and an ARTEC QDD Overdrive circuit.  String through for great sustain and a fast neck makes this a fun guitar to play
 
I also play a tele style guitar that I built from one of my kits. The burl ash top was so stunning I just finished in natural. Giovanni Custom Pickups and all upgraded gold hardware. She's a fine player and receives compliments whenever I pull her out. 



It was quite awhile before another guitar arrived on the scene. I didn't even own an acoustic guitar but a birthday gift from my wife early in our relationship changed that. A deep bowl Ovation from the early '80s was a "rent-to-own" from the Doo Wop Shop in Lousiville, KY. I was a big Al Dimeola fan at the time and the fiberglass body really works well for his percussive style of playing. The top has aged very nicely and the fiberglas, well its the same. LOL 

She also bought me my first real bass, a Charvel Jackson, from Sam Ash in Paramus, NJ along with a Yamaha YS-100 synth and a few other toys including a Korg Symphony sound module. I say real bass because I don't count the cheap Japanese Kingston I ripped the frets out of and used Plastic Wood to fill the grooves for a fretless as a kid. The Charvel was a bit tough on the hands but a start along with a Peavey Micro Bass amp.  

Speaking of the wife, she took guitar lessons as a teenager (at the Bizannes Music Mart in Louisville, Ky) and she'll pull out her Guild Madiera occasionally. Actually she taught me how to play Blackbird and Classical Gas. The finish has aged to a wonderful amber and she sure is sweet - both the guitar and my wife!

During numerous moves around the country as a corporate soldier, I picked up a variety of imported guitars and basses from the local shops.  Three (3) that have survived the test of time are a Dean fretless bass, an Oscar Schmidt OE-20 and a Olympic labeled Stratocaster. The Dean and Oscar Schmidt came from the defunct Memphis, Tennessee music store, Colie Stolz, and the Olympic from a small "mom & pop" shop in Denton, Texas who's name I can't recall.

The Dean is a blast to play and has that early '90s thing going on in body shape and color. I was heavily into Brand X and the bass player Percy Jones not to mention Jaco at the time. It sounds decent although I prefer my fretless Fender Jazz bass these days you'll find further down on the page. 

The Oscar Schmidt (aka Washburn) OE-20 is a great example of an early '90s Korean made copy of the Gibson ES-335. Although an entry level model, the natural finish shows off some beautiful grained maple. Its actually a decent playing/sounding copy and was only around $200 brand new. It will undoubtedly receive a pickup/electronics upgrade at some point in the future.

The Olympic strat was definitely manufactured in a Fender factory. This is no cheap knock off and even sports factory Schallers. I recently upgraded the pickups to a set of Giovanni GCS-1s and installed both QDD overdrive and BCU paramteric EQ circuits. Great player, incredible tone and the best $150 I have spent to date!



What would the '80s hair bands done without their Kramers? Manufactured in Neptune. NJ and endorsed by none other than Eddie Van Halen they defined a brief period in guitar history. After going bankrupt, being purchased by Gibson and manufacturing moved to Asia they have joined the re-issue movement with several models manufactured again in the U.S.A.  

I came across them on the musicyo.com website about 8-9 years ago. Musicyo is Gibson's collection of companies they have purchased including Steinberger, Maestro, Oberheim, etc. The guitar that caught my interest was the "yet to be released" Condor, a solidbody acoustic-electric with German Shadow electronics. I went back to the site a few months later and they were available. I went with the black finish over natural.

Plays like an electric sounds like an acoustic and was obviously born from the Gibson SST model played by the likes of Chet Atkins and Dave Matthews. Straight pull locking tuners are a nice touch and best of all it sounds pretty darn good for the money. I've used it both for studio tracks and playing out. 

I also purchased a Striker Custom with "Hot Rail" (blade) pickups and signature Kramer heastock/body style. It was a gift for my bass playing daughter along with an inexpensive Kramer acoustic that she just recently retired for an Ovation.

My first Washburn was also purchased at Colie Stolz in Mremphis, a thinline acoustic-electric Festival 12 string. Sweet guitar with a low action and EQUIS II Eq system. It's one that still sees a good amount of use.

A solidbody KC-44V followed which retired my Ibanez Artist and became my main player for quite a few years. The H-S-H and locking tremolo changed my style a bit as I explored whammy bar acrobatics which lead to the Inabez JS1000 and JEM 7V.

My first custom shop guitar was the Washburn WM612. I always wanted a doubleneck and this one is simply stunning! The 12 string has both a humbucker and piezo which lots of blend control and outputs. Not overly heavy and well balanced so you can use it for more than one song. This one was an investment and doesn't get played very often.
                        

AMPLIFIERS      

My primary recording amp up until recently was an early 1990s Marshall Studio 15. This was another purchase at Strings & Things in Memphis with a slight twist. I originally purchased a different Marshall model that required service. It was stolen from the shop so they gave me this one as a replacement. This is the only Marshall model that uses 6V6 output tubes and only 500 were manufactured. Sounds great miked with a Shure 57 slightly off axis.

One of the benefits of my Guitar Fuel venture is all of the new toys I get to play with....I mean demo of course. My Chinese amp manufacturer also builds for a very well known U.S. based brand name but provides boutique building services for us smaller guys. We've been developing a small line of high quality tube amps called the GF (Guitar Fuel) Series rated at 5, 15 and 30 watts. Killer amps I use the GF30H with a 2-10" cabinet loaded with Special Design Jensens and a GF5H (tweed) with a custom made 1-12" cabinet also loaded with a Special Design Jensen. The GF5H is a pure recording monster and the GF30 is my gigging amp. So what about the GF15? Not pictured but it gets used as well!

EFFECT PEDALS

      

     

 

     

 

     

 

Did I mention that owning Guitar Fuel has some benefits like lots of effect pedals to choose from? The picture is just a partial pile of ARTEC, BIYANG and Beta-Aivin models for guitar and bass. I've always been into stompboxes and have a substantial collection of vintage pedals including the first Electro Harmonix product from the 1970s, the LPB-1. First versions like a FOXX Tone Machine, Big Muff, Small Stone, etc. are all stored away increasing in value while I play with about 100 new pedals from my Chinese vendors. Needless to say, my pedalboard changes weekly!

BASS GUITAR

My oldest daughter is a fine bass player and as such, allowed me to indulge in some B.A.S. (Bass Acquisition Syndrome) over the years. It started out with the Charvel Jackson and then onto a Ibanze EX-Series that I still play to this day. It was purchased at Strings & Things in Memphis for all of $180. The neck is an incredibly easy player - lightning fast - and the P/J style pickup combination sounds good.
 
While living in Memphis we found a very nice green Ibanez SR-400 in a local pawn shop which became my daughter's first actual bass. For the acoustic stuff she received a Jasmine by Takamine as a birthday gift when we moved back to NJ. Might as well have an end pin in it for playing upright as this thing is HUGE! 

Finally, a U.S.A. made Tobias Growler with a Bartolini pickup and 18V active electronics. It was purchased for "inspiration" when she attended Bass Lines at Berklee when she was 16. Custom ordered black finish by Musician's Friend, it was built in Nashville after Tobias was purchased by Gibson. I purchased used at the local Guitar Center for $500. You can dial in just about any tone possible! Now that she's happily married and living in a revolutionary war home on the Delaware River, the basses have all moved with her. So what was I suppose to do? Buy more basses of course!

Gosh, I really like my Dean fretless but for recording the Fender tone is an industry standard so a fretless Fender Jazz bass now resides in the home studio. Run it through a chorus and its Jaco-land! The Ibanez EX-Series has maintained a "go to" status for those edgy tunes that need something more aggressive than the Fender. Pick or finger style, its just a great bass.

The latest addition is another Music China show guitar that came from my Chinese manufacturer. Beautiful neck through design, I upgraded with a 3 band ARTEC active parametric EQ and Giovanni Custom Pickups. Incredible range and very similar to my daughter's Tobias, it completes my trio! 

I used Peavey bass amps for years and with my daughter's departure the opportunity to try something new arrived. She took our Peavey Basic 100 which has served us well for quite a few years. I wanted something in a kick back cabinet style with lots of punch which is exactly what my Carvin combo delivers. XLR output for direct recording and enough power to play a small venue. Carvin's reputation for building great products is well deserved! 


RESOPHONIC                             
  

I bought my first resonator guitar, a Liberty made by Bill Bell in Florida with imported parts and some custom touches about 6 years ago. Shortly thereafter I purchased my Beard Cherry and subsequently sold the Liberty to an email buddy I met on eBay. I fell in love with the resophonic guitar after attending a Jerry Douglas/Doc Watson concert in Englewood, NJ. I knew JD from AKUS but this was with his band including Bryan Sutton on guitar. WOW! One of those musical life changing experiences that sent me down a different path. Beard has been making resos for some of the most notable players for years and JD is back to playing a signature model.
 
Beard's collaboration with Goldtone has produced some quality import models similar to the Scheerhorn-Wechter relationship but they just don't bite like the ones made here in the U.S. The Cherry has tons of volume and great projection plus the famed Paul Beard setup. The Beard Road-O-Phonic started out as my travel reso but its stereo output from the two pickups (single coil & piezo)has made it another recording tool. Actually I use it for most of my lap steel parts anymore running it through a few choice effects. Much more of an ambient tone than a solid piece of wood and of course does a great dobro impression.

MANDOLIN

Since I was exploring bluegrass and with the discovery of folks like Sam Bush and Chris Thiel, I figured a mandolin would be a logical instrument to add to my arsenal. Although I've owned a vintage Gibson A style mando and of course, EM-150, I wanted something a bit more contemporary. I was very familiar with Godin guitars after owning everything from a Freeway to a Jazz SA, so I knew the quality I could expect and they didn't disappoint. The A-8 is an easy player and another exceptional recording tool which is the reason why I purchased her. 

CATALYST STUDIOS

Everybody has their "space" and this is mine. Catalyst Studios was a small biz I established while living in Memphis although now its just my personal studio. I've been recording for more than 20 years starting out with a little Fostex 4 track. I followed the trends and upgraded to reel-to-reel (Fostex R8), then on to the ADAT format, BOSS BR1600 and just earlier this year, Roland's flagship 2480CD workstation. After spending more time on the learning curve than I'd like, I sold the Roland and bought a Tascam 2488CD, BOSS BR1200 and Zoom M2 to handle all of my my recording needs.

You probably figured I had a Pro Tools setup, right? I made a conscious decision not to enter the PC/Mac recording world and stick with a stand alone workstations. No latency issues, no PC crashes and old school controls. If I need a full blown studio with all of the bells & whistles, I have access to my buddy Bob's studio complex located in Hackensack, NJ. Why two recorders? The Tascam can handle 8 inputs and is 24 track for group stuff. The BOSS BR1200 is the recorder I use for quick "gorilla" style recording and all my acoustic tidbits. Both are easy to use and produce results that are down right scary on occasion. The ZOOM M2 is always running to capture those little tidbits that I'd never remember otherwise. 

As for some of the other stuff in my room, a Roland JD800 and Korg TR88 workstation more than suffice for my keyboard needs. I purchased the JD800 right when it first came out in the earlt '90s because of its analog style control and tones. The TR88, with its full-sized weighted keyboard, has an incredible sound engine with lots of great user control.

This is my second set of Yamaha electronic drums. I started out with the first version of their DTXpress kit and stepped up to the "Special" set earlier this year. My son's Yamaha Tour Custom acoustic set would take up the entire room so they stay downstairs which is not exactly a great recording space. One of the reason we went with the Yamaha electronic set for recording.

Speaking of my son, Jack is an 11 year drummer for Paul Green's School of Rock Music. Yes the one the movie with Jack Black was based on. The whole idea of the program is to place kids 8-17 immediately into a band situation along with a standard weekly lesson. Every quarter they play a show at a local venue. Jack has his sites on the All Star program which puts the kids on the road backing name acts like Jon Anderson of YES.

Jack has already played many of the famous Jersey bars where Springsteen, Bon Jovi, etc. started out. His past shows included, "The Best of the '90s", "Southern Rock" and the last "Best Of Rock" show was at Blender in NYC which gave him a larger venue experience. Currently rehearsing for the "Woman of Rock", Jack's last show at the Brighton Bar in Long Beach Island, NJ was none other than Jimi Hendrix.