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Instruments - latest additions first... click on photo to enlarge
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This Ramirez was bought in 2008 as a result of helping my sister look for a classical guitar. Unfortunately I got drawn in and couldn't resist buying this one myself. The 4CWE replaced a 2CWE I bought first as I wasn't happy with the recorded sound. They were identical guitars to look at but sounded very different maybe because of the laminated back and sides on the cheaper one. I decided the extra expense was worth it... just!
It's a beautifully made guitar with perfect intonation, it has a gorgeous tone and is a cutaway which solves the problem for me of most classical guitars' necks joining the body at the 12th fret.
It also has electronics built in, so although I bought it mainly for recording, it's ready for live work. It has a Fishman Problend system which consists of an active bridge pickup under the saddle which you can mix with the onboard mike.
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This was always my banjo of choice if I could ever afford it, but wasn't around (they don't sell it in the UK normally) when I bought my first decent banjo - a Deering Calico. Still can't afford it but bought it anyway while I had the chance!
The Gibson Mastertone was made famous by Earl Scruggs and this one is a beautiful mellow sounding instrument with a surprisingly wide dynamic range. It was bought in 2007 and fitted with one of the new active type of Fishman magnetic banjo pickups.
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This is one of the new look Gibsons which caught Boo's eye in 2003. The L140 is a deep but smallish bodied guitar which has a very warm tone to it.
This one came equipped with an active Fishman and was bought directly from the States via the internet. A somewhat risky thing to do with something as personal as a guitar, but this one turned out to be a beaut... and also saved about £600 on the West End prices.
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This was bought new in 2001 but has not been tuned like a standard 12 string since I got it home. It has been the object of much experimentation - with loads of new songs written with the strings tuned to 5th's
The problem about turning the wrong machine head (amongst so many!) has been resolved slightly by fitting ebony buttons onto the six mini Grover machine heads which tune the six higher notes in each pair.
The remaining six are the original steel ones, which means they look and feel different and so help clear up the confusion inherent in tuning a 12 string.
Fitted with an active Fishman pickup under the saddle.
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This 1997 telecaster was bought new but cheap as it was a horrible unloved 50's light blue colour until recently.
I finally got it how I wanted it after stripping the paint, varnishing the natural wood and fitting a tortoiseshell scatchplate.
It always sounded great but now it feels good as well. As electric guitars go I feel most at home on this one.
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A thoroughbred bought new in 1997 and used as the 6 string of choice on all Dave and Boo's acoustic albums up to the present.
As with most things hideously expensive, it does what it says on the tin! It just sounds right, both live and recorded, without doing anything to it. Most guitars don't.
Fitted with an active Fishman pickup under the saddle.
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This is Boo's bass which replaced a G&L single pickup 4 string in 1995. The main reason for the change was because of the Steinberger's low 5th string tuned to a bottom B which gave us a bit more range on the bottom end.
The headless bass looks a bit of a fashion victim these days but has a uniquely full growly sound to it and is lovely to play with its graphite neck. Unfortunately double ball end strings are needed, which are increasingly difficult to get hold of.
It is tuned by means of 5 thumb screws just behind the bridge.
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Chosen in 1991 mainly to replace a much missed 1957 Gibson 330, which was my first electric guitar. Unfortunately the 330 had to go when times were tough.
This guitar is quite different to the 330 in that it has a solid block of wood running down the centre of the body making it effectively a solid guitar and less prone to feedback. The f holes have little or no effect on the sound and you couldn't really call it a semi-acoustic. I kind of miss the woody sound of the 330 but this is still a great guitar.
It's a re-issue probably manufactured around 1989 and bought directly from Gibson. Although new, it already had a history when I bought it... having been stolen from their West End artists' relations showroom and later recovered.
Used mainly on the Brave Lucy "Snaps" album, but still appearing on recordings from time to time when the more mellow Gibson tone is needed.
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This was my first decent guitar which I still have and which was bought in Liverpool in 1968 brand new. My choice was mainly because of John Renbourn's Gibson J50 on the front of 'Another Monday'.
John says that he bought his Gibson because his hero Davey Graham had one on his cover. However, the story goes that 'Davey had owned a very nice Martin, gone to a party and come away with the Gibson, possibly without realising it.'
So basically my choice of guitar came about because Davey Graham got out of his head at a party!
It came down to London with me in 1970 and was used exclusively on the 1973 "Album".
Amplifying this guitar has been a real headache because of its original bridge, which doesn't allow you to install the usual Fishman pickup under its adjustable saddle . At the time of the photo on the left, I was trying out a Fishman Rare Earth soundhole pickup. But using a plain 3rd as I do, the string balance was not even - the third being much too loud.
I then tried an L.R.Baggs pickup which was mounted inside the guitar under the bridge. However that couldn't be fitted at the correct angle because of the adjustment screws, and consequently either the bass or the treble became much too loud depending on which way it was angled.
Finally I took the advice of Celine and Dave King (who do excellent guitar repairs in Denmark Street) who suggested that the only real answer was to replace the adjustable bridge entirely with a fixed one and then install a Fishman under the saddle without a problem. While they were doing this they discovered that one of the main struts was missing... huh?
So.. this beautiful ebony bridge (below) was made, the strut replaced, and the guitar has once again become my guitar of choice for most acoustic playing. Not only can it now be amplified efficiently but the whole guitar seems to have come back to life tonally and to my ears knocks spots off my Martin... there again I do have a bit of a soft spot for it.
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Gigging equipment
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Boss GT-8 effects - Dave
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The Boss GT-8 was bought originally for recording electric guitars. It replaced my old Korg A2 which drove me mad with its user unfriendliness! However, it has also replaced my Yamaha AG Stomp which I used to control levels and tones coming out of three different live instruments.
It is an incredibly well designed piece of kit with every type of facility you can think of and virtually every effect Boss has ever produced. For live work, I can use it to control the different acoustic instruments with nothing much happening beyond the level adjustment and EQ tweaking - the odd bit of delay and chorus maybe. But for recording it can come into its own and opens up a huge soundscape potential for any electric guitars I want to use.
It also offers some very convincing preamp/speaker simulation which gets me to thinking about the possibility of using my old telecaster in a live setting through the acoustic guitar amp below...
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Fender Acoustasonic Junior - Dave and Boo
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We both use these acoustic guitar amps on amplified gigs. It's a very warm sounding 40W amp with a built in compressor on the top end to limit that horrible brittle sound when a guitar top string is hit hard through a bridge pickup. Very nice built in chorus too.
Boo has recently taken to putting her bass through hers as well her Gibson - don't know how long it will cope with that, but it sure beats lugging round her Hiwatt!
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Boss Dr Rhythm DR-880
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This replaced a Boss DR-670 drum machine which we used quite happily for a couple of years on various songs live. The DR-670 had various cool ethnic percussion sounds as well as all the usual bass drums, snares etc, and was capable of storing all the information we needed at the time.
However, when it ran out of memory we had to replace it with this one - its bigger brother the Boss DR-880. This one has even more sounds in it (although missing some of the ones I really liked in its predecessor) and a much bigger memory. It also has the means to load patterns individually rather than the standard bulk dump/load, which is useless if you want to maybe load an old song and not erase the more recent work. It also has built in reverb which you can add to create an even more convincing live drum sound.
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Recording instruments
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Kawai MP4 and Roland SPD11 pads
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The Kawai MP4 is our main keyboard both for playing and for sounds. The hammer action full size piano keyboard feels like you're playing a Steinway and the internal sounds are incredibly natural and would fool most people into thinking we have a real piano on the track. One day it may make an appearance live but at the moment is restricted to recording duties only. For practice purposes it gets monitored through a pair of little Yamaha MSP3's.
Just behind it is Dave's 'drumkit'. The Roland SPD11 is an octopad which can have up to 8 drum sounds assigned to the 8 pads. The pedals beneath the keyboard plug into it and are the bass drum and hihat pedals which complete the 'kit'. The whole thing can be played like a real drumkit and the data fed into a computer for recording purposes. The nice thing about it is that it makes virtually no noise, which is a relief for the neighbours.
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Ivory - Grand Pianos
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Although this page is really for looking at instruments, I felt this virtual instrument was worth a mention. It is installed in the computer as a plugin for Cubase and is accessed via midi.
In conjunction with the Kawai above, we can now play a virtual Bosendorfer, a Steinway and a Yamaha grand. It cost an arm and a leg for instruments you can't even see but a lot less than the arms and legs required for the real thing.
All three grand pianos have been sampled at 8 different velocities on every single note and the samples are not looped. Which, on a grand piano, means that the bottom notes go on for a very long time and use a fantastic amount of memory in the computer - a total of 40Gb of space was required.
The end result is stunning and as near the real pianos as we are ever likely to get.
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Mesa Boogie Studio Preamp - Dave
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I use this preamp for recording electric guitars straight in to the desk. It uses real valves which give a beautiful warm sound and there are endless opportunities to get the guitar sound just right via loads of tone controls and a total of five separate volume/drive controls on two separate channels.
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