Behold the guitars:
1. This is my Epiphone Elite J-45. It's built in Japan, everything is solid wood and it sounds awesome, like a dreadnought, just a little mellower. With 11. strings it's great for both strumming and picking. I love this guitar, it inspires me each time I pick it up and I wrote a few songs on it. Actually I wanted to buy another electric last year, but then I was offered this for little money and had to buy (wanted a J-45 for a long time, but the Gibsons are too expensive and this one was discontinued). I'm glad I did - been playing way more acoustic since I bought it. The pickup is a L.R.Baggs I installed and it gives me the tone I want for this guitar - Prefer it to the Fishman systems I tried and the B-Band I have in another guitar (B-Band is great for strumming, L.R.Baggs is better for picking and slide (more dynamic and natural sounding)). I play this guitar in standart and open E tuning (slide).
2. My new Number one electric - the goldtop. I 've been looking a Lester with P90s for a long time and always liked the goldtop style and so when the limited 50s Tribute Studios came out I bought one of those beauties. It has the traditional Les Paul shape and woods but is chambered inside making it light and giving it a slightly different tone. It sounds like 80% Les Paul and 20% ES and resonates beautifully - I really dig it. The neck has the fat 50s shape wich put me of in the beginning but I just gave it a shot and now I actually wish all my guitars had 50s necks, it really is easier to play for me.
(picture 1 and 2 are taken by Vicky)
3. The Seagull 12 string. After I saw a John Butler Show 2007 in Berlin I checked out 12 string guitars and stuck with them. There's a fullness, a slidesound and a chuckachucka to them you don't get with a regular guitar. You can go from whispering singlenotes to a massive wall of guitar chordsound with this one instrument. The pickup is a Seymour Duncan Mag Mic that has a mic and a humbucker that can be blended. For the band I usually keep it to 100% humbucker cause of microphonic feedback when I play it through my Orange amp. I play it in open C tuning because I like it ;D
(picture by Vicky)
4. Aria Pro II - Sold her to buy a Harmony - from the early 70s, made in Japan - feels, plays, looks and weighs ;D just like good Les Paul should. I upgraded to a lightweight tailpiece and Kluson tuners and now it's a real workhorse. It used to be my number 1 before I got the goldtop. I still love it (can you tell that I like tobacco sunburst) and it will be played again once it got new frets.
(picture by Ivan)
5. This is my Partscaster Tele. It has a Squier neck, Leosound pickups (best singlecoils I've heard), a really cheap no name body, custom wiring and a Hendrix tatoo. It's the first electric guitar I really cared about and it will stay with me forever. At that time I bought a few chepo Teles, took them apart, combined my favourite parts and sold the rest on eBay. That way I spend about 200 Euros. Most of the time I like the Les Paul sound best, but sometimes it just has to be a Tele (never a PRS, Ibanez (the ones with the flat neck that is, not the semis - those are awesome) or anything with a pointy headstock for me). Leo and Lester got it right the first time.
Now on to the effects:
I love effectspedals (and everything that has knobs) and so I ended up with 3 boards (!!!) that all serve me in different bandsituations where I need different sounds. After a long time of trying different things I finally settled with the following setups and am really happy with how they sound. I don't own any superexpensive boutique stompboxes but they're all useful tools that do the job and sound great (to my ears):
The first board is the one I use with my main band brush. We are a trio (bass/drumms/guitar) and so I have lots of sonic space to fill. Most of the sounds are staight rockguitars but sometimes we like to get experimental and psychedelic and I would mess with fuzz/whammy/pog/delay ...
Signalpath: Guitar (Les Paul, Tele or Seagull)>Proco Rat> True Bypass Looper (send: ZVex Fuzz Factory> Whammy4> Ibanez Tuner> POG2> Nobels Tremolo> Boss Limiter> True Bypass Loop return)> Dunlop Wah> Danelectro Overdrive> Homemade Z.Vex Box of Rock clone> Marshall Delay> Lehle ABY Splitter> Orange AD30 and/or Deluxe Reverb Clone
Mein Akustikboard für die Singer-Songwritergigs. Der Tuner tuned, der Limiter macht lauter + komprimiert und der Looper looped. Dann noch ein Slide und ein Capo und die wichtigste (weil coolste) Zutat: Das Coilcord.
Das Santanaboard (kommt mit "Masala", der Latinrockband aus Bad Salzuflen, zum Einsatz): Wahwah für den Extrakick beim Solieren, TS-artiger Booster von Asselton aus Berlin (*****) zum andicken, ein Tuner zum tunen und der Originalfussschalter von meinem Boogie MkIIa um zwischen Crunch und Lead zu wechseln (für Clean wird der Volumeregler der Gitarre bemüht). Puristisch - gut.
amps, amps, amps
Hab schon so einige Amps in meinem Wohnzimmer stehen gehabt, die meisten musten aber wieder zur eBay zurück. Meinen Ohren gefallen der dreckige Orangesound und der schneidige Blackfacesound am besten und so sind diese vier Kanditaten geblieben:
1. Der große Orange ist mein erster richtiger Röhrenamp (und wahrscheinlich wird er auch der letzte bleiben). Er hört auf AD30TC und ist meine absolute Referenz. Große, warme, dreckige Cleansounds und LedZepCrunch schüttelt er locker aus dem Ärmel und bewegt sich klanglich zwischen einem Vox AC30 und einem JCM800, nur wärmer. Die Originallautsprecher (Celestion V30) hab ich gegen Eminence Red Coat Alnicos ausgetauscht für die Extrakompression, mmmmh. Higain, Midscooped, Fenderclean, Voxsparkle und vieles andere kann er nicht, aber das was er kann, kann kein anderer ;D Noch mehr Gesülze gibts hier.
2. Der kleine Orange ist ein AD5 mit einem Weber Silver Ten Ceramic Speaker. Sehr guter Amp den man auch schon mal richtig aufreißen kann um die Endstufen zerren hören zu können. Dabei ist er erstaunlich laut und kommt auch schonmal mit nem moderaten Drummer mit! Der Klang ist dem AD30 ziemlich ähnlich, bloß etwas heller und schneidiger. An Reglern gibts nur ein Volume und ein Tone - nice.
3. Der Deluxe Reverb im Tweedgewand ist mein Arbeitstier, bei dem der Friedhelm von klone-valveamps.de ganze Arbeit geleistet hat. Ein ausführliches Review gibts hier.
4. Last but not least, der Boogie MkIIa den ich hauptsächlich mit Masala einsetze. Er kann aber noch viel mehr. Im Cleankanal ist Blackfaceland. Mit den richtigen Lautsprechern (hab mir ne Tube Town 212er mit offener Rückwand bauen lassen) gehts schon ziemlich in richtung Twin Reverb und zwar von Superclean bis heftig crunchig Dank Mastervolume. Der Zerrkanal hat diesen dicken, fuzzy Leadsound ala Santana (wenn "Oye Como Va" damit nicht klingt, liegts nicht am Verstärker ;D). Dieser Amp macht weiter wo der kleine Tweedy aufhört und klingt mit seinen 100 Röhrenwatt (4x 6L6) sehr kräftig und durchsetzungsstark.
