A Word About Gear Rentals...
I've recently located an incredibly inexpensive, excellent and reliable source for a ton of vintage guitar and bass gear, including many, many guitars and amplifiers with Names You Know like Fender, Gibson, Mesa Boogie, Marshall, and the like. Prices to you, Beloved Client, are $80 per piece FOR TWO WEEKS RENTAL!!! I'll soon have a definitive list of what's available here on the gear page, but 'til then don't be afraid to ask...I can probably get what you're looking for with one day's notice!
ON TO THE LIST!
Below is a marginally (dis)organized heirarchy of all the gear worth noting. Naturally, there's much more, but these are the things that make the sound. Each piece of gear links to an image/description page...sometimes it's the company line and sometimes I've commented with my personal reflections on tone and useful applications. I can't seem to keep up with my gear trades on this page fast enough, so there's probably many really cool somethings that are not listed here at any given time.
SIGNAL ROUTING
• All devices accessible via fully-balanced, military-gauge 1/4" patch bays.
ANALOG MULTITRACKING
• Otari MX5050 1/2" 8-track
ANALOG MIX PRINTING
• Ampex AG-350 1/4" 2-track—This is the solid-state version of the 350 and the first solid-state machine Ampex made, circa 1965.
ANALOG RECORDING CONSOLE
• Aries Apollo 24 channel, 8-bus recording console.
ANALOG OUTBOARD PREAMPS
• (2) Eisen Audiotechnik LBN283. A pair of Neve 1272 clones built by Jens Jungkurth of Eisen Audiotechnik. Jens hopes to put these into production in the future...this one's a prototype.
• (2) Groove Tubes "Brick" custom-racked tube mic preamp and DI boxes.
• (2) FMR Audio RNP Preamps
• (1) Seventh Circle Audio A12. A modular racked API 312 clone which I am currently hand-assembling. The first of eight pres which will eventually fit in this rack.
ANALOG OUTBOARD EQ/DYNAMICS
• (2) Valley People 610 Stereo/Dual Mono compressor/expander. A rare and hard-to-find compressor that gives Distressors a run-for-their-money...
• (2) FMR Audio "Really Nice Compressors" mounted in a Mercenary Audio Rack Panel—Possibly the most valuable "bang-for-buck" compressor out there right now. The "super" mode is actually a cascaded set of three compressors working at once for very "invisible", beautiful compression—good for vocals and acoustic guitar. Each can be run in mono or stereo.
• (1) Carvin CG200 Stereo-linked (or 2 individual mono) Opto-Compressors. Fairly useless.
DIGITAL MULTITRACKING/MASTERING/SEQUENCING
• Power Mac G4—Dual 1gb processors, 2gb RAM
• MOTU Digital Performer 5.5 for Mac OSX
• Propellerhead Reason 3.0 for Mac OSX
• Bias PEAK for OSX
DIGITAL INPUT/OUTPUT
• (3) Black Lion Audio-modified MOTU 2408 MkIII 8-channel I/O and Line Mixer with PCI-based processing + monitor mixing.
• M-Audio Keystation 88es 88-note velocity-sensitive, semi-weighted action.
• MOTU MicroExpress Midi/SMPTE Synchronizer
• MidiMan USB MidiSport 2x2
RIBBON MICS
• (1) Wes Dooley AEA R84
• (2) Shiny Box 23C
CONDENSER MICS
• (1) dbx Omnidirectional reference microphone
• (1) ADK Humburg Large-Diaphragm Cardioid
• (2) Silicon Entourage SE-2000 Large-Diaphragm Cardioid
• (2) Oktava MK012 Small-Diaphragm Cardioids
• (1) GT Convertible
DYNAMIC MICS
• (1) Audix D1 hypercardioid dynamic snare mic
• (2) Audix D2 hypercardioid dynamic rack tom mics
• (1) Audix D4 hypercardioid dynamic floor tom mic
• (1) Audix D6 cardioid dynamic kick drum mic
• (3) Sure SM-7B Broadcast Microphone
• (3) Sure SM57 Hypercardoid
• (2) Sennheiser e609 Hypercardoid
• (2) AKG D112 Hypercardoid
• (2) AKG D-440 Hypercardoid
• (2) AKG D-550 Hypercardoid
• (1) Blue Ball Phantom-Powered Dynamic Microphone. Totally useless.
MONITORING
• dbx DriveRack Studio. 56-band equalizer, automatic room "pinking" and monitor calibration. Thus far I have not found it to be very good at cleaning up my room or doing the dishes.
• Adcom GFA-545 power amplifier
• Tannoy System 8 Dual Concentric passive monitors
• (1) Pair Extreme Isolation Headphones
• (1) Pair Studio Kans Headphones
• (2) Pairs Sony Studio Monitor Series MDR-V700 Headphones
• (5) Pairs Sennheiser HD212 Monitoring Headphones
• (2) Nady HPA-4 Headphone amplifiers
DIGITAL OUTBOARD PREAMPS
• Line 6 POD Pro Digital Modeling Guitar preamp
• Line 6 Bass POD Digital Modeling Bass preamp
PLUGINS
• Antares Auto-Tune 3 Pitch Correction Software
• T-RackS Bundle
• PSP Vintage Warmer Bundle
• TC Native Bundle
• WaveArts MasterVerb (I LOVE this reverb!)
• FishFillets Dynamics Bundle (Freeware but GOOD!)
GUITAR AMPS
• 1972 Traynor YBA-1 Bassmaster all-tube 50-watt head...read my diatribe on the Traynor legacy!
• MESA/BOOGIE Strategy 500 all-tube 400-watt stereo power amp with half-power switching and "track" switching for multiple bass and presence settings via 12AX7 preamp tubes.
• 1968 Fender Twin Reverb Silverface w/Blackface-correct guts—'Nuff said. I took the amplifier out of the combo shell and built a head chassis for it so I can haul it around more easily.
• 196? Valco Head. Some pics and lineage...
• 1980s "Dimebag" Randall Head. A long-term "loaner" for now. Can't recall the model number. Super-tight thrash crunch is all it does, but oh, man...
• 2006 Li'l Dawg Amps "Champster" HEAD. I had Jim at Li'l Dawg build me a head-only version of this amp with a killer line out, multiple speaker impedance outs, a Hammond transformer that brings the output down to 3 watts, and new-old-stock RCA tubes. Very cool. Slaves nicely into my Twin or the Boogie power amp.
• 1950's Era Make-Unknown teeny-tiny tube combo with 6" alnico speaker. The Jack White/Zep I and II sound.
DIRECT BOXES
• (2) Groove Tubes "Brick" tube mic preamp and DI boxes.
• (2) Behringer active DI boxes.
• (2) ART active DI boxes.
RE-AMPING
• Radial Engineering X-Amp Re-amping is an amazing process whereby any guitar, bass or keyboard track can be recorded completely "dry" to the computer (not run through an amp first) and then channeled back out through the X-amp into one or several amplifiers of choice and mic'ed as you wish before returning to the computer or tape machine. It allows amazing flexibility after the performance has been recorded in terms of tone...allowing you to re-record the part at your leisure with no loss of fidelity...as many times as you want through as many amps as you want and combine the sonics of each to taste. Also amazing for non-traditional vocal effects and other instruments.
• (2) Little Labs STD Signal Transmission Device. Extends the length of your guitar cable (before the amp) by hundred of feet without signal loss!
STOMP BOXES
• Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer Vintage Reissue. Me likey.
• Voodoo Labs Tremolo. Hand-wired using the same lamp and photocell assembly found in many popular vintage amps.
• Russian-Era Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
• BYOC Analog Chorus. An Electro-Harmonix Small Clone copy handbuilt froma kit by yours-truly.
• Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster—Adds 25db of clean, uncolored gain between your guitar and you amp. This thing is breaking after less than a year of light use. I'd like to upgrade to a BYOC TriBooster soon. thusly turning your otherwise pussy-ass amp into a snarling monster of rage and filth. I like it.
• BOSS Chromatic tuner. No big whoop. Discuss.
• Vintage Electro-Harmonix Memory Man delay freakout mechanism.
• Dunlop Stereo Volume/Panning Pedal
INSTRUMENT SPEAKER CABINETS
• Marshall 1960 TV 4x12"
• 2x12" cab originally from my '68 Fender Twin Combo, speakers replaced with Webers.
SPEAKER ISOLATION
• Handbuilt (by me) Double-Walled Guitar Speaker Iso Unit with Celestion Vintage 30 and 3 Mic Inputs
• THE TRAILER!!!
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Go to the...
• M-Audio USB Keystation 88—88 key, semi-weighted MIDI controller for Reason or any other hardware synth or softsynth.
• 1970-something Ludwig domestic drum kit. Rack tom, floor tom, and kick.
• 1960-something make-unknown chrome-plated brass snare. Massive rock sound the way a snare oughta!
• Ziljian A-Custom Crash Cymbals—15" and 17".
• Zildjian ZBT Ride. Better than you think—especially for recording.
• Made-in-India Tabla Drum Set
• Doumbek Drum
• Misc. Percussion
UTILITY SHIZNIT
• 24 receive, 4 send 100-foot snake w/stage box
• 8 send/receive 100-foot snake
• Misc recording snakes
• Misc cables—patch, balanced and unbalanced
• Several cats
• Rolling papers, cigarette lighter
• Magazines and coffeetable books create the illusion of professionalism and comfort.