Gear Introduction

Gear: Rig run down

By ronanfitzgPosted on
Time to Read:-words

I previously wrote about the why and what of light audio recording. Here’s the gear I currently have at my disposal. Like, all of it. Some of this gear was bought for live performance, as much as recording and saving space.

Recording gear

Guitars and bass

  • 1996 Dean USA Z: When I started my first full-time job, I wanted to treat myself to a proper American guitar. None of my peers had anything like it. It came at a good price.
  • 1996 Gibson ES-335: Obviously, I’d wanted a Gibson since I was a kid. I got a bit of tax back, and went on a 14-hour round trip to Dundee in Scotland to buy this off a postman.
  • 2007 Fender American Standard Stratocaster: I hated Strats for years. But after I first recorded in a proper studio I learned that it really should be an integral part of my gear. I got a good price for this.
  • 2005 Epiphone Hummingbird: A friend got this for her boyfriend for Christmas. He broke up with her before she had the chance to give it to him. It was in her parents’ attic for a few years, until I gave her a good price for it.
  • 2018 Taylor TSBT-e: If I had to pick a guitar that doesn’t really fit my brand image…

    Back in Brum, after band practice one day, the lead guitarist wanted to go to a local guitar store to try a Gibson Firebird. The rest of us went along. Bored and messing, I picked up the Taylor Swift signature model guitar – the electric version hadn’t been released yet. As a surprise to all present, I fell in love with the guitar. I started obsessing over it. After a couple of hours, the lads managed to drag me away. I couldn’t afford the guitar, but I ended up writing a song about it.

    Landing in New York, I’d abandoned my electro-acoustic at my parents for safe-keeping. With an electric version of the TSBT now available, it made sense to get one of those so I could use it live and for recording. When I got a job, I got it with my first pay check.
  • Cort Gene Simmons Axe: I don’t know what year this is from. A local guitar store in Brum posted that they had one on their Facebook page. I just went ahead and got it.
light audio recording gear guitars

Amps

  • Laney VC15-110: Discontinued now. As part of my downsizing, I needed something a bit less savage than my Vox Valvetronix AD100VT 2×12. Despite all the models on that amp, I only used the AC30, so I decided that a single actual little tube amp was a better quality options.

    Laney started in Brum and still have their headquarters nearby, so even though this was made in China, I like supporting a local brand. It required a drive to Hove to pick it up. It’s been great.
  • Zinky Smokey: This is my second one of these. I read Foo Fighters and Suede used them, and it was the most affordable custom gear I could get. It’s mostly used for recording barre chords on my Strat with the volume at seven or eight on choruses. Specific, right?

Effects pedals

This section is largely lifted from a Reddit post I created on the matter. I had a few Boss pedals and other “full size” pedals. I’m an apartment guitarist these days, but I still want decent gear if I get out in the future.

light audio recording pedals gear
  • Gator small pedalboard: In my downsizing, keeping floor space to a minimum was priority with this iteration of my pedal board.
  • Vein Tap Little Splitter: Vein Tap is a small company in the UK. They used to make mainly switches, but expanded to other pedals. I was living in the UK at the time, and I wanted something a bit local. They made pedals that I needed at good prices, and gave part-endorsements to bands. They’re always game for a custom challenge too. A great little company

    The Little Splitter is so I can have a second guitar onstage ready to go if I break a string. Just picking up another guitar is easier and quicker than replacing the string during the set, or unplugging and plugging in another guitar. It’s a downsize from a Boss LS-2.
  • Hotone Tuner: This is a downsize from its Boss counterpart, scored on Reverb for $50.
  • Morley Mini Wah: I wrote a song years ago where the guitar solo in my head had a wah. I used high gain, and guessed a regular Cry Baby wouldn’t cut it. After trying a bunch of wahs in store, the one that was working best was a Zakk Wylde Cry Baby. The guy in the store said it sounded like a Morley, and if I could wait for him to order one in, it’d save me £40. I got it, and I was delighted.

    When I first started downsizing, there wasn’t much in the line of smaller wah pedals. But I randomly checked again a few months back, and I was happy to see Morley were now in on it. I took a punt on a used one from Reverb for $50. It’s perfect!
  • Vein Tap Leech: An attenuator, so it sounds like I’ve rolled off the volume of my guitar, but stepping on a pedal rather than actually fiddling with the volume knob on the guitar – loads easier onstage when you’re trying to sing!
  • Electro-Harmonix Op-Amp Big Muff Pi: Obviously, there are an infinite number of fuzz pedals available, but I’m particular fond of Billy Corgan’s with The Smashing Pumpkins. The actual Big Muff Corgan uses goes for about $300, so as soon as this reissue was announced costing significantly less, I was all over that.
  • Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini: Downsize from a Boss SD-1. I needed a smaller overdrive pedal. I loved my SD-1. After reading that it was based on the Tube Screamer‘s circuit, I went that direction. I haven’t looked back!
  • Hotone EQ-V: This is a downsize from the Boss counterpart, and you can sometimes find well-priced used ones on Reverb.
  • Rehoused Danelectro Tuna Melt: When I had an idea for a song that required tremolo, I got a Danelectro Tuna Melt because it was cheap, and the tuna melt was what I used to always eat in the pub I used to frequent. I remember getting a new one shipped from America was somehow significantly cheaper than buying a used one in the UK.

    I loved it to bits, but the plastic was a bit fragile and I retired it when knobs broke off and I couldn’t adjust things too easily. It was replaced with a Marshall Vibratrem for a bit, but the tone never matched the Tuna Melt. Toby Carter in Shropshire in the UK did the rehouse.
  • TC Electronic Flashback Mini: A gift from the missus. I was going through a U2 phase and of course wanted to sound like the Edge, and explained to her – who knows nothing about guitars – that I needed a delay pedal. She knew I was looking for smaller pedals, researched the matter herself, determined this would be good for me to experiment with, and gave it to me as an anniversary gift. What a keeper!
  • Electro-Harmonix Small Clone: The only full size pedal that survived my gear downsizing. I just love the damn thing too much! I have no idea how old it is. It was playing up recently and the good folks at EHX took it and fixed it up. They gave it a new knob and everything! As with many things, Amazon has new ones, however, there’s used bargains on Reverb.
  • Palmer BatPack 8000: I had played with rechargeable power supplies for a while, predominantly the Sanyo Eneloop Pedal Juice. Unfortunately, that was temperamental: it blew pedals and wouldn’t charge. When the Pedal Juice pissed me off enough times, I was pleased to see the market had expanded, and this seemed to be the best of them. It’s super-hard to get one in the US though.

Microphones

user survey
  • Shure SM58: I went through a phase of throwing mics on the floor at shows. At one show, it broke. There was much drama where the headlining band’s manager wanted cash for it, which I didn’t have. I left my amp as a guarantee that I’d come back from the cash machine.

    We gave them money, and asked the venue to keep the mic. Our bassist at the time worked for an instrument distribution company. He got their tech to shove a screwdriver in it for five seconds, whereupon it worked fine. This mic is named Laura after the headlining band’s manager…

    You can get shiny new ones on Amazon, or a cheap and cheerful used one on Reverb.
  • Shure 55SH Series II: It looks cool. That’s all there is to it, and you can probably find a deal on Reverb.

Cables

  • Pig Hog guitar cables: When I was revising my gear, I made some decisions about cables:
    • Reduce black cables trailing and tangling around the place
    • Get high quality, durable cables
    • Get shorter cables: I’m an apartment guitarist now – what on earth do I need 20 foot cables for in a 12 foot apartment? Where do I think I’m going with those?

      Pig Hog checked all of these points. I have a seafoam green cable going from guitar to pedal board, and an orange cream cable from pedal board to guitar. They’re the best cables I own.
  • Hosa low profile patch cables: Downsizing pedal boards, every eighth of an inch counts, so these absolutely do the job. Reverb seems to have more buying options than Amazon.
  • Unknown mic cables: One I got from my mother’s workplace, and a few others I picked up at a local music store in Birmingham. That’s all I can say on them.

Other odds and ends

No real stories behind these bits of gear. These are just what I have and use.

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