NOTE – My gear is in a constant state of flux…I’m always selling one thing and buying something else in the never-ending quest for better tone and capabilities. Here’s a snapshot from March 30, 2016. I’m sure it will have already changed by the time you read this. 🙂

Guitars

My main guitar is a 2012 Gibson Les Paul Standard Gold-top. I removed the original electronics and replaced them with a set of RS Guitarworks pots & caps, wired 1950’s style. I also use a PitchKey for quick changes from drop-D to standard tuning. Everything else is stock.

I also use two “partscaster” strat-style guitars I built myself, a white one with a Floyd Rose locking tremolo and Seymour Duncan pickups (JB in the bridge and Jazz in the neck), and a brown hard-tail with Bare Knuckle “Mother’s Milk” pickups. Both have Warmoth strat-style necks with rosewood fingerboards.

Strings are GHS Boomers (10’s on the Les Paul and brown strat, Custom Lights on the white strat) and picks are white Dunlop Jazz III’s.

Big Rig

My larger guitar rig is a wet/dry/wet setup, running the time-based effects in parallel. The core tone comes from the Marshall 100-watt plexi clone I built myself, with the following chain of effects going into the front panel input:

• JHS-modded Ernie Ball VP Jr. volume pedal
• TC Electronics Polytune tuner (tuner out from the VP jr.)
• Teese RMC wah guts housed in a Dunlop Crybaby case
• Digitech Whammy DT
• MXR EVH Flanger
• Xotic Effects EP Booster

The Marshall head drives a 1980’s JCM800 4×12 cab loaded with Celestion Greenback speakers. From there, the signal after the power amp section gets tapped by a Suhr ISO Line Out box and sent to the wet side of the rig, which is converted to stereo and powered by my rack effects:

• TC Electronics G-Major 2
• Carvin DCM150 power amp
• 2x Jet City JCA12S 1×12 guitar cabs (stereo)

I control the wet-side effects with a Rocktron MIDI Mate controller and an expression pedal, both located back on the pedal board. I mostly use the stereo delay and detune effects in the G-Major 2 for lush, massive hard rock guitar tones that really fill the stage.

It takes 3 mics to accurately reproduce this sound through a PA system, which is a bit much to ask, so I have a small 3 channel ART ProMIX mixer in the rack. I usually mic each cab with a Shure SM57, plug each of those into the ProMIX, dial in the blend myself using headphones and send one channel out to the front-of-house mixer.

Little Rig

The big rig is way overkill for smaller stages, so I also have a little “fly rig” that I can grab at a moment’s notice for smaller shows, jamming, etc. It approximates the sound of the big Marshall rig surprisingly well in mono:

• TC Electronics Polytune Mini 2 tuner
• Dunlop Crybaby Mini wah
• Modded Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive (used as a clean boost)
• Carl Martin PlexiTone overdrive
• TC Electronics Flashback Mini delay

That goes into a modded Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp. I’ve done all the Fromel mods to this amp, replaced the speaker with a 12″ WGS ET65 and swapped out the stock power tubes with JJ Electronics 6V6’s.