Guitars

Line6 Variax Guitars

Variax 500

I'm a big, big fan of the Variax line of guitars. For those that don't know, this guitar accurately models twenty-five classic electric and acoustic guitars, and it's completely noiseless, so computer recording is no longer a hum and fuzz fest. This is now my main guitar, seeing as it out-Strats my Strat and out-Teles my Tele. It out-Les Pauled my Epi Les Paul (complete with Seymours) so well that it never got played and I could no longer justify keeping it. The same for my Danelectro U2. The Variax is that good.

Variax Acoustic 700

These days, my live playing is as part of an acoustic duo with singer-songwriter Nina Armstrong. Because Nina's material varies so much in texture and feel, the Variax Acoustic was pretty much a no-brainer. The ability to flip between models and tunings is just about the coolest thing ever. It recently came into its own while recording Theo Sinton's second album, a pure blues collection that uses all sorts of tunings, plus parlour guitars, jumbos, resonators, twelve strings, archtops, and nylon strungs - and the Variax does it all.

Electric Guitars

Charvel Model 2 (customised)

My baby. I got this guitar used when I was seventeen. I estimate it was made around 1988. It has the fastest neck of just about any guitar I've played, and when I play it it feels like slipping on an old pair of shoes. It was originally a single humbucker guitar, I added a neck pickup (a Jackson J50 to match the J90C at the bridge) in 1990. A few years later, I swapped them for a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge and a DiMarzio PAF Pro in the neck. It's getting a little long in the tooth now, and the Floyd Rose trem doesn't work quite as well as it used to, but it's still my baby.

Custom Strat

This Strat was cobbled together out of various parts. The body and bridge were from an early 80s MIJ Squier Stratocaster and the neck is a Charvel profile Kavanagh Kit part. The pickups are a Fender Red Lace Sensor at the bridge and Entwistle Whites in the mid and neck positions. It's a really resonant guitar, with a gutsy sound - more Stevie Ray Vaughn than Mark Knopfler. I've gotten some stick for butchering an MIJ Squier as they've become collector's pieces, but my view is guitars are for playing, not collecting.

Custom Telecaster

Another spare parts special, though not quite as random as the Strat. The body, bridge and electronics are a cheap-as-chips Squier Affinity Series Telecaster. I got hold of an ESP 22 jumbo fret neck from the excellent guitar tech Roy Lambert (a gentleman of the first order) and I now have just about the sweetest playing Telecaster you ever saw. I had intended to swap the pickups to something more upmarket, but the originals are pretty good in a raw and ragged kind of way, so I never got around to it. A wonderful guitar.

Squier Bullet (customised)

This was the first decent guitar I ever owned. I got it when I was sixteen, and it's been pretty comprehensively butchered over the years. It originally had a standard Fender fulcrum bridge, which was swapped for a Floyd Rose. Its HSS configuration was switched to HSH at around the same time. A few years ago it became my main slide guitar, and its trem cavity was filled and a fixed bridge installed, with a DiMarzio P90 size humbucker and two Entwistle White singles added to a custom pickguard (thanks again to the ever dependable Roy Lambert). It's kept in open G/windmill tuning with 11 gauge strings and a cheesecutter action.

Vintage 5 String Bass

A cheap fiver I've had for years. It weighs about the same as a small car and an electrical fault means it eats batteries for breakfast. But it plays and sounds really good.

Acoustic Guitars

P Caballero C2

I don't know anything about this guitar's history, other than I swapped it for a Hohner Steinberger Jack electric a few years ago. It was made in Almansa, Spain, with a soid cedar top and rosewood back and sides with a mahogany neck. It sounds astonishingly good, and every classical guitar I've played just pales in comparison.

Tanglewood

Yes, it's cheap. Yes, it's just a Tanglewood. But it plays well and sounds good. So there.

Westfield Ovation Copy

Another cheapo acoustuc. For a short time during the nineties, very high quality Ovation style guitars were sold under the Westfield brand. I was lucky enough to get hold of one while they were available - later versions weren't of the same class. The pickup in this has beed swapped for a Barcus Berry model.