For my fellow Axe-ophiles, here's the guitars
I'm using at the moment.

The next guitar I buy will probably be a Telecaster of some kind, into which will go my spare JB humbucker, in the neck position. Tele's are an acquired taste, I suppose, but now I've got the taste, I can't get enough of them, especially the bite you get from the bridge pickup.

 

 

 

A sensitive portrait of the artist at home. Playing
a little blues on my Gibson Hummingbird.

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My custom-made Melancon (Melansawn) Classic Artist has arrived from the factory in Louisiana, after a 6-month wait. It's a standard Strat-shaped model, but I have custom-specified the wood, body, colour, finish, neck, frets, bridge, pickups, headstock and tuners.

It's got a green AAAAA grade quilted maple top, (what they call 'museum quality') with birds-eye maple neck and headstock, locking Grover tuners, 22 medium jumbo frets, 2 Seymour Duncan humbuckers and a SD single coil in the centre. Tone chambers in the swamp ash body give it a more open, resonant sound, with a kind of 335-ish quality on the humbuckers.

A 'studio-switching' option allows you to move between humbuckers (Jeff Beck trembucker in the bridge, '59 in the neck) or split single coils, giving a total of 10 possible selections. The humbuckers seem to be the best option, though the 2 and 4 'out of phase' positions mixed with the central single coil are also pretty tasty. Mixing the two outside split coils also gives a fair Telecaster simulation.

The two piece maple neck is a kind of narrow C profile, not so much of a handful as an American Series strat, and the heel joint is much smaller allowing better upper-fret access. The action and intonation are superb.

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My choice of humbuckered guitar is a Gibson ES-335 Studio. This is a very plain, stripped-down semi, with dot markers and and an ebody neck with no binding. The main difference though is no f-holes, like the BB King model, which means far less feedback. I used to have an Epiphone semi, which was great, but standing next to a cranked up amplifier on a small stage and the accoustic feedback would just howl.

 

The original pickups were Gibson '57 Classics, which are pretty good, if rather rough-sounding. I've replaced them with a pair of Seymours ('59 in neck, Custom in bridge, both coil-tapped), giving a much smoother sound.

My other Stratocaster guitar is an 'eBay Special', I bought all the parts separately online: body, neck, bridge, pickups; the lot. It all fitted together surprisingly well and I was especially pleased at how tightly the neck sqeezed into the body pocket.
It's a very traditional looking Strat, except the neck has a modern flat 12" profile.
The pickups are Seymour Duncan Alnico IIs, a very warm and musical-
sounding single-coil to my ear.

It is pictured here with my Marshall JTM 45 Reissue Head and 4x10 cabinet. Not being
an out-and-out rawk guitarist, I have a love-hate relationship with Marshall amps; they can be very unsubtle and for sure lack versatility. The JTM45 is still their best in line, IMHO,
and the common denominator in all my favourite bluesrock guitar tones.

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I resprayed the sunburst Strat above in British Racing Green (see pic). I seem to
have a thing about green guitars. Also refinished the neck and headstock a better
vintage amber colour. This is my first proper refinish, one that looks decent. It's a big,
long job, and spraying it is the easy part! The real work comes with the final wet-
sanding and buffing. Patience is required...

Also new pickups and electrics inside. Bare Knuckle Irish Tour single-coils,
though I'm not sure I like their macho overwound sound. Might swap them out again.

The back isn't shown, but I had the neck heel chamfered to allow better upper-fret
access. Always searching for the perfect Strat!

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This is my natural-finish Gibson Hummingbird acoustic (c.1973), which I recently picked up on a part-exchange deal. Very Rolling Stones sound, think: 'Let It Bleed', 'Sister Morphine', 'Torn and Frayed'. I just had a Fishman Matrix active pickup put in, which gives a great sound through a Fender Acoustasonic amp.

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This is my Dobro Hounddog, for those occasional country moments. I'm building
a back porch to play it on...

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MY OWN DIY PEDALBOARD

Like all guitarists, I had my fantasy of a posh pedalboard; professional, portable, and all made to measure. Sadly, like most guitarists, I struggled to afford a higher-end model, a la Tone-Bone, Trailer-Trash or whatever. So even though I'm nobody's idea of a handyman, I set about making my own.

There is premium for a pedalboard fitted in a flight case: even the 'name' custom models seem to regard this as an extra. But what's the point of having a pro-spec., made-to-measure board, if your pedals are left flapping about in a flimsy gig-bag? Sound is the top priority, but convenience and security are up there. So the first thing was to find a standard flight-case. I settled for a foam-padded mixing-desk case, approx 16" x 21" x 3.5", which I got from a second-hand shop for about forty quid - my biggest single expense on the construction side. (I paid over the odds, you can get old flightcases for less than this).

 

I detached the lid from the main section of the case, while making sure the hinges still interlock. Placing the board on the slimmer lid section of the case, I use the deeper half as the 'top'. The latches still fasten, the case is now just effectively upside-down.

The local timber yard cut me a board of MDF, 21" x 16". They also did me some narrow strips of wood to go underneath, approximately 1cm high, to lift the board and allow patch nd power leads to travel underneath. I glued the strips under the edges of the main board. The MDF board was very thin, because the pedals' height must obviously allow the flight-case lid to shut. Total cost of the wood, next to nothing. About £3.

Then I drilled a series of holes in the MDF base. This took longer than I thought, because the holes have to be pretty big. I had ready-made Whirlwind patch leads, not George L's make-your-own, and a right-angled jack needs a large hole to poke through. The holes ended up being about the size of tenpence pieces, drilled with a huge 12mm bit. The board is thin, but it stood up to it.

 

I sent off to Stompin'-Ground (www.stompin-ground.com) for a Velcro carpet to cover the baseboard, which came promptly, for about 12 quid on Pay-Pal, inc. postage. Very professional people, highly recommended. Once I was happy with the layout of my eight pedals, I glued the Velcro carpet over the board. Each hole where a lead comes through, either jack or power, I cut a cross in the Velcro with a Stanley-knife.

I power my pedals with a Diago Powerstation, (www.diago.co.uk) a very nifty piece of kit indeed. Half the price and size of most of its rivals, it still puts out a maximum of 3000ma. Plenty to power all my pedals, including a Boss DD-20, for something about the size of a cigarette packet. Fifty quid, excellent value. It sits on top of the board, in the centre, but does not get in the way, unlike some other half-brick sized units you can get.

Right-angled power leads are also useful. I don't have that many pedals to worry about, but they still save a lot of space: regular power-leads stick out about an inch. You can get Visual-Sound right-angled daisy-chains direct from Charlie Chandler's Guitar Experience.

 

My pedal-chain goes: Boss TU-2 tuner, Boss CS-3 compressor, Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, Marshall Bluesbreaker II overdrive, Ernie Ball Jr. Volume Pedal, Boss TR-2 tremolo, MXR Smart-Gate, Boss DD-20 (double) delay. No ubiquitous chorus-pedal, you notice. I have weaned myself off this dated, detuned and diluted-sounding device, and in any case the -20 gives you a sweet modulated chorus/delay effect. Saves space and sounds better than my old analog CE-3.