 My family... and other animals...The machines!
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Gear - Steves guitars and Amps and Solo Equipment.. 'The Machines..'
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The Guitars
Looking at the top main pic, from left to right are as follows..
'Ouija' - Custom Mexican Strat(1991) - fitted with a graphite nut, and all Seymour Duncan pickups, custom OUIJA neckplate, and mirror pickguard. nicknamed - 'Ouija' for obvious reasons.
Eric Clapton Signature Fender Stratocaster - Currently my main guitar for all live and studio work. In my opinion one of the best strats ever made. Superb active electronics, and TBX tone boost circuit.
Ibanez Custom Swirl - Nate Perle Swirl Ibanez body, Custom Dimarzio pickups, all original Edge floyd.
A very loud guitar. Very cool design, and completely custom designed from Ibanez parts.
'Milkybar' Fender Mexican Strat(2008) - Customised with Hotrails in Bridge, and Little '59 in neck. nicknamed 'Milkybar' for its creamy smooth sound. Custom engraved Jimi Hendrix neck plate.
Ibanez JS100 - All original Joe Satriani signature guitar. A superb guitar. Customised Dimarzio Satriani signature pickups, and new Ibanez Pro Edge 3 Trem installed.
Fender Strat(Customised) - Customised strat with graphite nut and Dimarzio HS-3 in neck Duncan humbucker in bridge. Custom engraved Jimi Hendrix neck plate. Was my main guitar between 2001-2004.
Gibson SG Standard - For different sounds, now and again I use this Gibson SG, in black, of course!
Gibson Les Paul Classic (1999) - In lightburst and fitted with Seymour Duncan Zebra 'Slash' Signature pickups. Pic coming soon..
Fender 60's reissue Strat - superb vintage 60's fender strat with rosewood neck, in deep red. Pic coming soon..
Peavey Wolfgang QT Special - Great Van Halen Signature guitar in red.. Pic coming soon..
Jackson Soloist - Great USA Set Neck Jackson guitar. Pic coming soon..
Ibanez RG series - Fitted with an original Floyd and kitted out with various pickups. Pic coming soon..
Other guitars include, a Semi-Acoustic with Fishman transducer pickup system. Mainly for studio/session work, as I dont really like playing acoustic's live. A Solid Top Nylon Classical round off the collection. They all earn their keep, or else they get sold on. They are all workhorse guitars.
Amps, Pedals, Strings and Picks, and Recording info..
Steve uses Ernie Ball Guitar Strings on all his guitars. He uses their Hybrid guitar strings [9-46] gauge. For picks, Steve uses Jim Dunlop 1.5mm Purple Delrin 500 picks.
Steve plays Marshall amps, 2203 100 Watt JCM800 1978 Marshall valve heads or JCM2000 DSL 100Watt heads for live band work, but his absolute fave piece of gear is the Marshall JMP-1 pre-amp. Steve loves using the JMP-1's for his rock solo gigs. Also the DRP-1 preamp now and again makes an appearance. Pedals are stock Jim Dunlop Wah Pedals GCB-95 models, Marshall Overdrive pedals either original Guvnor pedals or the new Guvnor Plus pedals, and Boss Tu-2 tuner pedals.
**Gear Update : Steve has a new custom built pedalboard housing the line-6 Wireless unit for roaming amongst the audience, and a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 (ISO5 series) for powering all his pedals.
Apart from Steve using Delay for lead breaks, those are the only effects he uses live. For studio he uses the JMP-1, or the VST/RTAS plugin Amplitube 3. For mic'd up sounds a Shure SM57 in front of his Marshall 4x12" cabinet with Celestion Vintage 30's in. But more and more Steve is going direct into the board from the JMP-1.
Pics of Steve's new pedalboard coming soon..
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Steve's Solo Rig
2011-present - QSC PA 'K' Series
P.A. System Update : Steve is now using QSC PA active powered speakers consisting of two K8's, and the K-sub. These are the best you can buy, and are fitted with Crown Class-D power amps. It is a fully active 3k rig, capable of playing to very small, quiet places, to 200-250 seater clubs and venues.
For more information on these great active speakers check out their website - www.qscaudio.com
2007-2011 - Previous P.A. System
For a larger view click the above pic
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The guitar, vocals and backing all go into an Alesis Multimix6 FX mixer. This then goes from the mixer to a MONO out into the power amp(s) which feed different speakers to handle the treble/bass frequencies. I prefer dealing with MONO as you hear the exact same sound wherever you stand.
Guitar sounds
I use NO backline and run direct into the mixing desk. I use Marshall JMP-1 preamps with some delay now and again from an Alesis Midiverb 4 unit. I also occasionally use Marshall DRP-1 preamps.
Vocals
For Vocals I ALWAYS use a Shure Beta 58. Theyre the best I've found in a live setting, and they give me no feedback.
Laptop
For playback I use a Dell Latitude laptop. From the Laptop's headphones out the signal then goes into an isolating transformer to kill any ground loops. Before it hits the mixer its left and right outputs get fed into a custom made MONO signal "sum" box which mixes the stereo signal into an "in-phase" MONO signal.
Mixer
The Mixer is where everything gets put together. A MONO out then splits the signal into a high-pass/low-pass filter which feeds the power amp(s). From there I can use really small treble speakers and a sub-woofer to give me a full sound at any volume.
Power Amp(s) and Speakers
The treble speakers are pro quality studio monitors. Since they're only receiving treble frequencies they can be low output and work very well. The Sub-Woofer handles just the bass frequencies and it doesnt matter where you place it. Bass has to be felt and isnt just 'heard' like treble is. For that reason I keep the bass cab behind me so I can feel it whilst performing.
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