2005 Les Paul Std. Premium Plus
     The pinnacle of Les Paul beauty and performance, the Standard Premium Plus features the new, high performance Burstbucker Pro pickups with Alnico V magnets and a carved AAA maple top that just shimmers. The Gibson Les Paul Standard Premium Plus Electric Guitar takes the Les Paul Standard to a new level of refinement. It features a carved AAA maple top that seductively shimmers with a new burst finish, allowing the flames to run all the way to the edges. In addition, this Les Paul guitar features a lustrous nitrocellulose lacquer finish, and smaller, vintage-style headstock with keystone tuners.

My thoughts:
Ever since selling my last LP Std in 2002, I have regretted it. They may be heavy and hard to play past the 12th fret but NOTHING else sounds like a Paul. Had to have another one and luckily Triple-D was willing to oblige. (Thanks Dave!)

2002 Fender Stratocaster
     Select Alder '57-reissue Body, Maple Neck with Rosewod fingerboard. Aged White Plastic Parts, Abalone Dot Position Inlays, 22 medium-jumbo frets, chrome hardware. 25-1/2® Scale, 1.6875® Nut width. Fender/Schaller Deluxe Staggered Cast/Sealed Locking Tuning Machines, 3 Custom Shop Texas Special Strat Pickups (Neck/Middle/Bridge), Master Volume, Tone 1: (Neck Pickup), Tone 2: No-Load Tone Control (Middle and Bridge Pickups), Fender Vintage 6-Point Synchronized Tremolo with screw-in Arm.

My thoughts:
This is my newest Strat! I love the feel of the modern 'C' shaped neck, so I put one on a resonant '57 re-issue body, added some Stevie Ray-style Texas Special pickups, and now I have the best MODERN feel and performance matched to the best VINTAGE tone! The vintage-style 6-screw Synchronized Tremolo system adds that authentic feel and look. I topped it off with a classy pearloid pickguard and now I have my dream Strat!

2000 North American Instruments
American Legend Series GS Prototype
    Custom made out of 1000-year-old exotic woods! Top is Honduran Mahogany wings sandwiching Lacewood and Brazilian Cherry with stripes of Hard Rock Maple. In the middle is a wafer of Walnut and the back is book-matched Brazilian Mahogany. Hard Rock Maple neck with Ebony fretboard. Custom-wound Kent Armstrong pickups based on SD ®59 Pearly Gates and JB models. All gold hardware (including the frets!) and topped off with custom made jeweled gold and pearl knobs. Grover tuners and Schaller straplocks. List price $5,500.00.

My thoughts:
My buddy Hal built this for me as a Christmas present in appreciation of the work I had done on his websites. Needless to say I was blown away. The guitar plays very nicely, and the weight of the instrument makes it sing and sustain like a Vintage Les Paul, but with more of a Fender feel. It is stunningly beautiful to boot! I don't play it very often as I really don't want to wear it out but when I need a FAT tone to really chunk up the mix this is the one I grab.

1992 Buscarino Telstar Deluxe
     Modified Telecaster body style, DiMarzio pickup in the bridge, Fender Nocaster pickup in the neck, Alder body, Highly-figured flame Maple neck with Rosewood fretboard and pearloid dot inlays, Sperzel locking tuners, 3-way switch, Schaller straplocks. List price $1,249.00.

My thoughts:
For years (before I got my Strat) this was my main axe and it served me well during my gigging years with the Rowdy Pups band. John Buscarino is one of the highest quality luthiers on the planet and does not make solid-body electrics any longer, only very expensive archtop jazz gutiars that fetch from $5,000.00 to well over $14,000.00!! This is one of the nicest solid-body electrics I have ever seen with his name on it, and the feel of the neck is perfect for me. It does a reasonable Tele twang but really excels at meatier tones, sounding more like a Tele Custom than anything else really. Stays in tune for weeks at a time and is a real joy to play. When I just want to bash away on a guitar without fear of damage or tuning instability, this is the one I use. It has more than a few nicks and dings from the years on the road but still looks great from a distance and never fails to impress the other guitarists who check it out. I have often been offered much more than I paid for it but it will never be sold - this one goes to my grave with me.

1996 Alvarez Yairi DY74CEQ Wellington
     Rosewood back and sides, Solid Spruce top, Ebony fretboard, System 500A electronics. Awesome tone!List price $1,649.00.

My thoughts:
I have had this guitar for about 12 years now and it just keeps getting better and better sounding as the wood seasons and matures. It still plays as good if not better than every other acoustic I have touched and I work at a guitar shop so that is thousands of guitars! My prize piece and I hope nothing ever happens to diminish it's tone.

1993 Peavey DynaBass Unity Limited Edition
     Neck-thru body design. 21 fret, 34® scale, 1-5/8® neck width. Humbucking PJ pickup configuration. Active 3-band EQ, Schaller bridge, gold hardware. List price $999.00.

My thoughts:
I'm not a Bass player but I needed one to lay tracks with and I do a reasonably good job at it. So when I got the chance to purchase this for a song I jumped. It has a nice slim neck but the long scale does make it a little hard for my short fingers. The tone is okay in passive mode but really comes alive when you kick on the active circuit. I used to have trouble getting it to sit well in a mix but since I got my Tech21 Bass Driver DI it prints beautifully! Very comfortable body with a nice balance and solid feel. It doesn't look too exotic but the understated black and gold scheme suits me just fine. They just don't make 'em like this any more. Another keeper.

Amps

Fender "Special Run" Blues Deluxe (2x10")
This is my live Amp. It is 40 watts of 6L6 perfection, with upgraded Jensen Ceramic Magnet Special Design speakers. Chimey and shimmering like a Fender amp should be. Perfect for clean tones, and with the stomp boxes it snarls. Sweet and nasty!

Fender Super Champ xD
This is my studio amp - it is a very versatile 15 watt tube amp with modelled voicings of 16 different amps PLUS preset digital effects. It works great, it sounds great and it is nice and compact!

Effects Boxes

Line6 PODxt Live
Emulates tons of classic amps plus effects. Great little tone machine!

• Over 80 Stompbox and Studio Effects
• 36 Legendary and Classic Amp Models
• 24 Cab & 4 Mic models
• 128 Channel Memories
• Stereo 1/4-inch analog Amp/Line Outs
• Variax® Digital Input
• Routing Options
• Deep Editing
• Built-in Chromatic Tuner
• Large Backlit Display
• Dedicated Stompbox On/Off Switches
• Combination Wah/Volume/Tweak Pedal
• Tap Tempo/Tuner Switch
• Expression Pedal Input
• Headphone Out
• Aux Input for CD/MP3 players, drum machines, etc.
• Full MIDI Support
• USB Digital Recording I/O

Amps based on:

PODXT Live® features 36 guitar amp models including models based on: '53 Fender® Tweed Deluxe, '61 Fender® Tweed Champ®, '58 Fender® Bassman®, '64 Fender® Blackface Deluxe Reverb®, '65 Fender® Blackface Twin Reverb®, '60 Gretsch® 6156, '73 Hiwatt® Custom 100, '65 Marshall® JTM45, '68 Marshall® Super Lead, '68 Marshall® Jumped Plexi, '68 Marshall® Variac Plexi, '87 Marshall® JCM 800, '96 Marshall® JMP-1, '96 Matchless® Chieftain, '93 Matchless® DC-30, '85 Mesa/Boogie® Mark IIc+ (drive), '94 Mesa/Boogie® Dual Rectifier® Solo Head, '87 Roland® JC-120, '93 Soldano SLO 100, '60s Supro® S6616, '67 Vox® AC30 TB (Top Boost), '61 Vox® AC15, '01 Budda® Twinmaster, Tube Preamp, Line 6® Clean, Line 6® JTS-45, Line 6® Class A, Line 6® Mood, Line 6® Spinal Puppet, Line 6® Chemical X, Line 6® Insane, Line 6® Piezacoustic 2 L6 Agro, L6 Lunatic, L6 Treadplate, and Variax® Acoustic.

The 24 cabinet models in PODXT Live® include models based on: 6x9 Supro® S6616, 1x8 1961 Fender® Tweed Champ®, 1x10 Gibson®, 1x10 Gretsch® 6156, 1x12 Line 6®, 1x12 1953 Fender® Tweed Deluxe, 1x12 1964 Fender® Blackface Deluxe, 1x12 1960 Vox® AC-15, 2x2 Fender® Mini Twin, 2x12 Line 6®, 2x12 1965 Fender® Blackface Twin, 2x12 1996 Matchless® Chieftain, 2x12 Roland® JC-120, 2x12 1967 Vox® AC-30, 4x10 Line 6®, 4x10 1959 Fender® Bassman®, 4x12 Line 6®, 4x12 1967 Marshall® Basketweave with Greenbacks, 4x12 1968 Marshall® Basketweave with Greenbacks, 4x12 1978 Marshall® with stock 70s, 4x12 1996 Marshall® with Vintage 30s, a 4x12 Mesa/Boogie®, a 2x12 1967 Silvertone Twin Twelve, and a 1x15 1962 Supro® Thunderbolt.

Effects based on:

• LA-2A® Compressor
• Noise Gate
• Fuzz Face
• Big Muff Pi®
• Tubescreamer®
• ProCo Rat
• Octavia
• CS-1 Comp/Sustainer
• Dynacomp
• Vetta® Comp
• Auto Swell
• Mutron III
• Line 6® Sine Chorus
• Line 6® Flanger
• A/DA® Flanger
• MXR® Phase 90
• Uni-Vibe
• Opto Tremolo model from the 1965 Fender® Deluxe Reverb®
• Bias Tremolo model from 1960 Vox® AC-15
• Leslie® 145
• Vibratone
• Auto-pan
• Boss® DM-2
• Deluxe Memory Man
• EP-1 Tube Echoplex
• Roland® RE-101 Space Echo
• Sweep Echo
• Line 6® Digital Delay
• Line 6® Stereo Delay
• Ping Pong Delay
• Reverse Delay
• Fender® Deluxe Spring Reverb
• Fender® Twin Spring Reverb
• King Spring Reverb
• Small Room Reverb
• Tiled Room Reverb
• Brite Room Reverb
• Dark Hall Reverb
• Medium Hall Reverb
• Large Hall Reverb
• Rich Chamber Reverb
• Chamber Reverb
• Cavernous Reverb
• Slap Plate Reverb
• Vintage Plate Reverb
• Large Plate Reverb
• Wah modeled after the Vox® Wah
• Volume (Pre- or Post-Amp Routing options)
• Post-EQ
• Line 6® Killer Z
• Chandler Tube Driver
• Vetta® Juice
• Line 6® Gain Boost
• Boss® CS-1 w/ treble switch on
• Mutron III Down
• Line 6® Clean Sweep
• Line 6® Seizmik Synth
• Line 6® Double Bass
• Line 6® Buzz Wave
• Line 6® Rez Synth
• Line 6® Ring Modulator
• Line 6® Synth Analog
• Line 6® Synth FX
• Line 6® Synth Harmony
• Moog Lead
• ARP Solina/Elka® Strings
• Square CE-1 Chorus
• Line 6® Stereo Chorus
• Line 6® Random Chorus
• Line 6® Stereo Flange
• Line 6® Exponential Flange
• Line 6® Lumpy Phase
• Line 6® Hi Talk
• Line 6® Sweeper
• Line 6® POD® Purple X
• Line 6® Sample and Hold
• Line 6® Tape Eater
• Line 6® Warble-Matic
• Binson EchoRec
• Maestro® EP-3 Echoplex®
• Line 6® Low Rez Delay
• Line 6® Phaze Eko
• Line 6® Bubble Echo