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I wasn't familiar with 4 string tenor guitars until recently but was immediately drawn to this 5th tuned instrument in a guitar format. The mandolin and violin families use this tuning as standard... but not the guitar.
It is tuned to G D A E, so it covers almost all the guitar's range but with only four strings. It has a thinner and shorter scale neck than a normal 6 string (23" instead of 25"). Most chords are surprisingly coherent but different to a standard guitar and it seems a bit easier to get to know because of the regular intervals between the strings.
After a lot of searching, I was amazed to discover this rare and gorgeous sounding Gibson tenor in London (in 2009) which was in very good nick for a 60's instrument.
I've since had it refretted and the adjustable Gibson bridge has been replaced with a fixed ebony one. The saddle itself is also made out of ebony (after much experiment) and there is now an active Fishman Matrix Infinity pickup system fitted.
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This Ramirez was bought new in 2008 as a result of helping my sister look for a classical guitar. Unfortunately I got drawn in and couldn't resist buying this one myself. The 4CWE replaced a 2CWE I bought first as I wasn't happy with the recorded sound. They were identical guitars to look at but sounded very different maybe because of the laminated back and sides on the cheaper one. I decided the extra expense was worth it... just!
It's a beautifully made guitar with perfect intonation, it has a gorgeous tone and is a cutaway which solves the problem for me of most classical guitars' necks joining the body at the 12th fret.
It also has electronics built in, so although I bought it mainly for recording, it's ready for live work. It has a Fishman Problend system which consists of an active bridge pickup under the saddle which you can mix with the onboard mike.
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This was always my banjo of choice if I could ever afford it, but wasn't around (they don't sell it in the UK normally) when I bought my first decent banjo - a Deering Calico. Still can't afford it but bought it anyway while I had the chance
The Gibson Mastertone was made famous by Earl Scruggs and this one is a beautiful mellow sounding instrument with a surprisingly wide dynamic range. It also has a nice simple look without too much of the tasteless decoration you sometimes find on some of the more expensive banjos.
This one was bought new in 2007 and fitted with a Fishman active magnetic banjo pickup under the skin.
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This is one of the new look Gibsons which caught Boo's eye in 2003. The L140 is a deep but smallish bodied guitar which has a very warm tone to it.
This one came equipped with an active Fishman and was bought directly from the States via the internet. A somewhat risky thing to do with something as personal as a guitar, but this one turned out to be a beaut... and also saved about £600 on the West End prices.
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This guitar has been the object of much experimentation since I bought it in 2001. Loads of new songs have been inspired by it with the 12 string pairs tuned to 5th's instead of octaves.
I tried to resolve the problem of twisting the wrong machine (easily done on a 12 string!) by fitting ebony buttons onto the six mini Grover machine heads which tune the six higher notes in each pair. The remaining six are the original steel ones, which means they look and feel different and so help clear up the confusion.
Fitted with an active Fishman pickup under the saddle.
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This USA made telecaster was bought new in 1997. Originally it was a horrible unloved 50's pale blue colour... until recently.
I finally got the tele of my dreams after stripping the paint, varnishing the natural wood and fitting a tortoiseshell scatchplate.
It always sounded great but now it feels good too. As electric guitars go I feel most at home on this one.
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A thoroughbred bought new in 1997 and used as the 6 string of choice on our early acoustic albums.
As with most things reassuringly expensive, it does just what it's supposed to do: it sounds right, both live and recorded - without doing anything to it.
Fitted with an active Fishman pickup under the saddle.
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This is Boo's bass which replaced a G&L single pickup 4 string in 1995. The main reason for the change was because of the Steinberger's low 5th string tuned to a bottom B which gave us a bit more range on the bottom end.
The headless bass looks a bit of a fashion victim these days but has a uniquely full growly sound to it and is lovely to play with its graphite neck. Unfortunately double ball end strings are needed, which are increasingly difficult to get hold of.
It is tuned by means of 5 thumb screws just behind the bridge.
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Chosen in 1991 mainly to replace a much missed 1957 Gibson 330, which was my first electric guitar. Unfortunately the 330 had to go when times were tough.
This guitar is quite different to the 330 in that it has a solid block of wood running down the centre of the body making it effectively a solid guitar and less prone to feedback. The f holes have little or no effect on the sound and you couldn't really call it a semi-acoustic. I kind of miss the woody sound of the 330 but this is still a great guitar.
It's a re-issue probably manufactured around 1989 and bought directly from Gibson. Although new, it already had a history when I bought it... having been stolen from their West End artists' relations showroom and later recovered.
Used mainly on the Brave Lucy "Snaps" album, but still appearing on recordings from time to time when the more mellow Gibson tone is needed.
It has lately become the host for the GR-20 guitar synth, so now gets used for other sounds and parts I can't play on the keyboard.
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This was my first decent guitar which I still have and which was bought in Liverpool in 1968 brand new. My choice was mainly because of John Renbourn's Gibson J50 on the front of 'Another Monday'.
Mr Renbourn says that he bought his Gibson because his hero Davey Graham had one on his cover. However, the story goes that 'Davey had owned a very nice Martin, gone to a party and come away with the Gibson, possibly without realising it.' So basically my choice of guitar came about because Davey Graham got out of his head at a party!
It came down to London with me in 1970 and was used exclusively on the 1973 "Album".
Amplifying this guitar was a real headache because of its original bridge, which didn't allow you to install the usual Fishman under its adjustable saddle. Firstly I tried a Fishman Rare Earth soundhole pickup but the balance was uneven as I use a plain .20 for a 3rd string.
I then tried an L.R.Baggs pickup which was mounted inside the guitar under the bridge. However that couldn't be fitted at the correct angle because of the position of the adjustment screws on the saddle, so consequently either the bass or the treble became much too loud depending on which way it was angled.
Finally I took the advice of Celine and Dave King (who do excellent guitar repairs in Denmark Street) who suggested that the only real answer was to replace the adjustable bridge entirely with a fixed one and then install a Fishman under the saddle without a problem (while they were doing this they discovered that one of the main struts was missing... huh?)
So, although guitar purists might have a seizure, this beautiful ebony bridge (below) was made to replace the original, the strut replaced, and this guitar has once again become my guitar of choice for most acoustic playing. Not only can it now be amplified efficiently but the whole guitar seems to have come back to life tonally and to my ears knocks spots off my Martin... there again I do have a bit of a soft spot for it.
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Equipment for gigs
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Boss GT-8 effects - Dave
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The Boss GT-8 was bought originally for recording electric guitars. It replaced my old Korg A2 which drove me mad with its user unfriendliness! However, it has also replaced my Yamaha AG Stomp which I used to control levels and tones coming out of three different live instruments.
It is an incredibly well designed piece of kit with every type of facility you can think of and virtually every effect Boss has ever produced. For live work, I can use it to control the different acoustic instruments with nothing much happening beyond the level adjustment and EQ tweaking - the odd bit of delay and chorus maybe. But for recording it can come into its own and opens up a huge soundscape potential for any electric guitars I want to use.
It also offers some very convincing preamp/speaker simulation which gets me to thinking about the possibility of using my old telecaster in a live setting through the acoustic guitar amp below...
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Fender Acoustasonic Junior - Dave and Boo
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We both use these acoustic guitar amps on amplified gigs. It's a very warm sounding 40W amp with a built in compressor on the top end to limit that horrible brittle sound when a guitar top string is hit hard through a bridge pickup. Very nice built in chorus too.
Boo has recently taken to putting her bass through hers as well her Gibson - don't know how long it will cope with that, but it sure beats lugging round her Hiwatt!
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Latin Percussion 'Mario Cortes' Cajon
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This is a cajon which is the Spanish for 'crate', 'drawer', or 'box' (as opposed to cojones which means bollocks!) - so... a box drum. This simple but effective instrument originated in Peru, became used in flamenco music and has recently been adopted by folkies and bands in this country including us.
It is a lot more than a wooden box though, with certain types of wood used for the front to produce a resonant bass drum sound when you hit it lower down in the middle. There are also wire snares stretched inside, which produce a snare sound when you hit it up the top near the corners.
This means you can produce a pretty convincing drum kit sound very simply (and very quietly!) if you are a table top or thigh tapper. Use those same techniques, learn where to hit it to get the right sound, and you're away.
This is a beautiful cajon, but there are some which don't sound much better than bashing a cardboard box. Here's a clip of someone playing an LP Mario Cortes cajon who really knows how...
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Roland GR-20 Guitar Synthesizer
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I have had an on/off relationship with guitar synths since my first Roland GR300 guitar synth in the early 80's, which I loved and wrote a lot of tunes with. I got frustrated by my last one (a GR-09) and sold it a couple of years ago thinking I had no real use for it. However, I came to miss the facility that it should have offered (but didn't!) and wondered if anything had happened lately in the R&D department at Roland.
SOS magazine wrote this about the newest guitar synth... "Back in the early '70s I paid over one-and-a-half grand for an all-analogue, pre-MIDI Roland GR500 guitar synth that weighed a ton, tracked like a drugged dog and sounded like a polyphonic kazoo. Today, you can buy a guitar synth that works, has MIDI compatibility, great sounds, onboard effects and can be used with your own guitar, all for under 500 quid."
Well the new GK-3 pickup that fits just above the bridge on my 335 (above left) seems a lot more responsive, and fitting it on the guitar is a lot less hassle than its predecessor. The GR-20 unit itself (above right) has lost one or two of the earlier unnecessary guitar synth gimmicks and has a wealth of very classy and useable sounds, most of which trigger beautifully and certainly don't sound like they come out of a horrid little plastic box on the floor!
As well as using its internal sounds, I use this to trigger external midi keyboard sounds for recording. This is a definite improvement on trying to play things on a keyboard that are beyond me!
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SE Electronics Reflexion Filters
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 These 'reflexion' filters by SE Electronics are a relatively recent invention and have added some extra control over live sound recording.
The vocal version (left) acts basically like a clip on sound booth, cutting out a lot of unwanted ambient noise and hence making the vocal sound drier and more present.
The instrument version (right) does much the same when recording guitars using a thin condenser mike.
Both have the added bonus of drastically cutting down the amount of spill from other live sounds in the studio, sometimes to the extent of being able to replace a vocal recorded at the same time as a guitar.
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Kawai MP4 and Roland SPD11 pads
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The Kawai MP4 is our main keyboard both for playing and for sounds. The hammer action full size piano keyboard feels like you're playing a Steinway and the internal sounds are incredibly natural and would fool most people into thinking we have a real piano on the track. One day it may make an appearance live but at the moment is restricted to recording duties only. For practice purposes it gets monitored through a pair of little Yamaha MSP3's.
Just behind it is Dave's 'drumkit'. The Roland SPD11 is an octopad which can have up to 8 drum sounds assigned to the 8 pads. The pedals beneath the keyboard plug into it and are the bass drum and hihat pedals which complete the 'kit'. The whole thing can be played like a real drumkit and the data fed into a computer for recording purposes. The nice thing about it is that it makes virtually no noise, which is a relief for the neighbours.
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Ivory - Grand Pianos
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Although this page is really for looking at instruments, I felt this virtual instrument was worth a mention. It is installed in the computer as a plug in for Cubase.
In conjunction with the Kawai above, we can now play a virtual Bosendorfer, a Steinway and a Yamaha grand. It cost an arm and a leg for instruments you can't even see but a lot less than the arms and legs required for the real thing.
All three grand pianos have been sampled at 8 different velocities on every single note and the samples are not looped. Which, on a grand piano, means that the bottom notes go on for a very long time and use a fantastic amount of memory in the computer - a total of 40Gb of space was required.
The end result is stunning and as near the real pianos as we are ever likely to get.
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Mesa Boogie Studio Preamp - Dave
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I use this preamp for recording electric guitars straight in to the desk. It uses real valves which give a beautiful warm sound and there are endless opportunities to get the guitar sound just right via loads of tone controls and a total of five separate volume/drive controls on two separate channels.
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