Here are a few pictures of some of my gear. More will follow, God willing! I would like to thank God for the wonderful tools He has given me to use in fulfilling the work He gave me as an artist, and also thanks to my wife, Marilynn, for the photography. You can check out her web site here.
1982-made '62 reissue Fender Stratocaster
1970 Les Paul Custom
Years ago I had a 1964 sunburst strat, a wonderful guitar. And although I prefer in many ways the thicker 1954/'55 type strat necks, there was something about that guitar that just made me play better. I sold it due to the economic state of my life in the mid-'70s, but kicked myself over and over about it, of course.
In late 1997 I came across this '62 reissue in a store in Cookeville, TN, "Earl and Jane's Music Mart". Earl Younger was a guitarist for swing bands, jazz bands and "big bands" in the 1940s, '50s and '60s; he knew Glenn Miller, all those type of guys. When Fender first made these reissues he snagged one up, and through a series of occurences he had it in his store for sale. The reissues are sort of inconsistent. The early ones were exacting copies of the 1957 and 1962 strats. After awhile Fender started "adjusting" things, enlarging the neck radius, then using the same neck shape for both reissues (not historically accurate at all). They've gone back to making them "right", but some of the reissues over the years are nice guitars, some less so. Some are good instruments, but not like the originals.
This one is exactly like the '64 I used to have; so much alike it's a little uncanny. Feels the same, plays the same, even the old but stock single-coil pickups sound the same. The guitar has a dark, sweet sound, richer and more full-bodied than most strats. It's pretty rare to come across two strats so much alike, and needless to say I snagged it up. Thanks, Earl! I set this guitar up with the action really high, about as high as you can get the G and D strings, with the others set so they mirror the curve of the fretboard, and the stagger of the pickup pole magnets. I have the bridge pickup closest to the strings, but not all that close, treble end angled slightly up. The middle pickup is way far away from the strings, almost inside the pickguard, treble just slightly up. The neck is in between the others in terms of height, the treble end more sharply angled up than the others. This way I have a louder sound and very even string response in the neck, a soft, mellow sound from the middle pickup and a bridge pickup that's bright without the "icepick in the ear" sound.
The Les Paul is a 1970 Custom, stock pickups. At 30 years of age, they sound great. The stop-bar has been replaced with one with tuners, and the neck is shaved down just a little. I used GHS Boomers on this guitar, nickel-plated steel wound strings, 9-42s. With the old humbuckers and low action, that's all this guitar needed to sound great. This belonged to a friend of mine who couldn't stand to play it, it was so heavy, so he let me borrow it for a couple of years. I didn't really need it anymore, so he sold it a few months ago. 'Bye, LP!
This was my main amp until recently for lead guitar, a 1970-made Marshall Super Tremelo. This is a Super Lead with a tremelo circuit added, and this particular one is a little rare. This is a factory-built 100-watt amp in a 50-watt chassis/head. The regular-sized 100-watt Super Trems seem gigantic in comparison, this is much easier to haul around. Whether it has any effect on the sound or not, I'm not sure.
My '70 Marshall Super Tremelo This amp does have a little of the "sweeter" sound associated with better (and later) examples of the 50-watt Super Leads, but has the fullness and headroom (not to mention LOUDNESS) of the 100-watters. The preamp tubes are Sovtek 12AX7s, the power amp has Svetlana EL-34s. The retubing and cap job was done by the original owner, who bought it new in England and brought it to the US years ago. The mains transformer is adjustable for British or American current. This is the nicest sounding Marshall I've ever played, even without NOS tubes, and I bought it at Broadway Music, Nashville, TN.