My Dearest Gear

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Here's some pictures of my gear. Just some really nice noise makers. Here are some of my best buddies in the whole world! haha

Everyone, I would like to introduce my newest guitar....drum roll please....

Steve Vai has one named "Evo" Well, This is...tada..."Ani", <What the hell else would you think I would name her???> my beautiful sweetheart!!! She is an absolutely gorgeous lady, <like the real Ani>, but this one is mine. I was coming to the realization that my Music Man EVHs were not really allowing me to progress in the musical direction I was wanting to go in. They are fantastic instruments, they just were not clicking with me any longer. So, they have been sold to some great people who will give them the proper love that they deserve. The Wolfgang is up for grabs by the way, waiting ever so patiently for a new home, check out eBay and bid away by the way.

"Ani" is an Ibanez Jem 7VWH, like previously mentioned, is the Steve Vai model guitar. I have been playing my 'ugly' yellow Ibanez RG550. The one pictured below. I had grown very attatched to this hunk o' wood, the action has never wavered, but come on, it's an ugly little creature! So the question hit me. What's next?

I was going to go for a Fender Custom Strat. Made to my specs, y'know, the whole ball of wax, but as I kept playing the 550, I thought, why not get a Jem? You get all the 'Stat' tones but you also get the balls of the humbuckers. The Jem was like giving the 550 a few steroids shots and a one of those talkshow makeovers! haha "Ani" is a dream come true. I've named her right, she's total class, she's gorgeous, she's artistic, she draws attention, but she's also loud and has major 'Tude'! haha

Starting with the obvious, bright white paint with gold hardware, it has a pearloid pickguard which compliments the 'Tree of Life' pearloid and abalone inlays. Two hot Dimarzio Evolution ceramic magnet pickups, one Dimarzio alnico single coil <which I recess down flush with the pickguard, it gets in the way of my picking>. These pickups are very hot.

A Low Pro Edge tremolo with the nice 'Tiger Claw' routing, allow for pulling up on the wang bar. Maple neck with an ebony fingerboard are a nice contrast to the inlays. The last four frets are scalloped to allow for better fingering on the high notes. And let's not forget the 'Monkey Grip' near the upper horn. Just an ode to the old Teisco Del Ray guitars of the past and also a nice handle for carrying or tossing it around!

Big thanks to Larry Dennison and Mel Quarrell of Larry's Music for all the hustle and bustle. It means alot!!!

Well, here's the ugly yellow beast itself <also purchased from Larry's>. It's an Ibanez RG550. It's the low end version of the Jem up above. This one is very used. It's definitely been around the block, but it plays great.

The Ibanez is a little lesson in 80's excess! haha It has many of the accouterments alot of 'shred' guitars had-wide flat maple neck, a floating trem, high gain distortion pickups...Well, I switched the lead pickup for a Dimarzio Super Distortion pickup! What did I know? What a 'metal head'! I can't for the life of me remember what brand the middle single coil is??? I never use that setting anyway...so.... The 'Bart Simpson' sticker was strategically placed over a large dent that was placed by someone in the showroom. The back of the neck near the headstock is cracked from one to many attempts at....how can I best describe this move? I very much liked to shove the headstock against the floor and lean my body on the back of it to make the neck bow <severely> back and forth. I would use the tremolo at the same time and get some cool effects, but one day I heard a crack!!! I don't know if it was that particular move or the one where I would throw it across the room? Whichever...Ibanez guitars are very tough! haha

Pedal me this, pedal me that...

Yes, yes I know this pedalboard 'looks' alittle strange...but, it's okay! Really it is! It was inspired by the 'first' love of my life: Tinkerbell. Ah, yes Tinky. What a wonderful teenie tiny little Pixie. She's on all my effect pedals. She brings them to life. Don't laugh...she does! The pedalboard represents the coolness of lil' Tink.

First off we have a couple of outdated pieces of equipment. The first being a Boss Digital Delay. This is a time based effect. You can get alot of different sounds out of this little guy. You can get subtle doubling effects, fast and long signal repeats. I use this mainly to create echoes and violin type sounds.The pedal holding er..cables with the DD-2 is a Boss Chorus Pedal. This is also a time based effect, but it's used more as a 'Weight Gainer 2000' type of effect. It fattens up the sound of my clean signal by copying it and then just repeating it exactly but slightly delayed. It's a very juicy effect. Tweak in the right setting and you can almost feel the clouds around you!!! haha Yummmm.

The cool looking red pedal is a Digitech Whammy Pedal. It's the newest offering of a not so old classic. A wicked but gorgeous pedal capable of some terrific colors. Turning the lil' black knobby, you can dial in settings that replicate but harmonize your signal, to whatever intervals you choose. Now these flavors are usually ignored or thought to not be as cool as the 'kill small birds in flight' effect capable with the piercing double octave jump setting. Yes, you can shoot notes into the stratosphere with this one, but you can also drop them to muck and mush! haha I've experimented with it's ability to drop the guitar into the bass register with very nice results. The 'Whammy' can get some very sinister sounds with the interval settings, but yes, yes, to explore that means you actually have to be able to write something and not just 'wank' and 'spank the plank'. Oh, yes, composition, it's a skill not just a four syllable word. haha

Next we have a couple of pedals designed by Morley and Mr. Steve Vai. He is a guitarist of some notoriety...Yeah right, he's a god! haha Following the Whammy is the Morley 'Bad Horsie' wha wha Pedal. The 'Bad Horsie' is a wonderful wha wha effect. Now 'wha wha' is funky vernacular for the sound the pedal makes as you rock the pedal back and forth. A typical wha will use a pot that opens and closes from a very bass sounding setting to a very brittle one. So you get something similar to the teacher in the Peanuts cartoons. haha The 'Bad Horsie' does not use a pot, which can become noisy from dirt, spit, beer, whatever, it utilizes a light beam. It does, really...I've ripped it apart to look at it's 'innards'! It works off a light beam that flashes through an ever increasing cut out. In the up position only a little light is let through, as you pump the pedal ever downward the hole gets bigger and let's in more of the red beam. This pedal is switchless, meaning it is off and really bypassed when not being stepped upon. When you put your 'dog' on it, it engages and starts a wha-ing. Step off, it's off. You don't have to 'hang ten' and engage a toggle switch. Very cool pedal.

Now it's next-door neighbor is a Morley 'Little Alligator' volume pedal. A very nice pedal to have in any set up. It also uses the beam, how do I know?....haha I has a tiny volume knob to the right of the pedal. You can set this knob to zero volume when the pedal is up or any variation of volumes-from pulling back the volume to play quieter passages ect. I like to use this as a combination volume swell-like Larry Carlton and just to shut everything the heck up. It's like a muzzle for the beast that's coming up...

This is the Peavey 5150 amplifier. It was designed by Eddie Van Halen, Matt Bruck and James Brown (Peavey designer, not the King of Soul, now that would be a killer amp huh? Yyyyyeaaaaa!!! Jump back...Wanna touch myselllfff!!! haha). This is a very tone filled amp. It is also very LOUD. It's a 120 watt amp pushin' 4, 16 ohm speakers at 75 watts each. Pop Hubbard over at Hubbard's Music and More, where I bought this monstrosity, says to just point the cabinet at the mountains and crank it up! haha What more of a sales pitch do you need than that? haha

This amp has in equal ways gotten raves, as well as, criticisms. Yes, 'ToneHeads', this is not a $3,000 Bogner or similar 'boutique' amphead. It's not hand wired, it's transformer isn't hand picked nor is the chassis made of a solid block of aluminum. But for the money, this puppy rocks. It has some gorgeous tones in it. The clean sound is not that versatile. But in it's defense it was never made to be a multi-sound amp. The distortion settings are just incredible. It's lead channel goes from mellow to shred. It has a 'crunch' or rhythm channel that is very rich and tasty. You can have a great rhythm sound and then kick into a hot lead channel at the kick of the switch. The 5150 has what's called a 'resonance' knob. This basically does what a 'brightness' knob does for the high frequency. The resonance knob adjusts and either tightens or loosens the bass end. I actually have 2 of these amps, the second is married to an old 4 x 12/30 watt cabinet that my older brother owns. This amp sounds great through alot of different cabinets. It just kicks ass and screams. It's often called a 'hot-rodded Marshall'. But once again, for the money you pay, you get a killer distortion amp that's already hot-rodded, no need to buy an amphead and then proceed to take it to a shop to get it 'Tweaked'. I havent' even mentioned that it's also a tube amp. To my ear a tube amp just sounds really warm. It sounds real. The tubes breath with your playing. It reacts to certain dynamics in your playing. But, it doesn't have an ol' spring reverb. Damn...haha

The most important thing is that 'sound' is in your fingers and your mind. All this stuff is just a medium to get those sounds out and dancing around in the here and now. None of this stuff means beans if you don't work really hard at expressing 'your' ideas. To many people make the mistake of thinking that, "If I can only get this pedal...this amp...this guitar...", they'll somehow get better. Not without hard work you won't. It's more like a B12 shot in your playing, or helps give you a little push into a new plateau of creativeness. Of course it's fun to get all these new fangled thingies, but ultimately your personality will determine which effects, if any, you 'll need to bring your music to fruition. Yes, a combination of these musical brushes may give you some new colors in the palette but ultimately it's all in the hands, the tone is in your hands. The musical muse' in your noodle gives you the ideas to realize everyday and if you don't heed these whispers of inspiration, she'll leave and go and bug someone else. And all these funny funky fancy gadgets won't do you a bit of good without 'her'-Miss Serendipity, Ms. Inspiration! Right Tink?

And for now, last but certainly not least..."Heeeeeerrrrrre's Cleatus!"

Cleatus: The best metronome of all time!!!

This is Cleatus. Well, it's actually Cleatus I. Cleatus II is the new working model. This is a percussionist of stellar ability and talent. Unlike other cymbal players I've come across, he's like a Swiss made timepiece. He's virtually impervious to long hard nights of recording, playing or practice. He'll give you take after take of rhythmic perfection. He does however have a bad habit of showing his teeth and screeching very loudly. Primates will be primates so we'll forgive his genetic proclivities.

For additional information, questions or comments please feel free to
email Richard.

Go on, we dare ya!

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