About

My girst guitar was a MiM Fender stratocaster I had to share with my brother. It wasn't long before my mother realized sharing the guitar was not going to work so I was able to get my own used Ibanez AX120.

A year or two later I got my own MiM Fender Strat in Midnight blue. I don't recall why I wanted something else besides the Ibanez, but I would guess because most of my guitar heroes at that time used strats.

My first acoustic was another used blue Ibanez acoustic-electric. It got a lot of use and I still have it today, but it did not stay in the greatest shape. My next acoustic after that was a Martin.

When I was getting into heavier music I bought a Schecter C-1 Hellraiser which was great for a while, but eventually I ended up not being a big fan of the active pickups. Also, the neck seemed to give off too much friction after a while. My MiM strat underwent a few cosmetic and functional upgrades over the years. I added locking tuners and a set of fender samarium cobalt noiseless pickups. I also decided to paint it green and use a black pickgaurd. It seems a bit unusual and I liked the uniqueness of it. This strat served me very well for many years, but unfortunately was stolen during my time at college.

After graduating college and getting my first real job, I rewarded myself with the purchase of an American Deluxe Strat in a HSS configuration. This served me very well for a long time and I never had any complaints about it. One thing that was interesting was the string nut was a piece of metal with small ball bearings that would grip each string. Fender seems to have abandoned this, but it always felt very stable.

About 6 years later, after intense preparation I switched jobs and rewarded myself with a Gibson Les Paul Classic. I wanted something better suited for heavy music with humbuckers and I really liked this guitar at first. After a while though, I found myself less & less inspired to play it. I think part of it was the weight, and another part was that it always felt a bit fragile regardless of whether or not that was the case. With my Fenders, I was never at all worried about banging it hard or moving around or accidentally smacking it against something. The Les Paul never gave me this confidence.

I eventually sold the Les Paul, and when selling it, I was told the neck had gone awry. This was dissapointing because I had only had it about a year. It is safe to say that was my first and probably last Gibson guitar. The reason I sold it was to help fund my more recent purchase, an Ultra Lux Telecaser in Transparent Surf Green. I used to find Teles really ugly when I was younger, but as I aged I started finding them to be a more timeless and classic look compared to strats. This tele is absolutely amazing and everything I could want in a guitar. I took a chance, buying it without ever playing one, but I find myself liking it more & more everytime I play.

My first amps were the typical practice amps, some type of 15 watt solid state peavey. Other than this, I mainly used my father's Danelectro DS-50 from the 1960's. During my time in my second band in High School, I bought a Marshall MG100HDFX half stack. I thought it was great at the time before I knew much about amps, and it did a perfectly servicable job for what it was. It has been collecting dust since the late 2000's.

A few weeks after moving into a new place for college I purchased my first real amp, a used Fender Blues Deluxe. For many years this was my go-to amp. I think there are some mixed opinions on this amp in the online community, but personally I have always been really fond of this amp. It just has such a great sound.

When I wanted something a little more portable, I bought a Fender Super Champ X2. This amp is pretty cool, a nice mix of tube power and digital effects. The combination of effects and amp modeling of different types make this a really versatile, pick-up-and-go amplifier. I tend to not use this amp very much these days, but I had no complaints ever. My next purchase was Fender Twin Reverb Reissue from a bandmate. I needed something clean and loud and this fit the bill.

It has a great tone, but is definitely heavy. What I actually ended up doing was buying a new head from Mojotone and put the amp chassis in there. I paired this with an Emperor Cab and is my current band practice and gigging rig. It is a bit louder than needed for gigs since the venues are always miced, but it sure looks cool on stage.

My next amp was one I built myself from a kit. It was a clone of the Fender 5f1 champ, again from Mojotone This was another fun and very educational experience, and produced a great sounding extremely portable amp. Although only 5 watts, this is a really great practice amp with all kinds of squish and compression.

My next 2 amps are the real top dogs, and I bought them pretty close to the same time. After a while, I really got in the mood for a vintage Fender amp, something old and classic that has stood the test of time with handwired design that would always be easy to fix. This was when I bought a 1962 Blonde Tremolux, and a few months later a 1961 Blonde Bandmaster.

These amps needed a few fixes, for example 3 prong powercord conversion on the tremolux and a few out of spec resistors along with other small things and maintenance, but it was a good learning opportunity. Both amps are amazingly wonderful, and surprisngly different sounding from eachother. I find the Bandmaster a bit colder sounding but very punctual. It also has a very unique tremolo circuit, one that Fender only released for a short period. It is known as 'harmonic' tremolo, where instead of the entire signal oscillating in volume, it splits the signal so that the high notes increase and decrease in volume at the opposite time the low notes do. It sounds very phasey and creates a super pleasing sound. The Tremolux just knocks it out of the park. The tube rectification gives it a very warm and compressed sound. It's also on the smaller and lighter side, so not a pain to move it around. I really like these Fender piggyback amps, and have been extremely happy with both of them. They should serve me well for another 60 years I imagine.

I also made a homemade Boost pedal from BYOC which was a frustrating but very fun and informative experience. I will most likely build more in the future if I need to.

I like most effects, but find myself using reverb and tremolo the most. Delay is also one that can be very fun to mess around with. The amount of crunch or drive I use always varies. Lately, I just plug straight into one of my amps and jam around without any pedals at all.