My Gear: Presented by Robin Williams!

Today I'd like to talk about some of the equipment that I use when I play live. By no means do I think my stuff is the better than other gear and I could be wrong, but this is what I've found works for me. And like I always say...How can something so wrong make me feel so right!

First up, The Fishman Loudbox Mini. I've been using this little guy for about two years now. I take it to every gig. I usually run my guitar and vocals through it and use the direct out straight into the PA. It works well as a floor monitor. Some gigs I only have to take this amp and those gigs are easy peasy lemon sqeezey. It can easily fill up a coffee house or lounge with sound.

Secondly, The LR Baggs Para DI. I've had this thing for close to ten years and it has never let me down. I'd say I've used it at about 400 shows so far and it's still kicking. Super silent, simple, and it matches my amp. Brown is so sexy.

LR Baggs M1: I use these pickups on all of my acoustic guitars. In my experience they feedback way less than piezo under-saddle pickups. They have epic bass sound which helps fill out the room at my gigs. I usually cut the mids and I'm good to go. I can tap the guitar to get a drum sound really easy with this pickup too. You see these things being used by freaking every band on TV lately. There's a reason for that. I go through phases where I obsess about what pickups I should be using. It's a sickness that I'm working on. I ALWAYS end up coming back to these! Like Mr. Williams they make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

And lastly, The MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay. I'm an acoustic musician so I'm not sure if this is cheating or not but I freaking love this pedal.
How I use it:
1) To give me a slight delay for lead sections
2) For reverb/boost for fingerpicking/ballads
3) To get that slapback rockabilly sound
4) To perform magic

I was playing a gig at a real classy place last year and some sweetheart of a lady spilled beer this pedal. It actually was fine but the light on the front stopped working so I gave it to my cousin. He says it still sounds great. I quickly replaced mine with another one.

License Plate Guitar Pt. 2 - Dirty Details Done at Home Depot

Here are some of those dirty details I promised in the last blog. I hope you enjoy them. Guitar/Hardware nerds rejoice!

Thanks again Jay Patton for all these specs.

The top of this guitar is my old license plate from 2004ish.

The bridge is a nut and bolt.

The volume knob is a valve stem cap (like on your car’s tire)

The body is made out of ¾” cedar plank.

We have 3 lil soundholes at the top so I can hear every damned mistake I make.

The construction is neck-through with a 24.75” (Gibson) scale. Does that qualify it as a Gibson Guitar....Sure!

The pickups are 2 piezo disks wired in parallel with a 250k volume pot.

The tail piece is a metal exhaust hanger/bracket

The back of the guitar is sheet metal.

The nut is cow bone

  The tuners are plain ol’ open gear tuners with pearloid keys

The fret dots are nail heads.

The neck is oak with a ¼” oak fretless fretboard (the wings on the headstock are maple)

For more music head over to http://www.sincerelyiris.com/