ToBe Fare

So, Yeah, I’m a gear nerd. But you’re here for a reason. Are you a gear nerd too?

The Guitars:

The PRS SE Custom

I am back to using the PRS almost exclusively.

“Back in the 80’s when Paul Reed Smith started building guitars, I wanted one – badly. However, each one of his guitars was literally a work of art, and I was neither kind to nor easy on my guitars, so decided to stick with my easy to repair Strats. I ran across this at Stacy’s Music and joined the PRS club almost 30 years later. (And immediately scarred it on the very first gig). The PRS features Seymour Duncan ’58 in the Neck and a JB in the Bridge. I have since made a few more mods for it to keep on cranking all these years.

The FareCaster:

My #1 back up guitar is the FareCaster. I resurrected an old Squire Strat that was used as a back-up 20 years ago. It was originally a dual humbucker, wouldn’t stay in tune, but really light and the neck was butter. But one day, I realized that I used to be pretty ok at rebuilding/modifying Fenders; so, I stripped it of everything Squire, and built it back to match my needs. I kinda like the Black-on-Black look with Lace Sensor Blue/Silver/Red pickups, black Wilkinson Knife-Edge Tremolo and Black Fender Locking tuners. It now stays in tune, with all the grooviness of a traditional Strat but with beef.

The Gretsch

The BiG! guitar. I wanted to play a Gretsch from the first time I saw Mike Nesmith with the Monkees. (I had a beautiful ’61 6117, but stupidly sold it.) But since BiG! was at first a blues band, I needed a “Bluesy” Gretsch anyway and so got the G5620T Electromatic Center Block, to emulate a Gibson 335, but with the Bigsby Tremolo.

Oddly enough, this one is pretty stock, except for the Vibramate String Spoiler.

I am looking to sell this guitar or trade it for an Electromatic hollow-body 12 String.

Seagull Entourage Acoustic:

Awesome small bodied Acoustic guitar made in Canada. The last copy made with all Cherry wood. Used on the Acoustic “BiG!/small” songs, and while writing all of our songs.

Michael Kelly 10 string.

 My Number One Acoustic for solo shows. All Koa wood, Very “shimmery” and booming!

And now it gets weird:

After 45 years of chasing tone with a multitude of tube and solid-state amps, cabinets and a half acre of pedals in front of me, I have traded it all for a Valeton GP200 Digital modeler and multi-FX. 5 pounds and a shoulder strap, baby! Frosty is now playing through one too, and we both run in stereo live, and the sound is HUGE!