Gear and Setup

A quick overview of my gear. This page used to be super complicated detailing a long exploration of trying to use guitar modellers and all that - I found it was just too messy to make work. Thankfully, life is simpler these days.

Solo and Duo Gigs

For solo and duo work, I use a Maton EA808 with .12-53 gauge strings and a 2.0 Dunlop Gator picks. The Maton is by far the most beautiful guitar I have ever owned and the resonance is incredible. I run this through a AER Alpha Acoustic amp and the sound is pretty flawless. I have no idea how AER created an amp of that size and weight with that sound quality. This is super portable setup, easy for me to bring anywhere I am playing in Australia or abroad.

Other Gigs

For bigger settings, I use an Artist Guitar semi-hollow electric, with the lightest strings I can find, usually .9 through .42. Usually flatwound on the lower strings. This guitar is a 335 knock off which I did not expect to love as much as I do. It is great to play, super fast neck. I play through the neck pickup. It also has GK-5 midi pickup installed on it which I run through a GM800 Midi Synth occasionally. This goes straight into a Rivera Jazz Suprema 55 Amp. The tone clarity is amazing in this amp. Lately I have found myself running a Spectra Comp compressor pedal in this set up just as I set the bass so high and the compressor controls things a little (not that the amp needs it - the Rivera is just the best). The downside of this setup is the weight, its not really transportable. Depending on where the gig is, maybe I can't bring with it me. Otherwise, plugging into a Fender Delux Reverb which usually seems to turn up, is fine.