On average I use four guitars as I like to use different tunings and I don’t like to retune everything during a show.
My second guitar build. More like I finished what was started by luthier Bas Wierink. He suggested I finish it as part of his guitar building class. Neck bought on Ebay, body built by Bas.
Electronics & hardware: Fernandes Sustainer driver and kit, Fender Texas Special middle pickup, Bareknuckle Pickup Nailbomb bridge humbucker, pushbutton and toggle kill switches, Amptone MIDI touchscreen, Guitarfetish bridge and locking tuners. The tremolo spring cavity has a tremstopper to prevent detuning in case of string breaking and which also allows for easy detuning to drop D.
Probably the most versatile guitar in my arsenal and if I had to absolutely gig with only one guitar I’d probably pick this one. It’s a hard rocking guitar that doesn’t look like one. Just the way I like my guitars. Currently used exclusively for all things in drop-D tuning.
My third guitar build, and the first time I built the guitar body myself. Also the first guitar I built with a locking tremolo. While it doesn’t look the part this is a Pink Floyd themed guitar. Two Fender Texas Specials neck and middle pickups, like David Gilmour’s black Strat a Seymour Duncan SS-5 high output bridge pickup, Ibanez LoPro Edge locking tremolo, Guitarfetish locking tuners, push button and toggle kill switches. And the one thing I’m most proud of, a Crybaby wah circuit placed internally. Why would I want that you ask? Echoes. Especially the middle part with the seagull screams. Which were created by reversing the in- and output of David’s wah. Which I now can do with the flick of a switch.
This has become the favourite of my self built guitars and used for all things in standard tuning. The Texas Specials sound great and warm yet chimey for all things clean, while the SS5 can shred with the best humbuckers.
I’ve wanted a 7 string for a long time, but I hate that all the commercially available 7 strings are basically metal guitars with a metal look. And while I like my metal \m/, I don’t want to play a heavy metal guitar. I wanted a 7 string Tele. So I had to build one. This was the first time I build a guitar neck from scratch. Originally I wanted a Gotoh bridge so I could install a MIDI touchscreen, but alas, I f***ed my template so the guitar neck turned out to be too narrow for that bridge. So we used a Tunematic instead. Which meant no MIDI touchscreen.
Electronics & hardware: Sustainiac 7 string driver and sustainer circuit, Bareknuckle Pickups 7 string Ceramic Nailbomb, Guitarfetish locking tuners, Tunematic bridge, push button and toggle switch killswitches. I plan to replace the Ceramic Nailbomb with the Alnico version as the Ceramic has a bit of a mids scoop which makes this guitar drown a bit in the mix when using the low notes. Used for everything in drop-A and regular 7 string tuning.
The only factory build guitar I still use. Laura is a Korean Lite Ash Telecaster and probably my most modified guitar. It currently has push button and toggle kill switches, an Amptone MIDI touchscreen, a Gotoh bridge, Guitarfetish staggered locking tuners, Bareknuckle pickups Mississippi Queen P90’s. In order to fit the MIDI touchscreen I had to replace the old bridge with the Gotoh bridge and drill 6 new holes for the through the body string holes. Also a control cavity had to be routed in the back for the touch screen electronics. This guitar is standard downtuned to 1,5 steps to C#. I do love the sound of the P90’s which is a nice warm yet punchy sound. They are however very loud. This is probably my loudest guitar.
Pedal Board
Mostly the MFC-101 controller for the Axe-FX with two EV-5 expression pedals. Added is a small pedal board section controlled from the red looper. Loop 1 has the DD-7, which I only use to sample guitar phrases. Loop2 has the DF-2, used for feedbacking fun, and the WH-1 whammy. Most whammy sounds come from the Axe-FX, but the WH-1 has a few tricks up its sleeve that the Axe doesn’t do (so well). Top right sits a custom patch bay where my guitar signal goes in, enters the board and returns here again before going to the Axe. All signal connections to and from the Axe go via this baby, as I prefer one single access point. The patchbay also has a buffer and a tuner mute out to the Polytune.
Keyboard
Yamaha SX2 keyboard that I use for piano sounds and the occasional synths as well. Going into the Line6 DL-4 for delays and for looping. Next to the keyboard is a Palmer cab with a 12” FRFR speaker and tweeter combo inside, to give me the best possible sound coming from my Axe-FX. I have two cabs for stereo sounds, but only one is FRFR.
Main rig
Lots of goodies. Let me start with the 1x12 Egnater cabinet, which has one of the two stèreo outputs of the Axe FX. Will be replaced by a 1x12 FRFR speaker cabinet in the future. The main rack. This is basically two rigs in one. There the Axe FX II XL+, which I have come to really love. The first modeller which in my opinion delivers what its promises. This baby is so good I pretty much stopped using (and building) my old stompboxes. And amps. I keep on discovering new and interesting ways to use this thing. The fact that it has significantly reduced my pedal tapdancing doesn’t hurt either. Inside the FX Loop of the Axe sits the Line6 M5, as I do like some its sound. Like particle verb. The Axe has two balanced outputs and two unbalanced outputs. The balanced outputs I use to go into a FOH mixer, the unbalanced outputs go into a cabsim splitter at the bottom and then into a Matrix GT1000 poweramp. Which makes modelers sound good even going into regular guitar cabs.
2nd rig that is inside the rack is my synth/Kaoss rig. The Yamaha keyboard and the two Kaoss pads all come together into a Behringer rack mixer before going straight into a FOH mixer. Both Kaoss pads can be controlled via the MIDI touch screens on my guitars through the Kenton wireless MIDI transmitters and receiver.