Gear

People often ask me about the equipment I use, and I know I love to read this stuff about other people’s equipment. Any questions, do ask either on my Twitter feed or via the contact page.

Of course, the most important pieces of equipment are your ears and fingers, so be sure to look after those!

Guitars

I have a couple of really nice acoustic guitars. My main one is a Northworthy Carsington which is fitted with B-Band pickups. It’s a small guitar, with a really balanced tone, and it records really well.

My other acoustic is a Taylor 414, but one of the older models, with Mahogany back. It has a Fishman pickup. It is bigger, with a different tone – a little brighter with a different tonality in the mid range. Live, I’ll often use it as a spare, or have it in a different tuning (for example I play “Unnoticed” in open D). When recording, the two acoustics sound great double-tracked, or just for different colours.

I used to play a lot of electric and over the years have owned Gibsons, Teles, a Duesenberg, a G&L and even a Patrick Eggle! At the moment, I have a Fender Nashville Tele and a Line 6 Tyler Variax (which I’m really impressed with), with a small Pedal Train pedal board which has a Bud Wah, Keeley Compressor, MI Audio Boost ‘n’ Buff and Crunch Box, Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, Lovepedal Eternity and Line 6 M9 (which I mainly use for delays, reverbs and the odd tremolo here and there). I run this into an Orange AD15, though this may change soon.

The Tyler Variax obviously isn’t one for the purists, but I find that what it wins with versatility is worth the trade off in terms of authenticity. The ability to drop tune at the flick of a switch, and all the different tones I have access to makes it a real winner, for me at least. I have mine in black, which doesn’t look the coolest, but I’ve never been particularly vain. The only issue is remembering to charge the battery!

I also have Guitar Rig 4, which I’ve been really impressed with but haven’t had much time to get into it. We often have it set up as a Fender-ish sounding amp to complement the Orange. I generally will split before the pedalboard, so the Orange gets all the effects, but we can add back in a bit of clarity from the Fender sounding amp sim in Guitar Rig. I used it for some overdubs on the “While we sleep tonight” album as well.

I’m intrigued by the Kemper Profiling amp as well, so that may be a future purchase.

Other key bits of guitar gear are my G7th Capo which I find doesn’t pull the strings out of tune, and my Ebow which is a really useful thing for creating non-guitar like noises.

I’m using Dunlop Nylon plectrums on acoustic these days, and their Orange Tortex picks on electric.

Live PA

I use a Bose L1 Model II PA system, with the Tonematch mixer. It’s great for setting up quickly, and always sounds great. Because I can set up in front of or next to it without much risk of feedback, it also serves as my monitor, so I hear a good sound too. It makes live gigs much more enjoyable.

I use a Neumann KMS105 for live vocals, which I find gives a really clear vocal sound. It helps the words to come across clearly. Pricey, but a really great mic. I also find Vocalzone can help keep my voice clear, especially if I’m feeling tired.

Keyboard

For a while I didn’t have a keyboard in the house, which was really not good. Then I started putting together a laptop rig with Ableton and a Novation controller, but it ended up being to complicated to take out live, and I never quite felt “connected” to the sounds.

Lately, I decided to sell all that gear and get a beautiful Nord Stage 2 which is a dream to play and has some fantastic sounds (and they keep releasing more on their website – very kind). It seems to be able to do nearly everything I’d want it to – beautiful Pianos, Rhodes and Wurlys, a great sounding hammond section, and the synth section with sample playback gives me access to loads of sounds that I love – particularly with the Mellotron library and some very tasty samples of other acoustic instruments like Reed Organs, Pump Organs, Indian Harmonium, Accordions and other textures.

I also have an actual melodica, which always raises a smile. As a friend once observed, it’s the only keyboard with a spit hole.

Recording

When recording, I use a simple Pro Tools setup. I have a nice Rode valve mic which sounds great on vocals. I’m no recording expert, and rely on lots of good advice from my friends. When I need to record drums or get something mixed I visit dB Studios who always do a great job.