My Guitars
My Amplifiers
My Effects Boxes
A Homegrown Classic
My Guitars
I mostly use Fender® guitars (Stratocasters and Telecasters) on the road because I find them able to stand up to the knocks of regular gigging. The necks are hard rock maple and stand up to being punched accidentally through low ceilings and being dropped from stages and shaky guitar stands. They're kit guitars, really. When a bit drops off, you just buy a new bit, screw it back on and you're away. They were designed to be functional and their beauty has a "space age" feel to it. The tone bites like a bulldog.
Gibson® guitars, on the other hand, are "old world" beautiful. They have block mother of pearl inlays, fancy timbers (ebony, birdseye and flame carved maple tops on mahogany bodies), nickel or gold tuners and hardware, sweet sounding pickups, comfortable, classy fingerboards and frets and extremely fragile necks and headstocks. I love Gibsons, but I think they're best kept for the studio unless you have guys as careful as heart surgeons for roadies. They break too easily.
To
the right is "Bluebelle", a blue-green Fender Stratocaster
made by Perth W.A. guitar player and repairer Lindsay Wells from parts of
seventies era Strats and a custom body supplied by Perth luthier Trevor Folley.
Thanks to the Guitar Doctor, Chris Turner, for the vintage steel bridge and
inertia block. Bluebelle has a chrome scratch plate, which is great for reflecting
stage lights and dazzling the audience.
Gibson
Marauder (vintage unknown) fitted with Gibson Original Humbucker
in the bridge position and a custom scratchplate by Trevor Folley, this mean,
fat sounding old warhorse is my main Open G tuned slide guitar. It rocks!
Unbranded custom Telecaster. This tele plays and sounds great. I use it in my home studio frequently. Thanks to Andy Neil of The Music Spot for that one and once again to Chris Turner for the sweet and hot sounding DiMarzio pickup in the back. Great guitar!
Profile Stratocaster copy serves as a spare. Now sporting the CBS era Fender bridge from Bluebelle, it works well.
Ovation Celebrity Series electro acoustic guitar. This baby performs main guitar and slide guitar duties with "Rick and the Goose".
Japanese copy of Fender Precision bass, fitted with Fender Precision pickups and scratchplate. Used in the home studio.
My Amplifiers
My main amp for stage use is my Maxim all valve 60 watt, made for me in 1972 by Melbourne amplifier pioneer Peter McCarthy, founder of Maxim. This is teamed with my 100 watt Marshall quad box (half stack) and is simply the best amplifier I have ever used. In nearly thirty years of service it has never broken down and still has some of the original valves in it! Sounds like the best Fender/Marshall ever. Loud and clean, fat and warm with sparkle. For big gigs.
1964 Fender black face Concert amp. Forty odd watts with three out of the
four ten inch speakers still working. Great for small gigs and as amp number
two at big shows.
1960's Vase "150 watt" all valve amp using four Marshall EL34 output
valves. An early Australian powerhouse. Used as a great sounding spare.
Fender
Pro Junior amplifier - 1997. This all valve little beauty is one of the greatest
recording amplifiers I have ever used. It proves the Veneer theory of amplifier
tone - too many knobs destroy the sound. This little beast has an on/off switch,
a power indicater light, an input jack, a volume control and a tone control.
Plug in any good guitar and set it up any way you like and it will sound great!
It uses the Fender preamp design with Vox AC30 output valves, into a heavy
duty ten inch Fender speaker. It sounds like my Maxim without the decibels,
but at a mere 15 watts it can still annoy the neighbours. With the volume
cranked to seven, it's all Hendrix. On ten (it goes up to twelve!) with the
tone rolled off, a tele on the back pickup sounds like Bluesbreakers and Cream
era Clapton. A little beast of an amplifier. Various practice and baby amps
(Peavey Rage 158, Princeton, Roland Cube 60).
My Effects Boxes
Original 60's era Cry Baby wah wah and 60's era Vox wah wah pedals.
Phabb Thermionic Distortion Emulator
MXR Dynacomp compressor
T.C. Electronics Preamp/Distortion/Line Driver
Echopet analog delay and spring reverb
Ibanez Super Tube Screamer
Boss DS1 Distortion
Ancient Roland AP2 Phaser
New Toy Alert! Phil Abbot of Phabb recently built me a copy of my old Tychobrae
Octavia pedal (the original was "borrowed" years ago and never returned)
housed in an old MXR Envelope Filter case. He spent months tweaking it and
has done a fantastic job. I love it - Jimi and Jeff heaven! It's a Time Machine
- it growls and squeals and roars and sets the clock back 30 years!
Other toys: Zoom 4040 multi effects processor, Yamaha Rex 50 multi effects processor, Shure Green Bullet harmonica microphone used with Boss GE10 graphic equaliser and Fender Concert amp.
A Homegrown Classic
Here's
a great little piece of gear to turn you on to - it's The Phabb Thermionic
Distortion Emulator made right here in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
by the crazy Phil Abbott.
Phil has been experimenting with valve (tube) and solid state amps and effects for years and has come up with one great sounding box. I have used this little baby for a number of gigs from big festivals to clubs and it is fantastic!
This distortion pedal is unique in two ways; one, it sounds like a real valve amp and two, the tone of your guitar stays crisp and clean when you turn down the guitar's volume control. So with a twist of the volume knob you can go from clean and fat to overload in a fraction of a second, with all the control at your fingertips.
But best of all, it sounds great!
It's catching on fast - as used by KEVIN BORICH and RICK VENEER. For more details: email or ring Phil Abbott at (61) 07 3879 0416