My Special Friends

I suppose it is time to share my special friends with you. I have them stashed in a secret place so that when I need them I can unlock the door and put them to work. No, I am not in the midst of a slave-trade ring but I have a studio where I go to create the tracks that I use on my projects and others (a project that I recorded guitars on just won a Dove this week). I am best known as a songwriter and worship leader but few people know that I do a lot of studio work on guitar and sometimes vocals.



First off, my electric guitars are few these days but they do the job well. My Les Paul, Tele, Peavey Signature and Strat are all well represented in the projects I do. I am more of a single-coil, strat/tele, guy but I love me some Les Paul, too. The Peavey Guitar is WONDERFUL! It has that perfect balance between single-coil bite while simultaneously carrying the humbucker robustness and sustain. Don't ever dis Peavey in my presence until you have tried this guitar and the amp I will mention later.



My pedals are all here to see. I have many drive boxes so I can dial in that perfect tone for certain tracks. I use a buffer at the front and George L's all the way through to the amps in another room. I have two other boards that I will mention at another time because those are the ones I travel and play live with.



My amps are the Dr. Z Maz 18 NR 2-10 (right), Dr. Z-Z 28 2-10 (middle) and a Peavey Classic 50 4-10 (left). I like 10" speakers because they seem to produce the tone I need in recording, without the low-mid/ bass honk that usually gets dialed out anyway in the mix...(my story and I'm stickin' to it!)

I will talk about recording gear at another time. In that installment, I will write about my signal paths and the outboard gear I use. Suffice it to say, a .wav is a .wav is a .wav! When you use great cables, pres, mics (and placement), converters, intoned guitars, great amp settings and bone-tone, you will produce .wavs that will stand up and say, "Hello," in any mix. No one ever asks me, "Is that a ProTools or a Digital Performer .wav?" I'll keep you posted...