GUITAR: The guitar is a Strat copy, with a Black Limba (Korina) body and maple/maple neck, both from Warmoth. Because of it's excellent versatility, it has served as my main guitar for many years now.

Locking tuners and trem are both from PRS guitars. The trem is extremely well-made, and I believe the brass trem block contributes to the tone. Trem floats.

The neck is big, using Warmoth's Fat contour. I shaped the bottom of the neck to take it in some, but left the top (big strings) alone, so the back has an asymetrical profile. Also uses the vintage-style truss rod, which I definitely recommend. Scott Platts from StoneTree guitars installed stainless frets, and did a meticulous job of dressing them. Nut is self-lubricating. String trees are the rollers.

The neck pickup is a Lindy Fralin Vintage Hot Strat, 5% underwound. The bridge pickup is a Duncan '78. When the tone pot is pulled out, the screw coil is grounded, leaving just the slug coil. This gives a nice single coil tone, and mixes very well with the neck pickup when the 3-way selector switch is in the middle position.

The tone pot is a 500k audio taper, using a .022 cap. The volume control is a 500k audio taper. The chrome switch between the volume and tone pots acts as a bright switch in the up position, by connecting a 100pf cap to the in and out (wiper) of the volume pot, great for a slight high boost when turning the volume pot down.

Strings are .011 D'Addario that are tuned down a half-step about half the time.

I keep the action fairly low and the neck mostly straight. This is easier to do without buzzing when using larger strings. I keep a small-head regular screwdriver around to make on-the-spot truss rod adjustments, so I can keep it exactly where I like it. I like to be able to play light and clean without the strings hitting the next fret, yet when I play harder, I want to be able to make them bottom out on the next fret without working too hard at it.

AMPS: The overdrive is simply my '73 Marshall Super Lead, a handwired model. I have a Mod/Rework I on it. The bass is thick and deep (not so tight) and the highs aren't so piercing, so that it gets somewhat of a middle singing sound w/ sustain, while still having that Marshall bang. It works well with both the single coil and humbucker settings on my guitar without adjusting anything. Uses 6CA7s.

On this amp, depending on the room , I usually have the bass on 5-8, the mid on 6-10, and both the presence and treble on 6-8. Channel I is usually maxed, with the pot pulled put, engaging the Vintage/Hot Switch into Hot mode. Channel 2 is usually around 5-8, and pulled out, engaging the Channel 2 Dual-Sound switch. Dual Master/Output level varies, but I can keep a pretty low stage volume, and still get endless sustain, then come up on solos by switching to the louder Master.

The cab is a mid-seventies Marshall 4-12 with Celestion Greenbacks, at 16 ohms. In smaller clubs, I'll use an Avatar 2-12 cab with one Celestion Greenback and one Celestion G12H30, wired to 16 ohms, in place of the 4-12.

The only effects used between the guitar and the Marshall are a Voodoo Lab Microvibe (for feeling Hendrixy) and a Ibanez Soundtank Digital Delay for extreme delay sounds, you can hear this on the note-stacking part, near the end of the tune. This unit has a very noisy power supply, so I use a separate loop with it (the C amp feed on the Lehle A/B/C switcher), to keep it out of the path, except when I actually use it.

The clean sounds are from my 70's Fender Super Reverb. It is modded, as well. It has a solid-state rectifier, and uses 6550 output tubes. The right channel is mostly stock, and the left has been revoiced for excellent overdrive, for times when I'm only using this amp, and not the Marshall with it. Otherwise, I use the Lehle A/B/C Switcher to switch between the two amps. When I'm using the clean Fender sound, it is always the right channel w/ a little reverb.

In this configuration, I use the left side on the Fender to run time-based effects from the Marshall. The way I do this, is to run a line-out signal from the Marshall (you CANNOT use a speaker jack) to a digital reverb unit, in this case, and a very inexpensive ART FXR unit. I run the ART FXR COMPLETELY WET, so that there is no dry signal, only pure reverb from the Marshall. I come out of that, and plug into the #2 input jack of the left Fender channel. UNBELIEVABLE sound.

The other effects on the board...chorus, compression, the other delay, and the Boss 7-band EQ, are all for the Fender clean sounds, the EQ for volume boost. The silver pedal with the LED but no writing on it is for switching between Masters (Dual-Master Volume) on the Marshall.

Enjoy!! Dave Bray (less info)