I figured I'd write a blog about the gear I use, as it is something I have been asked about a few times by other musicians, and the occasional sound engineer. My stage setup is very simple, as I only use an acoustic guitar, but getting my acoustic sound to a point where I am finally comfortable has taken me a while. I also like to tell the stories behind my instruments, even if nobody listens!
My main guitar is a Taylor Big Baby, which I found in my local Cash Converters a few years ago for a measly £75. They retail at around £400, so I assume they didn't know what they had. It was well played, and practically beat to shit when I bought it, but I love this guitar. It's from 2005, and has a dark stained top, which I haven't really seen on any other Big Babies. I doubt that it's rare, but I like knowing it's that little bit different. I installed an L.R. Baggs M1A soundhole pickup in this guitar, and after doing so, I don't think I will ever look past L.R. Baggs when choosing an acoustic pickup. Plugged in, this is one of the best sounding guitars I have ever owned. It's a little mid-rangey, but that actually suits my playing quite well.
My second guitar is a Farida M-26 parlor. I was looking for one of these for a little while, but the only shop locally that had one in stock didn't have it set up right, so all of the strings buzzed badly past the 4th fret, and the shop weren't in a hurry to fix it. I generally won't buy a guitar online without playing it, so I figured it would be a long while before I got hands-on with one of these Faridas, but I chanced upon one used, but in perfect condition (minus the hardcase), in a local Cash Generator for £270. Yes, I'm lucky with pawn shops. I originally put a Fishman Rare Earth humbucker soundhole pickup in the guitar, but I really didn't like the sound I was getting. If the soundhole had been big enough, I would have put an M1A in this guitar too, but instead, I recently swapped over to an L.R. Baggs Lyric system. The Lyric is actually an internal microphone, and I have yet to put it through its paces live to see how it sounds and handles feedback etc., but I have a lot of faith, and if it holds up then the Farida may become my main guitar.
Both of my acoustics are strung with Elixir strings. Nanoweb Lights on the Taylor, and Polyweb Lights on the Farida for a slightly more 'worn-in' sound. Assuming I don't break any, Elixirs last me months, without needing cleaned. My hands sweat a lot when I play, so my string choice was originally out of necessity, but I loved the bright tone of the Nanowebs on my Taylor Big Baby, so it worked out really well. The amount of money I save by using coated strings is huge.
Cables? I'm usually not fussy, but I'm currently using Klotz, and one Elixir cable that has survived about 5 years of pretty constant use.
Finally, I run through a Boss TU-2 pedal tuner onstage. I bought it in 2005, and it's an absolute workhorse. It's been kicked, dropped, had drinks spilled on it, and still works as well as when I first bought it.
So there you go. It's probably not what you would come to the website looking for, but hopefully some of you may have taken an interest. This is stuff I sometimes obsess about, and I'm sure there are others out there that can say the same!
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