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Photo by Mark Takeuchi |
Check out these equipment picks from artists featured in the November 2001, No.107 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine.
JANET
KLEIN
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Janet Klein plays a custom Tony Graziano ukulele (see Great Acoustics, page 122). On Paradise Wobble, Robert Armstrong played a c. 1930 National Style 3 tricone squareneck, a custom 1997 National ukulele that features an engraving of his own design, and a Mussel and Westphal musical saw he bought in 1969. Billy Steele played a Dell’Arte Dark Eyes, which is a reproduction of the Selmer Modele Jazz that Django Reinhardt played. Tom Marion played a Saga Selmer copy John Reynolds sold him in order to buy an engagement ring, a rare 1930s Epiphone FT-27 Masterbilt flattop, a 1929 Gibson L-4 roundhole archtop, and a tenor banjo he has since sold. —Michael Simmons Frank Vignola owns and plays a variety of acoustic and electric guitars, including a number of instruments made by acclaimed archtop builder Bob Benedetto (13103 Waterford Run Dr., Riverview, FL 33569-5732; [813] 571-0948; www.benedetto-guitars.com). On Blues for a Gypsy he used a 1985 Favino guitar made in the Selmer style preferred by most Gypsy jazz lead guitarists. "I got it in 1986 from a friend who bought it new," Vignola explains. "It’s a great guitar." The Favino has been modified with a new bridge by luthier John Monteleone (PO Box 52, Islip, NY 11751; [631] 277-3620; www.monteleone.net). Right after the Acoustic Disc session, however, Benedetto offered to build Vignola a unique Selmer-style guitar with what Vignola terms "v-holes" instead of the oval petite bouche soundhole found on most Selmer-style guitars. "I was skeptical at first that a great archtop builder like Bob could build a guitar like this," says Vignola, "but this guitar is my main ax now." He uses GHS roundwound, light-gauge nickel strings and plays with a stiff 1.14 purple Dunlop pick. Although he’s tried all kinds of pickups and internal condenser mics for stage amplification, he says, "Nothing captures the sound of an acoustic guitar like a good mic in front of it." He usually uses a Shure SM57. —David McCarty Duncan Sheik plays a collection of guitars that offer a wide range of sonic possibilities. For pure acoustic work, his main guitars are two Froggy Bottom models (Froggy Bottom, 198 Timson Hill Rd., Newfane, VT 05345; [802] 348-6665; www.froggybottomguitars.com). One is an H-12 grand concert with koa back and sides and an Engelmann spruce top, a guitar he bought off the store rack. When he commissioned the second Froggy Bottom, Sheik was seeking a vintage Gibson SJ-type sound, and luthier Michael Millard built him a dreadnought from a choice piece of ’30s Peruvian mahogany matched with Adirondack spruce. Sheik’s other instruments include a Martin 12-string (heard on Phantom Moon’s "A Mirror in the Heart"), a Martin tenor guitar from the ’30s (which, said Sheik, is louder than any guitar he owns), a National steel, an Alvarez classical, and an Alvarez baritone. On stage and in the studio, he also plays two thin-body Alvarez acoustic-electrics—a model no longer made. —Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers Snuffy Walden’s acoustic guitar collection is formidable, but he relies heavily on his 1945 Martin D-28, an Engelmann spruce and Brazilian rosewood Taylor 912C, a walnut-bodied Taylor W12C, a 12-fret Collings 000-2H, and small-bodied vintage Martins including a 1939 000-42 and a 1913 0-18. "When writing," he says, "I always use a Taylor with a Sunrise soundhole pickup run straight into some digital processors," from the Sunrise preamp into a G Force stereo guitar processor and a Gold Channel digitally enhanced stereo mic preamp, both by TC Electronic. He strings his Taylors with Elixir NanoWeb light-gauge strings. For lead work, he uses a small, heavy-gauge Clayton flatpick. Walden generally plays and writes in standard tuning or dropped D. On the new CD, he used his 1945 Martin D-28 as well as the Martin 000-42 (on "Sketches of Topanga"), a 1915 Washburn, an 1898 Martin nylon-string, and his Taylors. When recording acoustic guitars, Walden uses two Schoepps orchestral mics and a Urei 1178 stereo compressor/limiter, a combination he has depended on for over ten years. "I always use my Schoepps in an X–Y pattern and add a little compression," he says. In the electric realm, he writes and records with a Fender American Deluxe Strat. —Julie Bergman Tim Eriksen plays a Taylor 512 in various open tunings, such as C F C F F C ("Boston" and "Farewell to Old Bedford"), C F C F G C ("Mobil Serenade Polka/Shep Jones Hornpipe"), C G C F G C ("Leave Your Light On" and "I Love Music"), Bb F C F G C ("Lass of Glenshee"), and C G C D F G ("Brown Girl"). He uses phosphor-bronze strings (.017, .024, .024, .036, .046, .056) and the heaviest flatpicks he can find. His wood-and-skin banjo was made by Ellis Wolfe of Butler, Tennessee, out of a beam Wolfe’s father plucked from a barn slated to be dismantled. —Rani Arbo
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