EQUIPMENT PICKS FROM PAT MACDONALD, ISAAC GUILLORY, JOHN WESLEY HARDING, BEPPE GAMBETTA, AND CHRIS PROCTOR
recorded most of his new release on a 1959 Martin D-28, which he bought used in 1970. "It's a really, really nice guitar," he says. "Over the years, I have had so many people pick it up and say that it's the best-sounding acoustic they have ever played. It's pretty beat up, and I am not proud to say I don't really take good care of it. I carry it around in a soft gig bag and take it on planes with me, rather than check it with baggage."
When fingerpicking, MacDonald uses his nails. When flatpicking he uses a Tortex medium-heavy (green) pick. He strings his guitars with D'Addario phosphor-bronze mediums (.013&endash;.056) because he tunes his guitar down at least one whole step. MacDonald has a Barcus-Berry pickup in his guitar but uses it just for plugging into a tuner. When he tours, he plays on a Gibson Chet Atkins steel-string acoustic. "That thing tuned down with the medium strings delivers an awesome guitar sound, which really works in clubs," he says. When touring solo, MacDonald also travels with a chunk of plywood he calls his "stomper board" because he attaches a mic to it and stomps on it. "Depending on the PA," he says, "you can get a kind of thunderous sound with a heel-to-toe motion, which is really getting the most mileage out of what you do while you play anyway!"
--James Jensen
plays a Martin D-35S equipped with a Highlander pickup and a Sony ECM-66 microphone in the soundhole. The signals go through two custom-built tube preamps into a reconditioned valve amp. "For years the Martin just lay in its case," Guillory says. "I refused to fit a pickup to it. I just couldn't butcher such a fine instrument. I bought other guitars instead for the gigs that had to be amplified. Finally times have changed, and the technology now allows me to plug in my 'real' guitar without destroying it or its sound."
--Chris Mosey
beams when he lifts his gray RainSong graphite dreadnought off a peg on his living room wall and sits down with it in his kitchen. "It's my new guitar and I love it," he says proudly. "It's made in Hawaii and there's no wood in it at all. The company gave it to me to try out, and it's been very successful for me. It sounds dynamite live. This is a guitar where the sound man at a gig comes up and says, 'That's a great-sounding guitar.' Plus, it's a great touring guitar because it won't chip." The RainSong, made by Kuau Technology (PO Box 578, Puunene, HI 96784-1031; [808] 879-0434) has a Fishman under-the-saddle piezoelectric pickup installed.
Harding also owns several Takamine acoustic guitars (equipped with Takamine pickups), including an NP25C model and his favorite, a large cutaway model EN-20, which he keeps in the studio. "It's my main guitar, but it's pretty beat up," he says. "It's embarrassing. But I love it so much that I called the Takamine factory to order another one. They said I was in luck because they had 20 more. But the next day they rang me up and told me that my luck had changed. Garth Brooks had bought them all."
Harding also owns a couple of Alvarez 12-string guitars (model DC1) as well as a Fender Telecaster "just in case I want to make a loud noise." He uses a Fender Twin Reverb amp for the electric but doesn't bother with amps for his acoustic guitars. "When I perform live, I use a little buffering preamp that makes my Takamine sound better. It's just a black piece of metal with the name rubbed off from heavy use."
Other Harding essentials include Dunlop 88 picks and a Hohner harmonica. He uses medium-gauge Dean Markley strings, which, he reports, he doesn't break as often as he once did. "I'm playing softer these days," he says.
--Dan Ouellette
workhorse guitar is a Taylor 810, which is equipped with a Fishman Matrix pickup. For more intimate settings, he prefers to perform without amplification. He plays with a .93 mm Dunlop pick and Pirazzi medium-gauge strings. Gambetta also plays a ten-string harp guitar, an eight-string bouzouki-guitar made by Heiner Driezehnter, a seven- string guitar by Antonello Saccu, and a 12-string by Albert Müller.
--Kermit Pattison
"main" guitars are Taylors. When touring, he typically brings along a grand concert-sized Taylor (usually a 912) sporting a cutaway, an extra-wide neck, and two pickups: a Fishman SBT soundboard transducer and a Sunrise magnetic pickup in the soundhole (Sunrise Pickup Systems, 8101 Orion Ave., Unit 19, Van Nuys, CA 91406; [818] 448-8018). The signals exit the instrument through a stereo cable and are set up via a rack-mounted Rane 815 stereo preamp/EQ especially designed for acoustic guitars (Rane Corp, 10802 47th Ave. W., Mukilteo, WA 98275-5000; [602] 355-6000). Proctor's road rack also includes a Roland SE50 multi-effects unit, which he operates with a foot pedal.
Only Now was recorded with four of Proctor's Taylor guitars: a K12-C koa grand concert, a 912-C Brazilian rosewood grand concert, a 912-C made with Indian rosewood, and a 955-C jumbo 12-string crafted from German maple.
Proctor's preferred strings are phosphor-bronze GHS True Mediums, which are gauged especially for open tunings (actually, they're at optimal tension when the guitar is in D A D G A D tuning). From bottom to top, they spec out at .056, .042, .032, .024, .013, .011. His right thumb sports a Dunlop thumbpick, and his fingers are fitted with plastic aLaska Piks (307 S. 18th St., Maries, ID 83861; [208] 245-2868). "I like the fact that you can experiment with the lengths of them and the lack of clicking," Proctor says. The aLaska Piks are a switch from the metal fingerpicks he used for many years in the past.
Proctor creates one of his signature sounds with the EBow (Heet Sound Products, 611 Ducommun St., Los Angeles, CA 90012; [213] 687-9946), which is essentially a handheld, battery-powered electromagnet that can coax very un-guitarlike sounds out of a guitar. EBows are mostly used by electric guitarists for special effects. "It's an odd thing to have a signature for," Proctor says with just a trace of pride.
Proctor first encountered the device at a NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) show more than a decade ago. "This little lightbulb went off," he recalls. "I knew it was an electric toy, but it made strings move, so why wouldn't it work on an acoustic? I found it a really neat addition to the guitar's tonal palette, because there's nothing else you can do for sustain. You can actually start out quietly and get louder.
"The trick is figuring how to hold the EBow so you can play bass lines," Proctor continues. Actually, that's not the only trick to getting pleasing, musical sounds out of an EBow on an acoustic guitar with bronze-wound strings, but the other tricks are Proctor trade secrets known only to him and his students.
Another piece of hardware Proctor often uses with the EBow is a Third Hand capo, a partial capo that increases his flexibility, enabling him to get drone strings in the bass while playing his stately EBowed melody lines on the higher strings (Third Hand Capos, PO Box 4662, Portsmouth, NH 03802; [207] 363-7263).
--Todd Ellison
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