Guitar Database

My main guitar is a Manzer "Cowpoke", built by Toronto Luthier Linda Manzer (thank you Linda!). ). This guitar is a fairly large, deep bodied 6 string with a gentle cutaway and a German spruce top inlaid with abalone and boxwood at the sound hole. I love this guitar, it has a huge dynamic range, tone and character to spare, and is supremely road worthy. I have tried many different brands of strings and finally settled on John Pearse Phosphor Bronze medium gauge strings. I like the colour that they add to the Manzers's sound and find that they are generally hardy and durable. The pickup system in the Cowpoke is a strange hodgepodge of over the counter and customised electronics which is ever changing as boredom or new products dictate.

Recently, the acoustic guitar has gone through a number of modifications in design and materials, but none more so than in the amplification department. Not too long ago the acoustic was treated like the electric guitar's younger sibling when it came to gear. As acoustic players we were always forced to wear the technological hand me downs of the electric players, the amps, effects, mics. and assorted gear that was designed for solid body instruments, keyboards and PA.s, but rarely anything designed specifically for the big resonating box that is the acoustic guitar. Nowadays things are very different as changing trends continue to keep the acoustic guitar in the spotlight, and the folks who design and produce black boxes are forever coming up with yet another gizmo to fill the demand for all things unplugged. However I still vividly recall early visits to my local music shop where I would pull a guitar off the rack and trudge across the shop floor to the amp department. Plugging an Ovation into a large Marshall head always seemed like anarchy and usually resulted in ugly blasts of feedback and threatening glares from the owners.

Over the last few years, I've worked with my buddy John Sharples (a.k.a. "The Guitar Doc") on a system that would give me a lot of gain before feedback and somehow capture or recreate an acceptable approximation of the huge warmth and vigor of my Manzer. Many's the long night we've spent installing different pickups, trying out pre-amps and hunting down ground hums in search of the elusive tone. It's a very frustrating endeavor as you probably already know, made even more impossible by the plain fact that what sounds good in somebody else's guitar might sound like shit in yours. Bearing this in mind and for what it's worth I've included my stage setup here for those who are true "tech-nerds" like myself. Be warned this is extremely boring stuff unless you are the sort of person who enjoys reading gear advertisements and making up your own cables. Do not drive or operate heavy machinery immediately after reading this.

Guild D35 (1981) I've had this old dreadnought for over 20 years. I bought it in Minneapolis from a guitar store in Dinkytown (The Music Emporium?). It was my first serious guitar and though I don't remember exactly how much I spent on it, I do remember thinking that it was some serious coin, for a dishwasher who was just starting to make a dollar playing music in the local coffeehouses. As my first professional. guitar, this guitar is very special to me, it was a solid, dependable workhorse and companion for ten tough years of baggage handlers, hot, summer workshop stages and freezing prairie tours. When I bought my Manzer Cowpoke in 1991, I was inspired by this guitar, looking for a replacement instrument that had the same sense of sonic and physical weight to it (but was built with more finesse and attention to detail). For live work, I prefer a guitar that has some heft or meatiness, an instrument that requires a little elbow grease to get it singing,. This Guild definitely has those qualities and can speak softly or roar (!) depending on the attack. Eventually though, it just couldn't take the abuse any more. I retired it in 1990 when the neck literally fell apart! After that, it sat in a case for three years (a sad reality for any guitar) until Linda Manzer was kind enough to build me a replacement neck. Alas, despite Linda's best efforts, it has never been the same and now it's a bit like the old horse that was put out to pasture (I'm too fond of her to ship her off to the glue factory!) It's a lovely old thing that deserves to be played more often than it is.

Morgan "Resophonic" This is a one-of-a-kind, wooden bodied, resonator style acoustic with a cutaway. Built by David Iannoni in Vancouver B.C., I believe this is his first (and only?) resonator style guitar. It has a very unique and warm Dobro-ish sound, but is not typical of most wooden resonator style guitars (chiefly because of it's solid top which alters the way the resonator responds). Like all of David Iannoni's instruments, this is well built and plays beautifully. It has a very percussive, woody attack and almost no decay... a sort of banjo-like sound that is very pleasing to the ear and perfect for fast finger picking. Originally commissioned by a collector on the west coast, it found it's way into my greasy mitts through the generosity of Rob Friedman (owner of Not Just Another Music Shop in Vancouver) - thanks Rob!

Harmony (REBEL)(Ca. 1965) This electric guitar was a mystery to me for years as I could not figure out what model it was. I bought it at Eddy Music in Nelson BC where it was hanging in the Not For Sale rack. I managed to talk my way out of the store with it after another customer declared it to be the ugliest guitar he'd ever seen. (Ha!) To me, it is the epitome of late sixties cool and was most definitely inspired by The Beatles and their ulta-hip Rickenbackers. Predictably it is a little murky sounding but it plays quite easily and frankly I wouldn't really have cared if it played like a baseball bat strung with dog intestines... It's cool as fuck and in gorgeous shape (it still had the little tag with the guy in a cowboy outfit playing a guitar). It's stand candy... it's for the video when I go through my rip-off-the-Beatles phase... I've strung it with medium strings (too heavy for most elec. players, but perfect for my ham fisted technique).

The Hammertone (Copy of the Vox Mandotar) 1998 A truly wonderful hybrid of a mandolin and a 12 string Telecaster! This electric guitar has a version of the classic rounded Vox body shape, two Tele. style pickups and twelve strings. What makes it really stand out is that it is strung a full octave above the standard guitar tuning, putting it in the mandolin range. It shimmers and chimes, is lovely for volume swells, cuts through the murk of even the loudest Blackie and The Rodeo Kings gig and is built for fighting off hordes of angry folkies. As it says on the little instruction sheet "This is not a toy". The Hammertone is built at the Guitar Clinic in Hamilton Ontario.

Harmony Monterey (circa 1960-64) I was given this acoustic arch top by my pal Brian denHertog (thanks Brian). It's in great shape for it's age - early sixties (?) and was,I gather, the top of the line for Harmony arch tops. A red sunburst on the machine carved top a lovely headstock logo and ingenious adjustable saddle make this a very striking guitar. The neck feels good and not as baseball bat-like as you'd think. I'm probably going to mount an old deArmond pickup right up by the neck and see how it sounds plugged in.

HARMONY SILHOUETTE (1964) I bought this guitar at Songbird Music in Toronto sometime in 1999. Once again the 'quirky' Harmony thing caught my eye. I played it at the shop for a while and realised I was holding a unique, soulful guitar... a cheap, unique, soulful guitar. These things were only about $120 new and now are rarely more than double that price (even in Canadian $$). Featuring the deArmond Golden Tone pickups, a ridiculously simple, but nonetheless effective tremolo system, and a rather fat neck that plays nicely, this electric is a great little guitar. Inspired by the Fender Jazzmaster, this is one of the low-end Silhouettes Having said that, and despite its lowly status, its capable of producing a wide variety of tones and stays in tune remarkably well. Another Harmony triumph and another bargain for those who like to pay less than $500 for a soulful, vintage guitar. OK, I'll admit it, I love Harmony guitars. I love their esthetic, their prices and above all, their tone. If you are interested in learning more about these wonderful instruments, and the company that built them, check out: www.broadwaymusicco.com It's a decent site with some very cool pictures of guitars and old catalogues. If you have a Harmony fetish, are interested in vintage cheapies, or know of a cool web site that you think might be of interest, drop me a line - I'm just learning about this stuff and am intrigued.

GIBSON SG (1971) This guitar was given to me by Andrew Paule, an old friend from my Minneapolis days, he simply said 'here, you should have this'... It's not a real fancy SG (I've seen a late 60's version of this classic Gibson design which was far more ornate and intricate) however it does boast a really good pair of humbuckers that have that lovely chiming quality and vast tonal possibilities. This is my first non-Harmony, 'classic' electric guitar and is a beautiful addition to my little gang of cheapies. Ultimately there are two things I have to do with this guitar. Remove the tremolo which is a major contributor to my tuning headaches AND learn a few AC/DC covers. This guitar with its skinny neck and double cutaway horns a is lean, mean metal machine (ha!).

HARMONY HOLIDAY (Ca. 196?) Looking very much like a cheap, bottom of the line version of the Harmony Stratotone, this Holiday is a one trick pony, with a single pickup, volume and tone control. The switch that you see beside the volume pot actually turns the tone pot off and on(!) I found this at a little out-of-the-way music store in New Hampshire, stuck on a rack amongst new Fenders, Paul Reed Smiths and reissue Danelectros...it spoke to me, actually it said 'get me out of here... NOW!' So I did.

ROCA - LA BRADONA VALENCIA Spanish 'Flamenco' style (?) It's funny how little I know about this guitar's origins or history, and yet, it has a large sentimental value for me. It is my first guitar. It was hanging on the wall of my stepfather's front room, when he and my Mother got together. I guess it was inevitable that I would take it down and start trying to figure out chords and sounds on it. This guitar was my introduction to all things guitar and to a passion that has intrigued and captivated me ever since. I learned to play everything from Bach to The Beatles. Homeward Bound to Romanza and Air on a G string and still enjoy it's sound, that peculiar (to steel string players) sonority and timbre that you can only get from gut strings. It's not very well made and is in need of some repairs...one of these days... maybe I'll get to record something with it.

Guitar resources – Tell Them I Sent You

Avenue Guitars - Edmonton, Alberta
Another sad story of broken guitars and a skilled repair man. Brian at Avenue Guitars has helped me out of a jam on numerous occasions. Avenue also has a very good inventory of new and vintage instruments, amps effects etc. (although the vintage stuff can be a leeeeetle bit pricey). I definitely recommend stopping in to try out some great examples of classic instruments and heartily endorse their repair work. While your'e there, you might as well stop next door to Dadeo’s for some gumbo.

Calton Cases – Moncton, New Brunswick
Here in Canada, it is a sad truth that all guitars have to travel underneath the plane with al the other baggage. Because of this, all my guitars travel in Calton Cases. As far as I know, Calton make the best instrument cases in the world. They're not cheap, but then again, neither is a major repair after Air Canada has done what they do all too often. If you travel, it will happen to you eventually (like death and taxes). At some point, your prized guitar or bouzouki will get the living shite kicked out of it by a baggage handler or some other troglodyte. If your baby is in a Calton Case, you can at least be assured that it'll stand a much better chance of making it home in one piece. Go to their web site and check out the testimonials, or simply keep an eye open at the next major festival you attend... how many Calton Cases can you count?

(How do you know if you are an Air Canada baggage handler? Lock yourself in a padded room with a bowling ball. If you lose or break the ball, you should be working for Air Canada.)

Capsule Music - Toronto, Ontario
Capsule is Toronto's coolest place for vintage acoustic and electric guitars, amps, etc... at very decent prices. They also do excellent repair work on both guitars and amps AND they sometimes have exceedingly cool cowboy shirts for sale. Staffed almost entirely (I think) by working musicians, this is another great store to kill a couple of hours in tuning the inventory. The first time I darkened Capsule's door, I had to step over a sleeping mutt, which was sprawled in front of the cash register. That's my kind of guitar store - Cowboy shirts and dogs - Definitely worth a visit.

Folkway Music - Guelph, Ontario
Folkway is a great resource in the heart of Guelph Ontario. When I lived there, I spent many happy hours tuning and playing instruments that I had mostly only seen in books or down in the US. A few years ago I walked in off the street to buy some strings and there was the Harmony H75 that I had been searching for, ever since seeing Luke Doucette playing one in Portland Oregon many years previous. I did an immediate 180 and went home for my cheque book. I still play that guitar every night I am onstage with B&RK . Folkway boasts a stellar collection of rare and beautiful vintage acoustic instruments and some interesting electrics and amplifiers, an excellent repair shop, an ongoing concert series specialising in international touring artists, and a burgeoning teaching dept. Folkway does it all. Guelphites are very lucky to have such a fine store in their little town.I recommend a visit if you're passing through in person, or on the web. Prices are a little on the steep side, but quality is excellent. Oh, and Folkway stocks Newtone Strings!

The Twelfth Fret - Toronto, Ontario
One of the most well known music shop in Toronto amongst both professional and amateur players alike. Funnily enough, I've never been in this store, but wanted to mention it for two reasons.

1. 12th Fret is definitely worth checking out for its inventory of high-end acoustic and electric instruments, both new and vintage, but also for it's reputation as a great repair shop and a place to get custom-built instruments.
2. The 12th Fret is the Canadian distributor of Newtone Strings (sustained applause!). Newtone are hand made strings from Derbyshire, England. For those of you who don't know these beauties, see if your local store can order them in for you. They cost roughly the same as your average Pearse or D'Addarios, but blow them all out of the water. I could go on about them at length, but instead direct you to their website for more info. I use them on all my acoustics and electrics.

Glaser Instruments -Nashville, Tennessee
Joe Glaser is one of the best guitar repair guys in N. America, no contest. Now there’s a statement that is hard to prove, but judging by his client list I’m not the only one who thinks so. Last time I was in his shop there was a phone number scribbled on the white board with P. McCartney underneath… presumably Macca goes with the best also. Being the Nashville guy means that Joe works on a lot of vintage and high-end acoustic and electric instruments, and not just guitars either. Joe also has two of the Plek Fret dressing machines which are remarkable and rather than me trying to describe what they do, you should just go check out the web site. In a nutshell, they dress frets better and more consistently than the best guitar repair guy in N. America!

OK, so maybe you’re headed to Nashville with your band or on a holiday or something. If your lovely axe needs a fret dress or a tune-up, bring it in to see Joe and this machine. I promise that you will thank me. Call ahead to make an appointment.

Tech Talk

Recently, the acoustic guitar has gone through a number of modifications in design and materials, but none more so than in the amplification department. Not too long ago the acoustic was treated like the electric guitar's younger sibling when it came to gear. As acoustic players we were always forced to wear the technological hand me downs of the electric players, the amps, effects, mics. and assorted gear that was designed for solid body instruments, keyboards and PA.s, but rarely anything designed specifically for the big resonating box that is the acoustic guitar. Nowadays, things are very different as changing trends continue to keep the acoustic guitar in the spotlight, and the folks who design and produce black boxes are forever coming up with yet another gizmo to fill the demand for all things unplugged. However I still vividly recall early visits to my local music shop where I would pull a guitar off the rack and trudge across the shop floor to the amp department. Plugging an Ovation into a large Marshall head always seemed like anarchy and usually resulted in ugly blasts of feedback and threatening glares from the owners.

My main guitar is a Manzer "Cowpoke", built by Toronto Luthier Linda Manzer (thank you Linda!). ). This guitar is a fairly large, deep bodied 6 string with a gentle cutaway and a German spruce top inlaid with abalone and boxwood at the sound hole. I love this guitar, it has a huge dynamic range, tone and character to spare, and is supremely road worthy. I have tried many different brands of strings and finally settled on John Pearse Phosphor Bronze medium gauge strings. I like the colour that they add to the Manzers's sound and find that they are generally hardy and durable. The pickup system in the Cowpoke is a strange hodgepodge of over the counter and customised electronics which is ever changing as boredom or new products dictate.

Over the last few years, I've worked with my buddy John Sharples (a.k.a. "The Guitar Doc") on a system that would give me a lot of gain before feedback and somehow capture or recreate an acceptable approximation of the huge warmth and vigor of my Manzer. Many's the long night we've spent installing different pickups, trying out pre-amps and hunting down ground hums in search of the elusive tone. It's a very frustrating endeavor as you probably already know, made even more impossible by the plain fact that what sounds good in somebody else's guitar might sound like shit in yours. Bearing this in mind and for what it's worth I've included my stage setup here for those who are true "tech-nerds" like myself. Be warned this is extremely boring stuff unless you are the sort of person who enjoys reading gear advertisements and making up your own cables. Do not drive or operate heavy machinery immediately after reading this.

Stage Equipment

My current amplification rig is a dual pickup/internal microphone setup. The pickup is a Takamine piezo bridge pickup (individual piezo crystals set in ceramic) which is still one of the best pickups out there if you can find one that's not attached to a Tak. guitar. The microphone is an Audio Technica ATM35 , which is internally mounted against the back of the guitar under and facing away from the sound hole. In the past I've used a simple RadioShack "tie clip" mic and also a Countryman Isomax Omnidirectional, they've all worked well more or less, but the Audio Technica seems to have more gain before feedback (this is crucial for those who refuse to stuff their guitar with foam) and can handle the sound pressure levels inside an acoustic guitar with more grace than either of the other two. The pickup is pre-amped through a customised Countryman type 85 direct box module (which is basically the guts of a Countryman D.I. mounted with Velcro to the neck block of the guitar). Both the D.I. (pre-amp) and the mic. take phantom power (no 9-volt batteries to deal with!) which is fed to each individual unit via two 3-pin XLR cables (common mic. cables). The XLR cables work well in that each signal is individually shielded and balanced. Also, mic. cables "lock" and will not pull out of your guitar if stepped on (unlike standard quarter inch guitar cables), plus they are usually easier to find at a gig if you leave yours at home.

The Mic./Pickup signals are then fed into input strips 1 and 2 of a Mackie Microseries 1202 mixer (the first four input strips of a Mackie 1202 have excellent mic. pre-amps, balanced inputs and can supply phantom power). At this point the two signals are run through one side each of a Rane ME15 (dual fifteen band equalizer) and then through a Beringer Feedback Destroyer (dual 12 band parametric eq/anti feedback filters) via the Mackie's insert points. Unfortunately the Mackie's on board eq'ing is very limited (bass and treble only) so this means that an external eq. is essential, especially for the internal mic. which is prone to feedback and requires a fair bit of shaping at the best of times. The Beringer was added to the chain fairly recently, to deal with the problem frequencies that are not covered by the graphic eq.

The Takamine pickup signal is then sent via the Mackie's aux. 1sent to an Ernie Ball Volume Pedal (on the floor beside my vocal mic. stand) then back to an Alesis Quadraverb (four separate effects in one rack mount unit), where the signal has chorus, reverb, delay etc.. added in greater or lesser amounts. The signal leaves the Quadraverb in stereo and comes back into the Mackie board via two different input strips. By bringing the processed pickup signal back to the Mackie through new input strips rather than through aux. 1 return, I can further shape the signal by eq'ing the effects. I can also take advantage of the Quadraverb's stereo effects through the Mackie's pan controls. At this point the two unprocessed signals (internal mic. and pickup) and the two processed signals (stereo outs from the Quadraverb) are mixed down to stereo left and right and sent via the patch bay atthe back of my rack to the front of house soundboard (the patch bay has ground lift switches which can save the day in ancient halls with old wiring and a cranky sound tech). Many years ago I realised that a monitor which is eq'd for the human voice does not necessarily make sonic sense for an acousitc guitar (if the voice sounds bright and present, the guitar sounds thin - if the guitar sounds full and deep, the voice sounds muddy) so it never really made sense to have my guitar and voice coming back at me through the same set of monitor wedges. Since many folk clubs will laugh out loud at you if you request two monitor mixes and four monitors for one performer, I decided to take matters into my own hands and travel with my own power amp (a Carver PT1250 which is a good amp backed up by excellent customer service and speedy repair shop work when necessary) and monitors (2 x 12 inch coaxial Radians which I've had for 8 trouble-free years) dedicated to the guitar only, the club provides the vocal monitors. This method works out really well, with the only drawback being the inevitable "I thought we'd hired an acoustic performer not Eddie Van Halen hahahah ha" (they usually stop snickering when you plug all the shit in and deliver a huge warm acoustic sound - provided all the gear works of course! ahem) At this point I have done all I can, and my precious guitar signal is out of my hands as far as the audience is concerned. OK so this is quite excessive, we'd all agree on that, however I justify it with the following philosophy - Tone is the king and if your guitar sound sucks then you will probably play accordingly... nothing bums me out more than a lousy guitar sound, it's as bad as losing your voice... electric guitarists have known this for years, but for some reason many acoustic players seem content with thin, reedy, piezo pickup-and-a-DI-box sound. As a solo-singer/songwriter, you've only got a few tools to work with, might as well make them all as good as possible no?

The only other pieces of gear I currently use on stage for my acoustic guitar, are a Boss Midi Pedal, a Boss TU12 tuner and a boss Tremolo/Pan PN2 pedal. The midi pedal is connected to the Quadraverb and is for shifting between effect presets on the fly. The tuner is connected to an extra output jack I had wired into my volume pedal. The tremolo is one of those "use sparingly to great effect" pedals. I try not to use batteries for any of my gear as they have a habit of draining during a show, I also try to keep everything as compact as possible. Right now all my gear fits into a few modest aluminum road cases which are just under the wire for airline weight restrictions (I'm happy to pay excess baggage, but overweight is a killer on the wallet). My guitars travel in their Calton Cases as built by Al Williams and his crew in Calgary, Alberta. These cases are tough and quite light due to the fiberglass exterior shell. The insides are made with crushed velvet and high density foam rubber which is contoured to the exact shape of your guitar providing excellent support and cushioning.

OK, so there you have it. There are so many other ways to achieve "a sound" with more, less, or different gear, but so far this is what works for me.

Odds & Sods

I've managed to figure a way to make my electric guitars sound decent coming through my acoustic rig, (which is basically just a glorified small PA system) by running them through a Hughes & Kettner "Tubeman" one of many tube pre-amps on the market for just such a purpose. Being in Blackie and The Rodeo Kings means playing onstage with one of the finest electric guitarists in the kingdom - Mr. Colin Linden. Colin has a truly superb grasp of tone and the kind of soul one can coax out of vintage electric gear... my job is to come up with a sound that will complement without having to carry two separate rigs for my acoustic and electric playing (even I have my gear limits), The Tubeman is a good compromise for a real amp. andif I run my electrics through an old MXR Dynacomp (compression pedal) it works even better. Other things to consider include an E-Bow and a willingness to experiment with the Quadraverb... (When in doubt, play a dark chord and wiggle the neck).

When I snap my fingers, you will awaken... you will go directly to your basement and dig out that old Echoplex you've been hanging onto... you will offer to sell me the Echoplex for $100 and a rare hard to find copy of The Yellow Tape...

SNAP*