Five Fingers

I realized after looking at the photo of my studio that I should mention the Tascam recording deck.

After working with software-based recording (ProTools) on my MacBook Pro, I found it to be a pain-in-the ass for the way I work. The laptop, the mouse, the external hard-drive, and the audio interface were just too unwieldy for me: too many cables and precious little space to put everything together.

The Tascam deck is all in one, portable, sets up quickly, and I can export the audio files to the computer when I need to later. Plus, I’m old-school when it comes to recording: I just like the physicality of turning those knobs and moving the faders.

Of course having electric guitars isn’t fully meaningful without some discussion of amplification and effects. So, here are mine.

This little Fender amp was purchased a few years ago when I needed a portable amplifier for a couple of gigs I had. A great little amp for practice or (very) small venues. This model has a nice clean tone but it also has built-in effects and emulation settings. While these can be nice, I find them unnecessary for what I need. Oddly these days if you only want a nice clean amp with just volume, bass, midrange, and treble controls you need to spend a few more bucks. Still a nice little amp.

Rare these days to find any guitarist that doesn’t use at least one effects pedal. For some of the music I’m doing, I wanted some versatility in “dressing up” the sound. I decided that this all-in-one floor unit by Boss would suit my needs best. It holds about 350 different effects settings (out of which I probably use less than 10%) but the cost was much less than buying several pedals and daisy-chaining them all together.

It’s a very convenient unit that I have barely scratched the surface with.

Speaking of barely scratching the surface, here is my other favorite little electronic toy. The Echoplex provides many options with looping – mostly in a live performance. More about that another time.

This is a powerful tool with a difficult manual but I’m working my way through the options.

Those are the tools and here is what they all look like in my studio space.

My collection of basses has dwindled over the years as my band days are behind me. The bass guitar will always be extremely important because that is what I played in various bands since my freshman year of high school. I learned early on that a good bass player will always be in demand no matter what the style. Usually given second-rate status by most, playing the bass brought me “that close” to earning a living playing music.

The Rickenbacker I have had since 1973 (!). This little beauty earned me quite a bit of cash by providing me with my spending money throughout college and well into the 1980s. I purchased this because of my love for Chris Squire (Yes) and Roger Glover (Deep Purple) and the unique sound it produced. This always had a great sound and unbelievably great action. My guitar-playing friends always loved this one. Right now it sits quietly in its case as the electronics are shot. I’m hoping to get it out for repair later this summer. Of all the purchases and subsequent trade-ins, I never want to part with this one – ever.

The Ibanez was recommended to me by a good friend who worked at the music store where I purchased it. For the life of me, i cannot remember when that was. This particular model was a limited edition so I figure it was purchased in the early ’90s. This has a great range of tones, great to play, and has the active pickups which allowed me to “pop” (so popular at the time.) This was my last gigging bass and took me through a couple of my last rock bands and then (my all-time favorite ensemble) an experimental music group. This too is a keeper.

They may only have four strings (although you can get them with five or even six strings) but the bass guitar is an integral part of the rhythm section in any form of music.