Jim W. Garrison

This Tele is way different from any other Tele I have ever played. It feels old school but the trem lends it a different kind of feel. It sounds perfect for those spaghetti western guitar tones.

I own a partscaster clone of the early ash bodied 1956 Duo Sonic. It's an exact replica of the original 1956 Duo Sonic and even has the gold anodized aluminum pickguard. However unlike the original Duo Sonic my clone has nickel hardware and Zexcoil pickups. I use the Zexcoil Z-Core 5 Vintage Underwound pickup at the neck and Z-Core 5 Vintage Hot pickup at the bridge. I use the Rutters La Burrito 3-saddle bridge in it with compensated brass saddles and the tuning duties are handled by Kluson Supreme tuners. Back when I assembled this guitar those MIM Offset Series Fender Duo Sonic guitars weren't released by Fender and I was unwilling to hunt for an original vintage 1956 Duo Sonic guitar. It's a great sounding guitar and it sounds excellent though my Fender Hot Rod Deville. Its short scale makes bending notes almost effortless, and it has a rock solid tuning stability.

The quality of this guitar surprised me in numerous ways. In terms of fit and finish, it feels like something lot pricier, and it sounds beautiful. Some people say that they're good for their price, I'll say they are great guitars irrespective of their price. If I need to nitpick stuff, I would have preferred more ornamented inlay work, the inlay on this guitar is a bit too minimalistic for my tastes.

In its stock state this amp sounds absolutely horrible. In the stock state the overdrive channel is plain pathetic. It sounds overtly buzzy and the low end is loose in a bad way. Even the reverb sounds bad, it completely swamps the signal and it doesn't sound full at all. At first I thought that there's some problem with my amp because I bought it used, but I later tried a completely new one at my local Guitar Store and it too had the same problems. I was about to give up on this amp but then I went though few forums and read about some mods to improve the tonality of this amp. First I replaced the V1 tube with a 12AY7. The difference it made to the sound of the amp was remarkable. Gone was the harsh nature of this amp. The cleans now sound like a Bassman and the overdrive now sounds smooth. It goes from a Bassman like overdrive to a totally unique hot-rodded Bassman style overdrive. Thanks to that small mod it now sounds like a hot-rodded Bassman. Another mod I did was the Steve Dallman Reveb mod. It was really easy to do, all I did was to clip the R103 resistor out from the circuit. This removed the treble bypass on the reverb. I also replaced the stock 2-spring reverb tank with a MOD 9EB3C1B 3-spring tank. Now the reverb sounds rich, lush and huge. I also replaced the speakers with Jupiter Condenser Co. 10LA alnico speakers. The degree upto which it improved the sound of my amp was phenomenal. They even sound great for overdriven tones. With these mods this amp sounds even better than many top tier amps. As for its effects loop, it's a buffered effects loop but it ain't tube buffered. It's buffered with TL072 op-amps. It works fine though.

I picked up this amp from a local pawn shop for around $200. It's a tweed Princeton clone with 10" Weber 10A100 speaker. Surprisingly this amp is handwired, and its cabinet is made from real pine instead of cheap MDF. I tried to look more about these amps, and from what I read about them online, these amps are made overseas and are sold re-branded by different sellers. The speakers on mine don't appear to be stock, from what I have read about these amps they didn't come stock with Weber speakers, looks like the previous owner had them replaced. It sounds like a good old Fender tweed amp and works great as a practice amp or for recording stuff at home. However, it's just a puny little 5-watt amp, I don't use it for live gigs.

If you swear by AER amps then try this beast and you'll be awestruck. It's hands down one of the most transparent sounding acoustic guitar amp money can buy. It has a really open sound which lets the qualities of your guitar shine. Other than that the onboard chorus and reverb effects are top-notch. It's truly a gem of an amp.

If you want the most accurate and best quality clone of the vintage Chicago Jensen P10N speakers then go for these speakers. They nail the tone of the old made in Chicago P10N speakers. With these speakers my Hot Rod Deville not only sounds sweeter but it also sounds louder than before.

These speakers came loaded in the Sonic Pipe Tweedtone 10 I picked up from our local pawn shop. The previous owner of that amp put them in there. All I can say about them is that they produce that good old smooth and sweet tweed amp sound. They have smooth cones that break up pretty fast and lend that little amp a nice, smoky, warm, and woody tone.

After years of trying to get used to the AMT Electronics WH-1 wah I realised that pedal is just ins't made for me. No return spring, overtly diminutive size. That thing was utterly unusable. I finally made up my mind and switched to this wah pedal and good lord I'm glad I did so. To say that this pedal is an improvement will be an understatement. This pedal is just marvellous. It uses top tier components, the return system works damn smooth. Its frequency response is just prefect, it's vocal, bit nasal but everything is there in perfect amount. It does cost high but it's worth every dollar.

I switched to this pedal from my AMT Electronics LLM-2 volume pedal. The LLM-2 was utterly unusable due to its impractically small size. This pedal is flawless. It has the smoothest sweep among all volume pedals. I enabled the fuzz compatibility mode on it and now it works like a charm with my fuzz pedal. It uses top grade components. The folks at Mission Engineering haven't compromised with any stuff on this pedal. Another notable stuff is its buffer, it's the most transparent buffer I've ever heard on a buffered volume pedal. No tonal coloration, zero noise. This pedal is perfect. When set to operate in fuzz compatibility mode it operates at an output impedance of 10K Ohm. Another unique stuff about it is that its output jack is a TRS jack. Due to that reason I'm able to use it a expression pedal for my Uni-Vibe without the 2 x TS to TRS converter cable.

After reading all the rave reviews about this tuner pedal I decided to pull the trigger on it and I have to say that this pedal lives upto those rave reviews. Its accuracy is unlike any other tuner pedal. Even those Peterson tuner pedal look pale compared to this pedal However the thing that surprised me the most is its tracking speed. This pedal tracks in realtime which is impossible to do with DSPs. So I opened up this pedal and what I saw truly surprised me. This pedal doesn't use a DSP to measure your tuning. It uses the analog signal from your guitar to directly drive a LED array stroboscope. It basically a LED array based analog strobe tuner stuffed in a pedal.

It's the best OTA compressor in its price range. I went for the Sweetwater edition purely because it looks cooler. However in terms of sound and functionality it's same as the normal Keeley 4-knob Compressor Plus pedal.

It's a Fuzz Face clone that uses the iconic low gain NKT275 transistors just like the original Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face. It cleans up real good and it also has additional Bias and Smooth knobs to further tune its tone. At just $170 it pack a serious bang for the buck

It's the most lush sounding vibrato and chorus pedal. However for the price they can add few more controls like a low and high knob and an expression pedal jack.

Both the bias and harmonic tremolo settings sound excellent. It's almost as good as real amp trems.

I bought it used and it was kinda pricey even for a used pedal but it's worth every penny. It sounds excellent and it's a stereo Uni-Vibe pedal. It has expression pedal port to control its speed and despite of all those goodies it's pretty compact.

This bucket brigade flanger blows even pricier flanger pedals into weeds. The numerous wave shapes make it the most versatile flanger money can buy.

This pedal sounds damn close to a real Binson Echorec. With this pedal I am able to get that cool Hank Marvin style guitar tones.

It has just one knob, it's easy to set-up and it doesn't suck your tone.

This microphone sounds very different from modern microphones. The best description of its sound will be a bit lo-fi and full of character. Anything recorded with it sounds like it was recorded in the good old times. It's a microphone with lots of character, and when I mean a lot, I mean a truckload of character. It's tough to describe it in words, it's like this microphone does some sort of magic to the recordings. They're tough to find these days, and their Cannon UA-3-11 cables are tough to find too, but if you find one of these microphones then grab them before anyone else does. This is a microphone you won't like to miss.

For those who have no idea about the B&O microphones from the '50s this microphone will remind them of the Royer R121. Yes indeed, they are similar because both of them are based on old B&O BM3, and BM4 microphones but that's where the similarity ends. Here's a thing about the Royer R121. It not only requires lesser gain than the B&O microphones, but it also solved the issue pertaining to the proximity effect on the B&O microphones. This made it a far more suitable microphone for close miking than the B&O microphones, but in doing so it lost a lot of things that made those B&O microphones great. First was the mid-range, although the Royer R121 retained the clarity in the mid-range just like the B&O, it lost the three dimensional feel of the B&O microphone. The next thing is the high end, for some reason the high end of the R121 lost the clarity and extension that the B&O microphones used to possess and it became harsher. The third thing is the low end, although I do agree that B&O microphones were more prone to proximity effect, nevertheless they had a very clean low end response, unfortunately the low end response of the R121 is rather choppy and hollow. So, this is where the Extinct Audio 'Black Ops' shines. It combines the best qualities of the old B&O ribbon microphones with the modern functionality of Royer R121. It perfectly preserves the clear and three dimensional sounding mid-range of the old B&O ribbon microphones. It high end is as clean, and extended as the old B&O microphones. As of its low end, it's as clean as the old B&O ribbon microphones. However, at the same time just like the Royer R121 it ain't prone to the proximity effect and it too requires less gain to drive than the old B&O microphones. I ain't sure how the guys at Extinct Audio have done it, but the Black Ops avoids proximity effect without being choppy and hollow in the low end. This microphone is everything that the Royer R121 should have been, and by all means a far better successor to the old B&O ribbon microphones than the Royer R121. If you're looking for a Royer R121 alternative then don't even think twice, get this microphone. As for all B&O BeoMic fans out there who want a modern take on their favorite microphone, this microphone is made far y'all folks.

One of the best AKG C12 clones out there. It has the signature airy but smooth sound of the classic AKG C12. Just like the C12 this microphone is bright, present but at the same time not harsh at all. It's tough to describe its tonal quality, no other microphone sounds like a C12. The market is flooded with Neumann U47 and U67 clones but I think I am that one odd guy who likes the C12 more than the U47 and U67, and hence I like this microphone.

If I need to describe the sound of this mic in one word it'll be colossal. I ain't kidding when I say it sounds huge, it sounds effin huge. I have compared it next to vintage RCA 44BX and even the new AEA R44C and not only the low-end but also the low-mids, and mids of the SR-1A sounds bigger than those microphones. It also has a creamier high-end response than those microphones. Think of vintage ribbon microphone sound on steroids, that's what the tonality of SR-1A is. When used as a rear microphone for my guitar amp it lends excellent three-dimensional depth to the guitar tone, and when used for recording cleans it lends nice creaminess and depth to the cleans. Stager has surely hit it out of the ballpark with this microphone, this new ribbon microphone curb stomps some of the most coveted vintage ribbon microphones.

I keep this microphone as my back-up microphone. I tend to use it in venues where I find it unsafe to use my vintage EV-666 microphone. Now let me be clear, it doesn't have even an ounce of character that my old and trusty EV has but it works pretty well. This microphone is one of those things which you buy just because they're cheap and then you realize that it's actually a good product. When I ordered it from Sweetwater, I expected it to be some sort of cheaply built made in China microphone but when I received the package and opened it up I realized that this little mic is made in Japan, not to mention it's ruggedly built too. In terms of tonality, it's close to a Shure SM57 but it has a smoother mid-range. I lent it to a few of my mates who use the SM57 and to my surprise all of them liked it more than their SM57s. Considering the fact that it's just a cheap $69 microphone I'm quite impressed by what it does.

I received this microphone as a Christmas gift. Let me start with something positive, it sounds more or less same as a Beyerdynamic M160, and hence work excellent for recording guitars. But, everything goes downhill from there. Due to its odd shape it is tricky to mount. Its mounting platform is nowhere as sturdy as that of Royer R121 or Extinct Audio Black Ops. Although it has the sound signature of the M160, but it misses out on all other qualities that made the M160 such a practical choice when it came to ribbon microphones. First of all unlike the M160, this microphone is uses figure-8 polar pattern, so it's nowhere as easy to position as the M160, and due to its odd mount it's nowhere as convenient to use as the M160. I highly doubt if it is anywhere as durable as the M160. I can't fathom how people in reviews have raved it as being better than the R121, because honestly it's more or less a M160 knockoff with an uglier design, questionable durability and none of the practicality. Its only saving grace is that it offers the M160 tonality at half the price.

I use the Zexcoil ZVU5 Z-Core 5 Vintage Underwound pickup at the neck and ZVN5 Z-Core 5 Vintage pickup at the bridge. The real reason I went for them was that they're one of the few good quality noiseless pickups out there with covers and so they look great on my Duo Sonic. However truth be told the first time I tried them in my guitar I was blown away by them. They sound exactly same as true single coils but they don't have the 60-cycle hum of true single coils. These pickups are perfect.

I was kinda apprehensive about these pickups because they're noiseless and noiseless pickups never sound like real single coil, but damn. These pickups rule. They are a major improvement over the stock pickups of my Tokai Tele. I'm not sure how those blokes at Mojotone did it but these puppies have that old school Broadcaster sound without any hum.

I have always been a fan of the Fender 351 pick shape. I started learning to play guitar on Fender 351 celluloid picks, then switched to these picks. These picks are made of Delrin and their texture reminds you a lot of Dunlop Tortex picks. Not only they last longer than the celluloid picks but they also have less string noise. They don't produce that annoying click that you hear from celluloid picks. These picks are often sold by retailers with all kinds of weird logos on them. Some of them have the logo of the Sign of Horns, others have the logo of Hard Rock Hotel, etc. The local seller from whom I buy my picks sells them without any customization though, they just have the plain jane Fender logo and the thickness of the pick written under it.

I use this adapter so as to use normal XLR cables with my old Electro-Voice EV-666. The Electro-Voice EV-666 originally used to use Cannon UA-3-11 cables which are really tough to find these days. Although I do have the original Cannon UA-3-11 cable, I never use that cable for live gigs, it's an original vintage cable and I can't risk using it live. For live gigs, this adapter is a huge lifesaver.

When I bought this pedal I expected it to be yet another mediocre low end wah pedal but holy moly color me surprised this little thing packs a serious bang for the buck. It sounds better than VOX and Dunlop wah pedals. If that ain't enough it's also true bypass, it doesn't do any monkey business with your tone when it's off. It does have its quirks though. First quirk is that it's small even by mini wah standards, heck even a Dunlop Mini Cry Baby is bigger than this little guy. So it takes time to get used to its diminutive size. Second quirk is that it's a springless wah, I've never used a springless wah before, so to me it does feel funny to use. Edit: This wah is utterly unusable. It's just way too small for real world usage. Due to its size it's almost impossible to control. And here's the deal, a springless wah just doesn't work right. I'm taking off my 2 stars. This wah pedal is outright flawed by design.

For me it was either this pedal of the Carbon Copy. I went for this one because it offers additional options and hence is more versatile. It also uses the ol' trusty MN3005 chips which sound warmer than the BL3208 chips used on Carbon Copy.

It's a decent quality buffered volume pedal and due to its 10K Ohm impedance it actually fuzz compatible. With my fuzz after it I can roll down the volume with it to clean up my signal. It also works great as an expression pedal with my Uni-Vibe pedal. However its diminutive size does make it tricky to use. Edit: I'm taking my two stars off. I have got rid of this pedal. This pedal is utterly unusable. There's a reason why manufacturers don't make such ridiculously small pedals, when you make them so small they become unusable. In live gigs you always end up with improper foot placement on this pedal. It may be good for bedroom players but if you perform live gigs just stay away from this pedal. Its buffer quality was as good as my current Mission Engineering VM-Pro pedal, but what's the point when the whole design of the pedal is impractical.