Michael Brook

In the Muzines article "Infinite World" from October 1992, it is noted that Michael Brook's live setup includes the Simmons SPM 8:2, a rack-mount mixer, among other gear.

"I developed the Infinite Guitar around '83-84. I'd ordered an E-Bow for recording Hybrid. I was very interested in some techniques used in Indian and Arabic music, where you work with a lot of ornamentation and bending notes. So I thought that maybe a E-Bow might be good for that. But for some reason they kept mislaying my order. So I started fooling around myself and pretty quickly came up with this really weird looking machine. When finally the E-Bow arrived, the Infinite Guitar worked better, so I've been using it ever since."

Apart from the infinite electronics, Brook's approach to guitar playing is pretty hi-tech in other aspects, and he has a good selection of effect boxes is elaborate: Electroharmonix Fuzz; Hot Tubes; Yamaha Graphic EQ; DOD 280 compressor; Korg OVD-1 overdrive; Electroharmonix Memoryman analogue delay line; Electroharmonix 16-second delay. He controls everything with a set of six volume pedals which control: (1) the H3000; (2) the MIDI guitar and sequencers; (3) the Bel BD 80s delay line; (4) the Electroharmonix delay line; (5) infinite guitar; and finally, (6) normal guitar. Brook uses a Sansamp amp simulator and plugs either directly into the PA (live) or straight into the desk (when recording).

Tucked away in a corner are a scruffy Telecaster and Les Paul. The only other guitar in sight is a Tokai Strat, which looks unusual in that it features three outputs and some additional electronics, making it look a bit like, in Brook's own words, "a machine in Altered States, where they had these weird helmets with wires coming out of them."

Alongside that AMS and a Roland SRV2000 reverb, Brook has a brand-new Yamaha SPX90 multi-processor, and what is probably the largest private collection of old Electro Harmonix 16-second delays. He is equally enthusiastic about both.

“Symphony I/O sounds really incredible. More transparent, more detail, and dimensional than the AD-16X, which still sounds great. Another aspect is that the installation/registration process was absolutely the best I’ve ever experienced from any manufacturer. It may sound a bit trivial, but to me the intelligence of the setup process indicates that there is probably a similar degree of care inside the box. Really congratulate whomever designed the software for that, very smart. We were up and running about 30 minutes after opening the box. No glitches, no head scratching. When you constantly have deadlines something like this can strongly influence one’s perception of a company and their products.”