Tel Nobody

A strat through and through. This guitar has taken it's fair share of beatings. From surviving fugue state moments and ending up being painted with a Wile E Coyote, to keeping on kicking after having its pickguard smashed in and splattered with blood during a song about an Angry Truck Driver, this guitar has smiled through them all. It has endured several genres of music and stayed happily in tune even after brutal tremolo abuse (body slams and reefing the guitar to chest height by the arm forms a critical aural and visual aspect of one of my most popular songs). This is the guitar you can hate on all you like and it will give you love right back.. all day every day.

Since first identifying Robert Smith of The Cure playing an Olympic White Jazzmaster in their earliest albums, I was fascinated by this instrument. To later see them wielded by Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, My Bloody Valentine and Swervedriver, it seems that Leo Fender's ill fated jazz intentions had found their true home in the Alternative and Indie music scenes. Tonally quite thin, the Jazzmaster handles effects brilliantly, chiming with chorus or letting a fuzz clear its throat. The floating tremolo allows for ample movement up and down; from a few tones up, to slack on the fretboard slams, the guitar handles it all and bounces back in tune for the next round. The trem can even be locked into position if you want to disengage it for more tuning stability The most definable feature is the rhythm circuit. Running independently to the 3 way selector switch, it comes with it's own dedicated volume and tone sliders. This circuit can be used to simply toggle two settings in instrument tone, provide a rhythm at an attenuated volume or can serve as a killswitch when the volume is disengaged, bypassing even the noisiest of pedal combinations. Lightweight and comfortable to play sitting or standing, the Jazzmaster is a guitar to fall in love with.

Cimar was an Australian rebranding of guitars made in the Ibanez Hoshino Corp. Factories. They enabled retailers to buy "Ibanez" product without becoming full-fledged Ibanez dealers. They were sold through wholesalers with no franchise requirements.

Originally an black Onyx Telecaster copy with black guard and rosewood neck, with chrome parts from Australia circa 80's, this guitar has had some work. DiMarzio Bridge pickup, All Black hardware, Ebony stain on neck, Blue pearl Pickguard and resprayed in a striking Charcoal Metallic Sparkle Finish with matching headstock, makes this guitar a mean black and blue piece of nasty I named :The Bruise. (generic image supplied. Actual guitar is guitar 6 of pic 2 on my gear porn page.

Bought online for a gift for my daughter, this guitar came almost completely in tune straight out of the box. With built in tuner that is simple and effective, this guitar has become my go-to guitar for writing and general enjoyment. I was expecting a disaster but quickly fell in love with this little guy. Holds tuning great, even with new strings and stays fresh and bright longer than I would expect a "little cheapy" to.

I walked into guitar shop, closed my eyes and had wife and clerk hand me guitar after guitar until I found the sound and feel right for me. I went in wanting a cutaway Acoustic Electric with only a plug... no volumes or EQ.. just the tone of the guitar. I walked out very happy. Note: It mystified them when I rejected a guitar that they had tried to hand me twice... but if you ever get the opportunity to do this, enter a guitar shop to purchase... state your specs but go in with no budget in mind, close your eyes and get them handed to you in a blind test. Very Rewarding experience.

So mine is Not a ST. George, it is a Coltone, and is the three pickup model. Amazing sound from these old girls, and a HUGE chunky V shaped neck profile. You've never felt anything like it.

A nice Pitbull Guitars Kit build Mosrite copy with a Seymour Hotrail in the bridge and a Firebird style mini-humbucker in the neck. Roller Bridge replacing the standard tune-o-matic. Finished in a trans purple stain with a brilliant satin neck.

Epiphone Dot Cherry red with Dirty Fingers Humbucker in the bridge. This guitar wants to be heard. From a beautiful resonance when strummed acoustically, to the warmth of the neck pickup purring through the upper registers, to the bold and crisp attack of the Dirty Fingers in the bridge, this guitar seems almost too good. The neck feels magical, like is was shaped just for my hand. I would like to believe the previous owner had the guitar professionally set up. It doesn't seem possible that frets could be dressed so elegantly straight out of the factory. A 2004 Chinese guitar that has barely seen any blemishes in its 16 years. A welcome addition to the flock.

This lacks any markings identifying it as a Tiesco, but therefore lacks any markings proving it is NOT a Tiesco. Rebranding was popular at the height of this company's popularity.

A copy of a Fender Jazz Bass, the Emperador Electric range were made in Japan in the Kasuga and Kawai/ Teisco factories (the Emperador Acoustic range were made in the Hayashi/ Zenon plants) and were reported to be constructed between 1960 to 1980. Later models were made by Cort up to 1992. The pickups are rich and punchy and the machine heads are stable.

Series 7c Big Muff made in Russia. Thicker tone than US muffs with plenty of sustain.

The Soul Food is recognised as the cheapest version of Klon (can I say that word... no one seems to ever be able to do it) clone on the market. Essentially, if you were looking for an honest written description of the soul food, you will be hearing a tubescreamer levelled overdrive, not too bitey, that can clean right up that has a lot more treble to it than a TS... which are a bit muddier than this guy. The gain behind the level control makes it particularly useful as a boosting device...hmmm... a boost that has some treble to it... a treble boo... nah...

Ibanez First Series EQ pedal from 1977 - 1978. Powered by 2 x 9v batteries. pedal is loud and makes a great boost pedal.

It tunes. But everyone can hear it, unless you unplug to do so. Modern tuners mute as they tune. Punters lose their favourite song... the one that every band used to play... E EEEE A AA AA DDDDDDDD.....

This little pedal ROCKS! I have used EQ pedals, light and transparent overdrives and volume pedals in the past to give me that lift when I am soloing or emphasizing a phrase. Always struggling to get that lift. Rotated off this pedal meets guitar volume.. that is parity... (EQ pedal is half way, with opportunity to decrease volume). This is a boost. At 9 o'clock it is a completely suitable soloing and phrasing volume. At 12 0'clock I was clambering to turn it back down a touch... and it still winds around to 5 o'clock. Don't let size fool you... 20db. No false claims. The best feature is the unlatched footswitch. Stomp it on for the spotlight moments, press and hold to grab a moment then as your foot leaves, so does the boost.

About a half inch longer than a Boss pedal, the Hotone (Hot Tone) Soul Press is a very handy Cry Baby voiced wah pedal. Some reviews have said the smaller treadle reduces the travelable distance in tonal range. Nope... cannot notice this difference they are talking about. Plenty of range in this little guy. Any while most players have a wah on their board and whack it on for a couple of songs here and there, one flick of the switch on the side of the Hotone and BINGO! It's a volume pedal. On the other side of the pedal is a thumbwheel, which sets the floor for the treadle in full heel position... from zero to full volume is dial able. Flick the switch again and this sexy chunk of pedal board real estate is now an expression pedal for your fave other piece of kit on your board. Can it get any better??? How about two super bright LEDS, so you know when it is engaged!!! battery or 9 volt. There are horror stories of these giving up after weeks or months. So far I think it is great. Keep ya posted!

Neaten up your pedalboard with these locking connectors.

First series treadle controlled phaser from 1977 - 1978. Switch on the side to choose fast or slow, with the rocker treadle used to dial in how much speed is being applied to the setting. Effect is smooth and subtle.

The Double Trouble is two Tube Screamers in one casing. Plenty of gain (I have one side set to treble boosting lead channel) and sidles up to a big muff nicely. Modelled after the TS-9, it was good enough to retire my TS-10 from the board.

The SWAMP DC Core 10 provides 10 individual points from which to power your entire guitar effects pedals board using a single 240V power source. With eight 9V, a single 12V and single 18V outlets, the DC Core 10 will cater for most types of pedals,giving the user enough options for most pedal board set ups. As each individual power outlet is filter isolated, risk of hum, or buzz is minimised, allowing clean power to flow to your pedals, and clean signal to reach your amp.

Wicked! Works a treat!. Enough power to do your whole pedalboard. Battery adaptors and assorted tips make connection a breeze.

he TR-8 is a good sounding trem, with a wave dial to choose triangle or square waves and blend them as desired for a wide range of trem effects.

Footswitch for Jazz Chorus amplifier, which can be used as dual latching footswitches for any application. It is Roland... It doesn't break. sturdy metal construction, rubber base and colour coded to save the guesswork.

Amazingly clean solid state amp. Some say it lacks character or warmth, but this amp , with distortion, reverb, chorus and vibrato on tap is a solid performer, that just loves pedals.

Savage Amps (by Soundlab) were manufactured in Melbourne, Australia in the 1970's. They were cheap as they were notoriously poorly built, with most units blowing up within 4 to 5 hours of operation. Most were sold with repair options included. The range included Green face guitar amps (featuring a Master Volume knob) and Orange face bass amps (featuring a sustain knob). The Greens were originally teamed with a 4 x 12 Plessy loaded staggered vertical cabinet. I was sold this Green as a bass amp matched with a single 18" and have been faithfully using it for bass for many years. I have not checked under the hood for specific modifications but the tone is thick and punchy.

Definitive. Classic. Legendary. This is the amp that shaped a generation, and is the sound most think of when they think of rock, hard rock, metal and grunge. With the pre amp on about 2, your clean tone sounds like it is vibrating a metal tray covered in broken glass, just beautiful crisp and a little raw. Turn that dial and you go from a little raw to a big roar. I love turning this amp up to about 5, keeping the pre amp at about 2. The push from the air in front of the cab is far more rewarding and defined than the one coming from the kick drum. At home, bringing the volume up to where it JUST comes through to the speakers, guarantees a very rewarding 30 - 45 seconds of playing before the house and the neighbours get a bit wild.

The 1988 Kawai K1 is a solid 61 key digital lo-fidelity synth with velocity sensitivity and aftertouch based on 8-bit short cycle waveforms that captures the sound of an era. There are some pleasing voices in here, and a few you may never need, with enough editing available to create some unique sounds. In recent years this synth has really shone. I considered selling a while ago but it has earned a home for a few more years.

My Nektar Impact LX49+ landed today and it was simple to install. It has proven in it's first night to be as versatile as I needed it to be, allowing me drum pads, seamless octave jumping, live adjustments to synth parameters, a working and accurate transport bar and 8 channels of mixer sliders that got me straight into recording and mixing without really having to touch the laptop or the mouse. All on the first night. Reviews say the keys are a bit weird, they are high but they are completely usable. A great addition to my setup.

God help me if I have to explain to some of the younger Equipboard members exactly what they are looking at here. This is a multitrack cassette recorder... which allowed you 4 straight tracks of continuous recording (drop ins and overdubs of sections resulted in an audible shift... so if you messed up, rewind and get it right again!) or the ability to ping pong tracks to provide even more layers (e.g drums bass and keys mixed down onto a single track... freeing up three tracks for additional recording... at some sacrifice of audio quality. This was home studios back in the day.

A good solid laptop with a comfortable keyboard... not spongy or springy. All the connectivity I need at the moment. Here are the specs for those who need specs: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/z-series/z50/#tab-tech_specs

A great unit. I had an issue with mine and it started throwing walls of white noise. Contacted NI in Berlin and they replaced through supplier in my country. 6 inputs, TRS / XLR combo jacks on front, MIDI connectivity and balanced and unbalanced speaker connectivity, as well as 48v phantom power for mics, this unit packs a wallop. USB powered and connected means I can take it and my laptop on the road and record whatever, whenever. Big Volume on top is cool, and the lights on top are clear, easy to read and are very intuitive, but if they were front mounted so it could slide into a shelf/ rack/ recess, I would do it in a heartbeat. Mine came with heaps of trial software, an entry level version of Cubase, and a free upgrade to Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5 pro. Every Christmas, they email you out vouchers and specials and a free gift from their range. Worth every $.

The datadisk was a great rack mount data transfer medium for Alesis products. Whenever you filled the 198 user spots to record patterns into for use in songs, you could just swap to another saved file on your datadisk and be ready to rock again. Run a different disk for every band, or every set, and you have enough space to spoil yourself with songs with fills and switches to mix it up and break that drum machine feel. The weakpoint is the floppy drive, which is not something you can source these days. When you see them starting to go, try to record all those drum tracks so you have a reference point for a future of your precious patterns and songs.

Fell in love with the SR-16 when it hit the shelves of the music store I worked at in 1990 and had to have one!. So simple to program, sequencing at an entry level even a guitarist could understand. This has been my drummer for 27 years now and while the sounds are a little "of that era", I do not know what I would transition to.

Bitwig 8- Track is the lite version of the Bitwig Studio DAW. As it loads, you can see all the wonderful goodness that the full version comes with, but they are not available in this taster edition. From what I could see... this thing has some serious awesome features in full mode! This little baby is so user friendly! Straight out of it's little digital download box, the whole setup is so great to use. Even knowing what I am not able to access in the full version, there is still a ton of great stuff to work with in this kit. Now I have always used my DAW to simply record instruments into... dabble with midi instrumentation a little... pretty straightforward stuff. I watched a 9 minute video on just some of the things you can do with Bitwig as it was installing and BANG! I was dropping samples in from its already loaded library, splicing and rearranging clips, dropping in drum sounds, creating drum patterns and looping the parts straight away. Within 15 mins, there was the basis of a really cool sounding song. My only regret is the money and time I have spent upgrading my DAW and recording all my songs to it. I want the full version of Bitwig Studio. I want this as my main DAW now.

A great studio tool. Drop a guitar in and find the sound that best suits what you need to do. From AC30 to JCM 800. from Jazz Chorus to Triple Rectifier, Fender to 5150. 27 different emulated models ... and that's just the heads... match cabs or get creative, mic them up with 16 different microphones in almost limitless positioning (or presets to fall back on.), then drop in 54 effects, big muff to space echo, tube screamer to electric mistress, tape decks to jam along to loopers to back yourself, metronomes, tuners, modulators and more. Throw is preset tones generated to match the masters or just really show what this plug in can do and you may spend hours and days just clicking and strumming, simply because you cannot stop playing it. Then drop keys, bass drums and vocals through the rig and you are making music!

Lightweight Closed over ear headphones, super loud and AUD$44. I cannot fault these for recording and mixing. 18 to 20,000 hz, 8 ft cord and weighing 190g (6.7oz)

Wired internally with Mogami cable, MXL mics are a great quality piece. The V87 is perfect for vocals, male or female, responding very well to higher octaves, and is responsive enough to catch whistpers and breath notes in quiet ambient situations. A warm room mic that also can be used to mic up cabs or catch an acoustic performance this mic has just enough character to love, without having so much you need to think about where to use it.

Prologue 14L mics are low impedance dynamics. The wiring can accommodate either balanced or unbalanced use. The 14L is appreciably better than the rest of the range in subjective terms. Its frequency response reaches up to 13kHz, only 2kHz lower than the SM58, (which costs roughly four times as much) though it has a high frequency dip just above the presence peak that characterises all the dynamic mics in the Prologue range. This microphone is better suited to more serious vocal use and can be used to achieve results of a very high standard in the small studio. It also has a lockable on/off switch. In conclusion, these mics offer good value for money. Retailing for only a fraction of the price of original Shure microphones, the only indication of reduction in quality is slight tonal loss at the top end, slight handling noise and a slightly coloured tonality due to the less than flat response curves. They seem very rugged and are easy to service. Definitely a range not to be overlooked if finances are tight. Useful for work with vocals, electric guitars and some mid-range percussion, but unsuitable for use with bass instruments where punch is required.

Just picked up a Stenberg 5 piece kit. Solid hardware and does everything it should.