The Sweet Misery Guitar Rig

My stuff is on the left in this picture

Playing the rhythm part in Marsha on stage at Tiki Fala in Dumfries. VA
More Pictures -- Me & The BHM Guitar

The Guitars & Such
Guild Brian May "Red Special" BHM-01 Signature(1993)
BHM-01Well, if you're here, you probably got here from my Brian May page, so I shouldn't need to explain this guitar all over again. If you want to know, check out this this in-depth description.
Gibson Les Paul Studio (1993)
Les Paul StudioThis is a great guitar. An LP Studio is very close to an LP Standard -- the differences are cosmetic. The Studio has no binding (that pretty stuff around the edge of the body & along the sides of the fingerboard) and most of them do not have premier-quality maple tops (which they don't need because the finish is opaque). The only modification I've done on this guitar is the installation of a "Hipshot" D-Tuner in place of the low E-string machine head. This device allows me to quickly change the tuning of my lowest string from E to D by flipping a lever. My LP Studio has the stock humbuckers in it.
Fender American Standard Stratocaster (1990)
StratThis was my first "real" guitar. I bought it in July 1990 as a birthday present for myself -- it was only $525 and I still have the receipt! For a long time I left it alone (no mods) but then my Frankenstein complex took over. It's had a myriad of different pickups in it -- including DiMarzio's horrible attempt at Brian May models. This is the current set-up: Seymour Duncan Li'l '59 humbucker (bridge), stock single coil (middle), and S.D. Li'l Jeff Beck humbucker (neck). It has the stock wiring in it (well...redone by me several times, so let's call it the standard wiring), so that means there's that TBX tone knob in there. Hipshot firmly attached in place of the stock low E tuning machine. The bridge is blocked a la Eric Clapton -- and I threw the whang bar away! A few months back I replaced the saddles with graphite "String Savers" and now I don't break strings so much.
Epiphone Sheraton (c. 1985) (sorry, no picture yet)
"Epiphone?" I hear you cry. Yes, Epiphone. The Sheraton is a copy of the Gibson ES-335. I like this guitar so much I have two of them, identical twins if you will. These are hollow-body, set-neck, twin-humbucker blond beauties. They play much like a regular ES-335, but the neck is a bit wider (maybe a quarter inch) and a little thinner front-to-back. My wife likes these guitars too because the hollow body makes them light enough for her to play for more than ten minutes.
Guitars I Don't Have Any More
Well, since the list is way too long for sanity, I'll just hit the highlights: 1984 Gibson Les Paul Standard (sold for rent), 1993 Fender American Standard Telecaster, 1990 Gibson SG 1961 Reissue (sold to finance the BHM Signature), two identical 1989 Charvels (sold when I came to my senses), 1960's Gibson Flying V (stolen by a guy named Tom), 1977 Fender Stratocaster Hard-Tail (sold to finance the BHM), and several others!
Strings
As far as I'm concerned, there are only two good brands of strings -- Ernie Ball and D'Addario. I use the Ernie Ball Regular Slinkies (normal or reinforced plains) and the D'Addario EXL 110's. Both sets run .010 - .013 - .017 - .026 - .036 - .046. The EXL's come in an environment friendly package that only makes two pieces of garbage -- both of which you can send back to D'Addario!
Cables
Doesn't matter -- as long as they use Switchcraft ends. I use mostly 20' cables, but my rack has several 1' high-quality ones. I also use a couple shorter cables (1 to 3 feet) to connect things together on stage.

Amplification
ampPeavey Classic 50 (1993)
This is from about the third year of production or so, so I was forced to modify my amp to wire in an effects loop, which was not terribly tough. My boss supervised and (more than once) his sharp intake of breath kept me from irretrievably harming my amp. Other than my mod, it's all stock -- with two loud-ass 12" speakers. It weighs a ton. Really. Current Tubes: four Sovtek EL84's in the power stage, three Ruby Tubes 12AX7A-C's in the preamp stage
cabPeavey Extension Cabinet (1995)
I use a four-10" speaker cabinet, which matches my amp incidentally, for extra projection on stage. My drummer loves it -- he can always hear me! It's actually meant for use as a bass cabinet, but I use it anyway. It's stereo capable, but I run all in mono...I suppose it's nice to know.

The Rack
Roland GP-8 Digital Effects Processor (Stereo Capable)
The GP-8 is a great little unit -- but don't try to find one now. The "upgraded" GP-16 came out about years ago & went out of production about 2 years later. The -8 came & went before that. As a matter of fact, if you have one that works, I'll buy it off you! Anyway...I use this only for chorus and delay. It has a bunch of other stuff, but with the exception of the parametric EQ, it's all pretty much substandard. The distortion & overdrive really suck -- very brittle & not warm at all. But that's digital crunch for you. However, since this unit was made by the same people that make BOSS pedals, any effect that's supposed to be digital (like chorus or delay) is absolutely awesome.
DoD Mono Graphic Equalizer
15...25...16K. Just what the hell does that mean? Well, there are 15 bands of EQ -- from 25 Hz to 16K Hz. That's just inside the 20 - 20K range of the human ear, and just about rings what an common electric guitar hits. This is a very important part of my sound, as it allows me to precisely dial in my tone. I head for a little more bass, for two reasons: 1) to counteract the trebly nature of most soundmen & many guitars and 2) to get a bit extra "woof" when I bear down on the strings.
Rocktron Hush IIB (Mono)
This little baby is the heart of my system -- and all it makes is...nothing. Then again, that's kinda the idea with this device. The Hush knocks out the hiss that my amp's distortion circuit creates and makes my rig quiet. It's not all that important on stage (where everything is a noisy mess anyway), but in the studio it's entirely critical. The Hush IIB is no longer available, but other kinds of similar things are.
How It All Works
Since my amp was made before Peavey built effects loops into the Classic amps, I had to get the parts from them & wire it myself. So...Amp FX OUT to GP-8 SIGNAL IN; GP-8 OUT to Hush IN; Hush OUT to Amp FX IN. Then, to get the EQ in the loop, it's GP-8 FX OUT to EQ IN & EQ OUT to GP-8 FX IN. Got it? Since the EQ doesn't create any extra noise, it isn't necessary to run it straight in line. The fewer devices in a signal chain you have, the less noise you have as well.
Samson True Diversity Wireless
Mine is rack-mounted, mainly so I can keep track of it (I lose things that aren't bolted down!). It's a pretty good unit -- I've never had any trouble with it.
Adornment
To decorate the whole setup, and also to remind myself of how indebted I am to my friend & singer Tom (not the same guy who stole my Flying V), I have the logo from the grill of his Nissan 200SX fastened in my rack. I totalled the car...his car...while mine was in the shop.

The Crap On The Floor
GP-8 Controller
This puppy changes between the various patches on my GP-8. It's powered by the GP-8, which means that if the MIDI cable ever goes bad I'm SOL! Probably the neatest thing on the pedal is the cut switch, which allows me to change guitars without a lot of ugly noises. (see the Moog picture below -- it's on top on the right.)
Channel Switcher
The one supplied with my amp sucked (sorry, Peavey) because it was made out of plastic. About the third time I stomped on it the button went through the cheap plastic housing. The one I replaced it with is made by Marshall and of sturdy steel construction. Of course, since Peavey wires their channel/reverb switches exactly backwards from the rest of the amp manufacturers, the Channel button toggles the reverb in my amp and the Reverb button changes between clean & crunch channels. (see the Moog picture below -- it's on top on the left.)
Dunlop Crybaby Wah (GCB-95)
These all pretty much sound the same to me. I use it in about 4 songs. This one I've had since 1988.
BOSS Effect Pedals
I always use an OC-2 Octaver -- for added depth on some single-note lines. Dry all the way up, 1st Octave at about 60%, 2nd Octave at 0%.
I also use, at one time or another, in no particular order:
Moog Taurus II Bass Pedals (1970s sometime)
Moog Taurus III got these from a buddy for $200 in 1992. I love them! The different things this unit can do would take up a page all its own -- so I won't bore you. The short version is: The Moog Bass Pedals are like a miniature version of the bottom part of an organ (like in a church). In the picture, the sound unit is at the top-right of the shot, with the foot unit underneath.
Fender Rhodes Suitcase 73 Electric Piano (c. 1976)
No picture of this puppy yet -- I've only had it since December 1997. Mine did not have the accompanying amplifier, but I run it through a little PA for now. It's called a 73 because it has 73 keys (as opposed to the 88 on a regular piano). It's quite a beast, has only one sound, but I love it! If you want to know what it sounds like, listen to the album Animals by Pink Floyd (my favorite Floyd album, by the way)...I think it's the track Sheep that has all the electric piano on it.

ME!
Experience
I started playing guitar while still in high school in 1986, spurred by a new friend (Eric) who wanted to start a band. He taught me three chords (E, A, B) and we started said band. The band was called "Penguin Lust" after an affliction that plagued Opus from the comic strip Bloom County. He was, obviously, a penguin.
Eric & I played together until 1988, when he went off to East Carolina University in Greenville NC. By that time our band was called "Dawn At Dusk" and we had two guitarists (me & Eric), a bass player & drummer, a lead singer, a keyboard player, and even a guy that played sax on two songs. Everybody but the drummer sang backups, which when it sounded good, it was very Catholic school choir-like. It didn't always sound good though.
I banged around in a couple bands between then & 1991, when Eric came back to town & we started up another band. This time it was just 2 guitars, bass, drums, & lead singer (Tom, whom I'd been playing with for 2 years by that time). We called ourselves "Hipper Than Thou" and released a 7 song demo in late 1992. Eric quit soon after that to pursue a woman far away. We went through a couple replacements, finally giving up and going the one-guitar route for a while.
Eventually I convinced Tom to pick up the guitar, so we could go back to 2 guitars without putting up with an asshole. That was in 1994.
Now we're called Sweet Misery.
In between all those other things, I've done other bands. Probably my favorite side project was called "Stonejury" and it was a progressive metal band. What I mean by that is we played lots of heavy music (not always relying on vocals to carry the song) and it was fairly technical. I played bass for a gospel choir for a year and also for a girl band for about two months (they were pretty good, but way WAY too tense...and the "lead" guitarist wasn't all that great). I also played rhythm guitar in a "math metal" band...lotsa counting in that group! It was heavy & there were many tempo & time changes. In between everything else, I've taught guitar & bass lessons (from classical to country) for going on 9 years.
Tattoos
I have three, one of which you can see on my calf in the above pictures. That one was done in 1995 by Mike Sykes, who now works out of a shop somewhere in Florida. The other two are on my upper arms.
Shoes
For everyday use -- and especially for use on stage -- I recommend canvas Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers. The ones I like best are the black-on-black hi-tops. I've had many pair of these shoes -- they're not very expensive. In hi-tops, I've had white, yellow, purple, red, plain black & the black-on-blacks. Low-tops...white, blue, and black.

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Updated: 2 Jan 98