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All my guitars are set up by my good mate Andy Warnock a seriously good luthier and guitar tech, also a hell of a player!! A guitar doesn't feel right to me now until it's been Warnocked!!
Guitars
1961 Strat
I
bought this from an old boy in Pimlico a few years ago and it's been my main
guitar ever since. It's a lovely old thing and it needs a refret but I can't
bear to be without it while the work is done.
It's an original 61, but it's had a body refinish, new scratchplate, the original middle pickup has been replaced with a Seymour Duncan and one of the tuners has been replaced.
I've been keeping an eye out for original parts for this but I've been quoted silly money and because it's got a new paint job, it's really not worth it, anyway, I love it just the way it is.
Because it's not really an investment grade guitar, I may get the fingerboard radius flattened during the refret, hopefully this can be done without too much damage to the clay dots.
Frankenstein Strat
This one started life as a1984
Japanese Strat and originally had a Kahler tremolo and locking nut which I
replaced with a standard vintage Fender unit.
I fitted a set of Rio Grande pickups and a WD neck with a flat ebony fingerboard and big frets and it's become one of my main guitars.
It sounds more modern than my 61 with a nice focused midrange which distorts really well.
Fender 62 reissue Custom Telecaster
This is an '84,
I used to own an original
black '63 Custom in the late '70s but one day I made one of those irrational
rock and roll decisions and swapped it for a very mediocre Gibson SG and I've
been regretting it ever since.
I changed the pickups for a set of David White "Old Glories" I've had lying around for a while and they work great with this guitar.
This is quite a nice reissue, it's got a nice sweet treble and can actually sound quite jazzy .It's also the lightest Tele I've ever picked up, feels like balsa wood. Andy flattened the fingerboard radius, put big fat frets on it and cut a great new bone nut, it plays a lot better now.
Ibanez RS 1000
I had an endorsement deal with
Ibanez in the late 80s but I hadn't played one in years. I picked this up
cheap on EBay and it sounds sweet and looks lovely. It's got a nice chunky
neck and an arched birds eye maple top. It's the first Ibanez I've owned with
humbuckers,
these
are Super 58s and they've got alnico 3 magnets, supposedly built like old
Gibson PAFs.
They're not overly powerful which is a good thing and they sound nice and warm, especially the front one.
Epiphone Dot Neck 335
I always wanted an old 335 (my
Larry Carlton fixation) but I could never justify the cost
When I played this one in the shop, I was really impressed, all the basics
were there and I knew that with a bit of work, I could turn it into a nice
useable guitar.
It's now got a fossilised mammoth nut!! Seymour Duncan Jazz and Custom pickups, Grover tuners, new electrics and a fret job.
It's turned out great, with a compressor and wah, it's instant Cornell Dupree, roll off some top on the front pickup and it's a great jazz tone and it really rocks when it's cranked up. My only problem with it really is upper fret access; anything past the 15th fret is a bit cramped.
Fender El Rio
This is an early 80s model, it's
got a fast smooth fingerboard and feels more like an electric but it has a
nice tight, focused midrangey sound.
It
really sits well in a track when you mike it up.
I've added a new undersaddle pickup and preamp and plugged in, it's pretty useful for live work.
Yamaha APX9-NA Electro Nylon String
I've had a few different nylon string electros over the years, most of which were crap but this is pretty good. It's got an internal condensor mic. which you can blend in with the undersaddle pickup to add a bit of air.
I had to get a new nut made with wider string spacing, the original nut was very cramped, it's a lot nicer to play now.
It's a bit neck heavy though and the peghead tends to take a dive towards the floor unless you wear a strap.
I'm using this in the studio a lot lately, nylon string guitars are definitely back in fashion especially for R&B.

Charvel Spectrum
I use this guitar in the studio when I need OTT rock guitar with whammy!!
I always wanted one of these ever
since I saw Jeff Beck play a bright orange one on the video for
"Ambitious".
I think it's a great design, like a cartoon guitar. I don't really gig with
it, I got sick to death of all that locking Floyd Rose nonsense playing Ibanez
guitars in the '80s where you need a toolkit to change a string.
It's got an active sweepable mid control which is great for fine-tuning your distortion tone, you can really get this guitar singing!!
In passive mode though, the pickups are a bit quiet and characterless, but I still like it. It's got a really flat fingerboard and the biggest frets in the world.
I just need the big hair to go with it.
Godin Seagull
I've played this guitar on a few
hit records now, Lighthouse Family's "Lifted", "Goodbye Heartbreak"
and "Ocean Drive" and all the other
acoustic tracks on that first album.
Also Friday Hill's Top Ten hit "Baby Goodbye".
I don't usually D.I. this guitar in the studio, but it mikes up really well.
The sound improves all the time, just like it should and I had an EMG active pickup system fitted, which works great live. Only problem is, there's very little finish on the fronts of Seagull acoustics, it's supposed to help the resonance but it offers almost no protection from knocks and scrapes and it's slowly going Willy Nelson on me.
Fender Jazz Bass
Just a bog standard Jazz, the
original
pickups
weren't great so I've fitted some Fender Custom Shop ones.
I mainly just record with it and it gets new strings once a year if I remember.
Ive owned most amp models at one
time or another but at the
moment, I'm mainly using
a Mesa Boogie Dual Caliber
DC5.
Boogies take a bit of fiddling with but once I got used to the EQ and gain structure, I really got into it.
It's really versatile and covers all the bases for me.
Also,
I still use my old Sessionette 1x12 Combo for little gigs,
it's small, loud, clean and portable.

Diago Showman Pedalboard containing:
Line 6 Distortion and Delay Modeller
pedals
George Dennis wah wah
Barber Direct Drive
2 Boss CS2 Compressors (set for 2 different volume levels)
Danelectro 6 Band Graphic EQ
Rocktron Hush Noise Reduction.
E Bow
Line 6 POD 2 -Great for getting sounds down quickly in the studio (I always
prefer an amp if time allows)
Dunlop "Big Stubby" 3mm picks.
D'Addario XL 10 - 46 strings