Gear page

My bass guitar endorsement is with Ernie Ball Musicman Guitars – Four string Sterling basses, four and five string Stingray basses and five string Bongo basses. Thanks to Sterling Ball, Brian Ball, Beth Wreden and Derek Brooks .

I also use some of my other guitars:
Spector Guitars – My trusty old workhorses; a combination of various NS-2 basses as well as fretless and 5-string models. Thanks to the inimitable Stuart Spector.
Fernandes Guitars – four, five, piccolo and eight string basses.

I also have an assortment of others including this custom Roger Giffin that was used on the Ozzy “Ultimate Sin” tour and the “Shot in the Dark” video. I also use Wal fretted and fretless, Steinberger, Chapman Stick and Gibson EB0 models.

Beautiful contouring on the”Shot in the Dark” Giffin Custom bass
1983 Wal fretted (left) and fretless (right) built for me by Ian “Wal” Waller RIP


These days I have to give a shout out to my 6 string guitars, as I am play guitar on may projects including my solo work :-

Electrics – I mainly use my beautiful Gretsch 1959 6120 TLV – which is an orange 1959 Chet Atkins reissue (thanks to Tony Franklin at Fender) and a Telecaster with Samarium pickups, a Fender Custom Shop 1969 Stratocaster, Gibson R9 custom shop 1959 reissue Les Pauls, a Music Man “Bone” guitar?? (go figure!) and a 1986 BC Rich ASM given to me by Bernie Rico Sr. (RIP).

Acoustics – I use a Gibson J200 and a Martin D42 (Frampton model) along with other acoustics and for slide a 1939 Dobro resonator guitar.

AMPLIFICATION
For bass I am endorsed by AMPEG  using the Classic SVT series as well as my vintage units – Ampeg SVT2 and SVT3 amp heads with a combination of Ampeg 8×10, 4×10 and 1510 cabs. Many thanks to Dino Monoxelos.

For Guitar I use a Rivera Amplification  Venus 5. I also have Marshall 1974X combo and a Fender Tweed Deluxe

rgblogo

I am officially a ROTOSOUND artist. Having used their strings from my first days of bass playing I have now ended up coming back home ! I am proud to be playing the greatest bass strings of all time – the 66 Swing Bass series. While fashions come and go, only LEGENDS remain! Thanks to Jason How.

(I had been with Dean Markley for many years. I have now parted company with them and look back on a successful relationship during which I was significantly responsible for the success of the Blue Steel string line.)

Other Devices

I use the excellent EBS Billy Sheehan pedal (kindly given to me by Billy) for my tone shaping live. Thanks Ralf Bjurbo.

I use Lectrosonics unbelieveable quality LT/LR wireless system for my live basses and guitars and their DUET system for my IEM system. Thanks to Kelly Fair and Karl Winkler.

I am endorsed by T-REX Effect Pedals. I mainly use the Karma booster, the fantastic Octavius pedal and the Squeezer tube compressor pedal, thanks to Michael Pagaard.

I am endorsed by and use Westone ES60 and ES50 in ear monitors. The ES50 has a subwoofer for extended low end, great for bass and the ES60 is flat and great for vocal/guitar performances. Thanks to Michelle Dailey.


I am endorsed by NADY Systems for guitar amplifiers and their terrific Ribbon microphones – thanks to Mike Perez, always.

Sometimes I will use a Sobbat DB-Bass overdriver – totally unique, and Boss Bass Chorus pedal. Sometimes I use a Phaser. I also love the Blackstone Appliances overdrive for guitar. Generally I try to keep it simple and down to two effects -VOLUME and ATTITUDE !!!

I am endorsed by Jim Dunlop for my accessories and custom made picks – I use the Delrin .96mm. Thanks to Julie Forristall.

Recording equipment
For recording I use mainly Digidesign Pro Tools. I have been using this since the late 90’s and I actually trained with the folks up at Digidesign’s headquarters. Of course in studios I will use whatever is available in mics, consoles and outboard but invariably I will end up going into my Pro Tools rig where the project stays until it is mastered. My main rig consists of an HD3 accel core and 16 i/o. I use an abundance of plug ins from various different manufacturers.

I was also endorsed by and use the now defunct Tascam Gigastudio 3.0 system extensively for the ultimate in sampling requirements.