Custom Built 7-String Electric
This is my main guitar. I designed it and had Brian Mascarin build it for me in Toronto around 2002. A 7-string with a high A string. Tuning, from low to high: E-A-D-G-B-E-A. This guitar was used on all the songs from Out of the Blue CD except one.

Fun Facts

– Scale Length: 25″

– Neck: 100% Indian Rosewood, with Maple veneer on the headstock

– Body: Mahogany, with carved Maple top. It’s kind of like a mix of an over-sized Les Paul, and a Thinline Tele. It’s routed out on the inside leaving a center block in the middle.

– Pickups: Lollar Imperial 7-string (neck), and a Seymour Duncan ’59 7-string (bridge)

– Bridge and Tailpiece: Tone Pros 7-string

– Controls: It has concentric potentiometers (pots) installed. Concentric controls are space savers. You can, for example, have a volume and tone control in the space of one; one knob on the inside, another control on the outside. I have the top one (highest in the pic) wired as volume control for the neck pickup on the inside knob, master volume for whole guitar on the outside. The bottom one (lowest in the pic) wired as volume control for the bridge pickup on the inside knob, master tone for whole guitar on the outside

– Selector Switch: None. I don’t need it. I use 80-90% of the neck pick up, then blend the remainder of the bridge pick up in as needed

It is by far the best guitar I have ever owned, or even played. It’s comfortable and so easy to play. If I ever catch you messin’ with this guitar, you better pray!

7-String Acoustic (Nylon String)
Not only is this guitar designed by me, it was built by me. I wanted a “sister” guitar to my main guitar above. While the guitar above is the masculine one, I consider this guitar to be the feminine one. It’s also  7-string with a high A string. Tuning, from low to high: E-A-D-G-B-E-A. This guitar was used on  the song, Jazzenco, on the Out of the Blue CD.

Fun Facts

– Scale Length: Multiscale, otherwise known as fanned frets. The low E is 650mm (25.59″), and the high A is 635mm (25″)

– Pickups & Microphone: I installed the classical guitar K&K Sound Trinity Pro system. It is an internal contact pickups/microphone system with an external preamp

– Bridge: Brazilian Rosewood 

– Woods Used: The Body is made with Brazilian Rosewood for the back and sides, German Spruce top, and figured Maple binding. The Neck is made of Spanish Cedar, with two center pieces of walnut, and the headstack is capped with Brazilian Rosewood

– Bracing: The bracing pattern is based on a modified Hauser II, inspired by reading up on Dake Traphagen’s bracing ideas

– Armrest: You can’t really see it in the pic (you can see it if you scroll back up to the “3 Amigos” pic at the top), but it has a carved armrest. Very comfortable!

– Side Port: if you notice in the small pic, the side port I carved in it is the Chinese symbol for “small”

It sounds really good, and surprisingly loud for it’s diminutive size. 

Takamine 6-String Acoustic
I bought this guitar in 1992-93. I don’t use it a whole lot, but I have had sound techs tell me it’s the best sounding acoustic guitar they’ve heard coming through a PA.

Right now it’s not in a standard tuning. Well, sort of. But not really. Let me explain…

I have been experimenting with tuning the 2nd and 1st strings down an octave. So that means I have have changed the gauges of strings. Tuning-wise, the 1st string is now tuned only a tone (2 frets) higher than the open D (4th string). While the 2nd string is now tuned only a tone (2 frets) higher than the open A (5th string). You get beautiful sounding chords in this tuning.

Fun Facts

– Scale Length: I think it’s a 25.6″scale

– Pickups: It just has the stock takamine under the saddle piezo and built in preamp. I heard that a few years later the upgraded preamps that followed never sounded as good as the one this guitar has

– Woods Used: The Body is made with Indian Rosewood for the back and sides, and a Cedar top. The Neck is made of Mahogany

It has a unique tone, is comfortable, and very easy to play for an acoustic steel string.