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I've been playing Lowden guitars for well over ten years now. Started by George Lowden in the 70's, he now has a small team of luthiers based in Northern Ireland making these beutiful hand made guitars. For me what I love about Lowdens is that they are so responsive and dynamic, even when played very quietly they still sing.
My main Lowden is a 1994 O10 with Cedar top and mahogany back and sides. The classic combination of Mahogany and Cedar combined with a large body results in a very rounded and ballanced sound with crystal highs and a strong low end.
My Lowdens are only getting better with age and the more I play them the better they sound.
1994 Lowden O10 Cedar, Mahogany
in the early eighties, George Lowden partnered with the S Yairi workshop in Nagoya, Japan to build his original guitar designs under license. This is one such guitar, dating to around 1984-5.
Unfortunately it's in need of repair and the entire back needs replacing but it still plays okay and one day I'll get it properly fixed. It still has that lovely Lowden sound though.
Regal made a series of resonator guitars back in the day. I can't find much info on this one but it seems to have mahogany back and sides and spruce top with a single cone inside.
I've set this up as a Dobro style to play on my lap, you can hear this on a track on the last album I did, I tuned it to open C minor tuning and it gave it a very rough a raw sound. This one is also in need of repair a little, when it's played things rattle inside but but I find this also adds to the rawness of the sound.
I did a video on this one on youtube a little while back. This guitar is just a bit bonkers! And the sound is bonkers too!
It's not very comfy to play and the qualitly is not amazing but It's so strange and wonderful I just love it.
I've found it hard to write a song on this guitar because the sound is just so in your face but I hope I will because it's just so unique it would be a shame not to.
This is my homemade lap steel that I built a few years back. I wanted it to look a bit like a pedal steel guitar, It's made from a single piece of 40 year old mahogany and I wanted to keep that rough wood look as well. The pickup is a hand wired copy of a vintage Fender Champion pickup.
The pickup cover is made from the bottom plate of an old guitar pedal and the rest of the bits I just ordered online. They're pretty simple to make, the hardest part is making sure all the mesurements are correct.
I recently got myself one of there mics and if you do any sort of recording on vocals or any instrument then This is the mic to get if you want the pillowy, round, smooth sound of a vintage ribbon mic. I was so surprised how good this sounded considering it only costs 170€ brand new!
Nohype Audio is a small company based in Belgium and they focus on making great sounding ribbon mics.
Made by Arthur Octavius Windsor made between the late 1890s and early 1900s at his works in Newhall St. Birmingham. (Arther Windsor had a factory that made coffin furniture but he played the banjo as a hobby and decided to manufacture his own).
This banjo really is special, the perl inlay is just beutiful and it sounds amazing!
This has been my go to mic for the acoustic guitar. I use it for both live and recording. Because I tend to play quietly a lot of the time I find the KM184 is amazing at picking up these tiny little details of the guitar and at the same time giving a very rich and full sound.
Links below:
This is a great all rounder, I mostly have use it for vocals on stage but I also use it as an extra mic I can stick infront of just about anything. Because it's a condenser it's different to an sm58, although not as durable it's able to pick up more of the high end detail on things.
Links below:
These capos are a thing of beauty, hand made in the US to a very high standard. They also last a while because I've had mine for well over ten years and it's still going strong. It allows you to tighten the capo just right so there's very little loosening of the strings to do once it's on.
The classic Shubb capo has saved my bacon more times than I can remember, I always have spare ones lying around in guitar cases so it's always there when I need it.
It's strong and reliable and the price is cheap enough that you can afford to have a few lying around the house when you need it. Can't go wrong with a good Shubb.
Links below:
I use these for my Lap Steel and Dobro style guitars.
I love the shape of these slides, they fit in your hand so easily. This one is quite heavy which I like, but also small enough that it comfortable to play with.
The quality of these are very good, I've had mine for a very long time and it's still smooth with some small scratches no pits.
Links below:
This is another classic by Shubb. A little more bulky than the Dunlop but still very easy to play with. It has these nice curved edges which make it very easy to play melody lines. It's not quite as durable as the Dunlop but for the price it's an absolutely great tone bar.
Links below:
I've used these headphones almost every day since 2005. I've had to replace the cables and one of the speakers but apart from that they're still going strong which is very impressive.
I love it that I can replace all the parts with these headphones. They sound very clear and give a very true representation of the sound.
Links below:
Zoom H4N-Pro Handy Recorder
I use this for just about every recording that I make. Having something that can record high quality audio, with mic and line inputs, mulitrack recording, phantom power and it's own fantastic sounding in built stereo mics has been an amazing tool to have.
I dont use a computer when I'm recording, intead I use this. I don't want to be looking at a screen all the time when I'm recording so I record onto this and then edit the audio later on a computer.
I didn't use this for the last album, for that I used a Zoom F8N multitrack field recorder.
Links below:
Strymon BlueSky Reverb Pedal
The Stymon BlueSky can give amazing sounding reverbs, from very natural sounding to never ending space loops. I use this both on my acoustic guitar pickups and my electric lap steel. It's also great to have control over the high damp and low damp to EQ the reverb, this really helps mold the sound to how you want it. Can't reccoment this pedal enough.
Links below:
Electro-Harmonix #1 Echo Digital Delay Pedal
I mainly use this on my Lap Steel. What I like about this delay is the blend feature. All the way to the left is no delay and all the way to the right is delay full volume. This is really handy being able to control just the delay volume.
Links below:
TC Electronic Hall Of Fame mini Reverb Pedal
I got this as an extra reverb if I needed it but it's really amazing what you can do with the software for this, tc electronic have created these great mini pedals that have way more functionality than what meets the eye.
Links to updated version below:
Empress ParaEQ Parametric EQ Pedal
Possibly the greatest EQ pedal on the market. Using acoustic instruments we need as much control over the frequencies as we can and this gives great control in a small size. I also use this if I need a volume boost.
TC Electronic PolyTune Poly-Chromatic Tuner
I find this to be a very accurate and quick tuner, I maily use it for my Lap Steel these days because I have the snark clip on tuners for my acoustics. I don't really use the polyphonic option but it's nice to have it if I need to check the tuning at a glance.
Links to updated version below:
Radial ToneBone PZ Deluxe Preamp
Everything Radial make is amazing quality, really tough and just does what it says it does. This is no ecception. They've packed it it full of features in this small tough box. Spacifically designed for piezo style pickups but it would work with any pickup and any instrument. I've even used it on electric guitars and it works great!
Links below:
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