Neversink's Gear - While tooling up for the is project the three of us have gone through multiple iterations of steups and preamps and this and that. As like every gear head and especially acoustic artists, our setup is a merry-go-round of ubiquitous signal chains: But here's where we are at the moment:
Kenny Kenny Kenny
Snooky....
He looked at me and said "I'm playing the Mandolin" "OK" So I gave him mine to play for a little while. After looking around we came up with the Epiphone bluegrass series, vintage sunburst MM-30E. This is an "A" style mandolin with a solid spruce top and mahogany body and neck with a factory bridge piezo. It turns out that these off-shore Epiphone instruments are real gems. They play great, sound great and the fit and finish are excellent. A couple of minor setup adjustments and I installed a Schatten Design M-02 Pro and it’s a smoking piece!
De Horns- Kenny plays a Yamaha TS-100 Tenor Saxophone with an AKG C 519M condenser mic going direct to the consol. He uses some kind of wooden reeds.
De Fruits-The word is, if it takes air to make a sound, Snooky’s playing it. His latest arsenal of instruments you blow into includes a very nice Juniper Model 611RBS flute. It has a sumptuous tone and he’s acquired an Audix ADX10-fl flute mic to run through his rack mount Crate acoustic pre which he also shoots the mandolin through. He also uses concert tuned bamboo flutes for when were passing the peyote cup around. And wooden penny whistles for when we’re passing the Guinness jug around.
CAmbrosino - When we first put this thing together Chris endeared himself to me by pronouncing that he too was a member of the "Kings of the Guitar Sob Story". He once traded a Martin HD28 for a PA head or something pathetic like that, and he was playing Kenny's vintage Ovation. Well then... he set out to find a full bodied flat top that was more to his spirit. Having spent the last umpteen years in power house electric groups (Get Big, Res Dogs) he hadn't invested in a quality acoustic setup for a long time. Conventional wisdom would have one run out and get a Martin or a Taylor vanilla box but not us! Keeping with the Epiphone theme, we came across the Epiphone Masterbuilt instruments. We found that the AJ500R was it. And this guitar is one of my favs. It's a SOLID Indian rosewood, solid spruce Advanced Jumbo with vintage 1930's Epiphone appointments. Gold open back tuners and the vintage sunburst finish. After some minor adjustments and installation of an active Baggs Ibeam , it has the classic slope shoulder jumbo sound. Chris runs through BBS Acoustimax and I’m amazed and envious of his live sound. I may copy his setup in the near future. Chris has added percussion to our sound as well. He uses an assortment of brushes, bamboo and knuckles to obtain a flurry of sound from just a snare and crash. We’re shopping for mics at the moment for his rig.
Jimmy Timex-
Yes the square footage in my house is severely depleted due to my gear…But I’m in no way a collector. My Neversink rig starts off with my 1994 100 year anniversary Gibson L00. A reissue of the thousands they sold from 1927-1945. It is a fantastic little guitar. At the moment I’m using a Dtar Wavelength and I’m running it through a Line6 Pod XT Live.
My electric rig is my 1949 Gibson ES125 with a Bigsby. I run it through the POD as well using the tweed bassman setting almost exclusively. There are those purists who ‘dis the use of such hideous creatures as the POD and I can understand the romance of having my classic Gibson or Epiphone archtops running through an bunch of classic “boutique” effects and into a ’59 tweed something or other. But if you want to buy them for me and carry them to my gigs….I’d be happy to follow the purist manifesto! The POD is an incredible piece of equipment. I also use my beloved 1967 Gibson Hummingbird on occasion. It is fitted with an old LR Baggs LB6. I use Elixer Polyweb Strings on all my wood acoustics.
Soon I’ll also be adding a guitar of my own vision to my lineup. A project that has taken me a while to complete but it was worth the wait. It’s an OOO/OM style guitar with a 3-piece rosewood back, scalloped braces and a nicely figured sitka top.” The Ian Gordon Model 1”. I’m recording with it now and I must say it’s everything I’ve been missing in an acoustic guitar and it is turning me into an OM nut!
Tin Pan Ally my 2002 National Delphi, one of my dream guitars. Fitted with a Schatten Design RG-03 and sometimes I use an Audio Technica AT2020 mic. At the moment I run this through the POD as well for EQ and a little ‘verb. I use D’Addario strings on the National.
Other toys:
1949 Gibson ES125 with a Bigsby, fitted with 1 Lindy Fralin P90
1968 Epiphone Al Caiola artist model
1965 Gibson Melody Maker
1987 Fender D’aquisto Elite Archtop
Our live sound is provided by twin Bose L1 systems
