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The guitars on this page are those that I recorded both my two albums with, as well as all the musical excerpts on this site. I've always been on a tight-ish budget and have never owned a "designer" instrument. That said, the quality of mid, or even low, priced guitars these days is outstanding. Hopefully you can see (and hear) that you don't have to break the bank in your quest for a great guitar sound. Amplification is all down to a Zoom floor FX processor through a Boss speaker simulator into either the desk or the PA.
My old Japanese strat was starting to show it's age - the EMG pick-ups developed a fault so I replaced them with a set of Texas Specials.
Although I liked the sound of these units, they couldn't handle the same levels of gain as I could throw at the EMGs in their heyday (take a listen to BORDER CROSSING on the CDs page). Frankly it just didn't seem the same guitar anymore so I decided to sell it & let someone else get some use out of a guitar that I'd pretty much stopped playing. This is the replacement: a Standard deries (ie Mexican) Fat Strat, and it's shaping up quite nicely. I bought it on eBay (where else?) for a hundred quid less than the guy's "Buy It Now" price. Bargain! It's not exactly how I want it yet - it's going to be re-fretted with jumbo wire when I get the chance, and the bridge saddles, decals and tuners have been replaced with slightly less "budget conscious" versions. No doubt the pick-ups will end up being replaced with Seymours or DiMarzios at some point just to add a little more character. Buying a cheap-ish guitar like this and spending time knocking it into shape is something I've always done. I've never owned a guitar that cost more than £500 when I bought it, but I've sold one or two for a lot more than that.
Update... 
This is a cheap bass guitar purchased (again) from eBay & I use it to inject a bit more of a "human" feel into my recordings, instead of relying on sequenced bass-lines all the time. Considering it's a budget instrument, it actually sounds pretty good for recording purposes. Any "cheapness" in the sound can be easily EQ'd out in the final mix, so for my purposes it works perfectly well.
This is a fairly recent addition to the family. Everyone wants a Paul Reed Smith - they're just such great guitars, but who can afford (or even justify) paying over two grand for a guitar? When they brought out this "budget" model I couldn't wait to try one, and when I did - I was hooked. The sound is somewhere between a throaty Les Paul & a ballsy Telecaster. Since buying it, I've replaced the pick-ups with Seymour Duncan 59s which just add a little more depth of tone. You can hear this guitar (with the stock pick-ups) on MY SHOUT & LOSING SLEEP 
Nothing much to say about this guitar, except that I bought it for a hundred quid on Ebay & for the price, it's great. It doesn't give a fantastic sound acoustically, but the active pre-amp means it's a doddle to record. Just plug it in & add a healthy reverb & you're in business. You can hear this on LISTENING TO THE RAIN & LOSING SLEEP  |
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