How have your choices in the gear you’ve used evolved over time?
Like everyone else, I was always searching for that tone. When you get older, you get wisdom. I should have realized that tone is relative. Everyone is searching for that magical tone, but everyone is searching for a different tone. So there is not one great tone, it’s the tone you like. But when I was younger, I thought there was just one great tone – Eddie Van Halen’s on the first Van Halen record. That was the guitar sound I always heard in my head, but I never got it.
When I progressed to a more professional level, I was using two Marshall heads and two Marshall cabinets, but I could never get a good sound with them. They were 50-watt Mark II heads and I had them hotwired by Frank Levi. For some reason, I didn’t like the way they sounded after they were modded, so I had him undo the mods.
When I moved to Los Angeles, I took the heads to a guy there. He hotwired the amps again, with the same mod I had taken out, and then he asked me if I realized he was the one who had originally worked on them in New York. Well, I still didn’t like the tone (laughs). I tried all kinds of things. At the time, Zeke Clark, who was my tech, suggested I get a Bradshaw rack. He set me up with all this big stuff and it sounded alright, but I didn’t really like it. I had H&H power amps, Soldano preamps, a Lexicon PCM 70 delay, a Yamaha REV7 digital reverb, all of the switching systems, and a brain mixer. As long as Zeke was controlling it, it worked out fine, but if I didn’t have someone there running it, I couldn’t even turn it on because there was so much stuff.
Next, I got a transistor Crate head with insane gain. I loved the sound of that amp, so I used it for a while. Then I slowly just started getting away from the Bradshaw rig and going direct into the amp, without any effects, and that was the only time I had any fun. For this tour, I borrowed a Soldano Hot Rod 100 head and I went direct into the amp with two speaker cabinets. I also had a Carvin Legacy head and I would switch between the Legacy and Soldano, depending on the venue. Once I simplified the rig, it was great.
When I first got those Marshalls, I was playing a B.C. Rich Mockingbird. I loved that guitar, and I still have it. Then when I moved to L.A. I got a Charvel Strat with flames, a Fender-style headstock, one pickup, and a whammy bar. The body was made of alder and it’s really light. That was a great little guitar, too.
Now, I’m playing a Matty Baratto Flying V, a custom-made Strat with disco-ball mirrors on it, an ESP Les Paul with a whammy bar, and some great Washburn guitars. They sent me a Strat-style N-2 and a lime green (Dime Slime) Dimebag Darrell Signature Model. That one is so pointy, but it’s great.
