Technical Stuff

INSTRUMENTS & PICKUPS

My newest guitar is a Bill Tippin "Al Petteway Signature Model" (left) made of Brazilian Rosewood and Alpine "Moon Harvested" Spruce. It is by far the best guitar I've ever played and I've played a lot of them at Dream Guitars. This one is definitely my "dream guitar." It has an armrest bevel and bevels on the heel and cutaway. I feel like I now have the perfect complement to my other guitars. The Tippin has now become my primary instrument. I also love my 00 by John Slobod (center), patterned after the 1929 Martin 00, except with European maple back and sides and a European spruce top. John came to the Swannanoa Gathering Guitar Week and brought some of his instruments. As soon as I played a note on this guitar, I knew it was made for me. Even with the 12-fret neck and no cutaway, the sound was what I have been looking for and it fit my hand perfectly. The one-of-a-kind "Petteway Cutaway" at the far right was designed and built for me by Larry Sifel. I used this guitar on all of my albums through Midsummer Moon and then again for the Winter Tidings CD. The back and sides are European maple and the top is European spruce. The guitar was restored and repaired by Master Luthier Bill Tippin in the spring of 2007 and is now back in my hands after many, many years. I feel extremely fortunate to have three of the finest guitars on the planet.

RainSong Guitars - From left to right: OM-1000, WS-1000, JM-3000 and the new Concert WS-1000.

Amy and I play these Rainsong Guitars regularly at home, on recordings and on stage. They are great for recording
because of their exceptionally clear and balanced tone. They can be EQ'd to sound like practically any wood guitar.
We used RainSong guitars on our Land of the Sky CD along with our expensive wood guitars. Can you tell where?
The new Concert models have raised these instruments to the next level with the warmer tone of the new top design.

RainSongs never need adjusting, rarely need tuning and you can leave them in the car in any weather.
Simply amazing instruments with great tone and a wonderful feel.

This is the "Al Petteway Signature" Banjola by Edward Victor Dick
Note that the high string tuner is on the peghead instead of the neck.
It runs through a special tunnel and comes out at the other side of the nut. Cool huh?
Here's an MP3 sample of me playing this wild instrument: Banjola

This Ryan Mission Grand with Brazilian rosewood back and sides and a cedar top was used on the "Shades of Blue" recording.
Steve Baughman also played it on his recording with Robin Bullock "Celtic Summit." I was sold a few years ago.

I played this Brazilian rosewood Ryan Nightingale on the "Celtic, Blues, and Beyond" DVD,
"Acoustic Journey","Land of the Sky", and "Winter Tidings." I had to sell it a while back as well.

PRS Custom 22 Artist (kept in the closet for emergencies)

All of my early Maggie's Music recordings featured my Sifel Cutaway with maple sides and back. On "Racing Hearts" I used an Olson SJ with a cedar top and Indian Rosewood sides and back in addition to a rosewood cutaway made by Larry Sifel. The Olson belonged to singer/songwriter Cheryl Wheeler who was nice enough to let me use her guitar "Osgood" for a while. The Sifel is one of three that I've used on my recordings. On "Gratitude", I played the Rosewood Sifel Cutaway and a Brazilian/Cedar Olson that was lent to us by another of our favorite singer/songwriters, David Wilcox. Amy played two different Brazilian rosewood Olson SJs that David loaned us. One with a rosewood neck and spruce top and one with a mahogany neck and cedar top.

Amy and I both purchased guitars from Kevin Ryan after those CDs were recorded. Amy has a Nightingale with a Boznian spruce top and Brazilian rosewood sides and back. I used a Brazilian/Cedar Mission Grand Concert for my Shades of Blue recording and Steve Baughman used that same instrument on the "Celtic Summit" album with Robin Bullock. I used a Brazilian/Boznian Spruce "Nightingale" on the DVD I recorded for Solid Air Records and Warner Bros. Publications. It's tone is rich and complex with lots of bass and plenty of high overtones. That guitar was also played on "Acoustic Journey," "Land of the Sky," and "Winter Tidings" and has since been sold.

The guitar I used on Caledon Wood is a Larry Sifel dreadnought that I played for over ten years. It is arguably the best sounding instrument in its class that I've ever played.

We use McIntyre Pickups and Audio Technica AT831b microphones. We recently upgraded to Radial PZ-PRE Acoustic D.I. boxes for all of our amplified instruments. The L.R. Baggs Para-acoustic D.I. boxes are still our choice when we need to run on batteries or phantom power. Two of our RainSong guitars have built in Fishman prefix systems that sound pretty darn good. We still run these through the external preamps, even though it's not really necessary. It gives us more control over the balance and tone and allows us to send the sound man one signal for each of us, even though we use numerous instruments on stage.

We own a Banjola made by Edward V. Dick, a Celtic harp by Dusty Strings, an Appalachian dulcimer built by Tom Fellenbaum, an Octave Mandolin made by Stefan Sobell, two "A"-style mandolins made by Bruce Weber, an Old-Time banjo built by Lo Gordon and a 1937 National resophonic guitar. For the harp and dulcimer, we use Audio Technica AT830b condensor mics mounted right on the instruments.

I don't play electric guitar very often, but when I do, I like to use and old Stratocaster that I built from spare parts that is outfitted with Joe Barden hand-wound pickups or my Paul Reed Smith Custom 22 Artist .

Here's a photo of me and Paul jamming at the Grand Opening celebration of Pearl Works in Southern MD. a few years back. I'm playing the Sifel Rosewood Cutaway. This guitar was given back to Jean Sifel after Larry's untimely death in May, 2006. I still play the maple "Petteway Cutaway" and I think it will always be my all-time favorite guitar.

We've recently discovered DR strings. I tried a set of the DR "Sunbeam" acoustic strings on my Sifel and Tippin and was sold.
These strings have a round core which seems to make the overtones line up perfectly so that the guitar sounds in tune all the way up the neck.

I am in the testing phases of using Octacore Strings and they are similar to roundcore strings but better and more consistent.

I use Elixirs Nanoweb strings on the Banjola, Slobod 00, RainSong guitars and on Amy's Collings Mandolin and Ryan Nightingale guitar.
The Sobell Octave Mandolin is strung with D'Addario Phosphor Bronze.

We use Planet Waves accessories such as capos, cables, picks, straps, pegwinders, etc.

I "pluck" the strings with my right hand fingernails in combination with either my thumbnail or a plastic thumb pick. Sometimes I feel like I have more control when using a thumb pick, especially when I'm playing harder, but I like the sound of the thumbnail, since it is more balanced with the fingernails. I also use the back of my fingernails for strumming and "popping" effects. Hammer-ons and pull-offs figure prominently in my playing, which makes it sometimes difficult to tell which hand is "plucking" the notes. I keep my right-hand finger nails filed and polished smooth and trimmed relatively short which virtually eliminates breaking and cracking. I'm also able to use a bit more force than if they were longer. I use very little force in my left hand and strive to keep both hands relaxed at all times. I've found that I can get more power this way. When flatpicking, I like to use a heavy pick, preferably tortoise shell or something that imitates it. When I'm backing up Irish jigs and reels, I use a thinner pick

We have a little home studio setup that uses an Apple Mini computer and Digital Performer 7 for OS X with a API 1324+ 4 channel mic preamp and a MOTU 896HD digital interface. We also have a pair of Sennheiser MKH-40 microphones and a pair of AKG 414B TLII's with C-12 capsules installed in them. Our Boston grand piano (by Steinway) sounds wonderful in this space. I record at 88.2 kHz, 24 bits. Billy Wolf does all of our mastering at Wolf Productions in Virginia.

In the past, we used a vintage AKG C-24 stereo tube mic to record the guitar for "Whispering Stones," "The Waters and the Wild," and some of "Midsummer Moon." We used vintage Neumann U-47 microphones on nearly all of the stringed instruments for "Caledon Wood." Jim Robeson, the engineer at Bias Recording Company in Springfield, VA placed the mics about 1-3 feet away from the guitar at the spots that sounded best to him. We rarely ever used any EQ on the guitar during recording or mixing. The project was mixed to 20-bit digital using the Rane "Paqrat" and then mastered in 20-bit at Airshow by Dave Glasser.

To record the guitars at home for the first few self-recorded albums, I ran the microphones directly into an ADAT XT-20 digital eight track recorder. However, I've since purchased the Macintosh and MOTU 896HD Firewire recording interface and I'm very impressed with the capabilities this equipment offers me. Until recently,I used a Mackie 1604 VLZ PRO mixer and a pair of Genelec 1029A's with the Genelec subwoofer for monitoring. I still use the Genelecs but no longer need the mixer since the new MOTU 896HD has a virtual mixer built in. Headphone monitoring is done through a Rane HC6 and a choice of Sony MDR-7506, AKG K 240 DF, AKG K 240, or Audio Technica ATH-M40 headphones. My favorite mic preamp is the four channel API 3124+ . I also use Presonus MP20 preamps for electric bass and direct pickup signals

I mic guitars by placing one microphone facing the 12th fret and the other placed about a foot from the lower bout, pointed behind the bridge. I've been experimenting with mixing and matching the two different mics and have come up with some pretty great results but I still prefer to use a matched pair. I borrowed a pair of Senken Mics from Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer to record the "Celtic Summit" CD by Robin Bullock and Steve Baughman. They were an excellent choice for recording Steve.

"Racing Hearts" was mixed by Jim Robeson at Bias Recording in Springfield, VA. This time we mixed to 24-bit digital and then mastered in 24-bit with Bill Wolf at Wolf Productions in Falls Church, VA. "Gratitude," our Indie-winnging duo guitar project on James Jensen's Solid Air Records was also mixed and mastered the same way with the same engineers. Those guys are so good!

"Shades of Blue" was mixed at home using MOTU's Audiodesk software and mastered with Bill Wolf.

"Golden Wing," "Acoustic Journey," "Land of the Sky," "Winter Tidings," and "Dream Guitars, Vol. I" were all recorded and mixed at home, using Digital Performer 4.6 software. Mastering was done by Bill Wolf once again.

I don't use any processing or EQ when tracking. I'd rather leave that till the mixing stage and even then, I use very little, if any, EQ and minimal processing. My computer software has a number of wonderful processing plug-ins, including the new Proverb reverb plugin. I now use it instead of my Lexicon MPX-500 for overall reverb effects. I've been using the computer for mixing all of our recent projects. We still like to go to Bill Wolf's mastering suite at Wolf Productions for the final mastering before manufacturing. The recording project with guitarists Robin Bullock and Steve Baughman was recorded at 88.2 kHz, 24 bit directly to hard disc. We used the Sennheiser and Sanken Microphones through the API preamp with amazing results. Many of Robin Bullock's recent guitar CDs were recorded here at 88.2 kHz, 24 bit as well.

My favorite tunings are EADGBE, DADGAD, CGCGCD, CGDGAD, CGCFCD and CGCGAD. I've experimented with many tuning variations but find myself returning to DADGAD as my "standard" tuning. I've also been experimenting with the use of partial capos. All of my capo positions and tunings are listed in the liner notes of my solo albums and on the transcriptions in my books. On "Racing Hearts," I used DADGAD tuning exclusively, so I didn't bother listing it. I did use a partial capo across the first four strings at the second fret for "Hidden Wings." I just couldn't figure out any other way to play it at the time. Now I can play it in CGDGAD. Everything else is straight DADGAD either open or with a capo. For the duo guitar album I stayed in DADGAD most of the time, but snuck back to standard for a couple of the jazzier numbers. Amy also played primarily in DADGAD but she wrote some really cool tunes in a tuning she learned from David Wilcox: BGDGBD. She put a partial capo on the fourth fret and used the low B as her root. Another variation she used was BGDGAD. On the "Shades of Blue" album I used DADGAD and Standard tunings, but I also used DGCFAD for a couple of tunes to give me that slinky electric feel. The newest solo CD "Dream Guitars Vol. I - The Golden Age of Lutherie" features Standard and DADGAD tuning primarily, but there is one tunein CGDGAD. Here's another crazy tuning that Amy uses: BADAAE (works better with a lighter gauge third string.)