Going to work for me is unlike some of you. God has blessed me with this profession of music making that I can't thank him enough. In a nutshell, My work is mostly focused on guitar playing either in the studio or in concerts. Besides playing Guitars, I produces, arranges and sing. Owning more than one guitar unfortunately is a must for a session player as certain tunes calls for different guitar tones. (This iswhat I tell my wife everytime I have this compulsion to run out and buy a guitar. heheh) For electric guitars,I currently own a Ernie Balls Luke , A Brian Moore , a Epiphone Jazz model , A Japan Fender Strat, a Warmorth Telecaster with a strat neck and of course my fave the Nitefly.
For Accoustics, I have a Taylor 6 strings, a Taylor 12 strings, a Godin Steel(Plug-in) (which I uses for programming at home and in concerts),A Godin Nylon(Plug-in), A Ibanez Nylon and a Sigma accoustic. One of the main skill you must have for a session player is the ability to play with the click track. It just needs a little getting used to. And when the song is being performed/recorded as a live band thingy, playing along with a band is also very important. Apart from your skills, good common studio manners is a must as most producers never liked a loud mouthed guitar player who talks more than he plays.
Note: As most of my guitars and effects are in the studio, I'm not able to have pictures of it in here.
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My Nitefly electric guitar is my main workAxe these days. Along with a great body and graphite neck, it has a well made wang bar and a nice combination of pickups. I like the tones that I can get out of this guitar. And doing studio work these days, Tones do matter. Unfortunately, the manufacturer of this guitar does not have a website but thanks to Joel Wong who has written in, we now have a link to a page highlighting the Nitefly. http://www.leftandwrite.com/brian/music/parker/nitefly.htm Note: this is not an official Nitefly website.. But for those currently residing in Singapore, the nitefly is available from Yamaha Music Singapore ( Plaza Singapura)
As lugging an amplifier to the studios for a recording session is not good for my already bent posture, we session players in Singapore uses mostly guitar effects in the studio unlike the big studio cats in the states who has roadies, huge guitar outboard gears and amplifier setups. Through the years I've played through quite a number of guitar effects. Stuff made by the ROCKMAN company to my latest aquisition the POD by Line 6. I currently have in my arsenal a Roland GP 100, a ART SGX2000, a Roland SE70 and a Marshall JMP2. Currently I'm using mostly the Roland GP100 and the POD for most of my studio work. The POD is a great piece of gear. Even though I 've read the numerous great reviews of the unit, I was blown away by the awesome sound it produces. Most guitar effects modules tends to sound really thinny but the POD manage to capture a well Amped guitar sound. when I heard myself playing in the studio, I could have swored that the engineer had manage to get a really great sound from my guitar and a amplifier. It's that real! Control tweaks are easy due to the analog type knobs on the unit itself. I personally found the Tap tempo function really useful in the studio.Read more about the details of this unit in it's link.
The Roland GP100 is another well worth investment. It has amps simulation as compared to the amps emulations in the POD. Effects are a plenty in this unit if you are a effects freak. And the thoughtful configuration of the footswitch functions makes it a unit I would use when I am playing live. Read more about this unit in it's link
And when the tune calls for a funky wah wah guitar, I have the VOX wah wah pedal in my car. It's a good unit with good looks to go with it. But the wah spectrum falls short compared to the cheaper Dunlop Jimi Hendricks wah pedal.
Concert Setup
My stage setup is slightly different from my studio gear. Going on the road takes alot out of your fragile equipment, so housing your stuff in a good rack mountable flight case is essential. My SKB rack consist of only the Roland GP100 and an old Ibanez DD2000 Dual digital delay unit. Most of the effects like Chorus, tremolo and what nots are called up by my foot pedal from the Roland GP100. But the delays are independently called up by footswitches from the Ibanez DD200. I always carry a spare electric guitar with me when I'm doing shows locally. But when I'm abroad I would just carry one electric(The Nitefly) and one plug-in accoustic(The Godin) to cut down on baggage size. The downside of this is that I would have to change my strings after every show. Bummer!
I'm using 3 Roland FS-5L foot switches and 2 Korg PS-2 for the call up of effects. And beside this switches on the floor will be my Vox Wah Wah pedal(that you've seen in my home setup). Apart from the messy cables involved, I have always prefered analog connection than digital ones. The transition is smooth rather than the digital glitches that is prevalent in some digital(Midi) switch systems.
UPDATES!
Raed the last sentence? hahahah I have to go back on my words now! I've decided to revamp my setup completely so that I just have to carry a 2U rack with me where ever I go. My new setup is made up of mostly old gears like the Roland GP100 and the Marshall JMP1 {which I have stupidly put on sale months back!}
The only new stuff I have going is the Mesa Boogie V-Twin which Rex bought from Australia. It costs me bout Sin$800/- and it's 2nd hand! Ah well...I love it...what can I say? All these stuff are controlled by my Roland FC200 Midi Footcontroller.
The FC200 works amazingly well with the GP100 and I can do so much stuff with it now either in concerts or studio situations. The Roland GP100 has 2 sets of send and return. Basically I have one set patched to my Marshall JMP1 for crunch and other distortions and another set to my Mesa Boggie V-Twin for solos. I'm Happy as a lark now...now if I could only get my fingers to work!
In parting, I hope you've learned something about my setup at home, the studio and on stage. It's a humble occupation that God has gracefully seen fit to grant me with. Good luck and may God bless you with your quest of making good music for the masses.
