Guitars & Gear

As many of you know already, I helped design the Peavey Rockingham guitar a few years ago. Originally, I played a Gretsch 6120 for many years, throughout the Bob & The Bearcats days and the first few years with The Enforcers. After that guitar was stolen in 1998 I switched to a DeArmond jazzer for a couple of years. A Tanglewood jazzer that was heavily customised to look like a 6120 came along next, and then a Gretsch White Falcon for a short period before the blonde prototype Rockingham appeared about 4 years ago. I now play only Rockingham's onstage and in the studio.

I always change the pick-ups on my personal Rockingham's to a Gibson P90 on the front, and a DeArmond dynasonic on the back. This is influenced by Eddie Cochran! I also use a fixed arm Bigsby - another Cochranism!! When I bought my Gretsch 6120 in late 1989, I was horrified to discover that it wasn't exactly the same as Eddie's!!! So I set about customising it until it DID look the same. This took years, and I managed to find a proper fixed arm Bigsby from the mid-50s. I really love them, although I appreciate that they're not every players cup of tea. But if you know it's there and won't move, you just eventually get used to it and develope your playing style accordingly. I use the B6 tailpiece, with a straight bar bridge. With other bridges, I've noticed that the strings can have a tendency to pop out occasionally, which can be very annoying! I also glue the bridge to the body - I hate floating bridges, and have never understood how anyone can have them like that with a Bigsby, as the tuning problems are horrendous. I also stick a screw into the body under where the Bigsby spring sits. This way the tailpiece won't move, either. I've found that this combination really helps with eliminating most tuning problems concerning the Bigsby. Of course, some of you might not want to start digging great big holes into your lovely expensive guitars, but believe me, the changes are not noticeable and are so beneficial I can't see how it would be a real problem. Unless you own a vintage guitar...

My preferred amp for the gigs is the legendary Peavey Wiggy. This amp was designed by Dweezel Zappa, and although Peavey are no longer making this particular amp, the company can still get hold of a few. This is by far the best amp I've ever owned. It's transistor, no valves, but it has a very big, full and warm sound. Most people that hear it assume it's all valve! It also looks just so unbelievably cool, but was always a little too pricey and that's probably the main reason it didn't catch on the way it should have. Having said that, it's still within the price range of a 59 Fender Bassman re-issue - one of which I also own - and the Wiggy is a much better amp. In the studio I normally use a smaller amp, the Delta Blues. This amp is about 30watts and has a single 15" speaker. I like to use this because I've always found that the pick-ups I use tend to sound better through a small amp. I can't really explain this technically, but smaller amps just seem to me to be easier and more versatile within a studio environment. They're also easier to carry up stairs...

Effects onstage are very basic - Just a single unit made by Zoom. It's called a Zoom 505 pedal, and although I have about 5 effects programmed into it that get used from time to time, the main thing I use it for onstage is the tuner! By far the main effect that gets used is an ambient setting to fatten up the overall sound, and I rarely use echo.

I only use Dean Markley 11 - 52 gauge strings, with a wound G. Also, Rotosound guitar picks that are 2mm thick. Of all the picks that I've tried over the years, these blue Rotosounds tend to be the most durable. I've always used very heavy picks, mainly because I tend to play very hard whilst singing - a lot of what I do is rhythm playing and that involves heavy strumming at times. But for the very basic interpretations I rarely do on record of the Merle Travis finger-style picking, these heavy picks really help with the bass strings. I can't get on with thumb picks. They turn my thumb blue...