pedal boards of the stars - Paul Turner - Jamiroquai

One for the bass players!
Paul Turner recently asked me to tidy up his pedal board before his latest Jamiroquai tour so I whipped out the video camera and documented the process. Really interesting for bass players or for anyone putting together a pedal board and wants to do it properly.

TheGigRig in Doug Dopplers 'Get Killer Tone' DVD

This week our good friend Doug Doppler took delivery of the pedal that I put together for the Guitar Player review.
Doug has started work on one of the coolest projects we know about, a video series on 'How To get Killer Tone'.
Doug tracked us down at NAMM this year and we organized to get him sent this pedal board for him to put through its paces.
Doug is yet another guitarist totally committed to squeezing every last drop of tone available from his gear, he's a great guitar player and we're proud to
have him rocking out on our gear
You can see his YouTube channel here

The board we put together has some really tasty pedals on it including a vintage 70's EH Small Stone phaser, Keeley modded CE-2, original Ibanez AD-80, Analog Man Beano boost, Tone Freak Severe and the new AC+ booster from Xotic.

Guitar Nation - the aftermath

Firstly i want to say a massive thank you to everyone who came down to Olympia in London on the weekend. It was a really great weekend and great to see so many tone obsessed guitarists.

Tone Hungry Crowd Gathers

From the minute the doors opened on Saturday the crowd around TheGigRig stand was constant. It's where the tone was at doncha know. We were there with my mate Jesse and his band of merry men from Lazy J amps (ooh.. so very tasty..the amps, not the merry men)


It was full steam ahead from start to finish.

My good friend and guitar/producer legend Paul Stacey
dropped by to say hi and proceeded to have schwang (which is a technical term for playing guitar with passion and gusto!)
on my rig. Man, the guy is just amazing!

I have started a petition to get Paul and Jeremy back to the 606 club asap for another of their rock gigs. If it happens you owe it to yourself as a musician to get down to the 6 and hear these guys play. It'll put hairs on your chest, guaranteed. In all seriousness Paul is one of the most amazing guitarists I've ever seen. Just the amount of music that comes out of the guy is incredible.

Rock legend Phil Hilborne stopped by before his gig on the main stage to say hi. Phil has been using TheGigRig Pro-14 for a few years now and his tone is fantastic. He's just returned from a sell out 'Monsters of Rock' tour in the US where night after night he's been playing to packed stadiums. That big grin on his face is not forced!!

The guy is a legend and lives, eats and breathes guitar.


Jamiroquais' Rob Harris is another Pro-14 user and is on the road again with JayK. The new album sounds great and the Pro-14 was used extensively as well as a MIDI-8 courtesy of Jamiroquai's bass player Paul Turner. Rob's rig is fantastic and with him behind it sounds truly incredible.


New British blues sensation
Stephen Dale Petit uses a MIDI-8 at the heart of his rather amazing sounding rig. His new album'The Crave' is out now to well deserved rave reviews. I'll be going to a gig at the 100 club that he's putting on on with special guests Ronnie Wood and Mick Taylor. That's going to be massive!!!!




Fresh from a tour down under with Bonnie Tyler, Matt Prior was at the show. Along with yours truly, Matt is going to be doing clinics as a member of the British Guitar Academy alongside Marilion's Steve Rothery and Mr So and So's Dave Foster. It's going to be really great so watch this space.

There were a few amazing things about the weekend which were really cool and I'll never forget, including a name drop by Mr Steve Vai at his Master Class, but one image will stick in my head forever. We were lucky enough to have Mr Phil Harris with us who just happened to bring along his original 57 gold top Les Paul, yes folks, its a real one. You don't play this guitar, it plays you! All I can say is anyone who doubts the argument for vintage guitars hasn't heard this thing. So I was talking to some guy at the stand and I hear some Led Zep being pummelled by this 11 year old kid... on this guitar! Firstly, all 11 year olds should be made to learn Zep tunes as part of their curriculum at school, so major kudos points for that one, but apart from it sounding so good I was left wondering if and when this kid would ever realize the significance of him playing those songs on this guitar. Truly amazing. So thanks Phil, and thanks to every for coming down.

See you at the show!

Finaly, a proper guitar show returns to London!!

Guitar Nation is happening this weekend 13th and 14th of November in London at Olympia in Hammersmith.
You can find out all about it here... http://www.guitarnation2010.com/index.htm

We're at stand 316 so come down and say hi. It should be a really great weekend

TheGigRig does the Albert Hall

I'll never forget the first time I saw TheGigRig at the Albert Hall, of course I won't, and either would you. If something you'd worked so hard on for so long was going to be onstage with one of your favourite artists at one of the worlds most prestigious venues, you'd be there too right? So this was a very important moment for me. Paul Stacey was playing guitar for the Finn Brothers at the time , I'd spent endless hours putting together the pedal board for Paul for that tour and so excited at the prospect of seeing it onstage at the Royal Albert Hall, on top of all that I was also getting to meet one of my all time heroes Neil Finn at the same time. However my excitement was soon turned to deep sadness as it was that day the world found out that Paul Hester, the Crowded House drummer had taken his own life. The gig was later confirmed as going ahead so i went along to the sound check where the band played the most astounding rendition of Don't dream its over. I'd heard this song a million times, played it a million times, seen Neil perform half a million times, but the version at sound check stopped everyone in their tracks. From the sound guy to cleaners, everyone in there just stopped and their eyes were transfixed on the stage.It was a moment that will stay with me for the rest of my life. So I got to meet Neil Finn, i had all these thoughts on what i was going to say, how i would offer to sort out a really tidy little pedal board for him etc, but those thoughts were such a long way away now. I just said hi, and how i was so sorry to hear about Paul. What else could i say? He was gracious and personable, we chatted for a few moments, and that was that.
The gig was emotionally charged, but none the less, and incredible performance all round.


(in this shot you can see Paul Stacey's white Pro-14 in the lower left hand corner)

Since then we've had numerous artists play at the big dome, each one being special. This image was sent to me by Donny Little, who plays for Paolo Nutini, the MIDI 8 on stage at the Albert Hall only a few weeks ago.



I feel a little glow every time someone tells me who much they love using the gear we make, I'm grateful and proud that the artists have chosen us to carry their tone. For me this is what being passionate about what you do is all about. I see this MIDI 8 on stage at the Albert Hall, and all these rich memories come back, none of which would have happened if my business partner Dave Mapleston hadn't answered a letter I wrote to him that i scrawled out on a kitchen table 7 years ago.. but that's a story for another day

more pedals, more joy

where will it end? You know what, i don't think it will, in all honesty. I just bagged this old MXR phase 45 that sounds lush and glorious, just a touch understated than the 90 and works wonderfully. I'll give it its first night out at the Tin Spirits gig tonight, but i', also rediscovering a bunch of pedals I have int used for a while. I pulled our my old Hot Cake the other day, bugger me, its just fantastic. Into the DC30 it really does sing. I love the way pedals catch your imagination, you conjure soundscapes in your mind as to what the end result might be, maybe this is the one! Yes, they are only a part of a long chain and totaly reliant on what goes in, and where they go out to, but when you get that combination right, well its a glorious thing.

Doug, is the back door open???

I don't know about you but as much as I love my gear, every now and then i find myself being reminded of how special some of this stuff is and how gutted i would be if it were to , i don't know, lets say fall out the back of a van doing 80MPH down the motorway. After a great weekend of gigs finished off with a night of battling with the loudest DJ in the world we packed up the van and headed home. After about 15 miniutes driving a truck overtook us on the outside lane. 'He's very loud' thought I, then i had a horriific thought. I swung around and see the back door of the people carier we were in wide open like the worlds biggest spoiler. I shrieked like a 6 year old girl, "THE BACK DOOR'S OPEN!!" Doug casualy pulls the van over and jumps out. "Jees Dan, you're lucky, your guitar was hanging a foot outside the van". I felt sick. Writing this, i feel sick. I could just see it happening so vividly, this incredible guitar that has survived half a century finaly meeting its demise shattering into 1000 pieces on the M25.

Today I have been cradling my guitar rocking back and forth like a mental patient who's taken just a bit too much diazapan. - there there, it was all just a dream

Its wierd but these little things can give you a new perspective on the joy of great tone. Had my guitar been destroyed last night i would have been talking about all the wonderful moments i had with it, now i'm just looking forward to enjoying it even more. I will only ever play this guitar a finite number of times. I will only ever get 'that sound' a finite number of times.

We're hear for a good time, not a long time, so make your tone time count.