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John Hiatt - Shredding the Document

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ObserverArt5/30/2014 11:57:38 am PDT

re: #518 makeitstop

Hell, I’ll talk guitars all day if you get me started. And amps… I’ve got a few pieces of Line 6 gear, which come in very handy for recording purposes. For live, I’ve been using an Atomic Reactor (that one’s an 18 watt amp, while I’ve got the 50 watt version) with a first-generation Vox Tonelab modeler. I prefer the Vox for live because it’s got an actual 12AX7 preamp tube in it, and it get a lot closer to a ‘real’ tube amp tone. (The Reactor is a tube amp, with no internal volume or tone controls, which makes the amp ‘transparent’ and all the tone control is done through the modeler.)

I love my Teles. Truly a Swiss Army Knife of guitars - way more versatile than a lot of guitars with all the bells and whistles!

I’ve tried Rics, can’t play ‘em with my big ham hands. The necks are very narrow. I run into the same problem with my Gretsch, but I love that guitar, skinny neck and all. :)

Hey! I use a Vox Valvetronic 2 x 12 modeling amp with the same preamp stage. I love it. The other guitarist has the real Vox AC30 with the Blue Alnico Speakers. We also have a Hartke bass amp fed into a small Carvin 15” cabinet. It’s nice because it has an XLR connector right on the front fro direct to the mixer.

I have two Tradition Tele-like guitars. I got them through a guitar wizard here in Columbus. He sold them to me many years back. They are made in Korea, but have necks from America attached. The Korean bodies are made of ash that is still very much available over there I am told.

I had him add a Seymour Duncan classic double stack pickup in the bridge position, a new Tele-like brass bar bridge and a single thickness black pickguard on the natural finish with a maple neck. It has that classic original Tele look.

Overall, I am the drummer and I have a fairly new Yamaha set about 5-years old. But, in the last many years I’ve gotten a bit better on guitar too. I write most of the songs we put together.