Mark’s Guitars

I have 47 guitars (this includes Basses and Acoustics), but my main guitars are 2 Parker Fly Deluxe guitars (customized with GK2A midi pickups for my Axon guitar synth and Yamaha Motif rack XS to go along with the magnetic and piezo pickups already on there); a Parker P-36 Tele Style guitar with Chris Kinman 48 Broadcaster Tele pickups in them (I also had nitro cellulose sprayed on the back of the neck by Rick LeGault for a vintage feel); a Parker PM20 Les Paul style guitar with a mahogany body and a figured Bubinga top with Virtual PAF pickup;  a Parker P-30 Strat style guitar - antique crème with a pearlized pickguard  and Chris Kinman Woodstock plus pickups installed; An Ibanez Artcore AF75TGD guitars with gold hardware (one in Candy Apple Red and one in Piano gloss black) that I had Noll Guitars “Getschify” (my term for turning Ibanez Artcore hollow body guitars into Gretsch guitars) for me (gold Gretsch knobs, volume knob on the lower bout, selector on the upper bout, the original selector turned into a kill switch, and TV Jones “TV Classic” pickups in the Candy Apple Red guitar and TV Jones Magnatron – like the DeArmond single coils in the Duo Jet – in the Black one); An early seventies Univox “Gimme” Les Paul (identical to the one I owned in 1976) that Jim at  Noll guitars restored for me. He also installed a Graph tech Ghost system for piezo acoustic sound and midi guitar synth output.

Jim at Noll is an artistic genius and a highly skilled craftsman who, besides buffing and fixing some dings on my 70s Univox “Gimme” Les Paul, restored a badly damage headstock and hand painted part of the logo that was damaged and you can not tell that it was ever damaged. It looks just like the one I owned, in the 1970s,  the day it came out of the music store. He has matched and reshaped necks for me.  He has painted bodies and refinished necks for me. The work always came out better than new. I can’t say enough about his work. He is the best, period.

 Stan (with his knowledge of history and his great stories) does great pickup installation, wiring and setup (we’ve know each other for quite a long time). Steve is great too. He does pickup installation, wiring and setup. And, of course, Ralph is there to help you with anything that you need. If you need any work done on your guitars, especially your vintage babies, these are the guys to go to. I can’t say enough about them and I highly recommend them.

 A 70s Univox “Ripper” strat copy guitar, that Jim at Noll also restored. Jim repainted it white (bright inkjet paper white), potted the pickups, installed the Ghost pickup system and reshaped (to match my Parker P-30), refinished and refretted the neck. A mid 70s Univox Deluxe Les Paul and a Parker P-30 that Jim painted Cherry Life Saver Red (my color idea, I told Jim that I wanted it to look like a Cherry Lifesaver, not Candy Apple Red), sprayed the neck with a nice gloss finish and added a Ghost pickup system to it. It has a pearlized pickguard, maple neck and the original neck and middle single coil strat style pickups and a Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Blues in the bridge position; A guitar that Noll Built for me from an Aria Pro II maple neck that I had. They added a tropical green Tele body, GFS Lil Puncher pickups and a Pearlized pickgaurd; a wine colored Epiphone Casino that Noll added a Bigsby Tailpiece and had Lindy Frailin install his noiseless P-90s in the Epiphone chrome covers.

My other favorite guitars that I use most for recording, rehearsing and performing are:  a 1972 Gibson Les Paul Custom, an Epiphone honeyburst Les Paul Standard with Virtual PAFs, a Fender 60s Tele with Kinman 60s Telecaster pickups, an eighties Japanese reissue 1957 Fender Stratocaster (Candy Apple Red) with Seymour Duncan Vintage Rails and a GFS Lil Killer in the bridge position, an Epiphone cherry red Dot (ES335), an Epiphone G-400 Custom (Three pickup Les Paul/SG Custom), an Epiphone ‘66 G-400 SG with Seymour Duncan Phat Cat Humbucker size retrofit P-90 pickups, an Epiphone Limited Edition G-400 “Goldtop“ SG and an Epiphone ‘56 Goldtop Les Paul with P-90s, an ebony Epiphone Classic Les Paul, a Gibson SG Junior and a Gibson Violet Burst SG Goddess, Three different early 90s Yamaha Pacifica guitars (Royal Blue 921 with lace sensors and an Virtual PAF bridge humbucker , Yellow 1221M with a Virtual PAF neck-a class of 55 middle- and a  Virtual PAF bridge pickup, and a Red Glitter 1230S with two Q100 P-90 style pickups and a Virtual PAF  bridge humbucker), A White Brian May Signature Guitar and a Dillion Brian May Guitar with three Burns Tri-Sonic Pickups, two Ibanez Artcore AFS75T guitars (an electric blue with stock pickups and a turquoise one that Noll installed TV Jones version of the Gretsch HiLo’tron pickups in it and added a volume to the lower bout  to make it sound and play like a Gretsch Tennessean) and a Gretsch reissue of the 6122 called The Country Classic (the guitar that George Harrison used on The Ed Sullivan Show in Feb. of 1964). I’m also waiting for my Epiphone 1954 Oxblood Les Paul (Jeff Beck Model) to arrive any day now.

Gibson SG Jr., Gibson SG Goddess, Brian May Signature Guitar, Epiphone Les Paul Classic and an Ibanez Artcore that has been modified to sound (and look) like a Grestch Tennessean (TV Jones Grestch HiLo'Tron pickups and master volume pot on the bout)

My 70s Univox guitars

My two "Gretschified" Artcores (the candy apple red with the TV Jones TV Classic Filtertron pickups and the Black one with the TV Jones Magnatron pickups; and my Epiphone Casino with custom fitted Lindy Frailin noiseless P-90s and a Bigsby)

My Red Life Saver Parker P-30 and my Noll customized Tele with the Aria Pro II neck

Acoustic Guitars
Fender 12 string, 70s Epiphone Texan and a 70s Epiphone 12 string

Basses
Peavey RSB Bass, Custom Bass (Epiphone Precision Bass body, Fender hardware, Fender Vintage '62 Precision Bass Pickup and an Allparts 70's Fender Jazz Bass neck - Geddy Lee Style), Jay Turser Hofner Style Violin Bass and an early 60s Hofner Club Bass

 Mark’s Rig

 My signal goes into a pedal Racks true bypass switch with eight loops. Loop 1-Fryer Brian May Touring Treble Booster (I also use an Electrolead RSB Treble Booster, like the Pete Cornish treble booster that Brian May uses to  drive his AC-30 amp, and a Crispy Cream treble booster- both GREAT pedals-to drive my tube amps when recording}; Loop2- a Crybaby Classic Wha Wha with the Fasal inductor (for recording I also use a Geoffrey Teese Wheels of Fire Wah-Wah pedal); Loop 3- a Pro Analog MkIII Fuzztone (a recreation of the Sola Sound Tonebender that Page used on the first two Zeppelin albums); Loop 4- a Fulltone 69 Pedal (a recreation of the Roger Mayer modified Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face the Jimi Hendrix used); Loop 5- a Line 6 distortion modeler; Loop 6- an Electro-Harmonix Little Big Muff; Loop 7- an Electro-Harmonix Iron Lung Vocoder; Loop 8- An MXR Phase 90; out of the true bypass into a Lovepedal Line driver . All of that goes  into a Line 6 Vetta HD 300 watt Head (upgraded to Vetta II 2.5), on top of two AB Custom (made by Jesus from AB Custom Audio in California - all four cabs have white piping around the grille cloth and gold piping on the black bronco covering) open back 2x12 cabs loaded with four Line 6 Celestion G12H-90 speakers ,  sitting on top of two AB Custom 4x12 cabinets (Bronco Black with Wheat grill cloth) loaded with 4 Eminence Patriot Screaming Eagles (left Cabinet) and 4 Eminence Red Coat Wizards (Right Cabinet)  so that one amp model (lets say a Fender 1953 tweed deluxe) comes out of the left 2x12 open back cab with the Celestions and the left 4x12 cab with the Screaming Eagles in it (giving a definite American vibe); and the other amp model (Let’s say a 1969 Marshall Plexi with a Variax on it) comes out of the right 2x12 open back cab with the Celestions and the right 4x12 cab with the Wizards in it in it (giving it a British Classic Rock Vibe). My Parker Fly piezo pickups and Graph Tech piezo pickups, Axon MkII guitar synth triggering my Yamaha Motif Rack XS, effects from the Vetta, effects from my rack (Kurzweil Rumour Stereo Reverb Processor) go into a Behringer Eurorack line mixer and that goes into a Mackie 808S PA mixer/amp and that runs two Peavey SP5 PA or two Peavey PR15 speakers, depending on which ones I feel like lugging, (which are on stands about five and a half feet in the air on the extreme left and right of the 4x12 guitar speaker cabinets).

This gives me two dry amp models at a time (one to each set of two 4x12 cabinets) and all the pedal effects are coming out of the guitar speakers, and all the delays and reverbs are coming out of the Left and right PA speakers in stereo So, the effects are very clean and pristine, simulating actual reverbs and echoes bouncing off the walls on either side of the room, while the amps can be down and dirty. I’m a Heil microphone endorser and I mic my two 2x12 cabs with two PR40s and the two 4x12s with two PR30s (both for recording and live) and for live shows and rehearsal I use a PR35 for my vocal mic.

Current rack set up

Microphones

I use two PR30 and two PR40 microphones from Heil Sound to mic my rig. I also have another PR30 that I move around to mic various tube amps or Acoustic Guitars when I record. I can't say enough about these mics. They have replaced my condenser and ribbon mics when I'm recording guitars. If you are a guitar player and you care about your sound, you need these mics. they require little, if any, EQ and they really reproduce the energy of your sound.

Drums

Pintech pads going into a Roland TD-8 V-Drum module running BFD-2 Software in Cubase 4. Sabian cymbals and a Zildjian sizzle cymbal

Small rig for very small venues or quick setup gigs

Vox AC30 Custom Classic

Great pedals that have been on and off my pedal board and are now used strictly for recording

Same Spider Valve on top of a Peavey ValveKing 4x12 cab with the same speakers as the LopoLine. The LopoLines now have a Celestion Line 6 G12H-90 and a Governor in one and a Celestion Line 6 G12H-90 and a Red, White and Blues in the other. And, it's now being powered by a 300 watt Vetta Head (upgraded to Vetta II).

The ValveKing is being mic'd by a Heil PR30. This mic ROCKS!!!

I use the Pedalboard with the spider. It has a line 6 Shortboard to control the Spider Valve, a VHT Valvulater, a Crispy Cream treble booster, a Crybaby with the Fasel inductor, a Hop Hed Fuzz (Sola Sound Tonebender  clone), MXR Phase 90 and a CE 5 Chorus pedal.