EQUIPMENT PICKS FROM PACO DE LUCIA, DUNCAN SHEIK, THE BLUE RAGS, CATFISH KEITH, and CHARLIE LOUVIN
began playing flamenca negra guitars in concert long ago and has helped to popularize them among young flamenco concert artists. Traditional flamenco guitars are made of Spanish cypress. They're set up with very low action, and their necks are slanted slightly backward, creating a subtle fret buzz. These design details afford flamenco guitarists a bright, penetrating sound that is ideal for cutting through the sound of the singers and dancers. A flamenca negra is constructed and set up like a traditional flamenco guitar but has rosewood back and sides, like a classical guitar, giving the sound more depth and complexity.
De Lucia's touring guitars are built by the Conde brothers (Hermanos Conde) of Madrid, Spain (Calle Gravina 7, Madrid 28004, Spain). They learned their craft from one of the greats of the flamenco guitar-making tradition, Domingo Esteso.
De Lucia also has two instruments (both negras) made by American luthier Lester DeVoe (Long Look Farm, 568 Paris Hill Rd., South Paris, ME 04281; [207] 743-9764). One has Indian rosewood back and sides and friction-peg tuners, and the other is made of Brazilian rosewood and has geared tuning machines. Both have German spruce tops. De Lucia played the Indian rosewood instrument in the films Don Juan DeMarco and Saura's Carmen, as well as on a couple of recordings, including the one he is currently working on.
De Lucia uses Luthier strings (Luthier Music Corp., 341 W. 44th St., New York, NY 10036; [212] 397-6038). He treats his fingernails with varnish and his thumbnail with Kleenex and Krazy Glue.
--Guillermo Juan Christie
plays a Froggy Bottom acoustic guitar, Alvarez acoustic-electrics (which he endorses), and Martin guitars, among others. The Froggy Bottom, a style H with koa back and sides, a spruce top, an ebony fingerboard, and a Martin Thinline pickup, is his primary studio instrument. "The Froggy Bottom is a kind of 1940s 000, 12-fret parlor guitar," he says. "It's a very special instrument."
Froggy Bottom guitars are made in Vermont by Michael Millard (Froggy Bottom, RR1, Box 1505, Newfane, VT 05345; [802] 348-6665). "I really like Michael Millard's work," Sheik says. "His guitars are comparable to a Collings or a great Martin, and they're not as expensive."
On tour and in his "Barely Breathing" video, Sheik plays an Alvarez 6503 Summit series acoustic-electric, which features a thin body with a small sound chamber, a flamed maple top with f-holes, and an EMG under-saddle pickup. Sheik came across the guitar at Rudy's in New York and learned from Alvarez that it was out of production. "They searched through their factory and found one other one and sent that to me, which was great," Sheik says. "For a stage acoustic guitar, it's genius." Sheik also uses an Alvarez Bob Weir model on tour (the 000-size WY1BK, with a cedar top, rosewood back and sides, a black finish, and the Alvarez 500 preamp/EQ system), and he recently acquired an Alvarez-Yairi CY140 Concert Master classical with a solid cedar top and jacaranda back and sides, as well as an Alvarez AV2SB, a sunburst Avante Series baritone guitar. He also travels with a Gibson ES-335 hollow-body electric. He keeps his guitar tech busy on the road. "Especially with all these tunings, I'm using a lot of guitars," he says. "I change guitars after every single song in the set."
Sheik played a '64 Martin 12-string with a 12-fret neck when he recorded the song "Serena" for his CD, and he's now writing songs on a '45 Martin tenor guitar. "I saw Freedy Johnston using a Martin tenor when he played with Shawn Colvin a few months back," he says, "and that inspired me to go find one." Also in his working guitar collection is a nylon-strung Fender Telecaster Thinline.
Sheik experiments with a 16-track in his home studio, applying different effects to his keyboards and to some extent to his electric guitars, but he goes mostly basic on his acoustic guitars. "In the studio I love to do lots of different things with electrics, but with acoustics, my philosophy is to keep it sounding like it should," he says. "When I play on stage, I plug my acoustic guitars through a Boss reverb, a Boss equalizer, and a Boss compressor, the last two of which I use for about 30 seconds during the set. I go into the reverb, then straight into a D.I., end of story. I do have an in-ear monitoring system, so that's where the technology part of it comes in on stage. I use the compressor for solos, just to get a little more sustain on the instrument, and I use the equalizer almost like a volume boost. Because I'm singing, I find it really hard to mess around with pedals, and, frankly, I don't want to."
Sheik has tried many different types of pickups in his acoustic guitars, trying to find a sound that can hold up in concert with an electric lead guitar, bass, and drums. "What I've realized is that with an acoustic in a live setting with a band, it becomes unfortunately less about tone and more about a balanced, strong signal-to-noise ratio, and about being able to compete," he says. "It's a kind of practical approach to acoustic guitar."
Sheik has no brand preference when it comes to strings. His acoustic guitars are generally strung with gauges .012-056.
--Julie Bergman
lead guitarist Aaron Wood, aka Woody, plays a Martin HD-28-2R, which features an enlarged soundhole à la Clarence White. "I'm starting to learn its personality," he says. "It has a robust tone, and the sound is even all the way up and down the neck."
When the Blue Rags' attack is in full force, Woody shoves a T-shirt in front of the soundhole to mitigate feedback. "The Martin is so well made that in addition to producing a lot of sound, it also captures a lot of sound," he explains. He is still looking for a soundhole cover large enough to fit the enlarged soundhole. He also uses a Martin Thinline Gold Plus pickup and runs it through a Polytone amplifier. Woody is partial to D'Addario strings, though he also experiments with John Pearse strings.
Scott Sharpe strums a vintage 1947 Gibson ES-300 hollow-body electric. To preserve an acoustic sound, he miked the guitar directly on Rag-n-Roll. Sharpe uses D'Addario or D'Aquisto strings and a Fender Blues Junior amplifier.
--Marc Greilsamer
has two custom guitars, both made by luthiers in the United Kingdom. Peter Howlett and Tony Revell Musical Instruments (Unit 3B3, The Lion Works, Newtown, Powys S716 3AG, United Kingdom; [44] 686-624279) built his small-bodied acoustic. "It's the Catfish Keith Model," Keith says with a scampish grin. "It's fabulous!" The back and sides of the instrument are mahogany, and the top is German spruce. "It's little, but it sounds big and barky," he says. It replaced his Gibson Nick Lucas Special on the road.
Keith's Beltona steel-bodied guitar recently took over for his rusty 1930 National (Beltona, 8 Knowle Rd., Leeds LS4 2PJ, England; [44] 113-275-3454). He says the Beltona has "a great neck, a stainless steel body, and a deep, spanky, singing tone." He uses "big, fat strings," especially on the high end--.017-056.
--Gayla Drake Paul
main guitar is a Martin D-28, which he strings with Martin bronze mediums. He's not picky about microphones or pickups and uses medium-gauge picks without preference for any brand.
--Dan Ouellette
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