Endorsements
electric guitars
CP Thornton 2006 and 2007 Jazz Elites. Modifications: inlay-free fingerboard, narrow-spaced nut on a wide fingerboard, five-position blade style pickup selector switch removed, three-position toggle switch installed, no bridge-pickup tone control, volume potentiometers increased to 500k, no-load tone pot, on the 2006 the body cavity, including under pickups, is coated with copper paint, Graph Tech string-saver saddles, Gotoh 510 locking tuners. In both Thorntons, Creamery Wide-Range Baby ’71s pickups in the neck position, Creamery Domino Hot Coil pickups in the bridge position.
For flying when carryons aren’t possible, a 2023 CP Thornton Contoured Legend whose neck I remove so that the guitar can hide in a backpack. Chuck Thornton customized the guitar with t-bolts (to make the neck easy to remove and reinstall), Kluson locking tuners, Creamery Wide-Range Baby ’71s pickup in the neck position, and a Creamery Domino Hot Coil pickup in the bridge position.
2006 CP Thornton Blues Queen. Gotoh 510 locking tuners. The orginal Zhangbucker P90s were so noisy (but probably no more than other P90s) that they have been replaced with Lindy Fralin hum-free P90s.
flattop steel-string guitars
2014 and 2018 Anthony Klassen Ark New Era Euphonon Modern model “Scott Fields Custom,”based on a Larson Brothers Euphonon Round Shoulder. The 2014 has an Adirondack spruce top with cocobolo sides and back. The 2018 has a Lutz spruce top, Indian rosewood sides and back. 2009 Santa Cruz FS, cedar top, Indian Rosewood sides and back.
classical guitars
1999 Robert Ruck, cedar top, Indian rosewood sides and back, cutaway, 2013 Robert Ruck, Lutz spruce top, Indian rosewood sides and back, cutaway.
For air travel where the guitar has to be checked as luggage, a 2009 Michael Menkevich, European spruce top, Indian rosewood sides and back, cutaway.
electric bass
Japanese Fender Jazz Bass, date unknown.
road cases
Karura Sentinel carbon-fiber cases for the flattops and classicals. Calton deluxe fiberglas cases for the Thornton electrics and a second classical, when necessary.
gig bags
For the electric guitars and bass, Mono Vertigo cases, Mono M80-PB1 for the pedal board, Crumpler Road Mentor backpack for the (disassembled) Thornton Contoured Legend.
amplifiers
Egnater Rebel 20, Egnater Tweaker combo, or Brunetti Singleman 30 for recordings and some local gigs. For road gigs promoters receive a list of 75 amplifiers ranked in order of desirability. Usually they find something that is not on the list. For nearby acoustic gigs where no PA is available, I use an AER Alpha with a Neumann MCM 114 microphone.
strings
D’Addario EPN22 (.013-.056) for the Thornton Jazz Elite electrics, D’Addario ECG25 XL flatwounds (.012-.52) for the Thornton Blues Queen, D’Addario EJ16 (.013-.056) for the steel-string flattops, D’Addario EJ45 Pro Arte normal tension (.028-.043, G string replaced with an EJ46 hard-tension G, .041) for the Ruck classicals, EJ46 Pro Arte hard tension (.0285-.044) for the Menkevich classical.
pedals
For non-flying gigs, two Suhr Eclipse distortion pedals, TC Electronic PolyTune 3 tuner, Origin Effects Cali76 compressor, MXR Timmy, Walrus Monument tremolo, TC Electronic mini Hall of Fame reverb (for dead rooms only), Lehle volume pedal, Cioks DC7 power supply, Pedaltrain Metro 16 pedal board.
For fly-to gigs, Suhr Riot mini, Suhr Shiba Drive mini, MXR Timmy, Wampler mini Ego compressor, TC Electronic polytune 3 mini, Ibanez TRMINI tremolo, Mooer Leveline mini volume pedal, Cioks Adam power supply, Pedaltrain Nano pedal board.
When leaders request “weird sounds,” patched in can be a hodgepodge of digital and analog effects, such as a Malekko Goatkeeper Tremolo, a JPTR FX Fernweh dual delay, a SubDecay Prometheus filter, a Red Panda Particle delay/pitch shifter, and a SubDecay Vitruvian ring modulator. These gizmos live on a Pedaltrain Metro 16 pedal board and suck juice from a Cioks DC5 power supply. And for leaders who request “that Munich sound,” I use the ultra-rare Boss ECM-2, which adds a long-decay wet reverb, ducks extraneous notes, and adds space between phrases.
picks
Jim Dunlop Stubby #474 Lexan 3.0mm.
bows
Modified 1/32 fiberglas violin bows.
glove
Scott Fields Noise Glove
razor
Merkur 34C
cables
Cordial PP-Metal