Richard's Lead Guitar Rig

Richard's lead rig is surprisingly small. For those out there that think bigger is better for tone, think again.

The Amp(s)
The amp is an all tube, single channel, Carvin Vintage 16w, 1x12" amp. The amp has two different wattage settings, 16w or 5w. It is played in the 16w mode most of the time. The amp is usually mic'd at gigs and fed into the stage monitors. This exact little rig has been cranked up at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown San Diego while other bands on the bill lugged their 4x12 cabs around. Only one speaker of a 4x12 or 2x12 cabinet gets mic'd so why bother with a larger cabinet? For gigs that have a larger stage, easy load in, and can allow louder stage volume, a Carvin 212 Bel Air 100w Vintage Combo might be used.

The beat up VHF wireless unit sitting on top of the amp is an optional part of the rig. Wireless can be a bit risky at some gigs. So it is not always used.

The Boss EQ pedal adds some treble boost and a little low end to give it a clean punch.

There are two main guitars.
1. 1995 Sunburst Fender Strat (Made in Mexico)
Swamp Ash body with Sunburst finish, Maple neck with a Rosewood fingerboard. Bought brand new and modified recently with the following changes.
• Bridge replaced with gold Gotoh
• Black pickguard installed
• Alnico Pro Duncan pickups installed
• Strap-locks and Sperzel tuners installed
• Treble "bleed" capacitor installed on volume pot.

2. 1998 Carvin Bolt
Solid Mahogany body and neck. The solid Mahogany beefs up the tone nicely. It features 2 AP11 single coil pickups and a C22 vintage humbucker in the bridge position. It was upraded with Sperzel locking tuners by Carvin.

Other guitars include
• 1999 Carvin AE185 semi-hollow act-electric
• 1990 Fender '57 reissue Strat
• Gibson Les Paul Heritage Ltd Edition
• Carvin AC275 sem-hollow acoustic
• Epiphone Jeff "Skunk" Baxter Acoustic
• '04 Carvin California Carved Top
Effects
The effects rig runs in front of the amp. The following pedals are used
• Boss TU-2 Tuner
• Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster
• Vox Wah Wah
• Ibanez early 80's TS9 Tube Screamer
that is modded to the TS808 specs
• Ibanez early 80's Analog Delay
• Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Octave Fuzz
• Guyatone Micro Chorus

All pedals except the tuner, Pickup Booster and wah, run through a True Bypass custom switcher that uses colored LED's, active relays and Switchcraft jacks. This switcher or loop selector allows the original pedal to remain unaltered and allows true bypass "off" switching when the pedal is not needed.

The Boss EQ pedal fine tunes the tone of the rig before it hits the amp input. This and all the pedals are powered by an AC-DC power supply. It is a switching power supply and it does an excellent job at eliminating ground buzz.