We’ve all heard it growling and swirling in Brit-rock bands such as Procol Harum, Spencer Davis Group, various iterations of Steve Winwood. We hear its gritty staccato in countless jazz, blues, gospel and R&B artists like Jimmy Smith and Booker T and the MGs. Garth Hudson of The Band customized his for a unique tone. So, it was with great delight when a friend donated to Chris this Hammond RT3 (basically a model C3 with full bass pedal board).
Oh, and we don’t want to forget the accompanying Leslie rig - a combined amplifier and loudspeaker that creates that singular swirling sound by projecting and modifying the sound by rotating a baffle chamber in front of the loudspeakers.
The Fix is In
But all was not well at Sundance Studios. Some gremlins put the kaibosh on the Hammond. Lucky for us, Mr. Kevin Greig knows his way around the inner workings and as you see, sleeves got rolled up and delicate electrical surgery found the culprit – fried capacitor. Listen for the Hammond on The Silver’s upcoming album.
Chris' Gear
1971 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe
This is my trusty 1971 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe. I play this almost exclusively, at least for most of our rock & roll numbers. Almost everything on it is original. I got this baby in 1973 for $375, which I borrowed from my band manager at the time. Best money I ever borrowed and paid back – almost right away. I bought the guitar from a private party – a guy I can’t remember who was cool enough to drive it all the way from his place in Hollywood up to our rehearsal spot in Sylmar.
The only things not original are 1) the pickup selector switch, which cracked and I replaced with the one I had on hand. It’s black and I believe it should be white or ivory; 2) the truss rod cover, which also cracked and fell off, so I had a custom engraved replacement made with my name on it and the year and model of the guitar – my little concession to my guitar player’s ego.
After all these years, this guitar has very few dings or blemishes. The belt buckle rash on the back is all me. I only take this guitar to Eric's Guitar Shop, Van Nuys, CA, where I take all my guitars for maintenance and repair. Wouldn’t go anywhere else. Thanks, Eric!
Takamine EG334C
This is my workhorse, my rather generic acoustic/electric Takamine EG334C. I use it for rehearsal, writing, traveling, recording and live performance. It’s not a cool vintage classic or a collectible, but it has never failed me. I’ve written dozens of tunes of all kinds on this thing. It’s been with me all over the continental U.S. as well as Hawaii, Europe, Mexico and the Caribbean. One of my life-long friends.
I’ve adorned the stock pickguard with some thin vinyl applique in the shape of the same red wings as in our band logo. I’ve also got this same pattern on the custom strap I use with this guitar. The strap is from Ethos Custom Guitar Straps. They were fabulous craftsmen and did only the finest work. I’ve got several custom straps from Ethos for many of my other instruments. Unfortunately, they are no longer in business.
Chris' Pedalboard
CRY BABY WAH - (black/red)
Sounds like the name implies. Captures late 60s-early 70s tones of Jimi, Clapton & Gilmour. Whether I’m playing funky “wacka-chuck” or exploring the psychedelic stratosphere, this does it.
BOSS CHORUS - (dark blue)
Chorus adds an ethereal, oceanic, spacey quality. This piece includes 3 types of chorus with 6 modes from rich & thick to specialized tones for electric & acoustic. The brilliance knob controls sparkle and enhances the guitar’s harmonics. “Ambience” adds reverb for space & depth.
IBANEZ TUBE SCREAMER MINI (light green)
An iconic pedal, this little baby gives me midrange ‘growl’ for punchy blues and grit.
DONNER REVERB MINI (dark green)
7 different reverb effects: room, hall, church, spring, plate, studio, & mod. 3 function knobs allow fine tune blend of colors and tones. I love the cross-function of decay and duration which can give me an old-school wet sound and puts a new twist on our originals.
DONNER RIPPLE TREMOLO MINI (light blue)
Tremolo is the heartbeat. The Donner gives me full range and depth for expressive and tasteful vibrations.
BOSS SUPER OVERDRIVE (yellow)
The Boss gives me the warm, natural distortion of an overdriven tube amp. Sounds great through my Fender Re-Issue Bassman 410 amp. Subtle, smooth & perfect for blues & rock. It lets me modify my string attack – jumping from sweet rock solo to growls.
IBANEZ DIGITAL DELAY MINI (pink)
Imagine your guitar echoing back at you slowly from the distance across a wide valley. Or a rapid fire repeat as if you are in a tiny, reflective space. I love the warm tone, great range and depth of this Ibanez. I can add broad dimension to long, slow sweeping runs or truncate a choppy lick to hear it immediately again for double emphasis.
TC Electronics Poly Tune
Mutes the sound and let’s me tune my strings perfectly in silence (as long as I remember to use it). Mark’s got one, too.
Mark's Gear
1965 Vintage Gibson Trini Lopez Custom
I bought this in 1965 at Apex Music in San Diego for $465. It's a variation of the ES335 (Chuck Berry and countless others) but with elongated Fender-style headstock, diamond f-holes, semi-hollow. Rosewood fretboard. Dave Grohl and Maca's Brian Ray have brought this back to some prominence.
1964 Vintage Vox Shenandoah 12-string
My first acoustic guitar and I still play it with The Silver. I recently installed Fishman Infinity electronics. The word on 12-strings is you spend half your time tuning 'em and half your time playing out of tune, But I became expert at changing strings and winding (with a couple of secret techniques) so this puppy is pretty much always in tune, except for slight temperature fluctuations. I love the sound, especially when I kick off "Hotel California".
John Lennon model?
Actually, it's a Harley Benton RB612-BK 12 string. Chimey, twangy, jingle-jangly. Perfect for certain tunes. From Thomann in Deutschland. Cost? You wouldn't believe it.
G&L ASAT Special
G&L is the third company Leo Fender founded, after Fender and Music Man. Consider the brand as Fender on steroids. I have heard this guitar for quite a few years, as the main instrument of my friend Phil Catalfo. Our high school band had a reunion gig every year in San Diego and PhilCat would play this stellar axe. Always impressed by the unique sultry tonality and bite. So I found the same configuration on reverb.com and ordered it. The pickups are jumbo MFD with 5,800 windings so it screams. The bridge is a Leo Fender design - locking saddle bridge, which unites each separate string saddle into a solid piece and transfers the tones into the swamp ash body for maximum sustain and resonance. As Phil's grandfather would have said it's the cat's pippy.
Rick Turner Renaissance RS-6 Deuce electric/acoustic guitar
My Rick Turner Renaissance RS-6 Deuce is a six-string electric-acoustic guitar, hand-made in Santa Cruz, California. Mahogany neck, back and sides, Western red cedar top, ipe fingerboard, and black veneer headstock. Planet Waves tuners. The Deuce's thin-line body aside, it has the look and feel of an acoustic hollowbody. It uses acoustic strings. But don't let any of that fool you.
The mahogany center block helps to cut feedback so you can wail. The Deuce's onboard package consists of D-TAR Timberline electronics with co-axial piezo polymer pickup in the bridge, for brilliant string tone, and a Seymour Duncan StagMag humbucker which offers a variety of electric guitar tones, too. And don’t get me started on the piezo-electric tone blends. This is a unique-sounding instrument and works well with The Silver’s various genres of tunes. I'm a happy guy!
Swampy Bayou
This here's known as a resonator or dobro. It's solid 25 lbs. of copper with a huge resonating disc instead of a sound hole. Known for it's Southern, swampy tone, often used as a slide guitar. I slid a gold foil magnetic pickup just under the neck and added electronics. For special occasions.
1974 Vintage Selmer MK6 alto sax
I keep my sax in 100% perfect playing condition. Although there are quite a few excellent brands and models, the Selmer MK6 is known as the gold standard. Click here to read more about how I 'learned to work the saxophone'. My favorite mouthpieces are a Guardala Vintage studio metal, a Barkley Brazil Pop Custom 7, and a vintage Brilhart LevelAir. After years of experimenting, I settled on Fibracell synthetic reeds #4. Since I double on sax and guitar, I have to make quick instrument swaps at live gigs and practices and I don't have time to keep the reed moist. Fibracells are built with the same cell structure as cane wood reeds and they sound like cane with full range and great, buzzy harmonics. 1974 was the last year the Mark VIs were built. Overall it's got modern tonality, bright, funky & sultry.
1980 Vintage Martin D-18
I bought this in the early 2000's at Norman's Rare Guitars in Tarzana. It has that distinctive Martin tone that you immediately recognize- Dylan, Neil Young and many more. I had mine fitted with Fishman Infinity electronics so I could plug in.
Mark's Pedal Board
Those of you with pedal boards know that they can become a vortex of science and mystery. Proponents of guitar effects know that 'less is more'. Subtly applying effects works far better than beating the listener over the head. This board took awhile to evolve. And it serves multiple functions. Yes, I have the obligatory tuner, overdrive, echo/delay, reverb/tremolo and chorus pedals. Plus a new Greer Amps Lightspeed to add some distortion, from a very little to a whole lot. I also have an LR Baggs acoustic guitar paragraphic eq pedal with notch and high-pass filters to prevent feedback, (well, ask Kevin about that) and a Boss harmonizer which I apply to replicate a three-piece horn section for sax. You also see a Behringer mixer on the board which gives me multiple inputs - guitar plug-ins and condenser sax mic with phantom power: I use a Radial Engineering A/B switch to shunt guitar signals to the guitar amp and the sax signal through the harmonizer, onward to a stage bug and direct out to the PA. The signal can also go to a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 analog-to-digital interface so I can play with the boys via online jams, practices sessions and livestreaming. The whole thing is topped off with an ElectroHarmonix Decimator II which knocks out all the noise and distortion that the board generates. The whole mess is powered by a T-Rex Fuel Tank. Lots of calculations to make sure the T-Rex 9v and 12v AC/DC modules are not overtaxed.
Kevin's Keyboards
1970s
90s Rig: Can't Stop This Train
That 70s Gig
My first keyboard – Farfisa Compact. This Farfisa was powered by a Marshall 50W amp and 4 X Celestion Marshall cabinet. To hear the famous Farfisa sound, click here.
That 70s Gig
90s Rig: Can't Stop This Train
That 70s Gig
I traded the Farfisa and Marshall rig in for a Hammond C3 organ with 910 Leslie whirring speaker. This was my professional setup in the 70s and was supplemented by an Elka Rhapsody String Synthesizer, Hohner D6 Clavinet, RMI Electric Piano, Korg 770S Synthesizer
90s Rig: Can't Stop This Train
90s Rig: Can't Stop This Train
90s Rig: Can't Stop This Train
This setup was used to create backing tracks for musical productions like Joseph & His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and various other local musical productions. Also used to provide demo backing tracks for performances. And it's still part of my current rig.
Top to bottom:
1.)Korg 770S Monophonic 3 oscillator Synthesizer & Roland 5 pad Drumpad Midi’d to Roland MT32 Sound Module
2.)Roland S-10 Sampler
3.)Korg DS-8 FM Synthesizer Midi’d to iPAD running Garageband Sounds
4.)M-Audio 88-Key MIDI Controller
2013 Enter Nord
Nord Piano 2: Still Rockin'
90s Rig: Can't Stop This Train
On-stage setup complexities saw me replacing the old setup with two Nord Sampler Keyboards, a 61 Key Nord 4D with Hammond organ and sampler facilities and an 88 weighted key Nord Piano2. The entire memory can be wiped and the units loaded with your own customized samples. A library of over 400 samples is available for download from the Nord website.
The Nord 4D featured a Hammond B3 tone wheel effect with Leslie whirring speaker simulation and drawbar control. Amazing piano and orchestral samples.
Nord Piano 2: Still Rockin'
Nord Piano 2: Still Rockin'
Nord Piano 2: Still Rockin'
The Nord Piano 2 lets you play, split and layer sounds from both the Nord Piano Library and the Nord Sample Library and features a versatile effect section
- all in a portable package sporting a premium 88-key Hammer Action keybed (HA88) or the ultra light weight 73 key Hammer Action Portable (HP) keybed. It's still in my current rig.
Current Gear
Nord Piano 2: Still Rockin'
Nord Piano 2: Still Rockin'
I replaced the Nord 4D in 2017 for Nord’s Flagship Stage-3:
The new flagship instrument features latest award-winning technologies including the Nord Lead A1 Synth Engine with sample playback, the acclaimed Nord C2D organ, a greatly enhanced Piano Section and extensive hands-on Effects - all in one exceptional performance keyboard. Check out "C'est La Vie" and "Dream On" on our Songs page to hear the current keyboard sounds.
Ricky's Basses
Fillin' out the Bottom
Each bass has it's own personality and it's own unique sound. From the Hofner violin full, fat, round sound to my Fender Jazz Bass's active pickups that can deliver almost any sound to the Rickenbacker with its wonderful range - deep tones to bright twang- (I was told they named it after me) - I can give songes what they need. Throw in round wound Roto Sound strings and you got it all.