Quite a few people have asked me about my equipment and how I get the sounds I do. Well...

Each guitar that I use on-stage is equipped with a Sunrise magnetic pick-up and an L.R. Baggs I-Beam . Both pickups are wired to a L.R. Baggs I-Mix stereo preamp inside the instrument.

Tips and Tricks
Acoustic amplification and pickup technology has also gone through some incredible breakthroughs.  People always ask, "What's the best pickup." Or ask, "What do you use?"  I encourage people to get out there and play as many different systems as possible.  Tone is in the ear of the beholder!  I personally have not found one pickup that does it all.  I like to use a combination of a magnetic pickup with a soundboard transducer.

A magnetic pickup gives more of the fundamental note and has a quicker attack.  Because it senses primarily the vibration of the string, it's best suited for loud volume situations and will resist feedback the best.  In other words, a good choice if your playing in a band setting.  It also will reproduce notes lower in frequency than what the body cavity of the instrument will reproduce.  This is useful for lowered alternate tunings.  I've also found a magnetic a good choice if your playing in a wide variety of rooms with different sound engineers.  You really have to try hard to make it sound bad.  Some tips on equalizing a magnetic for optimum performance:  Try scooping out somewhere between 300hz - 400hz.  Boost a narrow bandwidth at 63hz - 100hz for more thump.  A slight boost around 6k - 10k will add some sparkle if it sounds dull in the mix.  Once again, use your ear!

A soundboard transducer senses more of the body vibrations of the instrument at all three axis's (top, back and sides).  While they behave similar to a microphone there more resistant to feedback.  Keep in mind, they'll still feedback if pushed hard enough.  They're a great choice for reproducing more of the authentic tone of the instrument and have a wonderful high-end definition. I tend to notch out all frequencies at 150hz on down to take out the boominess as well as add of few db of boost around 8k - 10k.  When blending both pickups together I get my low-end from the magnetic and the mids and highs from the soundboard transducer. 

In regards to under the saddle piezo type pickups...I really have not heard one that I like.  Their prone to string balance problems and tend to have a harsh 'quacky' sound that is instantly identifiable.  While they are not my preference I encourage players to check them out.

I use a Pendulum SPS-1 stereo preamp to process the two pick up signals.  The SPS-1 is a very flexible piece of equipment that allows many signal routing configurations.  One side of the SPS-1 processes the Sunrise while the other channel handles the I-Beam. I insert a Sansamp psa-1 into the Sunrise channel.  Both channels have 3-band parametric E.Q. as well as channel inserts and phase reversal.  The SPS-1 has a master f/x loop that takes the signal from both pickups  and sends it to  a Lexicon MPX-200 f/x unit. 

The signal from the f/x unit goes into an Oberheim Echoplex.  This unit allows me to create live loops of sound and spontaneously improvise on top of the loop!  It's a great piece of gear and it really adds a unique element to my performances. The signal next comes out of the Oberheim and into a Peavey Kosmos.  This unit is a sub-harmonic generator that produces a note an octave lower than the input note it detects.  The cool thing is that it only hears the lowest note of a chord.  In other words the octave note only doubles the lowest fretted note of a chord.  It fattens up the guitar sounds and adds a lot of 'thump' to the signal.   It sounds like a bass player is  playing with you.  I use a Behringer FCB1010 MIDI pedal to control all the gear in my rack.

I recently started using the new Bose PAS system and have been very happy with the results.  It's much easier on my back and cuts down the load-in setup time down to about 15 minutes.  I highly recommend you check it out!  If I play somewhere that has a house sound system I just send them two XLR cables from the Pendulum. This may seem like alot of gear for one guy but it's the most compact system I've used to date.