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Steve Brayne; Lead Vocals, Guitar , Harp, Percussion
My main guitars are a ‘96 USA Fender Telecaster (red with a rosewood neck) and
a 1998 ‘72 Tele Custom (sunburst with rosewood neck and a humbucker at the neck).
I played my 1998 Nashville Tele (Sunburst with a rosewood neck and with a Strat pickup in the middle) on the Blue Sonic Boom CD and I also have another Nashville Tele with a maple neck, which I have yet to gig. They are all strung with Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottom strings, with the 17 replaced by a 16 Basically, I’m a Tele man! My first electric guitar was a ‘66 Tele, sadly long gone, which I got in 1968 when I played with Fox.
My amp is a 100 watt Fender The Twin, which I bought back in the early ‘90s. I play it on half power, otherwise it would take the roof off. For effects I use a Boss TR2 Tremolo, an Ibanez FL9 Flanger, an Ibanez DL5 Digital Delay, a Line 6 Verbzilla for reverb, a Line 6 Crunchtone and a Monkey Fuzzle Fuzz pedal for those manic moments.
My acoustic guitar is a Tanglewood electro-acoustic and I also play a Yairi classical guitar.
I play a mixture of Lee Oskar and Hohner Blues Harps, usually in second and third positions, through a Hohner Blues Blaster mike. Lastly I have a bag of things which I shake and bash for percussive effect and a roll of gaffer tape!
Steve's Favourite music
Piper at The Gates of Dawn - THE Pink Floyd Album, Axis Bold As Love - Jimi Hendrix (yes, I agree), The Notorious Byrd Brothers - The Byrds, The Who Sell Out - The Who, Sticky Fingers - The Stones, Natty Dread - Bob Marley and The Wailers, Mr Fantasy - Traffic, Planet Waves - Bob Dylan, Spirit - Earth Wind & Fire, Now Please Don't You Cry Beautiful Edith - Roland Kirk, Remain in Light - Talking Heads, Freedom - Neil Young, to name but a few. 13! Is that too many? I could go on...
Chris Hardy; Guitar and Vocals
Chris. "I use a '72 Gibson Les Paul custom or an '82 'Smith Strat'. Ernie Ball Regular Slinky strings on both. I use a 90's Gibson Les Paul standard for slide, with raised action and customised heavier gauge strings starting at a 12 on top. I use a Marshall TSL602 amplifier, with a Boss Chorus or an Electric Mistress flanger, and sometimes a Rat overdrive pedal. I play a lot of acoustic guitar too, using a '62 Gibson Country and Western Southern Jumbo (SJN). I also have a 2002 Gibson Southern Jumbo with a Fishman pickup in it. Custom sized sets of Ernie Ball on both, 11 on top, 52 on bottom."
Some of Chris' Favourite Music
Revolver (Beatles); the first Stones album; Freewheeling (Dylan); Rio Grande Mud (ZZ Top); Waiting For Columbus (Little Feat); King Biscuit Time (Sonny Boy Williamson); Mississippi Delta Blues (Fred McDowell); the first albums by Bert Jansch and Mississippi John Hurt; Hoochie Coochie Man (Muddy Waters live); The Allman Brothers Live at Filmore East; anything by Big Bill Broonzy ..
Maurice Whitfield; Bass
Gear:
Any bass with any amp. It's up to the player to make it sound good. However, having said that, I've given myself a calculated advantage by using a Trace Elliot 150 watt combo to power any one of my basses which are as follows: a '76 sunburst Fender Precision, a '77 black Fender Jazz, a '77 blue Rickenbacker 4001, an '05 red Burns Bison (just for the sheer stupidity of it) and last but not least, and the best, an '02 black Fender Precision '62 re-issue.
I usually use a pick. I can do a fair bit of clawing, slapping, popping and even some harmonics tapping, but nothing cuts through like a 'XH' pleccy in a live gig situation. I use heavy roundwounds by the way, just to provide that extra bit of pain to the ache already provided by the 14lbs slab of American wood hanging round the neck for 2 hours or more. No pain, no gain you see!
I like to dig in with the drummer and help provide a strong foundation.
I almost always use a 'wry' smile shaped EQ setting, with some boom taken down, some thud added on, some middle taken out and some top taken off. I also like to turn up the pre-gain to add sustain. So you see there are a a large number of adverbs to deal with in this business!
My idols are Bill Wyman and John Entwhistle. Why? '19th Nervous Breakdown' and 'My Generation', that's why!
Top Albums:
'Safe as Milk' by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band
'Troutmask Replica' by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band
'Clearspot' by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band
'Feats Don't fail Me Now' by Little Feat
'Forever Changes' by Love
'Swordfish Trombone' by Tom Waits
'Are You Experienced' by Jimi Hendrix
Mark Huggett; Drums
I play a Yamaha 9000R Hot Red finish drum kit; 20 inch Bass Drum 13 inch tom and 16 inch floor. DW Bronze snare, Evans heads, Yamaha hardware including double bass drum pedal. Cymbals mixture of Zildjian ride, oriental splash and chinese cymbal, Paiste hi hats and Sabian crash. Vic Firth drums sticks
The Yamaha 9000R was a classic as soon as it came out , full rich tom sound and used by Steve Gadd and Omar Hakim throughout the 80's. DW drum snare superbly made and the snare has a get cut through sound.
Top Albums
Buddy Rich, Wham; John Zorn, Naked City, Jimi Hendrix, Axis Bold as love; Yes, Close to the Edge; Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti; Frank Zappa, Sheik Yerbouti; OST Oh Brother where art thou?;Miles Davis In a silent way ;Pat Metheny Bright Size Life; Bill Stewart Think before you think.
Marks current top tracks can be seen here;
