AMPS

During the earlier days of my guitar playing, I attached a speaker from a disassembled walky-talky at the back of the acoustic guitar contected with a wire plugged to a radio cassette deck for amplification..

In my high school days, I was lucky to use a variety of Marshalls, including the wall of JCM800's among others now considered vintage.

The first amp I bought was a Marshall Lead 12 practice amp. I sold this to ex-After Image guitarist Chuck Isidro, which I heard later was stolen after one of their practice sessions.

When I joined The Dawn In 1989, I used their Roland Cube. Very small but a very heavy durable amp. However, I didn't like the sound of it with my effects, so I got myself a Perfect Connection Lee Jackson GP1000 preamp which I hooked up to a Crown audio power amp with 12"x4 JBL speaker cabinet. I also used a DOD FX250 Overdrive to give that extra drive together with the BOSS PV-1 Rocker Volume to boost the low output of my Strats. Lee Jackson is a known Marshall modifier who has modified amps for guitarists like Paul Gilbert. This specific model was used by Zakk Wylde of Ozzy Osbourne during his earlier recordings with Ozzy.

For The Dawn's reunion gig held at the ULTRA in 1997, I used a rented Marshall JMP-1 midi capable valve preamp. The very first preamp, rack mount type, produced by Marshall. Although I've been using Marshalls, I didn't really like the tone of the drive as it lacked the kick for me. Mesa Boogie Quad Preamp which is not in production now has been my #1 choice ever since. But this preamp rocked! I got my own unit right after the gig.

In the latter years with The Dawn, I used Laney's that the band endorsed.

I also experimented on several amps including my Marshall and Lee Jackson preamps for the new sound  with the Les Paul. So far with club gigs, the Peavey Classic 30 (million thanks to Angelo) worked better than I've expected a Peavey would be.

Settings on my Lee Jackson preamp; volume 10, Distortion 10, Treble 6, Mid 4, Mid Boost 3, Bass 10 (boost).

Settings on my Peavey Classic 30: channel-clean, Treble 7, Mid 4-5, Bass 6-7, Reverb 0-4.

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