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 Stuart Pledger
(Guitar and Vocals)
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Ex-Guitars & Amps
 
  Kay Acoustic My 1st guitar, given to my cousin Simon Pledger.
 
 
  Watkins Rapier 44 My first ever electric guitar, cost £25. Sold.
 
 
  Conrad 12 String Acoustic Never Gigged. Headstock got broken off in an accident. It was mended and then sold.
 
 
  Angelica Semi-Acoustic Bass This bass was turned into a fretless by a previous owner by filing the frets down. This had actually been done quite well. Used only in Horizon. Sold.
 
 
  Kay Les Paul Copy Used during Orcrist era. Sold.
 
 
  HH Studio 50 Amp This was my first "real" amp. Used in Orcrist and Masque. Sold.
 
 
  Kasuga Mockingbird (BC Rich Copy) Used during the Masque era. Sold.
 
 
  Fender Pro Reverb Amp Used in Cheap Sneakers thru to Livin' Dangerous. Sold.
 
 
  Ibanez Roadstar Only kept for a few weeks. Weak pick-ups. I traded it in against the Fender Strat below.
 
 
  Fender USA Strat (80's) Used only in Current Event. Sold.
 
 
  Gibson Les Paul Standard Traded it in against a load of recording gear.
 
 
  Marshall 8100 Valvestate Head Aaaaagh! Worst amp I ever bought. The HH was better than this thing. I traded it in against the JCM800 within 2 weeks.
 
 
  Marshall JCM800 50w Head Used in Burn/Bedlam and Matrix. Sold to Bob Leach (Matrix).
 
 
  Homemade 4x12 Used in Burn/Bedlam and Matrix. Sold to Bob Leach (Matrix).
 
 
  Ampeg Reverberocket Great sound, class A type amp, but it broke down on me twice at crucial gigs. Used in The Timebeats and S.w.a.m.p., now sold.
 
 
  Kimbara Classical I bought this guitar when I was 18 and for 25 years was the instrument I played most at home. However, the headstock got broken off for a second time in 2003 and has yet to be fixed. So the guitar is currently in retirement.
 
 
  Jackson Fusion SX Used in Burn/Bedlam and Matrix, occasionally in S.w.a.m.p., now sold.
 
 
  Fender Twin Reverb

Good amp with loads of "clean" power. Finally got new 6L6GC Power valves for this after it nearly died at a gig at The Haymakers. The valves were the original Fender ones from the late 1970's when the amp was made! I also fitted a pair of Celestion G12 Classic Lead speakers. After nearly crippling myself with a bad back I decided to sell it on eBay.
 

 
  Ibanez AS-80 Semi-Acoustic

I bought this guitar new in 1983 when I was still in the middle of a major Rush obsession. It has been used - at various times - in nearly every band from "Cheap Sneakers" to "S.w.a.m.p.". It has now been sold on eBay.
 

 
  Ernie Ball Musicman Axis Super Sport

Bought as an early 40th birthday present to myself. This is a very versatile guitar, light and easy to play, with really great tone thanks to its basswood body and diMarzio pick ups. Sold on eBay to finance new gear.
 

 
  Elka PM-13 Bass Pedals

These are midi pedals so they are not limited to playing bass sounds. They are used to trigger the Roland D110.
 

 
  Ozark "A" Type Mandolin

Used only in Scallywag.
 

 
 
Ex-FX
 
  3 Loop Switcher

This was the mainstay for my pedal board when I was using multiple distortion and overdrive units. It has gone through some different versions.
 
1. Originally switching was carried out using relays operated by momentary switches. This worked fine 90% of the time but occasionally you would not be able to switch - unacceptable in a live situation.
 
2. I then found a source for 3 Pole Double Throw (3PDT) footswitches at HotRox on the web. When I wired these 2 switches in I also added a Tuner mute switch.
 
3. I have now found 4 Pole Double Throw (4PDT) footswitches from Banzai in Germany. These are expensive at about £15 a throw but now it is possible to use one button to join both loops 2 and 3 together which means I only need one overdrive and one phaser on my board.
All this works with minimal (if any) clicking noise and 100% reliability. I can change between clean, rhythm and lead settings with just one press.
 
4. The unit has now been completely re-wired to not only switch effects but to change channels on my Engl amp and has therefore returned to my fx board and also meant that I could sell the over-large Engl Z5 switching pedal on eBay.
 

 
  Behringer EM-600 Echo Machine Based on the Line 6 Echo Park. Despite being made of plastic, this is fun piece of equipment with a great sound and lots of useful and inspiring features including Tap Tempo. I can now have a more prominent echo on most things because it is in time with the song rather then a generic wash setting in the background, which is how I used to set the DD-3.
 
 
  Boss AC-2 Acoustic Simulator

This actually exceeded my expectations. It is great to be able to play on an acoustic sounding instrument and then be able to switch to a lead sound for the solo instantly.
 

 
  Boss CE-3 Chorus Used from One Night Stand until The Timebeats. Sold to Mick's son, Philip.
 
 
  Boss CS-3 Compression Sustainer

A useful addition to my board. I now enjoy soloing with a clean tone. This has had the Monte Allums Opto-Mod carried out and it has done wonders for the pedal.
 

 
  Boss DS-1 Distortion

This has been modified by myself to almost Keeley specs, except I have a switch to change the input capacitor between the standard 0.047uF and a 0.1uF for a slight bass boost. There is another switch for clipping diode selection to change between:
1. A pair of 1N34 Germanium Diodes.
2. A pair 1N914 Silicon Diodes.
This thing sings! Sold on eBay after getting the Engl.
 

 
  Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal Briefly used by me in Burn, then loaned to my Cousin Simon, current where-abouts unknown!
 
 
  Boss HR-2 Harmonist Not only an intelligent Harmoniser pedal, but a nice Chorus and Octaver too. The key to using this pedal is tuning and using the "detector in" input and selecting the correct key for a particular song (not always the one you expect it to be!).
 
 
  Boss NF-1 Noise Gate No.1 Never used in a band. It was stolen from my car before I had time to use it!
 
 
  Boss NF-1 Noise Gate No.2 I bought this one off eBay. It is only switched in when using the amps crunch and hi-gain channels. It could have a nicer slope on the gate as it closes (not noticable when playing live), but the major treat is how little it affects your tone.
 
 
  Boss OD-1 Overdrive Great for bluesy overdrive, allowing the tone of the guitar to come through. Sold on eBay.
 
 
  Boss OS-2 Overdrive/Distortion Nice crunch and lead pedal for those Satriani tones. Sold to Mick's son, Philip.
 
 
  Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter

It was used in the solos for "Time" and "Comfortably Numb". I found that the Phaser thinned out my lead sound somewhat therefore it has been sold on eBay and replaced by an Ibanez PH-7.
 

 
  Boss PSM-5 Power Supply/Master Switch Used for a time in Matrix, to power various effects and to act as an effects loop. Not exactly noisy but affected the tone in a way I didn't like. Using this again prompted me to design and build my own multi-loop bypass box. Sold on eBay.
 
 
  Boss TU-12 Tuner Industry standard quality tuner. It has suffered from a couple of dry joints over the years but these have been simple to fix and it has been very reliable ever since. Although I use the tuner in the RP1000 on stage, this will be kept for guitar set-ups.
 
 
  Coloursound Swell Pedal Very battered, it still works, but hasn't been used since S.w.a.m.p. last did the brief section of "Xanadu" in the set. Sold on eBay.
 
 
  Danelectro Fish 'n' Chips EQ Terrible name for a really great EQ pedal. This is totally quiet, very small and solid. I am most impressed and recommend these to anyone looking for a quality EQ pedal. They are so good I bought a second one. I use one for a generic lead boost and one for the intro to "Shine On".
 
 
  Digitech Bad Monkey

After reading many favourable reviews of this pedal on Harmony Central I decided to give it a try. The eq is the real highlight of this pedal and small tweaks allow you to dial in the exact sound your after. This was made obsolete by buying the Engl Screamer. Sold on eBay.
 

 
  Digitech RP1000 After nearly 30 years of stompboxes, I have gone for a multi-effects unit. I chose this one for it's ability to use my Engl's pre-amp as part of the chain. It can be switched in and out easily. The acoustic sound is far superior to the AC-2. My overall tone had improved because of the removal of all the patch cables and effect buffers. Unfortunately, a number of secondary issues meant this wasn't the Multi-FX for me. I didn't like the Wah, the Whammy, Harmonist and Pitch Shifter had major problems and it had no midi or amp switching capabilities. Traded in for the Boss GT-10.
 
 
  Digitech X-Series Multi Chorus Great selection of chorus sounds with lots of subtle adjustments available.
 
 
  Dunlop Wah-Wah My 1st serious FX pedal, fell to bits during the Matrix era after 15 years of use.
 
 
  Echoman Analog Delay This was one of the little table top boxes - which I had to use with a seperate on/off switch - which Maplins used to sell. I managed to modify the delay to give 600 mS instead of 300 mS at slightly reduced quality. Sold at the same time as my TS-808.
 
 
  Electro Harmonix Big Muff My 1st non-homemade Fuzz Box, used for a while in Masque until I got the Tube Screamer. I seem to remember this was only borrowed for a short time.
 
 
  Electro Harmonix LPB2 Booster Used for a brief time in Matrix, borrowed from Pete Boyd.
 
 
  Electro Harmonix 4600 Small Clone Warm Chorus sounds. This has been modified to have a depth knob instead of the original switch. I have also given it a vibrato switch and a pulsing LED synched to the LFO and a regular Boss-type power connection.
 
 
  Ernie Ball VPJr Volume Pedal Industry standard volume pedal.
 
 
  GLX NG-100 The Noise Gate works extremely well with a good range of sensitivity. The slope of the decay is also very good. Both better than the NF-1 in that respect. The factor which takes this pedal off my board is the way it affected my tone. There is a low midrange/bass boost which is hard to get rid off with EQ. I'm sure this would be great for metalheads but not me. This is a real shame as the pedal works extremely well otherwise. I may keep this anyway and experiment with it to see if I can change this.
 
 
  Home-made Fuzz Box At the age of 15 or 16 I made several of my own FX, sounded very thin.
 
 
  Home-made Phaser Very wobbly sounding, soon gave up making my own FX.
 
 
  Home-made Volume Pedal Kind of like a Morley on the cheap! Hall-effect, for those of a technical bent! Sold at the same time as my TS-808.
 
 
  Ibanez MS-10 Metal Charger

Having read about the possible mods which can be carried out on this pedal on Harmony Central I decided to chance buying this on e-Bay, a bargain at £10.50 plus postage!!! There was a fault on the power jack which caused the unit not to work with a battery which took 30 mins to fix and the mods another 30 mins of experimentation before deciding on removing clipping diodes 3 and 4 and changing 1 capacitor to increase the bass input. This made it a good tube-screamer type clean boost/overdrive pedal. This was made obsolete by buying the Engl Screamer. Sold on eBay.
 

 
  Ibanez PH-7 Phaser This is a great phaser. You can set it to preserve most of the guitars sound while giving it plenty of movement or completely screw with the sound. The subtlety aspect is what I find missing on most phasers.
 
 
  Ibanez PT-909 Phaser Along with my Tube Screamer, this was part of my pedal board used for Masque and Cheap Sneakers. Sold at the same time as my TS-808. My second one is now also a spare replaced by the PH-7 now that I have my updated switching box. I have just sold my recent pedal for £30 more than I paid for it!
 
 
  Ibanez ST-9 Super Tubescreamer A bargain purchase from Ken Scullard. As the normal switch was missing I had some construction work to do, so while I was at it I added a switch to change between 2 and 3 clipping diodes for assymetrical distortion. I also modified the unit for slightly extra bass. I put it back to it's original spec and sold it on eBay.
 
 
  Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer Why did I sell this? Now worth about £250!!
 
 
  Loco Box Chorus Sold at the same time as my TS-808.
 
 
  Loco Box Flanger Sold at the same time as my TS-808.
 
 
  Maxon CP101 Compressor I had this imported from America in the days before these things were available in this country. It does exactly what it says on the tin, but with no noise, great! Another pedal made obsolete when I bought the Engl amp. Sold on eBay.
 
 
  Morley Bad Horsie Wah-Wah If it's good enough for Stevie, it's good enough for me! There is a slight level increase which is very useful when using it to play wah lines within a rhythm part as in "White Room".
 
 
  Peavey Profex This was used during my wilderness years for recording my own instrumentals. This spent too many years in storage and had to be sold on eBay as a faulty unit.
 
 
  Peavey Rockmaster Pre-Amp Also used for recording my own instrumentals along with the Profex. Sold on eBay.
 
 
  Wem Copycat Used only in Masque, but let me down in the middle of gigs when the erase head stopped working! So I sold it to buy the analogue unit.