carole pellatt guitarist
GEAR

I did want to preface my "gear" page by saying that I really believe that tone is created when your fingers touch the guitar and what gear you use is secondary.
That being said.....
 
I never go direct with my electric, live or in the studio (I usually say my 'direct out' line is
malfunctioning..) because I want to feel and hear the wind blowing through the speaker cone. I feel it’s important to get a really good clean sound and a really good dirty sound from the amp itself.

I try not to mess with the sound by adding too much to the signal path. I don’t dig the processed sound so I don’t use a lot of effects-just the occasional delay or chorus. Sometimes, a wah. Oh, I also live for tube power.

When a tune calls for a steel string or nylon string guitar in the studio I rarely, if ever,  use a guitar pickup into the board. It’s always the acoustic sound I want to hear. For live sound, micing is a little too difficult for most of the situations I find myself in, so good pickups on the acoustics or acoustic-electrics are key.
                                                                                                                  

           THE GEAR

Dean Markley RM-80 DR rack mount head

Dean Markley RM-150 DR rack mount head

Mesa Boogie Simul 295 Stereo Power Amp

Soldano SP-77 Amp Head

Soldano SuperCharger pre-amp pedal (brilliant!)

2 Mesa Boogie 1 x 12 Cabinets with EV 12L’s

Roland SDE 1000 digital delay

Alesis Midiverb

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah		 carole pellatt stratocaster guitarist
                                                                                                                                                                             

carole pellatt dean markley
gearsoldano mesa boogie musician

The Dean Markley’s are interesting amps. I first saw them new in the '80's at the Dean Markley store on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood (long gone). They were way out of my price range at that time (a whopping $750 - $1500!). But I would go in there a couple times a week and look at them and listen to people playing them. I was very impressed by their physical design and they really left an impression on me.

A few years later I found one used in Las Cruces New Mexico and grabbed it.

They’re really nicely designed. First of all, they’re convertibles, so you can mount them in their cabinet or in a rack (very smart). The head has two solid handles in front on each end and in the back they have two "j" hooks to wrap your power cable around.  I like the e.q.-ability of them. First of all, they have nice big knobs. The clean and the dirty channels have two separate but identical sets of control knobs. Sounds obvious, but the majority of amps do not set up clean and dirty completely parrallel, so you usually have very little control over the dirty channel compared to the clean. It’s a tube power, transistor pre-amp that has an interesting preamp to power amp result. You can get a really crunchy, harmonic, sustaining sound at a really low volume with it. That’s practical for freelancing. Because the amp is not very powerful (1 12 AX7 tube) you have to dig in to the preamp for some of the sound. Normally that would make things too bright if it’s a solid state pre. But because of the versatility of the e.q. section, I can tweak the dials through any gig situation. It’s really reliable as well-the airlines haven’t been able to destroy it yet, despite that it's constantly being dismantled.

I picked up the RM-150 DR a few years ago and it’s got a lot of power to spare. Same design as the RM-80.

Dean Markely stopped making these amps quite a few years ago and the company itself was bought out so they’re hard to find. By the way, I'm always looking for these amps used.

I use my Dean Markley’s with either one or two Mesa Boogie 1 x 12 cabinets with EV 12L’s. These are great little cabinets built into road cases with pop off casters that never fail me. I’ve had these cabinets for over ten years and they’ve proven themselves to be “airline proof”. Once again, neither Boogie nor EV make these products anymore (let me know if you spot them somewhere...)

In my Dean Markley rack I use a cheapy Alesis midiverb for delay or chorus if I need it.

When I have to bring out the big guns I use my Mesa Boogie Simul 295 power amp with a Soldano sp-77 rack mount pre amp.The Boogie power amp is a work of art. I've owned two of them and they are truly impressive in their design and consistency of performance.

I love my Soldano SP-77. I don’t think there is an amp maker who designs with tubes the way Michael Soldano does. His understanding of power amp to preamp matching is a beautiful thing. Everything he designs has a full range and warm sound.The crunch is always in the perfect frequency range. Because of his tube savvy, I find that the harmonic overtones in his amps sing with great sustain and produce polytonal feedback that shapes easily. And his products are a joy to look at and touch as well, with chasis that are always heavy duty.The wiring in my sp77 is artful and meticulous. 

Another Soldano product that I love is the Supercharger preamp pedal,which is the only preamp pedal I would ever use. When Michael says "true by-pass", he really means it. And once again, the Soldano design is beautifully wired, tubed ( 2 12Ax7's), and straight ahead to E.Q. with some nice big knobs. The Supercharger is a wonderful addition to the Dean Markley's I use. And it makes every amp sound great, adding a nice bottom end of easily "e.q.-able" tone.

You must try Soldano's Surf Box if you're a fan of reverb/delay/tremolo units. It offers a wide array of reverb and tremolo sounds and is reminiscent to the Echoplex from way back when.

I use an old Roland SDE-1000 digital delay with that rack.I love that delay, and they are great when you chain two of them together to get multi-delay or chorus with delay.

For tubes, I love Sovtek.That's pretty much what I use right now, although there are some old Groove Tubes I like as well.

As far as gear goes, there's lots that I've owned that I like. For example, the Intellifex by Rocktron, and the Rocktron Midi switching system for analog amps (I thought that was a brilliant and simple design, and a necessary item for analog fans). I have to say that I regret letting go of my ElectroHarmonix flange pedal in the 80's. Anyway, just get me started on gear....
                                                                                                             
carole pellatt troy luckketta GUITARS : Electric

All of this comes together with the strat made for me by John Wescott about 18 years ago.That guitar feels just like my hand.It’s got eighties vintage EMG’s with a 6db midboost preamp that makes getting any sound easy on any amp.It also helps me to get any pitch of feedback at will and at a low volume without processing. It has an alder body, nice and dark sounding and an old Squier neck-believe it or not.It also has an original (literally) floyd rose. Of all the guitars I play on gigs, this is the one that is the most like me.

I do have a couple of other strats that I like- a custom with a beautiful japanese painting on it, hand-painted by artist/musician George Toufexis. It's got old EMG's with a midboost pre-amp like the other one. I also have a cheapie stock strat, the first one with a maple neck that I've ever wanted to play.It's quite a sweetie.

For a jazz sound I use an old Gibson 125 (1956).The body is warm and resonates beautifully.If I’m concerned about feedback for louder gigs,my Ibanez George Benson GB-10 really does the trick,and I like the size of it.

Acoustics

Let me go on the record as saying that if I had the choice of a dream acoustic,it would be made by Linda Manzer. For me, they are best sounding acoustics I’ve ever heard in my life.She’s brilliant. I've never before heard an acoustic guitar that was so harmonically copasetic.

I have a nice Breedlove that I aquired because it was in a terrible accident and ended up used in one of my guitar tech’s stores. It’s got a very even sound, nice for recording acoustically and sounds wonderful through a P.A. It’s got Baggs pickups.

I also have a Larivee I picked up used that I love to practice on. Very even and a little bassier than the breedlove. No pickup.

A few years ago I bought a Godin Acousticaster in Montreal and I have to say I’m still impressed by the sound. I use it when I need to grab a “steel string” sound in a rock situation where I’m concerned about feedback. (Once again Baggs pickups).

For a nylon string guitar I have a few. For years I used an old Gibson Chet Atkins. It sounded so sweet in every situation.I had the neck recontoured to make it a little easier for me to play. But I have to say that so far 2 sets of pickups (both Baggs) have pooped out on me and I’m very disappointed that Gibson dropped the ball supporting their customers on this one. So although it's a great live sounding nylon string, it's been very costly and remains in disrepair to this day.

I’ve got an old beat up Giannini classical that has a really subtle sound and is very easy to play.Great for practicing.I use a  Kremona pickup to amplify it.

I found a great little guitar at NAMM a few years ago made by a company from Bulgaria called Kremona.Very inexpensive, they have a cool pickup system that goes under the strings at the bridge. It’s a little delicate, but very simple and it sounds quite true. The guitar itself is very even and easy to play. The notes are quite harmonically true considering it’s a really inexpensive guitar.And the people at Kremona have been so good to me.
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