The JOSHGUITARS studio is chock-full of great gear, but at heart, I’m a minimalist. I think every guitar studio needs only four guitars: A bass, an acoustic, an electric with humbuckers, and an electric with single-coils. To me, the dream is a good ol’ P-Bass, a pre-war Martin orchestra model, a well-worn Gibson ES-335, and some kind of ‘70s or ‘80s hot-rodded Fender Stratocaster. Here are my choices in those four categories…
Elliott Plajio
When your guitar studio only has a P-Bass, you get those classic motown and americana tones we all love, but you miss out on the funk and rock sounds. The P/J hybrid configuration in my Elliott Guitars Plajio bass gives me a lot of tonal variation. I had an old vintage P-Bass, but this guitar is much easier to play. I’m in love with this thing!
Pedalboard
While on the topic of bass, here’s my simple setup. The SuperVintage preamp/DI drives the whole thing. When I use my bass amp, I go straight into the effects return to bypass the amp and do all the driving at my feet. Sometimes the SV isn’t quite right for the song, too vintage or too rock n’ roll. In those situations I use an Avalon U5 DI. It provides just a big, clean, modern-sounding signal.
Since this pic was taken, I’ve switched to the BMF Liquid Sky chorus—a CE-2 clone—which I prefer over the vintage CE-2 because it has a mix control for blending lost bass signal back in.
The OC-2 and Micro Synth provide clean and dirty synthy-tones, and the Cali76 glues it all together.
Bass amp
When I play live, which is often with my band Local Lore, I use this Fender Rumble 500 amplifier. It’s plenty loud, and while it sounds great on its own, I just use it as a pedal platform for the Origin SV.
Taylor 712ce-12
I think an ‘orchestra model’ acoustic guitar is the most versatile of all shapes. I went out looking for a Mayer or Clapton signature—went to several stores here in East Tennessee—and the last place I visited had this Taylor. I picked it up, and it was instant magic. Its body size means the high strings really shine, but its depth lends a surprising authority to the lows. I still use the ES2 electronics, but when I record, I pair it with the Avalon DI and mic it with an Austrian Audio OC18.
Ibanez JSM20th
To mark the 20th anniversary of the Ibanez JSM100 John Scofield signature model, only thirty of these were made. This was and is my absolute dream-guitar as a Scofield fan. As far as ‘335-style’ guitars go, in my humble opinion, this is the absolute best. Made in Japan by exceptionally talented master luthiers… I’m just in love with this instrument.
Behind it is my only studio amp. I mostly record direct, but when an amp is needed, I use a George Alessandro handwired Princeton Reverb. This came from a batch he made right after sending three of the same to John Mayer to use with Dead & Company.
DGN Stratoblaster
I said every studio needs a single-coil guitar, and this is mine, put together by Dan at DGN Guitars. He is best known for Jerry Garcia inspired instruments and puts these same pickups into the Daniel Donato signature Telecaster. While Dan’s Tru-PAFs sound amazing, it has coil splits for awesome true single-coil tones.
This is an exceptionally versatile instrument. A hardtail with an Alembic-style boost, I can coax the whole range of Telecaster, Stratocaster, and Les Paul tones out of this one guitar.
Several of my more Mayer-inspired and vintage guitar pedals pictured there too.
Effects pedals
In my studio, I have basically any effect you can think of. I said I’m a minimalist, and I am, but guitar pedals are kind of my guilty pleasure. And my hobby—I don’t golf. If you have a particular vision for guitars on your record, just ask! I probably have the right effect for whatever sound you’re looking for.
In addition to a wide range of effects, I’m also perfectly at ease using Kemper, Helix, or Axe-FX.
FAQs
What kind of interface do you use?
It’s all RME in my studio. The FireFace absolutely kills, but I use the smaller and lighter BabyFace Pro for most projects. The converters in it are top-notch, the software is easy, it’s plug-and-play with all my devices… it’s a no-brainer.
What mics?
I use whatever mic seems to fit the vibe of the recording, or fits the song. But my main mics are a Shure 545 on guitar amps, an Austrian Audio OC18 for vocals and instruments, a Sennheiser MKH 8060 for rooms and choirs, and while I don’t record drums often, I’m pretty much addicted to ‘Betas’ on everything drums: I have the 52 and 91 for kick and the 57 for snare. I use SM81s for overheads, mostly. When recording podcast speech, I just pop a presidential filter on the aforementioned 545 and gain it up.
What kind of computer and DAW?
DAW first: I used to use Pro Tools when I worked for Sevier Heights as an engineer. I don’t mind using it, but in my career at Apple I got to help test and provide feedback on Logic, and in the process I became Logic-certified. It’s home base for me. I think the stock compressor plugin and Pultec-style EQ in Logic are the absolute best. Don’t sleep on stock plugins, y’all. Other favorite plugins include Pro-Q, Archetype Cory Wong, Helix Native, and Vulf compressor (used way more moderately than any suggested settings). My computers are an M1 Pro MacBook and M2 Pro Mini. I’ve found them to be almost totally perfect.
Why go into all of this? or, What should I get?
It’s not my intention to post a gear-page that looks like bragging. I just want people to know what’s available to them when they hire me. I grew up dirt-poor and I’ve worked really hard to obtain what I think are some of the finest gadgets for recording music ever, but I could do all of this on a strict budget and still sound fantastic. The gear doesn’t make me any better or worse, it just helps me get where I’m going faster and easier.
If I were just starting out, I’d buy an SX Fender-style bass (they’re awesome, and you can get them for less than $150), a Taylor GS Mini (I bought one for $350 once), an Aria or Epiphone or Ibanez humbucking guitar, and a Fender Standard Strat (around $800 together, used). I’d use the i7 Mac Mini that I got for $99 off NewEgg to run an entertainment system but I’d supplement it with an SSD boot-disk to make it write faster. For an interface, I have been pleasantly surprised by the Behringer Uphoria stuff, and I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by their microphones. Their $19 clone of an SM57 is decent. For greater reliability, I’d grab a used 57 and an AT2020 to record my acoustic.
As for DI boxes and tone-shaping: On bass, you can get a killer SVT sound out of the SansAmp VT pedal, and there are clones of it out there even cheaper. It has a direct-out but you’ve got to use a converter cable to go from TRS 1/4” to XLR. No biggie. I would probably spend most of my budget getting those guitars set up well by an experienced luthier, and getting the SM57 and a Radial DI box. With those guitars, a 57, and a ProDI, I could take over the world.
Another incredible tool, really one that I think every guitarist should own, is the Line 6 HX Stomp. It’s not necessarily cheap. But it takes the place of nearly everything I’ve mentioned above: It’s a recording interface for your guitar, it’s a tone-shaping tool with a load of effects, it’s a direct interface for live performance… plus it sounds literally incredible. The effects in it are great. The amps in it take some time to dial in, but once you get it all set up it’s just awesome. I can make my preset packs available on request!
Contact me if you wanna make some music.
Recording or general inquiries
joshguitars@icloud.com
For live bass work
bassguitars@icloud.com