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Guitars & Equipment

ralph-bown

Ralph Bown Guitar OM

In 2001, whilst on tour with John Renbourn, I was introduced to Ralph Bown's guitars and as a result of hearing John play his OM each night I really wanted one too!

Ralph created this one for me in 2003 and it has been my main touring guitar ever since.

Ralph writes :

"Clive's guitar is a 14-fret OM (Orchestral Model), inspired by the classic 1930's Martin design, but with a shorter scale of 632mm/24.9".

It has Brazilian Rosewood back & sides, a Sitka Spruce soundboard, Honduras Mahogany neck, Ebony fingerboard bridge, Snakewood bindings throughout, and is fitted with Waverley vintage-style tuners.

The instrument is relatively lightly built, with soundboard and scalloped braces voiced to try and get the fullest response from Clive's string gauges of 12-56. The neck has a shallow, rounded profile, with generous width and string spacing."

baggs pickup

Pick-up system

I'm currently using an LR Baggs 'dual source' system, wired in stereo. The tip - ring - sleeve jack runs directly to the RavenLab pre-amp. www.lrbaggs.com

raven-lab

Raven Lab PMB-1 Pre-amp

I read about the PMB-1 after my good friend Graham Harrison sent over a rave review from a bass magazine. I made the pilgrimage down to Denmark Street in London and 11 years on I'm still using the same unit albeit with a few feet and knobs missing.

I run a stereo cable from the guitar into the Raven which allows me to control separately the treble, middle, bass & volume of the piezo and internal microphone. The photo shows my settings for a medium sized venue.

loop-station

The output jack on the back runs into my Boss RC20XL www.bosscorp.co.jp pictured right and from there I run a jack to the Lexicon reverb unit.

Lexicon MPX500

lexicon

My old Lexicon managed to survive airline treatment for 11 years but was retired in 2010 after the loss of most knobs, a broken screen, bent/warped chassis & no screws. In fact whilst on tour with IGN I wrapped gaffa tape around the poor thing to stop the various electronic components from spilling onto the stage floor. After testing out several brands in 2011 I ended up buying the exact same model again for live shows. (pictured above)

Left & Right outputs run directly to the house PA and 2 L/R jacks can also be found on the back of the unit, the left of which I run into an AER Compact 60. www.aer-amps.info.

The AER is a great road amp and allows me to control my own monitor sound.

Other main instruments...

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Gibson Mastertone RB3 Phillip Woodfield Fylde Ken Nicol Signature