GEAR
Your equipment is a very important part of your music. It's where you can achieve the freedom to really express what you do feel.
Guitars
Electric:
Jackson top plus '96 powered with DiMarzio Evolution pickups- this guitar is very loud.
Washburn N4 (with originals Seymour Duncan '59 and Bill Lawrence L500)- Nuno Bettencourt!! hottest tone on earth!
custom scalloped Strat (with YJM and HS3 pickups- he, he)
Trilogy (brazilian, heavy wood, but with a very good clean sound).
Acoustic:
Giannini GWNSB - solid-body classical guitar. Produces a unique, magnifique embodied sound (this is heaven).
Ovation Celebrity, nylon and steel acoustic guitars.
I have lots of others, but they're not worthy of mention.
Amps
Laney TF200 (Tube fusion series)
Crate XL
small Marshall combo, MK10 which I use to carry everywhere and practice.
Meteoro 100 watt combo.
Effects
My gear consists of Ibanez Tube screamer (TS7 or TS9), a Marshall Shred Master (this is the best distortion unit I ever heard, very versatile, producing a powerful, hot analog distortion!), a BOSS SE-70 effects rack that I use mostly for modulation effects and delays, Morley Bad Horsie and Vox Wah, Boss equalizer EQ7, Boss noise supressor NS2, DigiTech Whammy and BOSS EV300L foot volume/expression pedal. I use also MXR Phase-90, Dunlop Rotovibe & Crybaby, BOSS OC-2 and DD-3.
The colour and gain knobs on the Shredmaster are useful tools for generating tones from warm bluesy tone, crunchy hard rock and extreme heavy metal sounds. A lifetime winner distortion from Marshall.
The TS-9 can be used for bluesy, jazzy tones, or as a booster. To use it as a booster, you should raise the gain on the amp until it goes crunchy, then warm it up with the TS-9. Be careful with unwanted hum and feedback noises.
You can also use the compressor to boost your sound, using the sustain and volume knobs on it. On my setup, the compressor works a little bit on this way, plus to compress avoiding unwanted output differences that are created by the Wah, and using it also with clean sounds.
Sometimes the Vox wah can be annoying when you have to it turn on along with other effects at the same time, it's when the Bad Horsie is used, or a A/B box can also be used leaving the effects on all the time. The Vox doesn't have true bypass, but I didn't modified mine yet.
Pedals order: Vox Wah, Marshall Compressor, Shredmaster/TS-9, NS-2. Yeah, I don't use all the pedals at the same time, so this is the basic, favorite gear.
Strings, picks
Strings: Ernie Ball and Darco .009, and for classical, D'Addario Classic and Takamine 160NR, normal tension.
Light gauge strings provides less output, but accessible playability. Heavier strings provides more sustain, but are harder for things like bending.
Your choice depends on the way you play, your punch, the way you tune your guitar and your musical style. I tune my guitars half-step/whole-step (Eb/D) down.
Picks: Dunlop and Ernie Ball 1.5.
Light, flexible picks trends to make accurate speed picking harder, harder picks trends to make your sound dim eliminating highs and enhancing bass frequencies.
The 1.5 it's ideal for me. I really hate to play with less than 1.2 or more than 2.0mm picks. That sucks.
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