My favorite is my Martin D-15. All mahogany, sweet sounding, and easiest action I've ever tried on an acoustic.
Next favorite is my Gretsch Double Jet Electromatic. It looks and feels like a Duo-Jet, but was made in Korea. I use this instead of my Squire Strat. The tone is so much cleaner.
I have a Washburn B-16 5-string banjo, that I bought way back in high-school. I should have bought the Gibson RB-250, like my teacher advised, but the Washburn has grown on me over the years, and gives a crisp, bright sound.
I bought an Ibanez bass a couple winters ago, and have found that it is surprisingly easy to play, once you have banjo picking and guitar scales pretty well learned. It's a GSR 200, very basic, but fretted well and functional.
I bought this 12-string Sigma guitar, expecting to use it to lay down some lovely rhythm. So far, I can't figure out how to keep it from sounding like a big mud puddle on a recording. I suppose if you play it by itself...
I bought this interesting little drum software, from Databecker, called Rebirth One Rhythm Machine. It's two 303 bass synthesizers and a 909 drum machine in your pc, for about 20 bucks at Best Buy. A little funky, a little '80s, but I like how simple it is to use. Databecker no longer offers this product, from their web site.
Since I've grown a little bored of the machine, I've begun adding drums from the set I bought last Spring for the kids to learn on (E-bay just keeps on giving...). It's just a beginner set, but with Remo heads and Zildjian cymbals, it is serviceable. The real trick is microphone placement.
I shouldn't forget my microphone. I picked up an inexpensive condenser mic and tube pre-amp at Guitar Center. It's an Oktava MK-319, and ran me back about 100 bucks. It's not the top of the line, or anything, but it picks up the drop of a pin from across the room, yet records up-close vocals very smooth.
I also just recently bought a Roland EM-10 Keyboard (thanks e-bay). It's really just a toy, but does hook up to my soundcard, and has a couple organ sounds that are likely to come in handy.
Another newer instrument acquisition is an Armstrong 104 flute. I picked it up at a re-sale shop in Oak Park for cheap because it was missing a screw. I'm practicing every day. As soon as I can belt out the Flintstones theme, and 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' flawlessly, I'll be using it for fill, etc, where appropriate. I'll have to see how it sounds next to heavily distorted guitar (ala Jethro Tull?).
NEW TOY: Oscar Schmidt OM-10 Mandolin, a simple A-style mandolin. WOW what fun to play. If only it would stay in tune for more than ten minutes at a time. That's what happens when you have short strings, I guess. I am really working on my flat picking with this thing. What a happy treat to play.
It all started when I bought a Mia Echo sound card for my PC on e-bay. Gotta love e-bay.
Not the fanciest sound card, but it takes a preamp feed, and does 24bit/96khz digital, good enough for cd quality sound, I guess.
I run it in my IBM Think Centre (maybe 2.8 GHz?) with a dedicated 80 gig IDE hard drive. Thanks again, E-bay!
I had to get recording software to go with it. The soundcard came with a bunch of different samples. I tried them all, and it seemed like Cooledit Pro was easy to use, worked with generic plug-ins, was versatile, and not too expensive. Cooledit got bought by Adobe, so I expect it to be well-supported from now 'til doomsday. It's now called Adobe Audition.
