RODNEY GENE JUNIOR Gear And Equipment
Professional affiliations – Professional Endorsements – Here are just some of the companies I support.
Carr Amplification (** CARR Artist**) CARR Amplifiers are my main gigging and studio amps. I currently use a Carr Impala 44w, an amazing Carr Rambler 28w pentode-14w triode (built for me with my initials in the serial#!!) and a Princeton-ish 22w Carr Sportsman with a 1-12. Steve Carr is a true genius of this industry…and one super generous and cool dude with an amazing ear! Carr Amplifiers have the highest standard of build quality and clarity I have ever seen or heard. Tonally they carry the heart and spirit of classic 40’s 50’s and 60’s amp tones while providing that next-level reliability, flexibility and sonic diversity that supports the modern player with vintage sensibilities. Glorious tones…. just glorious.
Nick Silver Pickups (My personal pickups) At this stage in my career, I really enjoy (actually insist) working with passionate builders and companies with a mutual love for their craft and my own music. Nikos is a young pickup builder out of Greece making exceptional vintage inspired pickups. Attention to detail and a few fresh ideas that I really appreciate. You can hear these all over my new instrumental record! I am using them in my main P-Bass, Tele and LP. Worth a look and a listen!
Gibson Es-335 Block (My main semi-hollow-body and staple guitar for me) You see this guitar show up on alot of my studio session recordings and demo videos! This guitar is a daily staple for sessions and as versatile as my Telecasters.
Michael Tuttle Guitars: It is hard to describe what ‘next level’ quality means, even to experienced players until they have experienced multiple references, multiple times and the time to grok it. My working gear is what some consider cork sniffing gear, but in truth it is simply a result of years and years working with builders as a tech and then refining my ear producing songs daily for years. Developing a particular level of discernment. None of it makes you play any better, but as a player, those refinements are a base level for me as it were. Even with all that, the classic S is at the top of the ‘next level’ ladder as far as finish work, fret work, hardware, playability and tones… Just stunning. Grateful to have here in my arsenal of tone tools!
Elektra Amps (Gibson EH185 inspired amplifiers from the Netherlands!) I am the first USA player to have one built and shipped here to US. It uses octal pre-amp tubes and large coke bottle power tubes. The tones are vintage and unreal! This is a very specific circuit. The amp is hand-made through and through BIG, impressive build quality, impressive tones, feel, response, handsome and truly a tone king! Just a stunner!
Free The Tone (**Free The Tone Artist**)
Yuki Hayashi and Free The Tone (A term coined by the great Pete Cornish) – Yuki is another integral, innovative tone leader from Japan. Designing and manufacturing high-end guitar/pedal solutions with next level musicality and quality. The FFT MS-2v Overdrive, TA-1H Tri Avatar and FT-1Y Flight Time Delay get full time duty on my pedal board. Super grateful for his contribution to our industry. Well deserved accolades.
TK SMITH DESIGN One of my main gigging and studio guitars for a very specific old school country/rockabilly jump swing vibe. Based on the original Bigsby designs, TK Smith is a rare craftsman and artisan in the guitar business and one heck of a great guitar player himself. It’s a long waiting list to get a guitar made, but man oh molly what a guitar!! That is bakelite folks, and hand-cut, hand ‘inlaid’ pickguard, cut on a 1930’s band saw…old school. Hand cut, hand made neck, handmade pickups…handmade custom Bigsby Arm…Too much info to describe here…go HERE and enjoy the beautiful guitars!
TK SMITH DESIGN PICKUPS Been a big user and supporter of TK’s unique Charlie Christian blade and pole piece pickups. Huge woody tones. Very dynamic and musical! He recreated the original Paul Bigsby pickups with his CAR design and they are a sight to hear and behold. As unique and individual as the originals. TK has a level of craftsmanship that is next level. Grateful for his contribution.
Dan Dunham Guitars I have a custom designed Dan Dunham guitar. Dan makes incredible vintage toned guitars, Early Kay inspired that ooze with mojo and soul. Woody, big,vintage sounding. In the blues and jump blues world, his guitar builds are well sought after and embraced. My own is a hybrid design that utilizes TK Smith CC pickups and a boutique P-90. This guitar oooozes old school blues tones!! From Freddie King to Gatemouth!
Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Maricela Juarez ‘MJ’ has become a bit of a icon in her field simply by longevity if nothing else. As Seymour’s former right hand woman, she has wound custom pickups for every imaginable rock star, session player, virtuoso, celebrity and working Joe for 25+ years. I have been commissioned by SD Custom Shop in the past to write many demos for them as well as consulting work and tech work.
DON MARE GUITAR PICKUPS Don has been a friend and a colleague for more years than I can count. Years ago when I gave up ‘tech-‘ing’ to focus on producing, I sent Don all my pickup related ‘stuff’. He was getting into custom winds at the time and really pursued his own voice shortly after. I dig everything Don has ever made for me. He is a great human being, passionate about his craft and pickups in general. Don is a bit of an official expert on Roy Buchanan’s tone. Looking for Roy’s tone secrets outside of his hands? Ask Don! Currently I use a custom wound ‘Twangzilla’ bridge pickup and ‘Tall Boy’ low-wind neck pickup with nickel cover….Rich sweet sweet tones!
PG Music Really honored to have been asked to be a permanent endorsing artist for PG Music and 
Band In A Box! I love PG Music and all they do for musicians! Amazing learning tools! Been a dedicated BIAB user for years now. Truly a MUST- have for the serious professional musician or aspiring hobbyist! The new Real Tracks and audio features are phenomenal! Two HUGE thumbs up! Thanks PG Music!
FREE THE TONE ARC53 and the Ethos OD with HRM. This is just a cool pre-gigged glamour shot! This board was made for a regional tour. My regular rig is much simpler.
Thomastik Bass Strings – 25 year user of TI Jazz Flats. The perfect bass string for vintage tones. You;ll hear these on almost every demo and session I do.
D’addario Strings – This is my ‘main’ string. Been on all of my guitars since I have been playing. I currently have 10 guitars strung with Nickel Wound EXl115. Consistently great! The awesome folks at D’addario recently sent me a few sets of NYXLs to try. A game changer. I wouldn’t have expected to be so surprised by strings, but I am. These NYXLs last 3x longer and are nearly ALWAYS in tune. It’s an odd thing to pull a guitar from the stand after a few days, click on the tuner and the guitars need zero tuning adjustment. Impressive. They feel great and they sound great.
Colossal Cables Professional drummer Brian Christopher Mendes makes a high-end cable that is worth the asking price if you are interested in those last percentages where we live as professionals. I am a bit of a cable geek and have alot of high-end cables but it wasn’t until recently that I became a full blown convert.
Usually not overly excited about new cables as I have been using such good cables and making my own Mogami/Neutrik cables for so long, but gooooodness~ these are truly next level exceptional in build quality and sound. Update 3 years and 150 gigs/sessions later and these cables still perform like new. I have sinced replaced my other studio cables with colossal.
My hotel rig
Ethos Overdrive CustomTonesLLC. (**Ethos Artist**) Rob Hall is another tone genius. He really has an ear for delivering those musical frequencies that alot of constantly seek out with our gear. His ETHOS pedal gained a fast following in the boutique gear industry as Dumble inspired circuit while delivering it’s own unique musicality and palette. The Ethos ‘clean’ channel is almost legendary for it’s huge musical direct tones. The Ethos Clean or Ethos amp I consider to be one of the very few ‘must have’ integral pedals for the gigging and studio musician. It covers so much ground in the right ways and is used by me for nearly every session in some capacity.
My own 2 Full Ethos also have the HRM mod retrofitted by Rob:
Here are a few other gear / pedal companies I use and appreciate: The boards below are just a portion of what I own. I enjoy all of the classic tones and classic overdrives and delays. Klon type, Plexi type, TS808, Dumble tones, Bluesbreaker, BOSS OD’s, 80’s ProCo RAT tones as well as modern classics from a Timmy, to a Zendrive, King Of Tone etc…
Fractal Audio Systems – The AXE-FX II has been a true blessing in the direct amp modeling world and an amazing support for me over the past few years. Although my own preference for recording guitar (and gigging) is micing my amps and pedals, on occasion I can get a unique or rare amp tone or an ultra quiet non-bleed signal path if the session calls for it. On occasion I find a tone that is just working for some reason and so I go with it while the iron is hot. This Fractal unit always delivers in spades! For practice and tonal ideas in pre- production it is pure heaven.
