Most of my tracks are leads recorded at home over public domain backing tracks created by fellow online jammers or by me. I have two small children and a wife, living in an urban condo, so micing an amp is an impractical method for me -- almost everything except the occasional acoustic track is recorded direct to a computer, "silently" within the home. The search for good tone using this method is an ongoing process. I 've progressed through a Digitech multi-fx pedal, a PodXT and on to a Damage Control Womanizer pedal as primary tone generatorsl to get the sound I'm after. Each of the tools I've tried within that quiet home limitation has its strengths and weaknesses. Most of my playing is clean to mildly overdriven blues, and I find the Womanizer gives me the most tube amp-like response. It has two 12ax7s on board, very useful tone controls, and an on-board compresser that helps provide useful control over dynamics. Seems to work equally well with single-coils and humbuckers. I sometimes put a Crybaby Classic in front of it, and sometimes a Boss BD-2 BluesDriver pedal for a little extra grind. I send the direct out of of the Womanizer -- which has a 12" speaker simulation"-- into a 'Y' splitter cord and then into an Mbox preamp and ProTools LE recording software. Reverb, delays and various other things are sometimes added via plug-ins within the software. Lately I've been using PSP's Vintage Warmer plug-in quite a bit as an overall sound enhancer. And I've enjoyed experimenting with the -- fairly radical for me -- PSP 84 Delay plug-in. Acoustic guitars (a Gibson J-100 Extra and a Taylor 812ce) are recorded with an AT-2020 and AT-2021 dual mic combination to stereo tracks, usually, but sometimes dual mono. These mics are not very expensive, but seem fine for my needs. Compression and e.q. are applied in the software.

My number one guitar is the Gibson Custom Shop CS-356 shown in photos here. It was from a special run of guitars produced for a store on the other side of the country, promoted on the internet in the days not so long ago when Gibson allowed their valued dealers to market the individual guitars they had purchased. That is no longer the case, and sadly this relatively new model is very difficult to find in the shops. A pity, that. The craftsmanship is impeccable, the woods and tone sublime. It is, for me, the perfect recording guitar with a huge range of available tone, from 335 woodiness through LP balls to almost Tele-like spank. It's also a screaming blues machine.