Fans and fellow musicians often ask me about my instruments, and about the analog recording gear that we use. So, for the unabashed guitar and tape geeks (I count myself as one), here is a collection of some of my favorite and most trusted gear. You won't find anything particularly fancy or rare here; In fact, some of the instruments listed have been sold to pay the bills, or traded for some other piece of gear. Some were begged or borrowed. These instruments and recorders, though, regardless of their price or condition have proven themselves good friends.   -Oliver




This is my humble but effective recording set-up. Here you see most of the gear that was used to record and mix the Prodigal Son album. Left to right: a bunch of National fingerpicks, a pair of Electro-Harmonix 12AY7 tube preamps, an ART PRO VLA tube compressor, an FMR Audio Really Nice Compressor (amazing for the price), my trusty Audio-Technica ATH-M40 headphones, the Tascam 32 stereo mastering deck, and the source of all good things, my Tascam 388.






Ah, the Tascam 388. Just looking at it makes me smile. This vintage 1980s recorder/mixer is essentially a giant 8-track Portastudio with a 1/4" reel-to-reel deck built in. It sounds terrific and performs better than many 1/4" inch machines due in large measure to the built-in custom dbx noise reduction circuit designed specifically for the 388.

A digression: There are some people who say that "professional" recordings cannot be made on a machine like this. They insist that you need to use an expensive 2" (or maybe 1") machine and spend thousands of dollars on tape to record anything worthy of release. This is nonsense. Ironically, those who argue that "professional" must equal "very expensive" rarely are professional musicians or engineers themselves. Sometimes they're studio owners with an interest in getting you in the door, but more likely they are weekend warriors who spend more time acquiring and talking about their latest rare and costly vintage prizes than actually making or recording music. After all, how many professional musicians do you know who can afford to record on a 2" Studer for a couple of grand a day? Bottom line: wider tape increases fidelity to a certain extent, but that should take nothing away from narrow-format machines like the Tascam 388. Many artists have released excellent, gorgeous-sounding albums recorded on machines like the 388. When your main goal is to make good music, and make a living at it, you use what works and disregard the hype.






The Tascam 32 2-channel stereo mastering deck. I used this as the mixdown recorder on Prodigal Son.






Number one.

For reasons that I may never understand, amazing Alvarez guitars seem to come to me just when I need them. I was reeling from having to sell my last fancy guitar to pay the bills; I was out hunting for some cheap beater to get me through to better days when this beauty appeared. Tone better than any of the Gibsons and Martins I've owned (no kidding), handmade of solid spruce and rosewood, and ridiculously inexpensive. This is a 1975 Alvarez Yairi DY-85, special edition. I've always been a sucker for too much abalone . . .






Number one, up close.






Ooohhh, abalone!!






If I went broke and had to sell all of my gear, this would be the last thing to go. This is my first acoustic guitar, an Alvarez Professional Series 5224 that I bought new in 1994. As you can see, it's been around the block but it still hasn't been retired. I still use it frequently onstage as a backup. There's something special about old Alvarez's.






This Gibson Advanced Jumbo is the main guitar that I used in the sessions for Prodigal Son, and it ended up on most of the tracks.






This gorgeous National Estralita Deluxe is no longer mine, but I used it on the songs "The End Of The Day" and "Saint Joseph Serenade," among others.






I learned a little mandolin on this Michael Kelly Legacy for the Prodigal Son sessions.






This inexpensive Regal Black Lightning squareneck dobro (which is brown, interestingly) performed flawlessly on the record though I had to learn how to play in open tunings and use a slide while doing the overdubs.






Here I am at the '07 Telluride Blues Festival playing another fallen soldier, a National Style O Deluxe. This is the guitar heard on "Joliet Bound" and "I Am A Pilgrim."






This is my old National Resolectric Junior, used on the entirety of Rust Belt Blues.






During the sessions for Percival's Indian Summer our producer, JP Bowersock, let me lay down a few leads with his Gretch White Falcon, the same guitar he used on tour with Ryan Adams & The Cardinals. A hauntingly nice electric, I used it for the main melody and solo on the song, "Medicated Lie," and on "Little Complication."