Photo by Mark Smith
James Marshall Owen can’t turn a gig down. If he’s already got a date on the books, he’ll say no. Otherwise, he’s on it like Mick Jagger on a mic.
He’s a bone’ fide Buster Dilly, master collaborator and pinch-hit guitar slinger. Call him when your bass player gets sick. Call him when you’ve got a super fantastic gig, with no one to play with, and you need someone to wear a sharp suit, a tie, and learn the tunes on stage and kick. that. set’s. ass.
That said, I’ve always wondered about the equipment Marshall throws in his knapsack to head out the the door and catch the bus, or a quick hitched ride to the latest musical emergency. Usually, he plays whatever is available. But his preference? That’s what I wanted to know.
He plays three instruments: Guitar, bass and banjo. His main money-maker is a work-in-progress electric built by both factory and artisan hands.
You know what? I’ll let Marshall tell you the rest (you can also hear it yourself when Marshall plays the dotmatrix project this Thursday with Eating the Invaders and The Subterranean Bums).
John Leonard via the dotmatrix project
Main electric instrument: 1995 Yamaha Pacifica “112″
It’s the Strat-style six-string, with a Rose Wood fingerboard, brass nut, and a custom-made maple flame wooden pick guard. Gael carved that for me.
This guitar is kind of an ongoing project. I’d like to refinish it and replace the remaining plastic parts with rosewood to match the fingerboard.
Every time I break a string, it’s at the bridge (aka saddle), where there are tiny (invisible to MY eye) burrs.
I love the pickups; with a humbucker in the bridge position it’s definitely more versatile tone-wise than a Telecaster, which is typically my second choice.
Past loves: A piece of crap Stratocaster Squier
It was a fairly unpopular model they only made for a couple of years. It’s like a cross between a Strat body and a Telecaster neck and electronics. It was a piece of crap but I loved it. That was stolen in the parking lot of a certain 24-hour diner after an Eating the Invaders show at the Green Bean about a year ago.
String gauge: Grimy Ernie Balls or D’Addario’s .012-.056 round wound strings
On both guitars (as well as my hand-assembled Franken/LesPaul Copy, which is currently being rocked by Mike of Our Horse Jethro).
Ernie Balls tend to last pretty decently, but the way I play, pretty much any set of electric strings ends up grimy and too heavily used to stay in tune properly long before I get around to changing ‘em.
In any case, I’ll change around depending on my mood, but aside from being pretty picky about using heavier gauges, I like any old set of strings as long as they’re new. Wait. What?
Ampage: Fender Princeton Chorus 2×10
It’s not that I don’t like tube amps, just don’t have one!
Pedals and effects: Horrible fuzzy
I’ll use a wah or chorus once in awhile but I usually just stick to a 6-band EQ that I kick on for volume boosts or drastic tonal changes mid-song. Oh, I also have a bass distortion pedal; I like using that with the guitar cause it’s a horrible fuzzy sound and there’s a blend knob so you can mix the clean signal with it.
Acoustical preference: A piece of shit and a pawn shop
I swore on a Yamaha FG400 or something like that for years. I bought it for $50 from this guy I knew from a community theatre production we were in; it had sat in his closet for about 10 years, so it looked like shit but turned out to be wonderful.
Last summer, I had some cash burning a hole in my pocket, so I took that guitar to Yesterday’s Music in High Point, which is a fantastic shop run by fantastic people (Paul & Cathy Szydlik) who gave me a great trade-in for a brand-new 2005 Alvarez AJ60SC acoustic-electric.
With maple back/sides and spruce top, it’s a much lighter-sounding instrument than the one I was used to, but it has pretty good balance of highs and lows, and the neck is amazing. It’s as comfortable to play as an electric, but you can still really dig in.
Bass face: a 4-string Schecter custom
Not much to say about this one; I also got it brand-new, though with the scuffs I’ve given it in a year you wouldn’t know it. I don’t know what kind of strings I got for it. Ernie Ball’s medium maybe?
Photo by Julie Welch
Keeping it all together: I play all 3 of those with Eating the Invaders
I don’t change setup much from one group to another, although if I’m gonna use any effects, it’s way more likely to happen with Project Tritium.
Don’t think I’ve used the bass fuzz with ETI (yet). I’ve recorded some electric parts on the Yamaha for Subterranean Bums, but I primarily play acoustic–and banjo.
The loaner: A banjo
My only banjo is an old untunable Sears Silvertone, and Les Paul signed it in Sharpie so I just play whatever banjo Jack Carter or Emily Stewart loans me.
I have no clue about banjo strings at all! It’s the one instrument I’ve never broken a string on. (Knock on wood).
Whatcha Think?