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Grant plays Fender guitars through Fender amplifiers and sings to a Shure SM 58 microphone. His main electric guitars are an American made 1957 re-issue Fender Stratocaster and a custom built 1984/9 American Standard Stratocaster. The road weary candy apple red '57 has original hardware and electronics provided by Fender. The maple neck has been reworked by a local luthier to incorporate a hand oiled fret-board and extra large frets. It is strung with 12,15,19 plain, 32,40, & 56 gauge strings and is generally tuned to concert pitch. Grant can be most often seen playing his custom mahogany stained American Standard. The body is refinished Swamp Ash and the neck sports a rosewood fret-board with extra large frets. Tuning is accomplished with standard machine heads and the electronics are stock with the exception of higher quality potentiometers and switch. Grant tunes this guitar a half step down (partly due to the string gauges and partly due to the overall tone) and strings it with 12,15, 19 plain, 32,42, & 56 gauge strings. As an interesting aside, this guitar was stolen from Grant nearly 10 years ago, severely damaged in a botched attempt to disguise it, and was later recovered by police. Both Grant and his brother stripped and refinished the body which explains it's unique appearance. When Grant performs acoustically, he relies on his 1996 Gibson Gospel. This guitar is smaller than a standard "jumbo" and is in fact more of a Dreadnaught shape. It has a solid Sitka spruce top and mahogany back and sides. What makes this guitar truly unique in both appearance and sound is its arched back which greatly aids in tone and projection.
"In
2001, I finally relented, and we began to build amps with reverb and
tremolo. The response to the introduction of the Victoriette and
Victorilux by our customers and reviewers has been overwhelming, but not
merely because we know how to do reverb and trem. Granted, we researched
many of the classic circuits, lifting some of Leo's genius from the
brown and blackface era amps. But I also indulged in my long-standing
appreciation for the EL84 power tube, which I felt had not been given
proper attention by companies bent on simply knocking off a Vox. The
Victoriette possesses the warmth and clean headroom of a blackface
Deluxe, with the character, charm, and dynamic response of a Class A
British amp, but it is a knockoff of nothing. You gotta hear it to
appreciate it's unique voice, which can be shaped by a wide variety of
speaker configurations, including a 2x10 or 1x12 (my per-sonal
favorite). Players become instantly enamored with this amp. It will make
you smile." |