insta - gear

Hey gear heads! Here's a complete list of Insta's sonic goodies. For a more detailed look at how Catherine and Adam configure all their electronic gadgetry we suggest you head on over to the extra cool Guitar Geek web site for a peak. They have the setups of a ton of other indie axe-slingers all expertly and vividly rendered in a sharp graphical form. Check it out!

Catherine's most recent aquistion has been an early 1970s Gibson 335, which suits her just fine especially after years of playing, nearly exclusively, Rickenbacker guitars. The full bodied sound of the Gibson is accentuated through the use of a re-issue Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer, a Pro-Co RAT, a Boss GE-7 Equalizer, a Boss Super Phaser, and an old Boss CE-2 Chorus, and for a dash of reverb or delay, or both, she entrusts the smooth sounds of a few Boss Reverb stompboxes. Cate's amp of choice remains, as always, her late 1960s Fender Black-Face Princeton although as of late we have spotted her sporting a terrific looking late 60s 2x12 Magnatone (Accordion Model). For those rich acoustic numbers Catherine employs a beat up mid-1960s Vox Acoustic and to deliver her stunning vocal chores, a road-worthy Shure SM-58, is always at or near her lips. Ooohh!

Adam relies heavily on the rich tones of his early 1970s Gibson 335, but certainly acknowledges the raw untamed beauty of his newly aqquired sunburst Fender Jazzmaster. For those cool pop tones, he taps on a handsome array of savy stompboxes which include a old non-descript Wah-Wah, a few modified Ibanez Tubescreamers, a Prescription Electronics YardBox Fuzz, a Boss GE-7 Equalizer (for boosts), a lovely early 80s red Ibanez PT-9 Phasor, a newer Boss Tremelo, an old Ibanez Analog Delay, a Digitech 8 second Sampler pedal, and finally an old Boss RV-2 Reverb pedal. All these crazy devices end up running into an immaculate Silvertone 2x12 combo, which was unleashed to the world, via Sears, in the late 1960s.

Both Adam and Catherine have stood behind a number of organs in their stint with Insta including a CMS Astro-Organ , a Farfisa Mini Compact, an Ace Tone, a Gibson Pro, and their current fave, a full-size Farfisa Deluxe. To excite these unusually gentle instruments they usually put to use a Boss Volume Pedal, an old Super Overdrive, a paint-chipped Ibanez Analog Delay or, on occasion a Boss RV-3 Reverb Pedal . The sound usually ends up at a Fender Super-Reverb or, when on the road, a Roland JC-120. A few recent additions to their growing keyboard arsenal has been a Yamaha CS-100 analog synth as well as one of those hi-tech Roland JV-1080 rack-mount dealies equipped with a "Vintage Synths" and "Keyboards of the 60s and 70s" Sound Modules.

To capture all the magic of Insta on tape, we set up Jetpack Studios in a spare room here at Insta Central and have been recording at a feverish pace. For recording we use the following machines: a mid-80s Tascam 246 4-track (cassette), a Fostex 1/4" 2-track (reel to reel), an Akai 1/2" analog 12-track (beta tape), and a Technics 2 track cassette deck. Most of our mixes end up getting routed into a Macintosh G3 for some final tweaking in some over-priced programs called Cubase and Peak. From there we burn our finished mixes onto these shiny lil' discs the kids are calling cds these days. As far as mics go, we stick to Shure SM-57s, 58s, Radio Shack PZMs, and a spiffy Rode NT2 Condenser. From there the signal usually passes through a bright green Joe Meek Compressor, a cheapo ART Tube Pre-amp, or a dinky Alesis Nano-Compressor. We do have a few outboard effects like Alesis and Zoom reverb units, but rarely use them as real reverb sounds much better. Don't ya think?