GEAR

Here at the studio we have a wide selection of several in-house guitars, basses, and other instruments that can be made available to you for use on your recording project if requested.

ACOUSTIC GUITARS

We have two very high-end acoustic guitars that have been used on dozens of recordings over the years.  Here is our Taylor 356ce Grand Symphony 12-string acoustic.  This one is more of a specialty instrument that never gets used quite as much as it should. Don't be intimidated by it because it can add a very special and unexpected element to your music if you use it properly and have it placed correctly in the mix.

Next to the Taylor is the newest (and priciest) guitar in our collection, a Gibson Banner LG-2 six-string acoustic with an aged red-spruce top, mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard.  Don't let its small size fool you.  It sounds beautiful and huge on all recordings its been featured on since 2021.

ELECTRIC GUITARS

We have three featured electric guitars over here that can serve completely different purposes for you if you need some added versatility in your recordings.  The Rickenbacker 360 (six-string) has been with us since 1992 and has been on no less than 100 different recordings since that time.  Still in immaculate condition, this guitar is more than just a throwback to jangly, 60's era rock and roll, it can also get mean and dirty if you want or need it to.  Generally, we use it as a rhythm instrument due to it being very solid on big, open chords and stays completely in tune like a rock.

The Gibson Les Paul Standard is just simply a go-to hard rock staple and its reputation needs no further embellishments.  When you're ready to do the screaming/over-the-top solo right after that second chorus then here's your instrument.  Total classic.

The other Rickenbacker 360 is actually a 12-string, and just as we described the Taylor 12-string earlier, it doesn't get used as often as we'd like it to.  You really have to specifically need this one in your mix for very good reason as it has a very distinct sound and character. It's big and bold and sits in the mix perfectly as a compliment to the rest of the rhythm section.

All of our guitars are restrung on a regular basis with strings that are meant and designed for the specific instrument and all of these guitars are given a professional setup and bridge adjustment about every eighteen months.  They're all very valuable and we take great care of them.

BASSES

We have a couple of awesome basses here in the studio, with the workhorse being the Fender Jazz (Geddy Lee Custom Model) which has a very comfortable neck with a low action that produces a lot of percussive attack to the low end with that signature Jazz bass growl.  The 5-string fretless is one that was custom built by one of the local music professors here at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.  It was graciously gifted to us upon that professor's retirement from the Music Department and after a chance meeting with him at a local coffee shop in town.

VOCAL MIC

In terms of classic microphone technology, it's almost impossible to beat the German ingenuity of Georg Neumann Microphones.  For all of our vocals we use this Neumann M149 Tube mic and the results we get are just astounding.  This microphone design has been around since the early 1940's and it has never really been drastically improved by anyone else other than maybe the Neumann Company itself.  It's clean and powerful and your vocals, coupled with our meticulous soundproofing in the cutting room will make your singing voice sparkle and shine no matter what vocal style you possess.  You're just going to have to trust us on this one.  This mic is used by every world-class studio on the planet from Abbey Road Studios in London to the Capitol Records Studio in Los Angeles to Electric Lady Studios in New York City.

DRUM KIT

Here is the house drum kit at Wolf River Music Studios.  It's a 5-piece (or 6 if you want the extra 16" floor tom) Yamaha Custom kit with oak shells.  The toms (as pictured here) are 10", 12" and 14" on the floor tom, with a 22" in. kick and a 5"x14" Ludwig Supraphonic LM400 snare, just like John Bonham used with Led Zep.  Also available is a 4"x14" Pearl maple piccolo snare (not pictured).  All cymbals and hats are top of the line Zildjian or Zildjian K models with a couple of extra specialty cymbals, sizzle-ride, etc., not pictured here with the standard kit.  All hardware, hat/kick pedals and stands are the high-quality and ultra-sturdy DW9000 series.

We keep these Remo Emperor coated heads on these toms replaced at regular intervals and tuned to standard studio specs.  You're welcome to tune them in any way that you want and/or use any kind of damper/moon-gel/muffler system that you want on them as well during your recording session(s).  Just plan your studio time accordingly.

STOMP BOXES

We have a modest but eclectic group of various guitar pedals and stomp boxes that you're welcome to use if you want to get creative or even just weird.  We have flange, overdrive, wah, chorus, delay, compressors, etc., and even a Vocoder to make your guitar sound like a robot voice if you're into that kind of thing.  We have one that will make your guitar sound like an Indian Sitar and one that mimics the sounds of a Mellotron keyboard from the 60's/70's.  Some of these pedals will work with electrical adaptors but some are designed to only work with a 9-volt battery.  9-volt batteries can run out of juice pretty quickly and we don't always have a bunch laying around, so please bring some of your own if you think you're going to need them.  And always remember, whatever we don't have in a stomp box pedal we most definitely will have as a plugin within the DAW and we can always add effects to anything later in the mix.  Recording a guitar completely dry with no effects on the front-end is actually usually the better option.