Jeff Lang

The guitars Jeff uses primarily for live work and recording are signature model acoustics made in Ballarat, Australia by David Churchill.

"For non-slide work I use either a sunburst model (pic on right) which has a spruce top with mahogany back and sides, or a natural finish guitar which is cedar and rosewood. Incredible sounding instruments!"

For lap steel duties he uses another signature Churchill instrument. "The acoustic lap steel has such a rich, deep tone - a very inspiring guitar to play. It's a cedar top with rosewood back and sides (pic on right). I'm getting David to make me another with spruce and mahogany, just to see what the difference would be. I use a Shubb-Pearse bar for lap slide playing with a thumbpick (Golden Gate Large) and two Showcase 1931 fingerpicks made by Bill Stokes in Texas. For regular acoustic playing I usually use my bare fingers."

For bottleneck slide it's usually a resonator guitar. "I often use either a black 1960's Airline (see pic below) Resoglass guitar, or a similar red-coloured Supro. I also have a single cone resonator made by Don Morrision out of salvaged galvanised steel (see pic below) and a brass-bodied, nickel-plated tri-cone (pic on right) made by Greg Beeton."

Jeff with his black 1960's Airline	A Don Morrision single cone resonator.

"The Churchills are amplified with a combination of an internal mic and a magnetic pickup. The mic is called an Acoustech Dynafield made by a fellow in Kansas named Dave Wendler. He's come up with a cool design where you stick a small magnet to the top of the guitar and a dynamic voice coil is suspended beneath it to read the vibrations as you play - esentially turning the top of your guitar into a dynamic microphone diaphragm. It works really well, sounds very natural and accurate to the guitars as well as being less prone to feedback than other internal mics I've tried." The signal from the dynafield is run balanced from the guitar and sent to it's own channel of the PA via a Neve Portico mic preamp. Occasionally Jeff will use an external mic in place of the internal setup. In this situation he uses a Nuemann KM-185.

The magnetic pickup is a Sunrise, made by Jim Kaufman in California. "I've tried loads of other magnetic pickups, but I keep coming back to the Sunrise. It's sound suits me I guess. Nice big fat clean tone to give some 'push' to blend with the microphone. It works great for my overdriven acoustic sound too." The Sunrise also runs clean to it's own channel, usually via a Fishman Pro EQ Platinum DI, though occasionally through a tube DI made by Ross Giles.

The resonator guitars have a similar dual-source setup, only the microphone is a Shure SM-11 and the magnetic pickup is either a National Lace (on the resoglass instruments), a Barcus Berry Dobro pickup (on the Donmo) or a DeArmond (on the Beeton).

Also appearing from time to time at shows is a Godin Glissentar (pic on right). "It's a hybrid instrument. It has a guitars' scale length, but with a fretless fingerboard and 11 nylon strings like an Oud. The Glissentar is the only instrument where I use a piezo bridge pickup, a magnetic wouldn't work with the nylon strings. It has an LR Baggs bridge pickup and I mounted a Schertler Dyn-C contact mic inside it. I also put pictures of musicians all over the front of it. I thought it looked a little plain before."

For more info about Churchill Guitars and Beeton Brass Guitars please check out their individual pages at this website:

> Churchill Guitars

> Beeton Brass Guitars

"These were made by Valco in Chicago during the early 1960's as mail order instruments. I love their gnarly midrangey tone, great for bottleneck slide. I've added a National magnetic pickup to the black Airline and a Teisco archtop magnetic to the red Supro, while both have a Crown mini-mic inside them for gigs with drums."

Churchill Lap Steel

Danelectro Ho-Dad

Oahu Hawaiian

Regal Dobro

Squire Teisco Caster

1950's Supro Lap Steel

Tele-Copy

The Chumbush

For his overdriven sound Jeff takes a split off the magnetic pickup and sends it to a volume pedal, a Blackstone Mos-Fet overdrive, Mutron Envelope Follower, Voodoo Lab Tremolo, Z-Vex Lo-Fi Loop Junky, Boss DD6 and then his signal hits an old Australian amp called a Rex Mascot.

"As much as I love the big, rich, warm  acoustic sound, I do enjoy messing with it and getting nasty! I strated running my acoustic guitar through an overdriven amp with a volume pedal back in 1996 to try and get some of the textures I'd used in the recording studio at the live shows. The acoustic responds in a really different way to an electric when you use it this way - it sometimes sounds like it's about to fly apart!"

The Rex is often used for recordings, as is a Music Man 112RD, a Fender Deluxe Reverb or an Almach 1x12. Alan Kelly from Almach also does all of the amp maintenance and electronic setup on Jeff's gear.

Jeff uses GHS strings on all his guitars, Phospher Bronze 13-56 on the regular Churchills and White Bronze 13-56 on the lap steel and the resonator guitars.