strings & stuff
Roy's main guitar is a Lowden O25C Custom. This guitar replaces
a 
Lowden L25C which was stolen in Philadelphia in August '99 (please keep your
eyes open... I'd love to have that guitar back again!). The sound is rich, complex, well-balanced, and loud. The instrument design and its sound are nothing like the traditional Martin style
dreadnought. The body is shaped more like a small jumbo but is deeper than a dreadnought. Other interesting features include a 5 piece laminated neck, wood bindings, and tall thin braces rather than the scalloped ones that Martin and Taylor use. The story says that the design for this model guitar came to George Lowden in a dream.
This guitar has a few features that depart from the standard O25's although they are incredible guitars. It has two stylized Celtic knots inlayed in the fingerboard which are the same design as those in the 25th Anniversary Model Lowdens. In addition, the bracing is a little different. Through the years the bracing changed slightly to make production more consistent from instrument to instrument. The good folk at Lowden were willing to build this replacement for Roy's stolen guitar with the earlier style bracing in hopes that it would sound more like the "old friend." Does it sound better than the stock Lowdens? Got me. They all sound so good. I'm not even sure that it sounds all that different from the stock guitars, but the willingness of the folk at Lowden to try to recapture some of what was lost really made Roy feel a lot better.
There is a McIntyre small body piezo mounted under the bridge plate and a Sunrise in the soundhole. Together, the two pickups sound great. They work almost like a woofer and tweeter in a good speaker system. The McIntyre gives a nice woody sound, preserves the artifacts, and takes care of the highs. The Sunrise is legendary. It has a great bottom, is very resistant to feedback and sounds good in and of itself. The signal comes out of the guitar via a stereo plug and goes to the electronics noted below.
He plays in 7 or 8 different tunings and often uses a combination of prepared capos.
Roy has a few egg shaped shakers although his favorite one - a gray alien head shaker - was stolen with the Lowden L25C.
electronics
It is amazing how much electronics are needed to sound like an acoustic guitar! Roy is currently redesigning his rack to include a Raven PMB-1, a Digitech S100 digital effects unit, a dbx 262 stereo compressor, and a Korg DTR-2 tuner.
Much of his recording is done at home directly to the hard drive. Alexis d released one CD (still available at CDBaby.com or from Roy) and had enough material recorded for a second one that never was pressed. If you're interested, one offs might be made available. Drop Roy a note. Currently Roy is assembling material to record.
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