Mark Cockerill Songwriter

and musician

Equipment Guide  updated 29th Sept 2008

Here you will find all the information on gear I own and use either live or for recording. Hang on to your seats this is a big ride.

The guitar I use for recording is a Line6 Variax 700 in transluscent blue. Alder top and mahogany body with tremelo arm. I have added an extra spring which cured the initial tuning problems when using the wammy bar. I also changed the tuners for the same stock schaller ones but of the higher quality locking type. The added spring also has the effect of retaining tuning on strings which are not being bended. The variax plays somewhere between a Strat and a Les Paul and is quite generic but very playable. The quality of the 700 over my original 500 is evident by the decent woods and finish which are to higher Japanese standards than the Korean made 500. With the Line6 Workbench software, I can now edit the guitars on the Variax to achieve even more unique weapons of musical war. Favoured guitar models are the Teles and Strats, these sound bang on.

 

For the acoustic guitar based songs on the recent CD, I used a Line-6 700 acoustic. These are amazing guitars for live use too and no feedback. I use the nylon strung model for the guitar solo in Steve Harley's 'Come up and see me make me smile' to great effect. I also used the acoustic 700 to record my latest songs where acoustic is required as the sounds are more natural and improved than the Electric 700. The 12 string models are particularly good. 

 

 

  

 

This is my recently purchased Warmoth Strat and to say this is an incredible guitar is an understatement. It features a Warmoth birds eye maple neck and a book matched quilted top over an Alder back in the style of a Fender Strat. Also fitted is a super smooth Wilkinson Trem as the strings are in perfect straight line past the nut to the locking tuners. The set of active EMG pickups al la Dave Gilmour are perfectly balanced across all pickup selections and the string balance is perfect. A mid range control knob in the centre provides excellent tonal variation of the mids and the easy pull out tone knob acts as a coil tap on the humbucker. Smashin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

Amplification for Live work is the awesome Vetta combo which has been upgraded to full Vetta 2 specification.This is Line6's flagship amp and features the 2 amps at once system for really individual tone. I mostly couple this up to a Line6 4*12  closed back speaker cab for a monster sounding unit. When separated across the stage one amp can be delivered to the Vetta speakers and the other amp to the 4*12 speakers for a trully amazing soundscape but mostly I just stack them and use it in split stereo straight left and right. The Vetta 2 specification was achieved by not only upgrading the firmware but also by installing the digital interface. This took me about an hour to install because the amp had to be taken apart to make all the required connections.The digital interface not only provides digital connections for recording but something which has revolutionised ease of use for live work, a Variax socket has been added to plug a Cat5 cable from the Variax straight into the interface so that the guitar models can now be selected with the chosen patch for amp models. This dispenses with the power supply or batteries. This means for instance, that patch A on bank 1 on the floorboard might be set to Les Paul guitar hooked up to a Marshall JCM800 on amp 1 and a Mesa Boogie Dual Recto in the other amp and then with one button press on the floor pedal the guitar could then be a Strat on the neck pickup through a couple of Fender amps completely individually setup. This is the ultimate for live use and is what allows me to play such a variety of tones on even just one song. In fact I have set up whole banks of patches just to cover one song though not in every case. Picture of digital interface:-

 

 

 

 

 

 The floor board is a miracle of modern science and costs a bloody fortune but is entirely necessary for Vetta use. It can control all manner of things and for a full specification of this and any other Line6 equipment then please consult the Line6 web site.

 

 

 

It is true to say that I don't use the Variax much these days for live performance, well not since I got myself a kick arse Ibanez 1270 Prestige in Bubinga. Totally awesome guitar in every respect and detail. I have overlooked these Japanese guitars for way too long. My second guitar for live use is a Washburn and again a quality instrument with an excellent proper Wilkinson Trem and 24 frets to boot. Coil tapped and plays just nice. 

 

 

 

 

The Ibanez and the monster amp rig, may not be quite so versatile as using a Variax but more than makes up for in terms of playability. The modelling technology is pretty close to playing through a whole load of valve amps and most people wouldn't notice the difference anyway. What does smack you square between the ears is an immense sound scape that it not struggling to be heard in the mix and has to be heard to be fully appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Well actually, valves are very nice too. My second monster rig consists of a Mesa Boogie 50 50 stereo valve amp coupled to the Line6 4X12 cab. In front of that I use the wonderful new Line6 X3 Live, this is a stunning rig and one I have just about set up properly.

 

 

 

 

 

Picture left is Ibanez 4X12 cab bottom, Line6 4X12 cab sat above that with removable castors off and just visible at the top is the Mesa Boogie 50 50 power amp.

  

For practice and Jam sessions I like to use my Mesa Boogie Nomad 45, all valve and 3 individual channels of classy Mesa tone. Everyone who hears this amp say how good and luscious it sounds. I love it especially now that I have the M13 (see below) which allows me to add effects which don't kill the amp's tone.

 

 

 

 

  

And just when you think I could not get any more combinations of gigging gear, I often use my third rig. Mesa Boogie Nomad with the extra air moving cab is a great combination of tone and raw niceness. I use the Line6 X3 Live for the banks of sounds that I use to play live into the front of the combo (not the power amp in). This way I have control over the overall tone depending on the room I'm playing in. Of course I am feeding just the clean channel and try to get it as flat a response as possible before I plug the X3 in. Master volume cranked to just over half on the power amp side and only just on for the channel volume, channel drive is virtually off of course. This really drives the valves in the power section for a lush tone whether clean or driven and definitely makes it all sound like, well, Mesa Boogie. I need to try this rig with the M13 and use the Mesa channels for tone, I am sure it will sound great.

 


 

When I play live and sing backing vocals, I used the tried and trusted Shure SM58 Microphone. If I mike up a cab, say, when I use either of the Mesas then I would use the SM57 for that purpose. The Vetta amp uses top notch balanced stereo outs for front of house applications.

Plectrums, I prefer Jim Dunlop picks .72.

In the studio I use a plethora of gear for recording which includes:


Line6 Pod XT (left) with short floorboard (below bottom)

 

 

 

 




Line6 X3 Live and short board for use with Pod XT above. I also occassionally plug in the EX1 expression pedal to either of the boards and use it to change parameters on the fly such as how many delays or how big the reverb etc controlled in real time. Groovy.



Line6 Modulation modeller. I did have the awesome DL4 but sold it as the Pods and amp have all the same delays I need anyway.

Same with this. 

I will sell this if anyone is interested.

 

 

 


Korg MS2000 synthesiser

Have a play with one of these if you get the chance, It is effectively a Moog but without all the patch leads. I don't suppose there is a sound that cannot be created with this unique bit of kit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Korg X5D synthesiser. I bought this when they just came out in 1996 and cost £1000. Only just gone out of production after 10 years, just showns how good this keyboard is.

 

 

This is my amazing new synth from Korg. it's an X50 and is the direct upgrade from the X5D and boy what a difference a few years make to technology. I may keep the X5D but at the moment I can't really see the point.

 

Roland JV-1010 module. I have had this some years now, but still an excellent piece of kit.

 

 

 

Yamaha DD55 drums

Although great fun I pretty much use it as a drum module which it does very well though not as good as the DTExpress2. I often take it to jam sessions and does a pretty good job when no real drummist turns up with a proper kit. Hook up to the PA and instant drums. Has two foot controllers as well for bass drum and hi hat.

 

 

 

 

Yamaha DTExpress2 digital drum kit with additional crash cymbal and ride cup for the ride cymbal. Before I bought this I could not play drums for toffee, now I have some toffee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yamaha Rev100 rackmount reberb unit at the top and a STA 96Khz 24bit  ADC&DAC2000 8in and 8out recording rackmount kit/sound board

 

Studiomaster Trilogy 12 track desk with Trilogy 140 EX add on desk 22 mono tracks in all plus 4 stereo pairs. Six aux sends. A really quiet desk and trouble free. I have had this years and it has proved to be one of the best bits of kit I ever bought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio Technica AT3525  studio microphone with mesh screen

Phantom powered and the quality is really quite excellent. However, it does not make me a better singer, bugger. A pitch correction device maybe the next purchase.

 

 

  

Digitech Vocalist Performer

Designed for the live performer and thus far never been out of the studio but I will use it live one day. I bought the added attachment which allows me to fix it to the mike stand and the footswitch for bypass and reverb etc. Quality stuff.

 

 

 

  

 

Korg vocal harmoniser. This is especially good for hooking up to a keyboard via midi. Play a chord on the keyboard and vocal harmonies are created on the chord, super duper. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

My first harmoniser and still very good it is too.

 

 

 

 

This is a clever little gadget for all things echo, delay and looping. Electro Harmonix Memory Man with Hazarai, you can hear a demo of one on the Electro Harmonix website. I have yet to gig the thing but I will, it sounds great and is dead easy to use. It is a stereo unit but in the photo I have it wired through the Mesa Boogie Combo effects loop in mono.

 

 

 

 

 

Latest purchase is this beast of an effects pedal for the live guitar player, it is the Line6 M13: This is a wonderful box of tricks that can be hooked up to the Mesa Boogie using a fancy 4 cable connection technique so I can use the amp channels and have effects in the loops only. I've been waiting for this for years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zoom 16 track digital hard disk recorder with CD\RW drive, brilliant for recording live performances too.

Cubase 4 (dongled) recording software hooked up to a purpose built PC for recording and it has a 3Ghz Intel P4 Hyper Threading processor, Intel motherboard, 2 Gigabytes of RAM and 1.7 Terabytes of storage, Plextor and Super Writemaster CD/DVD DL burners. I love Cubase and have used it since the mid to late 80s first on my old Atari STE which I still have and in fine working order with 4 megs of RAM, 200Mb SCSI hard drive and multisync colour/mono monitor. They were the days of pioneering and experimentation. Cubase 4 is just an amazing piece of programming and will take some time to get the most out of it like most things professional.