Nigel Birchmore

Hi, I'm Nigel and have been playing guitar for more years than I like to remember. I have played in many bands over the years that somebody might know, Vambo, White Glass, Venom, Force Four and more notably and commercial Boys Ordinaire(a great band that very nearly made it to the big time). I have supported some great bands in my time such as The Edgar Broughton Band, Fairport Convention (f@!king hell am I really that old?) America, Slade, Nutz and Judas Priest.

Musically I am a Heavy Metal lover (that's why sometimes my riffs and fills might be over the top for some of the numbers we do) and my favourite guitarists are Joe Satriani, The incredible Steve Vai, John Petrucci , The ridiculously talented Tony MacAlpine and of course Eddie Van Halen

I would of course like to thank my wife, Gina for her encouragement  over the years. She has pushed me to continue my musical goals and didn't give a shit at me spending thousands of pounds on new equipment. She is really special !

Well, these are my guitars. I have been doing a bit of changing round lately and just got the new Bad Horsie Jem with the awesome rock mirror finish. Traded a couple of my old guitars for it, but hey, how many guitars can you play at one gig? Yes you probably guessed by now that I really like the Ibanez Jem.  My favourite for feel and tone is the blue sparkle, but they are all just gorgeous.  I have played and owned some great guitars over the years and have been equally impressed with the Custom Shop Jackson's. The playability, action, tone and overall feel of these guitars is the bollocks!. I love the Yellow Bengal and you just got to admit this guitar looks absolutely awesome. The  Joe Satriani JS1 is also superb with it's smooth sexy light body and DiMarzio  Paf pro and Fred pick-ups giving it a great tone. I don't use this so much now as it has a 22 fret neck and all my other guitars are 24 frets.

 Ibanez JEM77B            IbanezJEM 7V        Ibanez  JEM 7V          Jackson SL2H            Ibanez JS1

 Rock Mirror finish          Blue Sparkle               White                      Yellow Bengal            Black Pearl

Amplification:- 

VHT  -  TWO/NINETY/TWO     Stereo Tube power amp - Nuff said !

MARSHALL - EL34 50/50  - Power Amp

 I've had this amp for some time. It is, as always with Marshall, a reliable workhorse. One time it actually fell off my 4 x 12 and nose dived into the stage (chopping through my guitar leads in the process) I picked it up, replaced my leads and away it went as if nothing had happened. You've got to hand it to Marshall, they know how to build tough gear fit for the road. This is used as my back up amp now as it does not have the tone shaping of the Mesa Boogie 2:90 (but is 10 times more reliable) and is not in the class of the VHT Two/Ninety/Two. (Neither is the Mesa come to that)

Effects

ROCKTRON  -  Prophesy

This is my main effects unit. The Prophesy is undoubtedly the best pre amp/effects unit I've ever owned. (It's also the most expensive). There is some classy stuff in this unit but as always there is so many options on how to alter tone, drive, which order to put the effects in, whether you want them pre preamp or post preamp more EQ adjusting options than your brain can take etc etc. So, in other words this is a professional unit that can do it all. The only thing required is time and a far bit of knowhow. So as time goes by you should see some tone shaping going on until I get what I'm looking for.

Boss GT-8 Guitar Effects Processor.   This unit has some great sounds  with some superb overdrive and distortion effects. The clean sounds are also very good and responsive to every string. The chorus and synth type effects are not as good as the Digitech but for the price it is the best floor effects unit out there.

Digitech 2120 Artist VGS pre amp/processor. This unit can produce some fantastic sounds and is packed with facilities that would cost you three times the price on other professional effects units. It does however require a lot of time and know how to get the best from it. Unfortunately, Digitech no longer manufacture this unit. I have had some issues with this unit such as volume drop during performance (or was it just the rest of the band getting louder and louder?) and at times seemed to change patches all by itself.