Music Page

I started playing the guitar at 7 years of age and have been playing and writing music on and off ever since, enjoying all types of music.

In 1991, I teamed up with a local singer, we wrote and performed around the Llandudno area under the name of Avalon.

Dr Phys started as a group of individuals made up from the medical profession raising money for local hospitals around 1990/93. The line up changed over the following couple of years. By this time the group started to receive requests to play at local functions, weddings etc. We play music varying from Rock & Roll to Rhythm & Blues and continue to perform to date.

Although family, work and other hobbies take up most of my time these days, I am always on the lookout for local musicians with the intension of forming a band in the Rhyl/Abergele (North Wales) area, if you are interested please drop me a line: rogerwales "at" hotmail.co.uk

I started playing guitar with my father's Spanish guitar, this has a nice mellow tone circa 1972.

My first electric guitar was a present on my 12th birthday (1978). It is a Les Paul copy which was made in Japan around 1974. On the headstock is inscribed CSL. It is a heavy guitar with a low playing action and nice tone. I believe it is an imported, Les Paul copy imported by Charles Summerfield Limited who began importing Ibanez guitars in the 70's and 80's. If anyone has any further info I'd be grateful to learn more about this guitar. Interestingly, the neck is are that of a "custom", otherwise the rest of the guitar is a standard Les Paul (copy).

I bought my Gibson Les Paul in 1988, it came with 1959 reissue pickups in heritage cherry sunburst. The guitar was set up for me by leading British guitar engineer, Robbie Gladwell. Strung with Ernie Ball Super Slinky 009, the guitar is a dream to play. This year (2010) I decided for the first time to adjust the truss rod as the neck was getting quite bowed. After a small tightening, the neck is nearly flat again and has a nice low action.

Around 1985 I bought my acoustic guitar from a junk shop advertised for £5, it came with no strings or bridge, but after replacing these it became a handy guitar to practice on. Can't remember the make.

I bought the Fender Stratocaster in 1997, solid maple neck using the same strings as my Gibson guitar. After trying various pickups I installed a set of Van Zandt "Blue" pickups. The result is a very bright powerful response with a sweet tone similar to the Texas specials pick ups.

In 2009 I Picked up a Martin 000-15 from Forsyths in Manchester. I've always longed for a decent acoustic and after trying many different types over the years I've settled on this one. Great tone, strumming or picking.

I have a Marshall JCM900 High Gain dual Reverb (4100), 100 watt valve head with two, 2 x 12 1936 Marshall cabs to match which I've used for gigs in the past and a Marshall MG30 DFX amplifier for practice at home.

My main amp that I now use is an amp kit from Ampmaker
Barry produces amp kits and parts in the UK. I have the PP-18 (18w) kit.

I finished putting it together over Christmas 2011 and was blown away by how good this kit is and the way it sounds.

I added a switch to be able to select 2, 9 or 18 watts. This means I can drive the amp at a sensible volume at home. The tone is fantastic, classic rock when driven and a lovely clean tone when turned down a touch. I can fully recommend his products.

I also use Barry's "Box of Matches" transformer kit to match the amp to my two 1936 Marshall cabs. There is a line out which I will use to slave my JCM900 4100 amp if I need more volume at gigs. Although I haven't tried this out yet.

The cab for the amp was bought from Cabs by Chris
Chris hand makes various types of amp head and speaker cabs to a very high quality. A perfect match for Barry's amp kits.

The outboard effects I have at the moment are a Boss CE-5 chorus ensemble, Boss CS-3 Compressor/Sustainer, Boss volume pedal, Original Cry Baby Wah by Jim Dunlop and a Digital Delay/Ping Pong, Phase Royal and Overdrive 2 and Reverb 2 (not shown) which I built as kits from B.Y.O.C

These kits are sold by Vibe-O-Tronic Distubution in the UK. They can be tweaked to produce the sound that you want.

Top left-Westfield tuner, DC-9X power bank and B.Y.O.C Phaser.

Bottom left- Boss volume pedal, B.Y.O.C Ping-Pong Delay/Echo, Boss Chorus Ensemble,
                   B.Y.O.C OD-2 (Set up for original Tubescreamer specs),
                   Boss Compressor/Sustainer, Marshall Channel 1 or 2 selection for
                   JCM900 and Reverb selection, Jim Dunlop Original Cry Baby Wah (1989)
                   which was rewired for use with the power supply.

I also use a Farida clip on tuner

The Delay and Chorus pedals are routed to the Marshall amps send and receive paths separately, hence the two leads at top of the board. The Marshall pedal also runs directly to the amp, otherwise the rest of the pedals are connected in order on the board.

I mostly use the PP-18 amp now with effect pedals in line through the PP-18's input socket.