What they play
John Gorka’s main road guitar is a Martin OM-28VR equipped with
a Martin Gold Plus under-saddle transducer and an internal Crown
condenser microphone. The Martin pictured on the cover of The
Company You Keep is an early ’50s 0-17. Gorka also plays a small-bodied
rosewood Larrivée, outfitted with the same electronics as the
OM-28VR, and a Lowden LSE-1 cutaway that pairs the Crown mic with
an EMG under-saddle pickup. On stage, he runs all his guitars
through a Rane AP-13 preamp blender with two channels of seven-band
equalization. Everything gets strung with D’Addario phosphor-bronze
lights. Gorka doesn’t use fingerpicks in performance but does
in the studio, along with various gauges of large, triangular
Dunlop Tortex flatpicks.
Other
instruments include an early ’70s Baldwin Ode banjo, a concertina,
a harmonium, and several electric keyboards stocked with MIDI
modules. His many home-recording rigs include an MCI JH110 eight-track
analog reel-to-reel and a Roland DM800 hard-disk recorder.
©
2001 Mike Thomas
