Doug Rice
Guitarist

Gear

Doug - Guitar
Photo courtesy of Firefly Blu Photography

I have been truly blessed and am very thankful, not only for the opportunity to share and experience music in so many ways, but also for the instruments that help me express the music that's inside me.

This is one of the most visited pages on my website so it looks like someone's getting some use out of it. I love getting email from people shopping for similar gear and asking questions about the gear I use. Please feel free to drop me a line if I can help answer any questions.

Since I perform different styles of music, as a soloist and with a variety of groups, it's important that the instruments and equipment I use are well- suited to each style, whether it's strumming on the church worship team, playing with a Jazz quartet or a Gypsy Jazz trio, or performing solo fingerstyle.

Gibson ES-175D
This is a 1979 Gibson ES-175D. It's a great Jazz guitar. It was the first pro guitar I owned. Right before my Junior year in high school, I sold a trumpet that I played and bought this guitar from my local guitar shop. Great tone and so versatile. It's suitable for many styles of music. The 175 has served me through many, many performances over the years and it's holding up very well. It's still my main Jazz box.
Fender Stratocaster
This is a Fender Strat. It's a remake of the 1960's Strat, in Olympic White. I replaced the factory pickups with a set of Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups. They work great. I also mounted a Roland GK-2A divided pickup on it so that I can connect to the GR-33 guitar synth and control other MIDI instruments (I love playing steel drums on guitar!).

Taylor 414CE
I hadn't bought a standard acoustic steel-string guitar for many, many years. I figured I needed something new that would be both a good fingerstyle guitar and a good strummer. I also needed something that would project well when I play unplugged. After much (MUCH) playing and listening to various guitars around the Seattle area, I decided this Taylor 414CE was the one for me. I really like the crisp sparkle and full low end I get from the 414. I compared it to other Taylors (614's and 714's), as well as other brands, but this particular guitar just stood out for me. Great guitar.
Baritone Acoustic Image Gallery
This is a custom-made, Noble baritone acoustic. I love the haunting sound of baritone guitars and the inspiration that comes from the lower tunings. Duane Noble (http://www.dlnobleguitars.com/) built this guitar for me, with Koa back and sides, Sitka Spruce top, Boxwood binding, Mahogany neck, and Ebony fingerboard. Duane's guitars are just beautiful; pleasing to both the ear and the eye...world-class, all the way! His inlay and woodworking skills amaze me. I had Duane install a B-Band A2.2 XOM pickup system. This system is great at capturing the lower frequencies of the baritone while keeping the highs crisp and clear. It picks up the natural sound of the guitar very nicely and I'm extremely happy with it. For a closer look at this guitar, be sure to check out the Baritone Image Gallery.

Line 6 Variax Acoustic 700
I bought this Line 6 Variax Acoustic 700 not long after they hit the market. I was a bit skeptical, at first, about buying an "acoustic" guitar that depended so heavily on electronics for it's sound. However, once I played it, and perhaps more importantly, recorded with it, I was convinced this was the way to go. It models so many amazing acoustic guitars and other stringed instruments, all perfectly EQ'ed and balanced, without the need for any tone tweaking. It's perfect for heavy strumming, light fingerstyle, and everything in between. If you haven't heard a Variax Acoustic yet, you really should. The Line 6 site has some great audio and video demos you can check out.
Cigano Gypsy Jazz Guitar
This is the guitar I play in our Gypsy Jazz trio, The Hot Heads of Gypsy Jazz. Gypsy Jazz definitely has a sound all its own. Playing this music on a traditional steel string guitar just doesn't even approach the authentic sound people come to expect from the genre. Listen to players like Django Reinhardt, Stochelo Rosenberg, Biréli Lagrène, and many others, and you'll hear how important the tone and volume of these guitars is. High-end Gypsy Jazz guitars can cost thousands of dollars. I opted for a much less expensive model and then had the shop put on a professional bridge, tailpiece, and tuners, and had the neck adjusted to a more traditional Gypsy Jazz action and feel. It has a nice, dry tone for rhythm playing and can definitely cut through with bright, loud leads. It's a lot of fun to play.

Ibanez Classical
This classical guitar is part of the Ibanez Exotic Wood Series. The top, back, and sides are made from flamed Sycamore. The worksmanship on it is really remarkable, considering the low price I paid for it. It has a B-Band pickup system in it and an onboard EQ with a notch filter. This guitar has a tone that perfect for latin Jazz and Jazz guitar duet gigs.
Washburn Rover
My wife and sons got me this Washburn Rover travel guitar for Father's Day. A while back, I found myself in a hotel room, completely inspired after a Phil Keaggy clinic, and I had no guitar with me. Torture, I tell you! The next day, I went to check out various travel guitars so that I could easily take one with me when I travel. I played many different brands and models but this one stood out in terms of tone quality, intonation, and playability. It has a full-scale neck, solid mahogany back and sides, and a spruce top. Great little guitar. I don't gig with it but thought I'd include it here anyway. If I ever find myself up a creek without a paddle...I can use this.

Line 6 Flextone III
I loved the Line 6 Variax Acoustic so much...I bought the company! Okay. Not really. I recently found myself playing such a wide variety of styles in several different groups, with several different guitars; I wanted to find one amp that could be used in all those situations. This Line 6 Flextone III was the answer for me. It'll handle everything from bright acoustic to ear-drum-rupturing thrash metal. I love the tone I get out of it when I'm comping in a big-band setting, and the blues and rock tones just...well...rock!
Line 6 Shortboard
This is the Line 6 Shortboard foot controller for the Flextone III. You really need one of these if you're going to be using the Flextone in live performances. It allows you to access all of the patches on the amp, as well as some nice, extra features that you can't really get otherwise.

Boss RC-50 Looper
I recently upgraded to the Boss RC-50 Loop Station. I needed a way to record short percussive loops on one track and then record longer loops over the top of that, on a separate track. The RC-50 is really 3 loopers in one. Each can work independently or can serve as multiple layers of a single loop.
Roland GR-33
This is the guitar synthesizer I control using the Fender Strat. It's a Roland GR-33. Ever since I was a kid, I dreamed of owning a guitar synth someday. It's so fun to play a guitar solo one minute and then drop into a fretless bass solo or a vibes solo the next. There are so many possibilities when I have all these tones at my feet.

Pedalboard
This is my acoustic guitar pedalboard. I swap pedals in and out on it, as needed. Pictured here is a Roland RC-20XL Loop Station, along with an Ibanez stereo chorus, a Boss 7-band EQ, an Arion octave pedal (great, inexpensive pedal), a Line 6 direct box/power supply, and a Boss FS-6 dual footswitch controller for the looper. I'll also throw an Ibanez Tube Screamer, a Line 6 Verbzilla, and an A/B/C switch box on there for gigs.
Yamaha Stagepas 300
This is a Yamaha Stagepas 300 PA. It's the PA I use for most every solo gig and some combo gigs. At 300 watts, it gives me enough power for medium-sized venues and it is just amazingly crystal clear — especially with the Variax Acoustic. The removeable amp locks (optionally) in place on the back of one of the speakers, making it very portable and easy to set up. I played "Evita" a while back and used just one speaker, with the mixer, as my guitar amp. What a great sound. And it filled the auditorium!

On Stage Stool
Okay...yeah...I know. It's a stool. Big deal. But if you're a guitar player, you know how difficult it is to find that perfect stool. The seat has to be at just the right height so you can reach your pedals on the floor and you need a foot rest that puts your knee at just the right height and angle to hold the guitar comfortably. I tried so many stools and then stumbled upon this On Stage guitar/keyboard stool. I think I may have heard angels singing when I saw it for the first time. Maybe not. It really is the perfect stool for me though. And it's a firm stool.