Interview With Mark Abrahams - Part 2 (equipment)

Mark, we hear you are a Les Paul and Strat man, two guitars that have always been an important part of the Wishbone Ash sound. Can you elaborate?

I’ve always loved Les Pauls and have a couple of very nice ones. My favourite and most used is a Gibson Custom Shop ’57 Gold Top with RS / Lindy Fralin pickups. I also have a lovely old Les Paul Standard fitted with Kloppmann pickups. I have a few Fender Stratocasters; my main Strat is a Custom Shop ’62 reissue finished in sonic blue. This pairs up perfectly with the Gold Top as they both have nice big necks.

I also have several custom guitars built for me here in Yorkshire by Elvidge Custom Guitars and a cherry red Gibson ES335. I also have in my collection some beautiful, Japanese Tokai guitars.

All my guitars have either D’addario or Dunlop 11-50 gauge strings.

Mark Abrahams Equipment With Wishbone Ash (Sweden Rock Festival 2017)

Let's talk about effects...

For effects I have a pedalboard (pictured) based around a Carl Martin Octaswitch switching system, which enables multiple pedal changes by pressing only one button. It’s a life saver, as I’m not a good tap dancer!

Pedals on my board are – Fulltone Octafuzz – CAE MXR Wah – Ernie Ball Volume – Nemphasis White Scream Overdrive – Ibanez Tubescreamer Mini – Friedman BE-OD Overdrive – Mooer Soul Shiver Rotary Pedal – Boss GE-7 Graphic and Boss DD-7 Tap Tempo Delay. There’s also a TC Electronic Delay mounted under the board which is only used with the volume pedal for swelling effects ... and of course, a tuner!