Taylor Guitars owes this crew and endorsement deal but they don’t do endorsement deals. That makes this free endorsement worth even more to Taylor. Bud for one feels that he has a case for them owing him even more but he’s such a Taylor aficionado that he considers it even. Bud played his favorite 1999 Taylor 514 CE on the album. The year is highly significant to him. He learned recently why none of his other Taylors feel quite as comfortable in his hands. That was the last year Taylor made that slim radius neck. Bud says, “Okay, you can accuse me of having girlie hands but you know what they say. Small hands...you DO know what they say, right?”

So his 2007 Taylor GS maple is beautiful and has fantastic tone but he misses the slim neck. His Taylor T5 hollow body electric does have the slim neck but Bud rarely gets to play it. He’s leaning toward writing with that for the next album, though. Mostly, though, he’s ordering a custom built Taylor 914CE , yes with the slim neck.

When he performs live he plays through a Bose Personal PA with just a little chorus. “I’ve never seen anything to rival the Bose,” he says. It’s also the best monitor I’ve ever used and it projects 180 degrees.” He sings into an Earthworks SR 20 Cardioid or a Shure 58 depending on the venue size. In either case he uses a TC Helicon Voice Live processor which he occasionally punches for harmonies when he’s solo.

Helen’s guitar of choice is her Taylor 714CE which looks identical to Bud’s including the dents. It’s a bit older so has the preferred neck. Helen’s hands are the same size as Bud’s but she can do unnatural things with them on a fret board. She also uses the Bose System and Earthworks or Shure mics. Seeing a pattern here? Helen and Terry use custom made classical guitars by Nicolas Ioannou which are exquisite and actually sound like harps to Bud’s and some reviewers' ears.

Scott used to favor Taylors and was a Taylor clinician until they scaled back that program. These days he favors anything acoustic that stays in tune in the studio and he has a large collection. His bass collection is impressive too and he used a variety of them on the CD including a stand up on “Tattoo” and “The Silence There” and a fretless Steinberg on “Crowded Memory.” The piano, which is most prominent on “Tattoo” is a Yamaha C6 7 ft Grand Piano. You hear some Hammond C3/B3 Organ as well.

Chris Carey played with Scott’s 1963 Gretsch Roundbadge Drum Kit

Deni brought three instruments to the studio.

The recording mixing and mastering was done by Scott with Digital Performer 5.11, 24bit/96K, Apple Mac G5 dual 2 gig, Apple Mac Pro Tower Quad Core, Sony DMX R100 56 channel automated 5.1 console. And far too many other devices to mention.

The microphones used in the studio were many but mostly the Neumann U67's Tube (2), Neumann TLM 147 Tube, Neumann U87's FET (2),Neumann TLM 103 (2) were in evidence.