The Lexicon Jamman was bought from a wonderful looping guitarist called David Allison. This has the full (32 seconds) of memory and allows both looping and echo. It comes with 2 footswitches for controlling the basic features, but to get real control, you need a midi controller - I use a behringer FCB1010 or a rolls midi pedal. To add some zing to the final mix, I picked up a very cheap zoom reverb unit, the studio 2100. This is run from the effects send of the mixer, either a tiny Phonic MM1002, or the mixer of my Yamaha MD8 midi-disk recorder. The bonus of the latter is the ability to tape the gig without faffing about with microphones, although I regularly manage to hit a button pausing or cancelling the recording.

A more recent, and frankly wonderful device, is the Zoom G2. The latest in a series of Zoom pedals, this one finally seems to have all a looper could reasonably require. Firstly, you get 5 seconds worth of ping pong, tape echo or delay, each of which can be frozen using a non-latching footswitch. The delay can be set in seconds, or by using a tap time button. You can also set feedback and mix in real time by going into edit mode whilst playing. On top of that, you've got some useful effects, such as compression, chorus, a fairly basic selection of reverbs and pitch shifts, harmoniser etc. There's 16 amp modelling types, a noisegate and other odds & sods. The most useful extra is that the "chorus" effect can be set as a number of delay types, up to a second in length. So, you can get a loop going, then play over the top with both delay and reverb added to the live signal.

Another natty device is the Alesis AirFX, which allows you to control three parameters by waving your hands over the device, kind of like a theremin. Sadly, no midi or foot control options are available. Although everything is preset, the interaction of the effects is sensibly chosen and allows you to inject some welcome real-time variation to loops. It's currently sitting between the powertran and the mixer, usefully converting a mono feed into a stereo'd signal.

Power (if needed) comes from a marshall 2020 power amp into a stereo Marshall cab. An awful lot of volume available from a relatively lightweight amp. I feed int into the nearest speakers and I'm never short of volume!

Another recent purchase is a Red Federation FX Pro - an amazing piece of discontinued gear. It has 4 sections - echo, flange/filter, pann and cut (gate) which can be beat-synced to incoming music. Needless to say, there's not much discernable beat in mine, so I tap the tempo. I've not really got it under control, but this means there's a welcome element of randomness in using it. It has presets, but I 've not started used them yet. A joystick in the centre allows me to fade between the effects and each can be switched off. The efefcts it provides are subtle, but moving ;)

Tone comes from either a Roland GP100, or a Marshall JMP1, depending what mood I'm in. I cannot find a perfect sound, so every few months I try a new combination. Since my early days, there has only been one guitar, the Strat. Anything without a tremolo arm seems half a guitar. My long-term love is a white Strat with a rosewood neck. I've retro- fitted lace sensor pickups and some replacement "low friction" saddles, since which I've yet to break a string. It also has orange knobs, since I was in a band called "Satsuma"!

I picked up a cheap Roland-ready Strat on ebay, which fires up the GR30 synth unit. This has opened my ears to a whole new range of sounds. For years I've been trying to make the guitar sound like something other than a guitar, usually with slow attacks, and here they are by the bucket load! Seriously inspiring - see the audio section for some samples. More recently I've acquired a Fernandes Dragonfly guitar with the amazing sustainer system. This is certain to work it's way into my repertoire, assuming I can afford to keep buying 9v batteries ;)