Michael John considers Jerry Garcia as a major influence. Jerry toured for twenty years with this "magic box", a Mutron Envelope Filter. For the past 7 years Michael has toured with MuTron III+ thanks to the generous support of Henry Zajak of HAZ Laboratories, the makers of the Mutron III+. MU-TRON III+™ translates the envelope or "volume profile" of every musical passage, automatically... into an easily-controlled, vowel-like sound, as you play. Use MU-TRON III+™ to create a variety of synthesizer sounds with most electrified instruments: guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, flute, saxophone, brasses, even microphone. The sharper your attack and the more percussive your instrument, the wilder your sound will be.Besides providing that inverted "snap" (perfect for funky bass), MU-TRON III+™ also functions as an automatic "wah" pedal.
Glen handmakes great lightweight vinyl guitar amp covers built to your specs. He has built three covers for me including most recently for my 1964 Fender Champ Amp. .
Michael John Ahern receives Artist Support from LM Products
I originaly purchased a Ralph Marlin American Flag LM strap after 9/11. (see photo to right) It quickly became my "go to" strap and I had to have more. Simply the most comfortable and best designed guitar strap available in todays marketplace. When I received the LM catalog I was captivated by the impressive number of designs,colors, textures and materials used in LM Industry straps. I tour with several now thanks to LM including some cool red,purple, and blue velvet straps. .- MJ
For the last 5 years I have been playing and recording with a beautiful hand carved acoustic guitar built in Japan my master luthier Kazuo Yairi.This instrument was originally designed by Jerry Garcia in 1994 and then finished by Warren Haynes in 2005 for Alvarez. This guitar is a cutaway jumbo model featuring a solid spruce top, hand scallop bracing, and an exquisitel Australian lacewood for back and sides.
The DigiTech GSP1101 guitar processor is a world class piece of tone crafting gear. I use the GSP1101 live and in my studio direct. I used it's predecessor the 2120 with success however with the addition of the GSP' 1101's new tone crafting engineering, profoundly easier user interface, the brilliantly engineered Control 2 floorboard (as good as any Bradshaw Board at a fraction of the price) plus USB connectivity allowing laptop storage of my user presets and access to updated software make this guitar processor and MIDI controller the most versatile and efficient I have ever seen. Gone are the myriad of issues associated with using stomp boxes that a frontman/guitarist faces. The GSP1101 is clean, quiet and really simple to work with. It is engineered with quality amp modeling, multiple EQ access, numerous quality guitar effect models, quality compression, gate, built in wah, and 99 presets that are an easy springboard to explore and build from. I run it into a Mesa Boogie Stereo 50/50 and into a Marshall 1/2 stack 1960 series with 4 isolated Greenbacks. It KICKS ASS at any volume. Thanks Digitech for your artist support! MJ September 2010
The very first guitars I played growing up were Martins. When I was 15 my best buddy's Dad and older brothers all owned Martin guitars. They had moved into our neighborhood from West Virginia and the Dad would come home at night, drink Bourbon and play mountain music. The older brothers were playing CCR, Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Dead. That, along with Dr Don Rose on AM radio was my introduction to music and the guitar. I loved it! Now I own my own D-18 thanks to the thoughtfulness of the good folks in Nazareth Pennsylvania. It is a remarkable acoustic guitar and I should know. I own quite a few. This is the one you'll see me playing from now on. Thank you C.F. Martin & Co.
