What you see here is the short list of musical equipment companies I wholeheartedly endorse. I'm proud to admit that I only have one reason or requirement for listing a company here, and it's not that a bag of money show up on my doorstep every other Thursday. It's because I use their products on a regular basis, and that those products provide invaluable assistance in helping me better express myself as a musician.

For more technically oriented details on what specific products I use and how I use them, I'd go back to the main "for gearheads only" page and browse around for a while. But if you just want to know which companies' products I would recommend to anyone who asked, read on. And do yourself the favor of checking out their websites as well, because not only am I extremely satisfied with the fine folks you see listed here, I'm also very gratified that they saw fit to work with me in the first place, and I'd like to return the favor in any way I can.

		The only brand of bass gear I've used since 1990, but my feelings about SWR go way beyond endorsement. Remember, before I worked there, I was just a regular endorser. And before that, just a fanatically satisfied customer. (Full disclosure: I've been employed by SWR since early 1997.)
		These guys just make amazing basses. Passive or active, 4-string or 5-string, P-style or J-style, every Mike Lull bass I've picked up has been a thing of beauty. The tone is incredible, but the real secret is how every neck feels like the best one you've ever played on. Since March, 2001.
		A truly enlightened company that didn't lose its way when it became successful and grew accordingly. Their AB Series acoustic/electric basses changed the way I viewed the instrument. The Taylor website and printed catalog are literally works of art, by far the most aesthetically pleasing of any company in the industry. They've also published my articles in their in-house quarterly, Wood & Steel, and they've even made me a clinician along with Keneally, helping us get into markets that might be otherwise impenetrable with just a club gig. Oh, and they make killer acoustic guitars. Since 1995.
		The Mike Lull 5-string that now serves as my main axe wants crystalline-bright stainless steel strings to make it sing, and D'addario's Prisms do the job. They too have an amazing website, which contains detailed information on more varieties of bass and guitar strings than you'd ever need to know. You'll also find that D'addario doesn't just make strings. Since March, 2001.
		In truth, Tech 21's SansAmp PSA-1 Programmable Preamp was the very first product I ever endorsed, way back in 1994. Since then I've used that unit on Keneally's Half Alive In Hollywood and Dog, James LaBrie's Elements Of Persuasion, and even on my own album View ("See You Next Tuesday," "Elate"), as well as others. I like how their idea of real tube-sounding crunch in convenient packages mixes with the clean SWR basic sound, and it lets me get to those overdriven rock bass tones without having to turn my entire rig upside-down. Check out their new (as of 2005) three-preset-programmable bass driver/D.I. I am.
		I used this line somewhere else on this site, but it's too good not to use again: The original founder/designer of SWR, Steve Rabe, has gone on to smaller things. His new company, Raven Labs, cranks out little boxes with incredible tone and utility. Right now they only make five products. I own three of them, one of which--the PHA-1 Headphone Amp--has changed the way I practice forever. Since the company's inception in 1999.