Brian joined the band in the fall of 1993, halfway into the recording of the Blue Album. Originally they attempted to get him to play the backup guitar parts that jason had originally laid down, but in the end there wasn't time to get them learned and re-done, so Rivers played the back up parts. So none of Brians equipment is present on the Blue album. Brian did sing the back up vocal parts on the album. At this point he was playing a red 1963 Gibson SG Melody maker. Anyway, Brian has said it was a '63, while some folks insist its a '66. in any case it had a very low 4 digit serial number (possibly #1030?) so it was old. The headstock was the early rectangular shape, which came before the more familiar curved style. The tremolo bar assembly was missing, but you'd never know it unless you knew it was supposed to be there. This guitar was all original except for the tuning pegs, which Brian had replaced with locking ones to help keep the thing in tune (which was an uphill battle). The pickups were the original ones, but what they were remains unknown at this writing ('hotrails' have been suggested, but perhaps they are recognizable fromn the picture below). He soon bought an extremely unreliable but awesome looking yellow Kapa "Challenger", a cheap 50's guitar, that was sort of a Fender Stratocaster copy. The thing was simply unsuited for live performance, and Brian later gave this guitar to his sister. I did some digging and learned the following: There is a 70's Kapa Challenger that looks like a big Rickenbacker, this is not it. There is also a: "USA Made (in Maryland) '63 or '64 model. Volume and tone along with 3-way selector. 2 double coil p/u's. Maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. Has Jazzmaster like tremolo tailpiece, 22 frets. Cool kind of mini Strat solid body." That sounds right from my memory.


In the background, brians 2x12 marshall cabinet and the oddball Mesa Engineering amp that Rivers bought As seen in the above photo, Brians first amp setup consisted of a Marshall 2X12 cabinet, a loud little thing that was perfect for the club touring that was to come. Since Rivers had the Marshall SL-X head now, Brian got Rivers' Mesa Enginneering 60-watt (pictured inside the Blue album) for his amp. This worked out fine for the first several months of touring in 1994.

Brian used GHS Boomer strings, in the TNT gauge, with a wound .24 G string substituted. He has always used Jim Dunlop plain gray pics, from the very thin .38 thickness up to the .73's, usually settling on the .60s.