Roland VG-88EX

The primary nerve center of Mark's rig. This little box is capable of producing an amazing array of guitar sounds, amp sounds and tunings, all with the push of a pedal.   The catch?  It requires a special type of pickup.  There are guitars that have this sort of pick up built in (see "Fender Roland Ready Strat" in the column just to the right of this one); it is also possible to install this pickup on just about any guitar.

 Roland GI-20

The GI-20 is a midi converter.  Basically this box will take the signal from the guitar, convert it to midi, and then send it to yet another machine, in this case, a laptop computer that is filled with wonderful sounds.

Mark uses sound synths on an ancient (7 years old) Macbook pro:

Fender Roland Ready Strat 

While this Strat may not look particuarly Beatley (Lennon and Harrison did use Strats on the solo for Nowhere Man), it does sound very Beatley, thanks to its high-tech charms.  Now, if only we could fit a Gretch with this sort of pickup...

Squier Affinity Tele

This trusty backup guitar sits in its stand, ready to rock at a moment's notice (that moment being when a string breaks on the Strat).

Both guitars have 25 1/2" scale necks; the Beatles didn't play too many solos "up there", but when they did ("Come Together") they went all the way to the toppermost of the poppermost!