Guitars At various stages of his career, Reffett was an artist endorsee of Gibson, Legator and Esoterik Guitars. He is now signed to the Dean Guitars artist roster, and plays their Dean #11 Custom V and 450 Custom from Dean's Graphyte series. He has been seen playing Gibson Flying V's in
Guitar World magazine video shoots and has used both Gibson guitars and Esoterik guitars for
Guitar World's "lick of the day" iPhone application videos. In the pages of
Guitar World he was seen playing a Dean MAB1 Armorflame
Michael Angelo Batio signature guitar in the October and November 2010 issues respectively. He has also been seen in Indonesia's
Gitar Plus magazine and Poland's
Hard Rocker magazine playing a mix of Gibson and Dean guitars. For the recording of "The Call of the Flames", Dave primarily used his Gibson Flying V guitars. For a couple of songs that had whammy bar dive bombs he used a BC Rich Bich, and on the clean intro to "I Just Don't Want To Say Goodbye" he used a Yamaha nylon string classical guitar. At the 2011
NAMM Show,
San Luis Obisbo, California-based company Esoterik guitars unveiled a Dave Reffett signature model guitar known as the DR-1. The guitar featured all of Reffett's favorite specifications such as a Floyd Rose tremolo system and Seymour Duncan Blackout Pickups. It also featured a five-piece walnut neck with figured maple strips, a Honduras mahogany body and ebony overlays, volume knobs and fretboard . Reffett made headlines on popular heavy metal news sites for his jams with Chris Poland and George Lynch at the 2011 NAMM event.
Guitar World Magazine tweeted photos of Reffett performing at the Eminence speakers booth and
Premier Guitar magazine filmed Reffett and George Lynch jamming together at the Mr. Scary guitars booth.
Pick-ups In
Guitar World video appearances Dave can be seen using a Seymour Duncan Dimebag Darrell Abbott signature "Dimebucker" pickup, a personal favorite of his in the bridge position. For the neck position he often uses a Seymour Duncan "59" Model Humbucker. In his Dave Reffett signature model guitar, he had
Seymour Duncan blackouts. He now uses DMT (Dean Magnetic Technology) pickups as well as the Duncan Jazz and El Diablo.
Effects On
Shredding The Envelope, Reffett uses a vintage 1978 Morley Power Fuzz Wah pedal that he has mentioned in many interviews. The pedal is the same model that Cliff Burton used on the first three Metallica albums, ''
Kill 'Em All, Ride the Lightning, and Master of Puppets''. He occasionally uses a Crybaby Wah pedal and uses various effects when producing in the studio.
Amplification Reffett typically uses a
Peavey 6505+ amp head. When recording
The Call of the Flames, Reffett ran his amps through a 4x12 Marshall cabinet loaded with Celestion vintage 1930s and Greenbacks in mono and stereo. Now he endorses Eminence speakers and favors their Red Fang, Cannabis Rex and Wizard models. In the studio for some of his rhythm guitar parts he uses a
Mesa Boogie dual rectifier amp. On Batio's
Intermezzo record, Reffett used an Axe FX II for all of the recording.
Microphones For recording vocals Reffett uses a combination of
Shure and Manley Gold Reference microphones. For drum recording he uses Blue Ribbon Condenser mics and on his guitar parts he uses a combination of Shure,
Sennheiser and Manley mics.
Strings Reffett uses
D'Addario guitar strings, favoring the .009 to .042 models for soloing and most rhythm guitar parts, while sometimes using thicker gauges for alternate tunings and rhythm. Reffett's favorite acoustic strings are Martin Lifespan SP gauge 0.12 to .054. He has also been known to use Elixir brand strings.
Picks Dave uses black and red Dunlop Jazz IIIs and pure titanium Jazz III style picks from Timber Tone. For bass guitar he alternates between using finger style and Jazz III guitar picks.
Straps Dave uses a Planet Waves locking strap as well as various Levy straps. ==References==