Here's the latest addition to the band's backline. It's part of Jeff's quest for the lightest, best-sounding gear on the planet, and is used with his Mesa-Boogie TA-15 amplifier. From a new Italian product line which has just been introduced to the U.S., this is an unusually small and light guitar cabinet, ideally suited for use with "lunchbox"-sized mini-amplifiers like the TA-15. Weighing only 12 pounds, this little Mini Twelve cab houses a 12", 150-watt speaker incorporating a lightweight neodynimium magnet, enclosed in a very compact enclosure that is only 15" tall and 16" wide! Without roadies to haul his gear, Jeff appreciates equipment like this which is small, light, and easy to transport.

For smaller venues, Jeff often elects to use a Mesa-Boogie TA-15 amplifier head, paired with a compact DV Mark Mini Twelve speaker cabinet containing a single 12" speaker. Like the Mini Twelve speaker cabinet, the TA-15 only weighs 12 pounds, and is one of a new generation of "lunchbox"-style amplifiers (so-called for their relatively diminuitive size). Despite being relatively compact, the TA-15 packs plenty of punch for Engine14's brand of classic rock. It has three selectable power levels on each of two footswitchable channels: 5, 15, and 25 watts, allowing Jeff to achieve smooth overdriven sounds at sane volume levels. In addition, the TA-15 offers 5 style modes, providing tones that range from pristine cleans to higher gain crunch and lead sounds from both American and British traditions.

For larger venues or outdoor shows, Jeff runs his guitars into a Mesa-Boogie Mark IV amp head, powering two Mesa speaker cabinets. Mesa amplifiers first became known when they were adopted by Carlos Santana, who used one to obtain his signature sound. Hand-built, they are used by Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, and many other internationally prominent acts who all were evidently inspired to try the company's amps after learning that Jeff uses them!

Harry uses a Carvin BX500 bass amplifier head, rack-mounted along with a Behringer bass V-amp effects processor. This amp includes a range of tone-shaping capbilities, with a 9-band graphic EQ and parametric rotary tone controls, along with a compressor which helps keep peaks under control.

Harry's Polytone Mini-Brute amplifier! Favored by jazz guitarists and bassists, Polytone amps were used by players liike George Benson, Jim Hall, Quincy Jones, Joe Pass, and Jeff (who has a Polytone Baby Brute amp!).

Harry's primary bass speaker cabinet is this Carvin BRX 10.2 NEO unit. It features a titanium high-frequency driver, along with two 10" neodymium bass drivers, providing an extended frequency response of 22Hz all the way up to 22Khz. Jeff won one of these in a Carvin contest, so he also uses one of these cabinets for his personal bass rig, where it is driven by a Genz-Benz Shuttle 6.0 600 watt compact bass amplifier which weighs only 3.75 lbs!

The latest addition to Harry's arsenal of earth-shaking bass gear is this diminuitive but mighty Fender speaker cabinet. With two lightweight Neo 8" speakers and a tweeter, this little box weighs only 28 pounds but puts out plenty of low-end rumble.

Alec usually runs his keyboards into a single QSC K10 powered PA speaker. This 1000 watt (!) unit provides all the power and frequency response needed for most venues, in a lightweight, compact package.

Patrick uses a Fishman Loudbox Performer for amplifying his Taylor acoustic. The Fishman is a powerful acoustic amp--130 watts--in a small package: 19.25" x 15.5" x 11.2" and weighing 35 lbs. The Loudbox has two channels each with 3 Bands of EQ for exceptional tone-shaping capability. Digital Effects include Hall 1 & 2, Chorus, and Plate 1 & 2.

The Holy Grail of keyboard amplification is the classic Leslie Model 122 speaker cabinet, which contains a unique rotating speaker. For some reason, Alec chooses not to lug around an authentic, heavy, awkward, inconvenient, and bulky genuine Leslie, but he does use this very slick Ventilator model pedal from Neo Instruments. While unimposing as compared to the Real Thing, it faithfully replicates the Leslie's rotating speaker effect, frequency response, and adjustable rotary speed. Amazing! Come hear it in action at a Engine14 show near you!

Harry likes knobs and buttons. Lots of them. And that's what he gets with his Behringer Bass V-Amp Pro. It offers 32 amp models, 23 speaker cabinet emulations, and a wide range of bass effects. So, if you're wondering where Harry hid his massive 8 X 10 bass cab on stage, it's in here!

Just after Jeff acquired one, the ARDX20 receives the GUITAR PLAYER magazine EDITOR'S PICK AWARD in the April 2010 issue. Coincidence? Hardly. What is it, you ask? The Analog Man ARDX20 Dual Analog Delay pedal is a hand-wired pedal with two selectable settings of delay time, feedback, AND delay level, not just delay time! The two delay circuits use vintage style electronic components that are hand-soldered to the circuit board. The potentiometers and switches are also hand wired.

What could be better than an ordinary chorus pedal? The BI-CHORUS offers two sets of SPEED and DEPTH knobs, allowing two different settings to be selected without having to adjust any knobs. Not two pedals in one, but two sound presets. But wait, there's more: BLINKING super bright LEDs! The selected side's LED, when ON, blinks in time to the chorus speed setting. One is RED and one YELLOW. How cool is that?!?

The Mesa TA-15 amp has two footswitchable channels. What happens when a song calls for clean, to crunch, to screaming, searing, eyeball-melting leads? Too late to run home to get the 3-channel Mesa Mark IV, so this is the next best thing. It's a boutique distortion pedal made by Brian Wampler, designed to get Eddie Van Halen's famous "brown sound". If only Jeff could play like EVH, too!

Jeff's Mesa-Boogie Transatlantic 15 amp is great for smaller venues, but it's so compact that Mesa had to leave out a reverb circuit. What to do? This is the answer - check it out on Jeff's pedalboard. From Dr. Scientist himself: "...these suckers have a lot of reverb power in a very small box! Somehow, using little known and even less understood dimensional trickery, Dr. Scientist managed to pack 9 really great sounding reverb effects into a box measuring just 4.4" by 2.3" by 1". This is a pretty good trick if you consider that when converted to natural reverberation space equivalent sizes the box dimensions wouldn't actually fit on planet Earth. The reverb effects include 2 spacious halls of a bright and dark variety, 3 room settings of different size and decor, 3 metallic plates of yester-year, and a pretty neat sounding rotating speaker...all with 2 switchable decay time settings via 1 nifty toggle switch.

If you check out Jeff's pedalboard, you'll see this Area 51 wah pedal. Custom-built for him, this pedal features a 5-position range selector along with quack and growl controls. If you hear weirder sounds than usual on stage, chances are they started here!

Jeff uses TC Helicon's Harmony G-XT vocal processor. It provides reverbs, compression, harmonies, and EQ in a compact form factor that fits on his pedalboard and which is simple to use. Jeff uses the built-in tuner to make sure his guitar stays in correct pitch all night without the need for an external tuner.

To gain foot-switchable control of vocal effects and harmonies, Patrick uses TC Helicon's VoiceLive digital processing floor unit. The VoiceLive is tremendously flexible, offering up to 4 additional vocal harmonies using scale, chord, and shift-based constructions, a large variety of vocal effects with fine parametric control over each, 99 presets, and 50 pre-programmed song sequences each of which can be up to 30 steps. Says Patrick "Learning how to use the VoiceLive was quite a challenge, a lot of people buy it and then give up and sell it again on eBay, but now I count on it. There's a worldwide forum of users who help each other out getting the most out of the unit."