Frank Gerace and Cheryl Wanner of Boston's Dreamchild have released three full length CDs -- Gates to the Sea (now out of print), La Fée Verte and Lullabies for the Dead. Previously they took time to talk to Gearwire about the harps and basses they use in their dark ethereal music. This time out we spoke to Gerace about his guitars.

"I mainly use my Guild JF55. I love the even tone it has. It sound full without being boomy and rich and sparkly without being too bright," says Gerace. "The action on it is superb as well (I use Elixir 12's on it for strings). I also have a Doug Foster smaller concert guitar which has a lovely, bright sound to it I have yet to use in any recordings."

The Guild JF55 is no longer made but can be found used (depending on the year) for between $1,000 and $1,500. Most have rosewood back and sides and a spruce top with a mahogany neck. All the models we found had Grover Rotomatic tuners. Obviously as the "J" signifies, the body style is a jumbo.

When he goes to the electric he uses a U.S. made 1991 Strat he bought used in the early 90s.

"I have Roland GK2A pickup on it and just had a Sustainiac installed in it as well." says Gerace.

His backup guitar is an old Fernandes with sustainer.

"I don't know the model name. I bought that in 2002 and got really excited about using a sustainer with the VG8. It was my main guitar for awhile, until I got around to modifying the Strat," says Gerace. "I usually run direct, so the Sustainer helps a lot with feedback and has become essential in getting some of the synthetic sounds from the VG8 I use regularly. When I do use an amp at home I have an AC30 from 1993 and a 1965 tube Vox Pacemaker and a small transistor Hiwatt. I also have a lovely Les Paul Standard that I play when working with other bands."

The VG-8 is a Roland processor that allows a guitarist to imitate sounds of a number of different instruments -- including specific guitars and amps. It is something of a legend to gear heads. These days you can get a new Roland VG99 V-Guitar System for around $1300.

"The main attraction for me [of the VG-8] is the Harmonic Restructure Modeling it does wherein it allows you to simulate sounds akin to string sections, synthesizers and other non traditional guitar tones while retaining all the inflections and idiosyncrasies of your normal playing," says Gerace. "So, unlike a guitar synth that triggers a sound sample that always sounds the same, I can create a string sound that will sound different if I play with a pick versus with my fingers, or create an organ sound then scrape the strings with a pick and the VG-8 will factor all that info in and produce that sound. As it isn't triggering a sample, there are no issues with latency when hitting the note and hearing it back. It's as instantaneous as a chorus pedal or any other processor."

The VG-8 also has built in effects -- fuzz boxes, distortion, delay, reverb, pitch shifters, flangers and more. You control these via expression pedals. There are also guitar models, amp models and cabinet models. There are also different miking techniques available.

"I don't use a lot of the guitar models with Dreamchild, as the harp fills up that frequency range, so I use the altered tuning functions to play bass sounds, like cellos and double basses and to create sounds above the range of the harp as well," says Gerace. "With the VG-8 I can tune any strings to whatever pitch I need down to 2 octaves below what they are physically tuned to, and I can tune the remaining four up to two octaves higher than standard tuning, all in half step increments. I can also mix the altered tuning with the actual physical tuning , thus getting an effect similar to a 12 string guitar. I can play a bass part on the lower strings and fill in chordal fragments above the harp as well."

Gerace also sometimes adds sounds an octave down from what he is playing on "as many strings as he needs" and blends that in with the standard tuning. In essence he is playing the bass part and guitar part simultaneously.

"The flexibility really helps in arranging, so we're not competing for the same frequencies all the time and we have a fuller sound as a result." says Gerace.

More on recording and live with Dreamchild soon