Daniel Staniforth, the man behind Colorado-based Luna Trick says he was something of a child prodigy when it came to music.

"My father was an avid connoisseur of classical music, so I grew up on the Beethoven Symphonies, the tone poems of R. Strauss & Grieg, the ballets of Tchaikovsky and many other classical / romantic symphonists. I started cello lessons at six years old and was already playing in youth orchestras at 11. I was lucky to study with a pupil of the great cellists Fournier and Tortellier and sat for numerous performance and theory examinations at the Royal academy of Music in London," he says. "My family moved around a lot, and perhaps the constant changing of places and teachers (including immigration to the US in the mid-80s) hindered my progress in the classical world. But even more of a factor was a great seduction by the 'alternative' music scene that began to develop in the early 80s."

He became enamored of the early 80s David Bowie efforts as well as much from The Cure, Bauhaus, Joy Division, et al. These days he is more interested in 20th Century experimenters such as Rautavaara, Tourke, Nyman, Ligetti, Glass, Branca and others.

His first guitar was a Yamaha which he "stole from his mother" at the age of 12.

"My collection over the years has included String basses, banjos, ukuleles, dulcimers, harps, violins, violas, cellos and I have sought to record with all of them to varying degrees of success. The culmination of this particular history is that I am an absolute 'music nut' -- through and through, he says. "I still keep up with ‘underground / indie / alternative’ rock/pop, as well as modern classical, avant-garde Jazz, electronica, ambient, and film-score type music. After playing in various bands on the west coast, I started my own one-man band project in the tradition of early Cure, Beck, and NIN recordings. My first offerings were under the moniker, Luna Sea, which then changed to Luna Trick after I discovered a San Francisco band under the same name. I have recently tapped into the world of electronically generated orchestral music, ambient, and what I refer to as 'poet-scapes.'”

One guitar he uses a lot is a 1974 Stratocaster.

"For many years, I resisted being a Strat / Les Paul purist. I got this Strat in a trade for a cello I restored and just fell in love with the maple neck (which may not be original to the instrument). I think I defer to it in my guitar collection because of its tonal consistency. You always know what you are going to get with it! One of my favorite guitarists is the vastly underrated Vinnie Riley from the Durutti Column," he says. "And I love the sounds he gets from his Strat. Perhaps this was a bit of an influence on me getting one as well. I love the mid and high ranges of the guitar, which are perfect for clean chords, delay work, and funky rhythms -- something I do quite a bit."

The Yamaha mentioned above is a Yamaha SGB 1350TS . We could find few specifics on this model. These days Yamaha still makes a few SBG series guitars (SBG 1000, SBG 2000).

"This is the guitar Santana used to play before he discovered PRS guitars. I’ll never understand why this guitar went out of circulation so quickly as it is a fantastic little player. It’s shaped like a Gibson SG with the short double fins, has six presets, and a slick ebony neck that you can fly on," he says. "The one flaw is that being a one-piece, it has a tendency to warp with the seasons, thus sometimes fretting out and rendering itself unplayable. I still have and use this guitar, and I hear that Yamaha is reviving the SG series. One of the things I love about this guitar is the diversity in the presets, which offer a better bass tone than the Strat and some Les Paul crunch for chords and solos. I have never changed a thing on it, and the pickups are just the original Yamaha stock humbuckers."

The SG 2000, as it was called then (I think) was the one Santana used according to several sources. All the body styles are very similar on these instruments.

More with Staniforth soon.