News
Michelle is regularly in demand as a session player on live gigs for a number of bands/artists and so she is often involved with a number of projects simultaneously, some of which you will find below together with other news.
Otherwise keep up to date on a daily basis with Michelle via her Facebook site.
* Click on the image to go there
Possible New Endorsement In The Works!
Exciting news for Michelle this week.
Michelle was contacted by a leading string manufacturer from the USA wanting to know if she would be interested in releasing a Signature Set of Michelle Taylor guitar strings!
Michelle uses a hybrid set of strings at the moment by Ernie Ball which is a string gauge size between the standard set of 009 and 010.
However this new brand has offered to make a custom set of signature strings available which would even features Michelles face on the packet!
Negotiations are still ongoing so no further details are available at this time.
*UPDATE Michelle decided to stay with Ernie Ball strings which she has used for many years.
Endorsements
Michelle Taylor´s profile and popularity is constantly growing due to her regular presence and contributions in a number of groups and forums online together with her regular live performances.
With having over 30 years experience in the business and a number of international tours in the bag, her reputation for having knowledge and hands on experience with a wide range of gear is well known and respected.
Together with her unusual "upside down" and "reversed strings" guitar playing technique, It makes Michelle a regular talking point among other players, and so naturally of a number of brands have contacted her and showed interest in her using their products.
The attention and compliments that Michelle quite often receives is always a little embarrasing to her as she is quite humble about her own playing abilities and limitations, but as she says...." I enjoy playing despite that". 😊
It´s important to mention that Michelle will only use products that she truly likes (and so probably already uses).
On a couple of occasions when offered "special deals" or free products from brands via an endorsement deal she has declined their kind offers.
At times Michelle even promotes products or companies that she feels deserves the attention even though she may not have any official endorsement with them.
Michelle Taylor is well known for her love and use of Blackstar amps (UK) and Gordon Smith Guitars (UK) and has used them exclusively for a number of years.
Recently however she has agreed to endorse and promote a number of other products too which she uses in her work.
Michelle always prefers whenever possible to use and promote UK brands (whether she has a deal with them or not ) but will also use products from other countries if she really likes them.
Michelle uses Blackstar Amplification exclusively both in the studio, on live session gigs, and on bigger tours.
After owning and playing through almost all other brands over her 35+ years as a pro in the music business, She has now used Blackstar amps exclusively for a number of years.
Michelle chose to use Blackstar due to the security and piece of mind that they offer, from always having great tone and versatility together with rugged reliability, which is necessary in her work.
Even at home Michelle has a collection of Blackstar amps for both practice and work in her studio.
In 2020 Michelle was contacted by Blackstar Amplification and asked if she would like to be one of their officially endorsed artists. Michelles bio can be seen on Blackstars website.
Michelle has known about the magic of Gordon Smith Guitars from when she was living in the UK during the
70´s and watching many top shelf players using them at the time, however she had never owned one herself.
Instead she took the more common path of Gibsons, Fenders, Ibanez, and a plethora of other brands over the years before finally owning her first Gordon Smith guitar. This was mainly due to the fact that finding left handed versions of guitars in music shops was very rare.
Plus like many others believed, Gibsons and Fenders were always thought to be the top dogs at the time.
Things have changed however and when Blackstar merged with Gordon Smith guitars for a few years, their guitars became a lot easier to find and the quality went from equal to the big brands to above them!
Although still owning a number of Gibsons and Fenders Michelle has retired them all and now and only uses her Gordon Smith guitars having had 2 custom orders placed and specially made for her.
In 2020 Michelle was invited to be one of Gordon Smith Guitars officially endorsed artists.
On my official Facebook profile I was singing the praises of Mad Professor Pedals even though I wasn’t endorsed by them. Ive used these great pedals for many years.
Mad Professor pedals have been a regular part of both my main pedalboard and my back up boards. (On the two main boards that I use I have 4 Mad Professor pedals).
Just because Im endorsed by some pedal companies doesn’t mean that I won’t talk highly of other brands if I think its warranted, and if I really love their products, and Mad Professor have always been one of the brands that I warmly recommend (as many of you will know from my posts in various online gear groups).
Well, this thing just happened….
One of my posts talking about about Mad Professor Pedals was seen by the “Mad Professor himself” Harri Koski who is the CEO of the company. Harri got in touch with me regarding my post, and was happy to hear about my love of the brand and was then kind enough to offer me an official endorsement with Mad Professor.
I love my Royal Blue Overdrive and Deep Blue Delays from this company and I look forward to trying and possibly using a number of other pedals by Mad Professor.
Michelle became an endorsed artist for Free The Tone pedals in 2019.
She loved the pedals after first hearing one of her favourite guitarists (Matt Schofield) use them, and shortly afterwards she was using them herself on her main pedalboard.
Its quite funny as Michelle Taylor is now on the same artist webpage as her hero (which Michelle finds very cool) on the Free The Tone official website under the endorsed artist heading.
More can be read about the pedals that Michelle uses on her "Gear" page of this website.
Michelle has a high and respected presence in the hundreds of gear groups and forums online.
Many people contact her there with comments and questions and even via private messages etc to ask opinions of gear and in particular her Blackstar amps, Gordon Smith guitars, and any pedals she uses or recommends etc.
However she was pleasantly surprised when she was contacted out of the blue by boutique custom pedal builder Paul Flattley of Flattley pedals (UK) asking if she would be interested in a series on signature pedals by his company. Michelle was overjoyed to have the opportunity to work together with him, and they are now working on a number of new pedal designs which will be released in the near future as the "MT Signature series".
Michelle has been sent a number of prototypes which have been fine tuned and adjusted to suit her taste and she actually uses 2 of these pedals on one of her main pedalboards at the moment.
The "MT Royal Blue" which is a creamy analog dual chorus pedal , and the MT Quantum Dual Delay which is another warm analog pedal.
Michelle was recently offered an endorsement with Wampler Pedals after using a number of their pedals over the years. It all starting with the Wampler Tumnus pedal which is Brian Wamplers take on how the Mystical and revered Klon pedal should be and then Michelle started using a number of other Wampler pedals such as the Faux Tape Echo and Dual Fusion Overdrive.
Michelle has used Ernie Ball strings for most of her musical career. She started using them back in the 80s and has continued to do so ever since. She has tried a number of other brands over the years but always came back to Ernie Ball. Michelle uses a hybrid set of strings on all her guitars called Turbo Slinky which go from 9.5 to 46.
On most, if not all of Michelles Gibson and Fender guitars Michelle has used Graphtech nuts and saddles.
Even one of her beloved Gordon Smith guitars has the new Graptech Ratio locking tuners on it.
Michelle swears by all these Graphech products which are engineered under high pressure and heat. The black string saver saddles and nuts she uses are impregnated throughout with PTFE (teflon) which eliminates string binding or breakage, and this guarantees a consistent material (no flat or dead spots) and rich in tone and harmonic content. Even the guitar picks that Michelle uses are from Graphech /Tusq.
Richards Guitars is without doubt one of the friendliest and most helpful music shops in the UK: Richard stocks a load of Gordon Smith Guitars and even has his own custom versions made for sale exclusively at his shop. Richard has his own line of mini pedals too called SMJ Legend which are great sounding mini pedals ( Michelle has a full pedalboard of just Legend pedals, check them out ).
Not only that but Richard has his own brand of exclusive leather straps with memory foam inserts which are incredibly comfortable. The brand name of the straps is Walsall, and if you ever need a beautiful soft leather strap check them out (on most of my PR photos etc you will see me using these straps. I love them and use them on all my gigs). Richards Guitars even has a lot of videos up on youtube too which are worth a look.
Elmelid Musik is the shop in southern Sweden where Michelle buys all her equipment.
According to Michelle there isnt a more knowledgeable, helpful or friendly shop in the country, not only that but luckily its only 10 minutes from her home.
Michelle is now an endorsed artist for Hardy Pedals, a Swedish brand of handwired pedals. Michelle felt that it was fitting to use and promote a "local brand" and Hardy pedals are well known throughout Sweden for making top quality handwired pedals.
Michelle is asked to join the Blues 48 Band
Michelle was asked to join the Blues 48 Band and has decided to session with them on a
number of future gigs.
* A video of their first rehearsal with Michelle is on youtube.
Michelle is asked to join the Country Band Station West
Michelle was asked to join the country band station west and will session with them on a number of future gigs
Michelle Joins Sigvard
Michelle was recently asked to be a part of the Sigvard project and has begun rehearsals with them.
Sigvard have recently released tracks on Spotify and have appeared on a number of music festivals.
At this moment Sigvard are receiving quite a bit of interest to perform internationally and Michelle will session with them when it fits her schedule.
Michelle is asked to join Backwood
Michelle was recently asked to be part of "Backwood".
Backwood is a popular local band in the south of Sweden which was formed by Patrik Dunmar on vocals, acoustic, & slide guitar.
Backwood perform as a duo, trio and full band and have asked Michelle if she would be interested to add her talents on guitar.
Michelle will be appearing together with Backwood on occasion and session with them on their future gigs. She will still continue to work with other artists/bands as well as her own projects .
Blackstar & Gordon Smith
Michelle is well known for her passion for Blackstar amplification.
After 30 years in the music business and having owned and used probably all of the brands available Michelle discovered Blackstar and has continued to use them ever since.
Michelle is often heard saying that in her opinion and experience their tone, versatility, reliability and innovation are superior to other brands.
Michelle has now discovered another piece of equipment which she uses on a permanent basis....
a custom handcrafted Gordon Smith guitar. This stunning guitar was custom made for her at the Gordon Smith factory in the UK.
Since getting the guitar Michelle loved it so much that she has already ordered a second guitar as she wants to have a Gordon Smith "back up guitar" onstage instead of her Gibsons etc, but unfortunately for Michelle... with a handmade guitar she will have to wait approximately 4 months before getting her hands on it!
A Michelle Documentary
Michelle has been approached by a TV Production company that creates and supplies programs for a number of Swedens national TV channels. The production company are interested in making a program ( documentary ) about Michelle´s life and career in the music industry.
Michelle has agreed to the project and is at the moment in a series of meetings with the company to agree on details surrounding the project.
The company have already recorded a short interview with Michelle with the idea of creating a rough demo of their ideas to present to her.
Surprised Onstage
In 2014 Michelle was on tour with her show and performing in many of the theaters and concert houses throughout Sweden. In the middle of the show and between songs a gentleman got up onstage, congratulated her, and presented Michelle with a diploma and explaining that she has been inducted into the Swedish Nostalgia Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Its was a total surprise to Michelle and the audience that evening, but her manager and her band had apparently known about it for some time and kept the secret.
