"Since I got my Gretsch I've never used anything else on a recording. The thing about mine, though, is that it's not an old one, it's mid-Seventies. I don't like the old ones, they're not functional at all. When I'm on tour people keep trying to sell me 1958 Gretsches and I don't want them, frankly, they don't work.

"The one I've got, the White Falcon, I've had it three years and I've dropped it and stuff, but nothing's ever gone wrong with it. It stays in tune perfectly well, it's got the original machine heads on it, and it's absolutely standard as it came out of the factory.

"You see, my idea is to get a guitar that you like and work within its limitations. I don't like this idea where somebody gets a guitar and rips it to pieces, changes the pickups, all that stuff.

"The sound is the foremost thing about Gretsches; it's a certain spread of sound due to the pickups and the way they're constructed. Once I realised what the guitar was doing, I extended that idea and started using chorus to spread it further, using two amps and even using the PA as an extension of the backline by splitting it in stereo. I've got a sort of wall of sound now just from that. We tried to work out exactly what it was doing and it turns out it's giving off some weird resonant harmonics...

"I started using one in Theatre Of Hate, my last band, but that wasn't very guitar-orientated material. I just liked the guitar, and when I started with this band I decided to see how heavy it was possible to get using one. The only person I'd heard using one for very heavy stuff was Malcolm Young, the rhythm guitarist from AC/DC, and I liked his sound a lot, so I thought 'why not?'.

"I've been in a position to try all the so-called 'great guitars' and they don't really do anything for me. I'm not a collector, I've only got one other White Falcon, as a spare, and a Gretsch Country Club which I picked up for £400 and sprayed black because it was natural wood finish which is a bit ineffectual. That's alright.

"I really like the tremolo unit on Gretsches — they've got Bigsby units with kind of bent levers and they're very subtle. If you use that with a bit of chorus and some distortion weird things start coming out... which I like. I'm a great believer in glorious accidents.

"The first time I ever saw a White Falcon was years ago when a mate of mine was really into Neil Young. I was a punk at the time and I said 'naaaah' — I wanted a White Les Paul like Steve Jones. Then I saw Matthew Ashman using one with Bow Wow Wow. I used to go and see them to see his guitar! I never liked the band. For a While I used double-cutaway Falcons, but they're stereo and I didn't realise for ages that they're a lot less powerful than the mono ones, the wiring's weird on them.

"Gretsches are virtually impossible to play above the twelfth fret, so you can't do a lot of those standard Heavy Rock things like solo right up the neck.

"I do play very loud — in America they clocked me at two dB below the threshold of pain — but I damp the strings with my palm to cut out the feedback. The guitar's stuffed with cotton wool, but I don't know if that does any good or not. There's no doubt, they do feed back like a bastard but because they're new, not really old ones, it's more controllable.

"They're really reliable guitars, and they look great but they're so expensive now. I paid double for my second one, a few months ago, than I did for my first, three years before."

"I play a Tokai Hard Puncher — I got it free in Japan and it ended up as my main bass. It's a cross between a Jazz and a Precision; it's got one of each type of pickup.

"Previous to that I had a '63 Jazz, which was pretty good too, but was getting well and truly smashed up because of all the gigging.

"I tried a Status bass on the last album, which is a very nice instrument with an excellent tone; a very well-built precision instrument. But it's not me, really. I need a bit of raunch and a bit of rasp from the frets, a bit of worn-in-ness. Which is why I went for the Jazz bass and why I went for the Tokai — for a new instrument it's got a lot of character and a very well-worn feel to it.

"Soundwise I'd like to try and get somewhere between Jean-Jacques Burnel and John Entwistle, with quite a lot of middle and top. Particularly live, where you find a lot of stages throw off loads of bottom end, so you need to punch out quite a lot of top so you can hear a note rather than just a dull boom.

"I use Trace Elliott amps, which are just... fine. They do the job well and reliably, and the graphic's useful. I hadn't heard of them until people kept recommending them and I thought 'who is this Tracey Elliot?' Then one of the road crew got me one and I went 'Ohh!' I also use a few pedals — a chorus, mostly, just to fill the sounds out, and also an overdrive in case I want to leap out of the mix and make myself heard a bit more. I have used an Octave Divider, as well, but you can't get a clean bottom end from that as often as I'd like."

"My drumkit's called Hermann. It's a Sonor, which I'm pretty happy with, and I've got a deal with them now.

"I use a deep snare, 14"x8", because I like that big sound — my style is that I hit the snare pretty regularly, so it's important that it sounds solid enough.

"I've got 10", 12", 13", 14", and 15" tom toms, and I've got a lot of cymbals as well, so it's a pretty big kit. I use big sticks as well, 'C's, to get the sound I want, which is sort of heavy and solid. I really like John Bonham, and Brian Downey from Thin Lizzy, and Richie Hayward from Little Feat. They've got excellent technique, but they can play heavy when it's needed, like Ian Paice from Deep Purple.

"My role within the band is obviously to supply the rhythm you know, I'm obviously not playing melodies and stuff, so I have to get a sound that is deep and punchy. But at the same time, I do listen to Billy's guitar and try to sit in with what he's doing quite a lot.

"I play a big kit not because I use all of it at once, but because it gives you so many more possibilities in sound, there are more things you can do without trying to be too busy on a small Kit. I wouldn't use double bass drums, for instance, because I like to keep the hi hat steady a lot of the time and I'd lose that trying to work two basses.

"All in all, I'd like to be recognised as the sort of drummer that drives a band along really well rather than the sort that just does fills all over the place."

"I like the round tambourines, the classic style — I think the moonshaped ones sound alright in the studio, but live they're not as good. I prefer the type with two sets of bells on them, rather than just one, and I never use ones with skins on.

"You see, with round tambourines you can do lots of things with them, like flick them round your wrist, spin them, headbutt them or whatnot. Actually, I started using basic wooden tambourines, the Premier ones, and I don't think they're very good. The guy that buys our gear bought me this one, just a basic wooden one, that was made in Pakistan and it's brilliant. My favourite tambourine. I don't know what sort of wood it is, but it only cost him three quid.

"I think all the professional percussion manufacturers, when it comes to things like tambourines they can't really be bothered, they just knock them together. The best ones I've found come from the Far East — you can get them at Ray Man's shop in Covent Garden.

"I've developed quite a few tricks of my own with the tambourine, and I've started using two now sometimes. But I do cut my hands up a lot. They're covered with scars and callouses now, they get a real hammering. It must be one of the most physically demanding instruments you can play, the tambourine."