Alan is a musical Jack-of-all-trades, having worked in most aspects of the music industry. He is deeply involved in guitar and music technology as well as being a musician, luthier and studio engineer. He is partner, admin and mainstay on the popular South African guitar forum www.guitarforum.co.za, where he is highly regarded as as "a bit of a know-it-all" about guitars, effects and recording.

Author
Alan is the author of the Electric Guitar Handbook (New Holland Publishing, UK), which was released world-wide in 2005. Sadly, while this book sold well globally and was translated into a number of languages, it was not reprinted, so is at end of life. His second book Hotrod Your Electric Guitar was not released due to difficulties with the US-based publisher, but should be available as an E-Book in Q4 2012.

A great number of his articles and reviews appear on a wide variety of popular musical web sites as well as in popular music magazines. These articles cover a wide range of musical subjects, from drum and guitar maintenance to recording techniques and issues.

Musician
Alan plays mostly plays electric, fretless and nylon-string guitar, bass guitar, and drums. He has a unique way of playing his main instrument, the electric guitar, incorporating fingerstyle and flamenco playing techniques in a rock context. He utilises complex effect chains and guitar synthesis to create a dense, detailed and shifting "wall of sound" and often pushes sonic boundaries and raises the question: "just how much noise can one man get from one guitar"? He has also played with many of South Africa's highest regarded musicians.

Recording Engineer
Alan is a qualified recording engineer and a fanatical recording enthusiast. He has studied acoustics and is also an electronics hobbyist. Based on this knowledge he has built his own home studio and modified most of the equipment he owns to suit his own requirements.

Producer
Alan has also worked as a producer with some of South Africa's highest regarded musicians such as Bill Knight, Andrew Mac Pherson (Flat Stanley/MacStanley) as well as a slew of up-and-coming young artists.

Clinician
Alan has been using guitar synthesisers since the late 1980's, and often hosts workshops on these and other hi-tech items such as piezo bridges and effects processors. He has also been involved in the development and testing of a number of high-tech guitar products such as piezo saddles, guitar synthesisers, software and accessories.

Luthier
Fascinated by every aspect of how musical instruments work and how they can be improved, Alan has been taking them apart and fixing them for almost as long as he has been playing them. He has built some of his own instruments and heavily modified the rest to suit his own unique requirements. He worked as a luthier for 15 years and was authorised to repair Gibson, Fender, Martin and Ibanez guitars, as well as install Fishman Transducers. Please note: he no longer builds or repairs instruments and limits these activities to his own instruments and those of friends.