Melissa Etheridge has played Ovation guitars since long before she released her first album, and their sound is integral to her style. Her current acoustics are Adamas models that are custom-built by Don Johnson at Ovation. They are smaller in all dimensions (neck and body) than the standard models and include a cutaway, wich doesn't usually come on the deep-bowl version. Most of the time she plays a 12-string Adamas, but she also has a six-string that she uses occasionally. Recently, Etheridge has been playing more electric guitar, primarily a paisley Fender Telecaster. Trace Foster, her guitar tech, estimates that she's currently playing electric on about 40 percent of the tunes in her show, particularly since the electric figures prominently on her new album, "Your Little Secret". Other electrics in her collection include an Anderson Strat and a Rickenbacker 12- string (soon to be replaced by a Jerry Jones 12-string, Foster says). At present, Etheridge is traveling with nine guitars, five acoustics and four electrics. One acoustic is tuned down a half step, and another is tunes to E A D E A E for the song " I Could Have Been You" (the tuning came from Etheridge's guitarist John Shanks, who wrote the music). Foster changes the strings on each guitar every day; if he doesn't, he says, she inevitably breaks a string. The Adamas guitars are set up with Adams strings (withe gauges of .010 to .047 inch.), wich she hits hars with D'Addario light-medium picks.

Etheridge's amplification system for the acoustics is remarkably simple. The Adamas guitars have the stock OP-24 pickup and preamp system, and the signal travels trough a Neve 950 wireless system to a rack DI off stage. Her sound has virtually no effecs, maybe a little of compression in the house sound (not in the monitors) and a tiny trace of reverb. The same type of setup is used in the studio: she records the guitar direct, with the addition of only a powered DI to boost the signal. Foster says that her Adamas guitars have very problems with feedback on stage; only occasionally when the bass player hits the same note as Etheridge is there a little howl, wich is easily handled.