Hey, I’m Joven—welcome to Project Beats, Episode 6 of my Buhay Musico series. In this one, I sit down with the legendary Ira Cruz for a full rig rundown, a bit of a studio tour, and a real talk on his musical journey. We go deep on his guitars—from a ’78 Gibson Les Paul Custom and an ’80s SG, to a beat-up but sentimental ’80s MIJ Squier (na wood na lang halos ang natira), plus his Maestro acoustic with LR Baggs, and a bunch of Music Man favorites like the Cutlass (hum-single) and Albert Lee. Ang daming kwento behind each piece—yung mga “nag-tele ako pero umuwi akong iba,” hanggang sa “hiram-benta” moment sa PJD. Gear-wise, sobrang solid yung discussion namin about modern touring reality: compact fly rigs, going direct to front of house, and how to keep the feel of a real amp on stage. Ira shows his practical setup—direct output for FOH, then another output into an amp’s effects loop for power amp + cab feel onstage, plus MIDI control for snapshots/presets. We also talk about modelers vs analog, reliability (less cables, less sakit ng ulo), and the real problem now being monitoring—wedge vs IEM—and why he still prefers “may hangin” from a tube amp when he can. Bonus: we nerd out on albums, tone references (yes, Continuum), and how your sound is really what you naturally gravitate to—not something you force.