Believe it or Not

[uke]

Years ago I was happy with my DRRI and a pedal, a 1980 LP Gold top and a Japanese strat. Came to the forum and everything changed, I thought I was inadequate with the equipment I had, went through 5 or 6 Historic LP and a bunch of USA strats, not to mention I don't know how many amps. I don't know what came over me but recently I picked up a 7 year old Godin SP90 for $300 and a $199 Crate V3112, jammed with a few guys and I can't believe the tones I'm getting. Gotta be kidding, no way, the guitar plays as smooth as butter and the amp in a band situation sounds awesome, I've had worse tones gigging with a Carr Slant 6 and a 59RI LP. Either I lucked out and this is a freak of nature or all the extras that I thought would make a difference in my playing don't mean squat. What a revelation, it felt like a burden being lifted from my shoulders. No more penis envy. I'm happy.

 

[DC1]

I was digging your story until the agenda started showing...


:Spank


Imagine someone posting about "how happy they are they got rid of their cheap-o gear and finally got serious", and you will get what I mean.


dc

 

[Randaddy]

That's a good discovery for you.

Similiar situation for me...
Two years of going through guitars, pedals, and amps and I've landed on a Standard Strat, a Fender Blues Junior through a 2x12, and a tubescreamer, Rat 2, and a few other pedals. I'm really happy with my sound.

Maybe it's that I'm finally ready for this simple setup. But whatever the reason, I don't see myself changing anything for a long time. I'm tired of searching, and glad I love the sounds I'm now getting.

(Maybe it's a matter of reaching a place where we know how to get good sounds out of the equipment that we own?)

 

[uke]

Agenda, what agenda, I guess I would call it a revelation, all I'm saying is I can't believe this stuff is working for me, that's why I posted. I became anal at differentiating tone, but in the end $500 bucks vs $5000 and I'm asking myself WTF. I'll never get rid of my CR8 LP and custom shop strat but they don't really make that much difference, they're for my pleasure and self satisfaction only. I have also tried crappo Chinese and Korean guitars that are just just horrid, but this combo I stumbled upon works for me.

 

[DC1]

Agenda, what agenda, I guess I would call it a revelation, all I'm saying is I can't believe this stuff is working for me, that's why I posted. I became anal at differentiating tone, but in the end $500 bucks vs $5000 and I'm asking myself WTF. I'll never get rid of my CR8 LP and custom shop strat but they don't really make that much difference, they're for my pleasure and self satisfaction only. I have also tried crappo Chinese and Korean guitars that are just just horrid, but this combo I stumbled upon works for me.

An agenda is when you call something penis envy. Playing good gear, no matter cheap or expensive, is never penis envy for me, it is about making better music.

Like I said, your story was cool until then.



dc

 

[uke]

Got ya, now I understand! I am kind of glad that I went through this search cause it was enlightening. Besides my prized possesions and a 78 vibrolux that I just adore, this Godin and Crate are now my solid hackers and I feel good about it.

 

[RouseTheBoroughs]

I have days when I wake up and hate all my gear, I find every excuse ... I hate my pedals, my axes, I overhaul my amps for no reason ...

on those days I usually stop at a guitar store to try to get the '' spark '' again, buy tubes, find excuses to try new stuff ... etc ...

but the truth is that any amp set within the limits and any guitar played within the limits of what it was designed to do will sound good ...

the rest is just a pissing contest ...

 

[DC1]

Got ya, now I understand! I am kind of glad that I went through this search cause it was enlightening. Besides my prized possesions and a 78 vibrolux that I just adore, this Godin and Crate are now my solid hackers and I feel good about it.

I have a custom amp with no pointers or numbers on either the knobs or the faceplate. You set them by ear only.

Sometimes we listen with other than our ears. Glad you found something that works for you.


dc

 

[rob2001]

Years ago I was happy with my DRRI and a pedal, a 1980 LP Gold top and a Japanese strat. Came to the forum and everything changed, I thought I was inadequate with the equipment I had, went through 5 or 6 Historic LP and a bunch of USA strats, not to mention I don't know how many amps. I don't know what came over me but recently I picked up a 7 year old Godin SP90 for $300 and a $199 Crate V3112, jammed with a few guys and I can't believe the tones I'm getting. Gotta be kidding, no way, the guitar plays as smooth as butter and the amp in a band situation sounds awesome, I've had worse tones gigging with a Carr Slant 6 and a 59RI LP. Either I lucked out and this is a freak of nature or all the extras that I thought would make a difference in my playing don't mean squat. What a revelation, it felt like a burden being lifted from my shoulders. No more penis envy. I'm happy.

It might just be a journey we all need to take to figure out what works for us....and that money spent doesn't mean it's a good match for our playing style. I get what your saying about envy, this place can make you feel like you need to spend big dollars to have good tone. It's great when you can cut thru all that BS and enjoy being a guitar player, no matter how much you spent. FWIW, I'll bet there is a $4000.00 amp and a $5000.00 guitar that you'd love. It's just cool you found a sound at a better price.

 

[tjmicsak]

How much of all those nuances does the audience hear?
I remember walking into a store and there is always the kid with the distortion going and I never really noticed a huge difference in what amp he might be using. Most of the time the touring guys have no way to have every piece of gear like the same amp, same stomp, or what have you, as the studio player used to make the tracks he's covering for the same artist. we don't really notice that very often do we?

 

[VaughnC]

Personally, I think every non-musician audience is guitar tone deaf. So, when I put together a gigging rig, I want something that sounds & feels right to me so I'm not fighting the hardware...which gives me the freedom to best express the musical message I'm trying to put across. So good tone is where you find it...sometimes it's expensive, sometimes not...very subjective.

When I realized that my homebrew amp sounds & feels about as good as any amp I've tried over the past 40 years, I built a cab for it and have been gigging it ever since.

With guitars, there's also a tactile feel issue as well as the tone...so to find both in a guitar was harder for me than finding a good amp. My old, long gone, '64 Strat was the spoiler...but I'm now close to that guitar in a less expensive one...but I still wish I had that old '64 .

 

[dazco]

Well, just goes to show how theres no accounting for the differences in opinion here. I has a 3112 and used it for a year when i was gigging regularly. It was one of the worse years i had. It was a great sounding amp by itself, and when i sat it next to my JCM800 it sounded so much better i sold the JCM. That was a HUGE mistake. Over the next year i had some good nites and some bad, but mostly bad. It was one of those amps that would sound good one nite and horrible the next. But while at home the crate sounded better, i think there was maybe one or 2 nites gigging with it that it sounded as good as the JCM. Finally i had enough and sold it and bought anoth 800. No more bad nites after that. So there ya go....somehow or another it sounds great consistantly in a band mix to one person and is a nightmare to the other. The only thing i can think of is maybe the amp you used before it was even worse in a mix. Isn't the carr sort of a fenderish affair? Maybe thats it because fenders are usually the worse when it comes to consistency due to the lack of mids. I dunno...

 

[Trebor Renkluaf]

There's some great sounding and playing cheap stuff out there to be sure. The law of diminishing returns definitely applies to musical equipment. To get a little more performance, you have to spend a lot more money. That's one reason why I tend to buy used. Let someone else pay top dollar for the top stuff, then when something new comes along and they sell their day old bread I'm there to take it off their hands! :AOK