So, as much as I love vintage Fender, Vox and Marshall amps, I have always had a soft spot for total crap.. the kind of pawn shop rigs I cut my teeth on. When I was a teenager, I'd go over to my friend's house to jam... his dad had a Country Gentleman ( w/ flatwounds) and a little Marlboro brand combo amp. I liked this rig a lot then but had no clue what to do with a Bigsby equipped hollowbody at the time. Several years back, I saw a Marlboro head about to end on Ebay and sniped it for $12.50. It works perfectly and I've probably played half a dozen little gigs with it as it's loud, tiny and shockingly warm/neutral in tone... perfect pedal amp. Here's a shot of it on top of a little Mojotone 1X12 cab. It lives in my basement studio, near the couch and TV and I play along to concert DVD's and CD's with it mostly. It's a totally dry, clean tone on it's own so I recently bought a little Korg multi effect for it (see it in the photo) for $39 from MF. My thinking was that the Korg was something I wouldnt want to use in any other context and it could always live down with the Marlboro rig. Well, it sounds pretty damned good. It does pretty impressive Fender and Vox emulations, very good delay, trem and reverb effects and is quiet. Takes pedals well, too. Last week, an old friend got in touch from the west coast and asked if I would add some guitar tracks to a demo project he's working on. He sent over an mp3 mix and I overdubbed a couple of guitar tracks, which I exported, zipped and uploaded to an ftp site for him to retrieve. Of course, I used the lowly Marlboro/Korg rig. I got some pretty ripping amp tones here... It's a 335 copy- Rangemaster clone- Korg set for a Vox model- Marlboro head on 1.5-Mojo cab (which has a p.o.s. 90's Fender branded Eminence 12)-SM57. Here's a mono mp3 mix with a quick cut from the intro to an outro solo section with the lead mixed too hot. http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=6232875&q=hi Not bad for an all digital/SS/ $75 dollar rig.
Thanks... I just got a full mix from the guys tracking the tune and the engineer is asking what rig(s) I used. I dont have the heart to tell him the truth... I'll just say Vox or Brown Princeton!
I'm a total sucker for cheap crap, too! One of my favorite rigs to play by myself is an Epi bolt-neck LP Jr with a GFS pickup into a Johnson J-Station for FX, into a little Crate GX-15R I got for free from a guy at work. It's a surprisingly fun rig to play! Kudos for carrying on the cheap-stuff tradition. Your track sound great.
Here's another fun little rig. Same Epi LP Jr, Fender Mini-Twin and a Dan-Echo. Here's a little thing I recorded with this rig. http://www.visi.com/~sstolle/CitizenCain-Mini-Twin Blues.mp3
Nice tone on the lead work Ultrevex. Not a bad tone at all out of that inexpensive rig. CititzenCain - I would have never guessed that you got that tone out of the little Fender if you hadn't told me. I do believe you can get get some really good recorded tones out of these little amps cause I've done it myself. Here's a clip of my Mini Marshall MS-2 amp. http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=633883&songID=5780211
I once plugged my gig-Strat into a Little Smokey through a Two Rock 2x12 cab with Emi Wizard and Tonespotter 12's. Ran a little cheesy Boss digital delay in front of it. For a battery powered, cheeseball rig it was tough to argue, especially if mic'ed through a PA. jb
Well, I think it's more of a qualifier that good tone has nothing to do with $$... I know I have other crappy rigs that dont sound so hot and I sound (and play) very mediocre through them. Your fingers have to have SOMETHING to connect with.
