guitar amps and guitars

[dismalfuture]

a ha... hadn't realised that as I've not been paying much attention to guitars lately (as in the past 10 years).. I'm also about 70% deaf so tone is not a huge deal here, just something to bang around on, so I guess I'll go dig up some paint stripper and sandpaper and see what the answer is re: the body...

If it does turn out to be a ply POS then is mixing something like an OG Fender neck with a WD body kosher, as in will something like those V shaped '57 necks bolt up to any ol' body? I had a '57 reissue many years ago that I fucking loved the neck on, which had me kind of going on this project...

[tmadd]

Quick question...for all of the amp heads...what would be the recommended amp for a drum machine to be run through (ala Big Black/Steve Albini).

ALso...pedals...your favorite/ideal pedal set-ups (could be a new offshoot thread from this one)?

Does anyone recommend a distortion pedal other than the Boss DS-1...something that'll thicken up the sound, but not make it too metal'y (but that could be more in the way that the guitar is played). Anyone ever toy around with the Rat pedal? Seemed pretty cool when I saw it in action.

The practical answer for something to run a drum machine through is one of the big Roland keyboard amps, or any larger, higher powered keyboard amps for that matter. The "sick as fuck" answer is an Ampeg SVT Classic on top of either an 8x10 or 2x15.

Rats are cool but can get a little raspy. Believe it or not, the boss blues driver sounds pretty good, even better when you get the modded version...it thickens up the guitar but retains a lot of articulations. Electro Harmonix English Muffins are tube driven OD pedals that can sound amazing, but they vary incredibly depending on what kind of rig you are using them in. The fulltone OCD is pretty amazing granted you are starting with a good signal path and have an amp that sounds how you want it to...it adds thickness and gain without skewing the dynamics of your playing...a great pedal. Honestly, with OD/Distortion pedals there are SOOO many options.

I used to have a pretty crazy collection of pedals, but its pretty much all gone besides my old beat to hell russian big muff (the army green one with the switch that was original a switch for the inside of Russian army tanks) and a Boss TU2. When I did have a bunch of pedals/effects, my favorites were delays...I had a space echo, an original V3 Echoplex, plus a bunch of analog and digital delay stompboxes. My brother's pedalboard is a TU2 running into to Line 6 DL4s, and he does a lot with them...so much that his next pedal purchase is going to be another DL4.

[mrpenguin354]

I never got too into pedals, but I did enjoy tinkering with them. I used to mod Ibanez TS-9s to 808 specs and flip them on eBay, really simple mod that everyone seems to love. Personally, I used to run a Big Muff and a Ts-808 if my amp was too clean or just plug straight in. I had a few odd pedals here and there that I circuit bent to make all sorts of fun noises. I'm working on making an 8-bit sounding fuzz (think original Nintendo) and housing it in the original Gameboy. Should be fun.

...and if you want to help you can point someone who's looking for a Flathead Houndstooth in my direction. My axe needs some black hardware and a new pickup.

[heBAY]

The practical answer for something to run a drum machine through is one of the big Roland keyboard amps, or any larger, higher powered keyboard amps for that matter. The "sick as fuck" answer is an Ampeg SVT Classic on top of either an 8x10 or 2x15.

Rats are cool but can get a little raspy. Believe it or not, the boss blues driver sounds pretty good, even better when you get the modded version...it thickens up the guitar but retains a lot of articulations. Electro Harmonix English Muffins are tube driven OD pedals that can sound amazing, but they vary incredibly depending on what kind of rig you are using them in. The fulltone OCD is pretty amazing granted you are starting with a good signal path and have an amp that sounds how you want it to...it adds thickness and gain without skewing the dynamics of your playing...a great pedal. Honestly, with OD/Distortion pedals there are SOOO many options.

I used to have a pretty crazy collection of pedals, but its pretty much all gone besides my old beat to hell russian big muff (the army green one with the switch that was original a switch for the inside of Russian army tanks) and a Boss TU2. When I did have a bunch of pedals/effects, my favorites were delays...I had a space echo, an original V3 Echoplex, plus a bunch of analog and digital delay stompboxes. My brother's pedalboard is a TU2 running into to Line 6 DL4s, and he does a lot with them...so much that his next pedal purchase is going to be another DL4.

more+rep coming your way. PM'ed too.

[jeepster]

a ha... hadn't realised that as I've not been paying much attention to guitars lately (as in the past 10 years).. I'm also about 70% deaf so tone is not a huge deal here, just something to bang around on, so I guess I'll go dig up some paint stripper and sandpaper and see what the answer is re: the body...

If it does turn out to be a ply POS then is mixing something like an OG Fender neck with a WD body kosher, as in will something like those V shaped '57 necks bolt up to any ol' body? I had a '57 reissue many years ago that I fucking loved the neck on, which had me kind of going on this project...

i got a '57 contour body in olympic white - $50 shipped

????

[jeepster]

[Guest spazzz]

has anyone put a pair of Celestion alnico blue's in a twin reverb? I'm looking to get a dirtier tone from my twin (as opposed to dropping another grand...). Any good places for speakers?

[tmadd]

has anyone put a pair of Celestion alnico blue's in a twin reverb? I'm looking to get a dirtier tone from my twin (as opposed to dropping another grand...). Any good places for speakers?

You will drop more than that putting alnico blues in a twin...they will blow pretty quickly. What is your setup now, and what sound are you going for?

[toothpaste100]

Alright guitarists, I've been playing acoustic for about a year now and I want to make the jump into electric. I've been dicking around with the guitars in my local shop and I haven't really found one thats really grabbed me by the musical balls and said buy me. I've noticed that my hands feel sort of dead on an electric while acoustics have a great feel up and down the fretboard. I have a budget of about 400 bones Canadian for the guitar with tax... would anyone make recommendations of some high-end entry level axes?

[evanism]

even the strat didnt manage to grab your mus balls?

[jq3k]

my 21st is coming up, and in a vain last ditch attempt to cement a commitment to music, im gonna buy myself something nice

either a new bass;

early 90s greco thunderbird in black

or a new gat;

pretty much set on a 70s/80s jap strat copy of some sort

maybe a '83 jv squier....

[unklesteve]

Alright guitarists, I've been playing acoustic for about a year now and I want to make the jump into electric. I've been dicking around with the guitars in my local shop and I haven't really found one thats really grabbed me by the musical balls and said buy me. I've noticed that my hands feel sort of dead on an electric while acoustics have a great feel up and down the fretboard. I have a budget of about 400 bones Canadian for the guitar with tax... would anyone make recommendations of some high-end entry level axes?

Epiphone has some great stuff, but you're going to want to spend some time trying them out. Their QC can be a bit spotty, and you'll find some pretty horrific fret sprout here and there. I'm more partial to the SG than the Les Paul, but it's purely a matter of preference. Although, a good Les Paul Jr. kicks the crap outta pretty much everything.

There's a Fender Squier version of the Jazzmaster that is pretty good compared to its pricier big brother. Big, fat P-90 pickups (single coil FTW!) and pretty good quality for the $$$.

My guitar of choice is, however, Danelectro. They've got a twang that just can't be beat, and you might want to look into one of the reissue Convertibles. It's a really thin body acoustic/electric and it's got a sound that I've never heard duplicated. Plus, they are some sturdy damn things and built to last.

There's a whole helluva lot of stuff out there in that price range. Best bet, really, is just to start trying out everything you can get your hands on.

Enjoy.

[jeepster]

my 21st is coming up, and in a vain last ditch attempt to cement a commitment to music, im gonna buy myself something nice

either a new bass;

early 90s greco thunderbird in black

or a new gat;

pretty much set on a 70s/80s jap strat copy of some sort

maybe a '83 jv squier....

rickenbacker 4001B

fo sho

Alright guitarists, I've been playing acoustic for about a year now and I want to make the jump into electric. I've been dicking around with the guitars in my local shop and I haven't really found one thats really grabbed me by the musical balls and said buy me. I've noticed that my hands feel sort of dead on an electric while acoustics have a great feel up and down the fretboard. I have a budget of about 400 bones Canadian for the guitar with tax... would anyone make recommendations of some high-end entry level axes?

ebay

get yourself a fender mustang

you should be able to find a good one within your price range.

first electric i owned. i loved that guitar. bummed i gave it up, but now i have my true love.

[Guest spazzz]

I'd never suggest a fender mustang simply because they're such fickle guitars. they look cool as fuck, but there is a reason they were fender's student guitar

[jeepster]

I'd never suggest a fender mustang simply because they're such fickle guitars. they look cool as fuck, but there is a reason they were fender's student guitar

i honestly think they surpassed that title. i was already fairly proficient at the guitar by the time i got my mustang, and i found the shorter scale neck and low action but solid fretboard helped for a smoother transition from acoustic to electric. they get great tone, not much sustain (but thats what pedals are for), but they have great attack and the vibrato tails on the vintage models are usually pretty good quality.

[Guest spazzz]

i honestly think they surpassed that title. i was already fairly proficient at the guitar by the time i got my mustang, and i found the shorter scale neck and low action but solid fretboard helped for a smoother transition from acoustic to electric. they get great tone, not much sustain (but thats what pedals are for), but they have great attack and the vibrato tails on the vintage models are usually pretty good quality.

any mods on yours? every old mustang I've ever played is impossible to keep in tune.

[jeepster]

any mods on yours? every old mustang I've ever played is impossible to keep in tune.

haha mine was a frankenstein from what i could gather. '69 american body, 2000 japanese neck, parts all circa sometime in the 60's, very well kept, and brand new Seymour Duncan Junior and JB single-coil humbuckers. it sounded pretty great, but whoever installed the pickups didn't ground the wires well, so it had some issues there. it kept in tune alright, but for the most part, the guitar would come outta tune if i did too much vibrato wanking.

[keagan]

I have a emg 81 lying around I am considering putting into a artstar hollowbody.

Thoughts?

[RFKorp]

Man.... this thread makes me feel so completely inadequate.

I gig on a crappy fake strat through a 15 watt practice amp. I mean, I've developed a rather personal sound over the past 8 years that I've owned this combo, but still, it can only go so far considering what it is.

This talk really makes me want to go out and try out some better axes. I fell in love with a Phillippe Dubreuille electric resonator a few years ago but the sale fell apart and I haven't tried again since. That guitar was unstoppable. I got pretty depressed when the seller got cold feet.

[Clockwork_killa]

I have a emg 81 lying around I am considering putting into a artstar hollowbody.

Thoughts?

To be perfectly honest, I think emg 81s sound the same no matter what setup they are on, I find they tend to kill the personality of the guitar, but Id still say give it a go, if youve got them lying around then you havent really got anything to lose.

[jeepster]

I have a emg 81 lying around I am considering putting into a artstar hollowbody.

Thoughts?

To be perfectly honest, I think emg 81s sound the same no matter what setup they are on, I find they tend to kill the personality of the guitar, but Id still say give it a go, if youve got them lying around then you havent really got anything to lose.

actually, you're gonna be sorely disappointed. the emg is gonna not even work properly in that hollowbody. artstars are a solid block semi-hollow, so the pickups have to rest on something, unlike a real hollowbody, so in essence, they're gonna be A) popping out cause of the battery and are gonna vibrate so much from the body that the signal is gonna be mostly feedback

if you can find a fullblock hollowbody like jack whites airline, you'd have better luck, but even then, the sheer output of a emg would just create the worst feedback and tone in a hollowbody guitar unless the guitar was made to handle them.

[Clockwork_killa]

actually, you're gonna be sorely disappointed. the emg is gonna not even work properly in that hollowbody. artstars are a solid block semi-hollow, so the pickups have to rest on something, unlike a real hollowbody, so in essence, they're gonna be A) popping out cause of the battery and are gonna vibrate so much from the body that the signal is gonna be mostly feedback

if you can find a fullblock hollowbody like jack whites airline, you'd have better luck, but even then, the sheer output of a emg would just create the worst feedback and tone in a hollowbody guitar unless the guitar was made to handle them.

I stand corrected.

[jeepster]

I stand corrected.

hypothetically, it could work, but i don't think it would sound good at all. emgs are pretty horrendous pickups if you ask me, they only give you clarity on a distorted signal, and don't have any mids. thats why metal dudes love them so much - scooped mids and always distorted.

[Clockwork_killa]

hypothetically, it could work, but i don't think it would sound good at all. emgs are pretty horrendous pickups if you ask me, they only give you clarity on a distorted signal, and don't have any mids. thats why metal dudes love them so much - scooped mids and always distorted.

Yeah, thats sort of what I was getting at, they always sound the same, no matter what you play them through, at least to me they do. I really dont see why they are so popular, I mean you have these guys dropping thousands on their rigs with fantastic amps that have more tone that you can imagine, and then they go and play through it with an emg 81/85 setup, seems kinda pointless. Myself I much prefer a good high output humbucker, I have a Seymour duncan JB setup on my ESP, and I think that gives a far better crunch tone than the EMGs.

[arem]

EMG's are good pickups for people who run their guitars thru a lot of gear, like a big rack processing system, because they are very even and have a high output (and the scooped EQ). Players who like them want that flat sound so they can shape it to their liking with their gear. Traditional pickups tend to lose tone and sound lifeless when run thru all that stuff.

On the other hand, if you are just running into amp directly or thru a couple of stomp boxes, EMG's sound too "hi-fi" and sterile. You need a traditional magnetic pickup to bring out all the funkiness and tone from a good tube amp.

[beardcom]

my board right now:

and i took some new pics of my guitars

plus a couple more not pictured. yes, i have a problem.

[jeepster]

^is that a real L6? headstock looks different from the angle of your picture.

great stuff though. your setup has been one of my favorites since you showed it back in the day.

i need to start playing guitar again. i've neglected it and i have to get it fixed... so lazy these days.

[beardcom]

DO NOT put emgs in a semi-hollow. feedback fucking city usa. in fact, don't put emgs in anything.

[beardcom]

^is that a real L6? headstock looks different from the angle of your picture.

great stuff though. your setup has been one of my favorites since you showed it back in the day.

i need to start playing guitar again. i've neglected it and i have to get it fixed... so lazy these days.

its a gibson. the headstock broke off and was replaced before i got it. i have the original broken off one somewhere. i wish it had the original, i like the way the black headstock looks, but whatever. the new one is this weird curly maple, it looks kinda cool. no big deal, i prefer my gear to not have obnoxious logos anyway.

[bonejelly]

lately i've been playing an ampeg v4-b teamed with a '73 traynor yrm-1 in stereo through an old 1960A cab.

thinking about switching it up though, the v4 sucks up so much power, its blown-fuse city.