What do you think of my gear?
outontheporch
Posts: 172
Hey guys, so I'm a noob when it comes to gear. I am like intermediate at best when it comes to playing, but when it comes to amps and what not I don't know a whole lot. I was hoping I could post what I have here and maybe someone if they are bored enough could tell me if I've got a bunch of crap, and maybe point me in the right direction?
So I didn't originally intend to have so much stuff, I just remember buying a pedal and being super stoked because it took most of my paycheck but was my first ever. I just ended up buying pedals every now and then over the past few years, so I didn't really have a strategy. Anyways here's what I have now:
Epiphone G-400 (SG knockoff)
Peavy Bandit 112
My DigiTech stuff:
Metal Masher
DigiDelay
HyperPhase
Synth Wah
RP250
Way more stuff than I know what to do with, but it's really fun getting all kind of neat sounds. Anyways I probably spend my money in the wrong places, so I was wondering what you think would be a good next move? Looking for any opinions or stories!
So I didn't originally intend to have so much stuff, I just remember buying a pedal and being super stoked because it took most of my paycheck but was my first ever. I just ended up buying pedals every now and then over the past few years, so I didn't really have a strategy. Anyways here's what I have now:
Epiphone G-400 (SG knockoff)
Peavy Bandit 112
My DigiTech stuff:
Metal Masher
DigiDelay
HyperPhase
Synth Wah
RP250
Way more stuff than I know what to do with, but it's really fun getting all kind of neat sounds. Anyways I probably spend my money in the wrong places, so I was wondering what you think would be a good next move? Looking for any opinions or stories!
"I forgot the F***ing song."
- Eddie Vedder, San Francisco 7-16-06, after botching Sometimes, the night's opener
http://people.ucsc.edu/~mquery/pics/pujolsFTW.JPG
- Eddie Vedder, San Francisco 7-16-06, after botching Sometimes, the night's opener
http://people.ucsc.edu/~mquery/pics/pujolsFTW.JPG
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
Think of your setup as painting. Your guitar is your paintbrush, your pedals are the paints/oils, and your amp is the canvas. They're all essential, just in different ways.
The first thing I'd swap out is the amp. A tube amp will give you so much more character than a solid-state one. Think about how painting on canvas gives you a much better result than say... wax paper. Comparable amps for your Peavey bandit might be a 30W tube amp. Yeah, it's only 30W but sound volume is based logarithmically and differs between tube and solid-state. Unless you're doing some heavy gigging, 30-40W should be plenty. Examples include a Peavey Classic 30, Traynor YCV40, or Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (for combos). You could also get a 50W head and a 4x10 or 4x12 speaker cabinet, but that's looking at putting you over $1000 for the amp stuff alone. I'm guessing you didn't want to spend -that- much quite yet.
Next thing I'd look at is your guitar. Yeah, new guitars can be expensive but you can probably find a pretty good used Gibbo SG for around $1000. It won't just say Gibson on it but the craftsmanship will be better than your Epi, not to mention playability and sound. That's if you want an SG, you could also try out a Gibson Les Paul Studio (also between 800-1000 used/new) or an American strat (also around $1000 new). In general, there's a rift between the $500-guitar level and the $1000-guitar level, and it makes a pretty significant difference in the quality of your instrument. If you absolutely can't afford that, sometimes a good fix is swapping out your pickups. Take a look at seymourduncan.com and take a look at some of their sample sound clips. You can also swap out for Gibson-level '57 classic or '57 plus pickups (which are featured on Gibson SGs).
Last thing I'd worry about is your pedals. Pedals are sometimes a quick fix to tonal issues, and often they do suck your tone out the window. I'd only use an effect in your chain if you're pretty sure you're gonna use it a lot at a gig or whatever. Unless a pedal says "true bypass" AND features a silver stomp switch, it will alter your tone to some degree. Some people hate digitech, some people like it. I personally don't have a preference as I don't have any experience with digitech. I do have mostly Boss and MXR stuff though and it works well enough for me. Take care of your amp and guitar first though.
7/9/06 LA 1
7/10/06 LA 2
10/21/06 Bridge 1
I would suggest some new pickups for your current guitar, that will improve overall tone tremendously. If you're on a budget, I'd recommend a pair of Seymour Duncan '59 humbuckers.
A tube amp would be a good eventual purchase, but if you don't have $300-500 laying around (who among us does?) then I'd just save up for a while.
Pedal-wise, if you're happy with them, don't fret about it.
You can probably make due with a G-400 Epiphone guitar for now,
but later on you'll probably want to get something a bit better. I'd
just suggest swapping the pickups out to better sounding pickups.
Definitely go get a Tube Amp and Better Pedals (Digitech SUCKS).
<b><font color="red">CONTACT ME HERE</font>: www.myspace.com/ianvomsaal</b>
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If the amp is something you dig, keep it. People bag on me for my Roc Pro because it's "Not fully tube". It's a matter of opinion. I LOVE my amp and it's tone. For my clean channel, I don't want it to get distorted because the tubes got too hot. I have the Hyper Phase and the Digidelay and I love BOTH of the (but the phaser has MAJOR tone suckage). I also have an G-400. It's not an SG knockoff, just a different model. I love the sound of it. "Get a Gibson...it's expensive and it has a cool name and..." come on now...there's a lot better out there for cheaper and not nae brand. I prefer Epiphone over Gibson. It's all up to you and how you like your sounds. Low-end can sound just as good as high end. I could give a beginner a Gibson Les Paul and it'd sound the same as a First Act...the name isn't everything. I prefer my squier strat that was 199 in an electric pack to many strats I've played (including a '59). Don't get me wrong, the guys who posted before me are VERY wise in terms of gear but when it comes down to it, it's up to you. Fool around with the gear and you may find something you dig. Your next purchase should be the BOSS TU-2 tuner or something of the sort. Save up for different stuff. Dumping everything is absurd though...and pointless.
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
'06 - London, Dublin, Reading
'07 - Katowice, Wembley, Dusseldorf, Copenhagen, Nijmegen
'09 - London, Manchester, London
'12 - Manchester, Manchester, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen
I got the peavy amp from a stoned guy in the dorms for $20, so it won't break my heart to see it go.
So the phaser pedal messes up the tone eh? Didn't know that. Why is that exactly? I don't really understand what happens when you go through all those pedals...
What do you think about these:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Seymour-Duncan-Vintage-Blues-59-Humbucker-Set-?sku=300022
I'm just compiling a checklist so I can make sure I know what's what! Thanks guys
- Eddie Vedder, San Francisco 7-16-06, after botching Sometimes, the night's opener
http://people.ucsc.edu/~mquery/pics/pujolsFTW.JPG
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
If you're not happy with your sound, leave all the pedals behind for a bit and concentrate on your guitar and amp. They are one and the same in the electric guitar world. Either one ain't no good without the other and they need to like each other!
If you're happy with the playability of your Epi, the frets are in good shape and not loose, (Which I see on them occasionally) but you don't like the sound, then the biggest bang for your buck would be new pickups.
THe Epi pups do tend to have a muddy sound to them. You can adjust and play around with them to find sweet spots, but I've changed a LOT of Epiphone pickups for people. Usually to Duncan Pearly Gates, 59's or Jazz humbuckers.
Those Seymour Duncans are good ones in your post up there. Versatile and really sound good and a great classic sound for $140. Probably good to replace the wiring in there, too, as that can help the sound, but that's second in line.
If the whole guitar is iffy, THEN think about trying out another one but don't let other people tell you it's a bad guitar.
The amp. Well, it depends if you're a bedroom player or gigging or at least out jamming with other peeps.
A good tube amp is going to be loud when you get those tubes cranking, so if you're in a quiet area you'll have a hard time working the tubes on it,,,, although it's a great thing when you have the amp cranking just right, and the tubes are working and life is gooooooood!
There are so many choices out there it's crazy now. If you upgrade your guitar pups first, and take it to a store and play it through different amps, you can get a read what you like. You really have to systematically run through the settings on an amp to find the sweet spots. Nit just plug into the amp on the store floor and let it rip! Spend a little time with it and get to know each other.
Then you have to decide on what size!
If you're in a bedroom playing, then maybe stick with your Peavey for now and get a different overdrive pedal. At least a transistor amp sounds ok at lower levels for the most part, which makes your distortion or overdrive pedal a lot more important. Since you're not overdriving the amp, then you're using the pedals for your harmonics and distortion.
The advantage of a transistor amp IS that you can run it on low volumes.
It really just depends on what playing style you have before you make big guitar and amp decisions.
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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Just keep on rockin!
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Haha,,, I type too much! You said in one sentence what it took me three damn paragraphs to write!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
__________________________________
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
A Seymour Duncan Custom Custom bridge pickup and '59 neck pickup will give you
a really nice rock sound - This pickup combination seems to cut fairly well with the
darker sounding mahogany bodies (yet still lets the mahogany's warmth through).
<b><font color="red">CONTACT ME HERE</font>: www.myspace.com/ianvomsaal</b>
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What do you think of the RP250 though for wah? It's got wah built in but I'm not sure if it's great quality or whatever since it's mixed in with a million other things that machine does.
I'd say with all the junk I have I can get some sound that I think is really cool and I like. However I hear other guys sometimes with much warmer and crisper, richer tones (running out of adjectives), and of course, every time I listen to our King Mr. McCready I go, "man...how on earth does he get that sound?" For example, I would love to reproduce just the basic blues tone he uses for YLB. Or, the sound he uses every time he starts his alive solo. Or Whatever the heck he's doing in NAIS. Or 1/2 Full. Or that spacey effect he used a lot in the 03 tour. It's cool cause the list never ends, and it's like an ongoing quest to replicate the tones of my heroes like him and Morello and the rest!
I've got a question about actually playing, but maybe I should make a new thread for it...
- Eddie Vedder, San Francisco 7-16-06, after botching Sometimes, the night's opener
http://people.ucsc.edu/~mquery/pics/pujolsFTW.JPG
I have poor grammer and spelling skills! The less I say the better!
https://www.facebook.com/aghostwritersapology/
The more you concentrate on WHAT you play, and HOW you play it, the better it will sound. I could plug into a guitar rig costing $50,000, and then have McCready plug into a $150 First Act guitar-amp combo rig from Wal-Mart, and Mike will sound better every time. Start with the basics and work your way up. If you want to work on using effects more... ah... effectively, then strip down to one pedal, and get to know it inside and out. Then try another pedal by itself. Eventually, you'll work up towards seeing what different pedals do together. Figuring out a phaser with delay is different than figuring out one, then the other, and then playing with both on.