OK, thinking of finally getting a new elect. guitar and amp . . . need advice!

[G50]

I know there are a lot of talented musicians here (gogar, nostatic, lots of others).

I'm nothing like you guys, but have enjoyed playing guitar since high school. Very much on an off. I've gone years and years without touching it at all.

I have an old Kramer "strat" and little Fender amp that I've had for probably 25 years. It was middling level stuff at best even back then.

I've been playing quite a bit more in the last year, and thought maybe it would be nice to treat myself to something a little better.

I don't play in public, etc. so don't need completely top level stuff.

I also have very simple tastes in music. Oddly, even though I'm in my 40s, I like stuff mostly from the 90s. Nirvana, Offspring, 311 type stuff. Simple chords, lots of crunchy distortion. Oddly, the "guitar hero" type music (VH, SRV, etc.) has never had much appeal to me.

So here's what I'm thinking:

1. Amp. when I was a kid, the guy down the street had a Roland JC120. I always thought it sounded so sweet, and have noticed over the years that lots of bands seem to use them. I was surprised they are still being made and look exactly the same as back then. I live in So Cal so there are tons of them on Craigslist, etc. Seems like an easy pickup at $400 or so. Good amp? Good price? Anything to look out for? Is it "too much" amp for living room use?

2. Guitar. I'm thinking a Fender Strat. Don't know much about them, other than the US ones are preferred? Again, tons of them on CL in my area (lots of starving musicians around here), but it makes me nervous b/c I have no idea as to the values. Am I better off just going to GC and working the best deal I can on a new one?

Thoughts appreciated! Also, if anyone has anything they are interested in selling off, let me know.

[Gogar]

Cool!

1. JC 120 is EXACTLY the opposite of what you 'say' you are looking for. That is a very specific amp, the ultimate in clean, sparkly tones. If you want some crunch, you're going to be VERY disappointed with a JC 120.

I suggest you try something with some adjustablility, and a lower power, and some tubes.

Right off the bat, something like this, that you can find at Guitar Center:

Fender: These amps have three channels with a footswitch, and you can get a pretty good variety of sounds. These amps also rarely break.

Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III 40W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp and more Guitar Amplifiers at GuitarCenter.com.

These Blackhearts are actually really neat little amps:

Blackheart BH5-112 5W 1x12 Little Giant Tube Combo Amp and more Guitar Amplifiers at GuitarCenter.com.

Slightly more expensive, but with a drive knob.

Blackheart BH15-112 Handsome Devil Series 15W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp and more Guitar Amplifiers at GuitarCenter.com.

These Marshalls are nice amps, it's sort of a 'one-trick-pony', but perfect for the kind of music you were talking about. Turn it up and play, no pedals, no BS.

Marshall Class 5 5W 1x10 Tube Guitar Combo Amp and more Guitar Amplifiers at GuitarCenter.com.


Don't be temped by the cheaper amps that can do 'everything.' They can't. Someone will get on this thread and try to get you to buy a Roland Cube amp, which is a really fun amp and almost an exception to the 'cheap amp' rule, but it's still a cheap, cheezy amp.


2. Guitar:

Strats are cool, the type of music you say you like tends to sound more like Les Pauls, or something with P-90s or the like. The nice thing about a Strat though is you have a really broad palette. You need to find a guitar that feels good to you, and the rest will come later.

[G50]

Thanks, J.

You're dead right on all that, as I've now found with some research. I

The 2 guitarists that I like most use (mainly) PRS Standards or Ibanez Talman guitars. They don't seem to use Strats at all.

What do you think of this?

Ibanez Noodles NDM2 Electric Guitar NEVER PLAYED - eBay (item 330505483637 end time Dec-13-10 16:45:22 PST)

[nostatic]

The JC120 has about the worst distortion known to modern man. We used to joke about super gluing the knob on zero on the house amps we had.

I'll second the Hot Rod series amps. You can find them used pretty easily and they tend to be pretty robust. Easy to dial up a few different tones. Add some sort of distortion pedal to season to taste. Careful with the pedals though - that is a whole universe in and of itself. Easy to spend thousands on boutique pedals if you slide down the slippery slope.

Strat vs. Les Paul is kind of a religious thing. I was always a strat guy, and never felt comfortable on LPs due in part to the shorter scale. I had a P90 guitar recently for awhile and never quite bonded with it as I'm partial to single coils. The Mexican made strats can be *very* good if you find the right one. Mainly you get more consistency with the US-built ones, but it isn't necessarily night and day. I've seen MIM (made in mexico) strats that were better than MIA (made in america) ones. And vice versa. Again, easy to find used. Just see if it plays ok and isn't beat up and have at it.

[IROC]

An amp that I have been wanting to try out is the Jet City PicoValve. $300, Class A tube:

Buy Jet City Amplification PicoValve 5W Tube Guitar Amp Head | Tube Amp Heads | Musician's Friend

I'm with Gogar on the Les Paul suggestion also. Studios are actually good sounding guitars and the faded or black versions are $800 brand new:

Buy Gibson Les Paul Studio Electric Guitar | Solid Body Electric Guitars | Musician's Friend

[targa911S]

I'm a bassist so I don't know crap about guitar stuff. However, from being around guitar players all my life, I gather that what jeremy and the others have stated is solid advice. One of the guitar players I play with uses a Les through an Egnater amp. You can dial up or down the watts as well as the volume. He gets a great over driven tone without blowing the room away.

[ODDJOB UNO]

hey gogar, since music is life for you, and you do this for a living, what is the best drum kit you have heard out there??????????


im going to upgrade from my mapex pro set and i am kind of gravitating toward a DW (drum workshop) kit,or possibly an upper end yamaha kit?



crisp "snappy snares" and bass drums that make yer sphincter slam shut! my bunnies and quaily bird audience are looking for a new mojo beat.


i have gone so far as to look up mick fleetwoods DW kit, and that would be utopia/orgazmic for me, as well as mickey harts/bill kreutzmans kits.

[targa911S]

I played with a guy that had a set of DW's last weekend. WOW! Great lookin' and sounded fabulous!

Pricey though.

[ODDJOB UNO]

Originally Posted by targa911S

I played with a guy that had a set of DW's last weekend. WOW! Great lookin' and sounded fabulous!

Pricey though.

seems they(DW) are really making a name for themselves,studio or live. when you look up mick fleetwoods kit, meee-ster moons(keith) ludwig kit, nick masons kit, you quickly realize these guys are DAMN SER-I-AZZ DRUMMERS, and its interesting to see what they use and how they are setup.



after intensely watching gogars drummer here front row and center a while back, you also realize that practice does make perfect, and how i am just a mere mortal, and how much time you have to devout to them to be really good.

i just look at it as an excuse to drink excessive beers, drive everybody out of my house, and use the left side of my brain aka MENTAL HEALTH THERAPY!



or ANGER MANAGEMENT...............however you want to look at it.



i have had my mapex pro kit for over 10 years now(been playing since 3rd grade) and its time for an upgrade. dont get me wrong, i have been very very happy with my mapex kit, quality supreme and never any issues and i have beat them senseless as well as myself.

[Rick Lee]

I have a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 2X12 and LOVE it. Of course, I never use its natural tone because I run a Boss GT-3 through it, which can imitate any sound there is. But it has that warm Fender tube amp feel that gets better the louder and longer you play it. I'm not a Strat guy. I love them for some things, but don't find them to be the most versatile guitar out there. I also find the single coil guitars buzz a lot depending on the quality of electricity wherever you're playing. If you have a lot of electronics and lights plugged in, I think that makes Strats buzz.

My smaller practice amp is an ancient Gallien-Krueger 250ML. It sounds like listening to an old Boston tune with headphones, but is also pretty versatile and packs a lot of punch into a very small package. I've had it for almost 25 yrs. and will never part with it.

[Superman]

I am left wondering why you are thinking of changing guitars and amps. What are you trying to accomplish/achieve? If there is something wrong/lacking in your amp, then consider just exactly what you need before you choose its replacement. Same with the guitar.

I guess a 25 year-old Fender amp probably wouldn't be one of those amazing classics. Older Fender amps, some of them, were fantastic.

Most guitars could benefit from a trip to the local guitar doctor. Some of them would benefit greatly. Guitar tweakers tend to work fairly cheap, considering what they can do. A simple tune-up that includes filing the nut and bridge, perhaps adjusting the truss rod, tightening the tuning peg mechanisms, etc., can make a $50 guitar play like a $1000 guitar. Maybe.

I wouldn't agree that Strats are weak on crunchiness. Indeed, I'd say they can do a sort of "breathing" rhythm thing that LP's don't tend to do. And of course, they weigh less than 80 lbs. But all in all, assuming your shoulder is strong, LP's are more sturdy. I kinda think the best material to make an electric guitar out of would be marble. Perhaps that's what Gibson used. At least.....rigidity is certainly important in bass guitars.

Anyhoo.......if you're looking to change out your guitar or amp, then I'd suggest you get clear on what you want before you pull that trigger. That will make the search/shopping easier and the end result more satisfying.

Or you could just get a vintage LP Custom and a Marshall 100 double-stack and be done with it.

[nostatic]

Supe - google GAS (gear acquisition syndrome).

DW made a name for themselves years ago. They've been mainstream for awhile now. I still like Gretsch but I'm more on the jazzish side of the house. With most musical instruments, right now is a pretty great time to be a beginner and/or intermediate player. The quality of cheap instruments can be incredibly high. It isn't like the bad old days where your $100 guitar was an unplayable POS. THese days $100 can get you a totally serviceable axe and I know guys that gig with $100 basses (and that is *new* price). CNC and offshoring have changed things - though if it is for the better is a political/economic discussion.

[yel911]

For an amp, check out Line 6. I have a 1-12 75w Spider 2 amp that has a built in tuner and can store up to 120 different sounds, it cranks!!!
As for a guitar, I love the look, feel and sound of Gibsons, Les Pauls or Sg's. One thing to consider, change the pick-ups in you Kramer... those guitars are sought after by alot of people. 80's metal-heads!!! I just bought a Jackson a while back and love it. Good luck...

[sammyg2]

Roland makes some incredible "practice" amps, I have one (micro-cube)
I suggest you check out the roland cube line, I'd love to have a cube 60.
It has 9 different voices, designed to immitate 9 different type of famous amps like the jazz chorus, fender twin, mesa boogie, marshall stack, Vox, etc.

Effects include Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo, and independent Delay/Reverb

•Recording/Phones output, Line out, Tuner out, and Ext Speaker out

•Channel switching, delay/reverb, and effect on/off control via optional footswitch


Iffn you do a you-tube search for roland cube you'll find some good demos of the different sounds you can get out of one.
Here's one for example. The guy aint great but it shows one sound the amp can do:

[sammyg2]

[sammyg2]

[Gogar]

Awesome

[kaisen]

Guitars and amps are soooooo personal

I just sold a cheap *cheap* 2008 Dean Vendetta Hardtail (Chinese made, I think I paid $85 for it new at Guitar Center) that I bought for my son and he never used. Also sold his Line 6 Spider III amp.

Anyway, the 22 year old that came to buy them sat down and started playing to get a feel for it. He shredded! Increcible guitar player. Reproduced the riffs just like they sounded on the album (he played Pantera, Metallica, Clapton, and SRV). He loved the guitar and amp, and it was all he could afford ($150 the set-up incl gig bag, digital tuner, cords, pics, etc). I can only imagine what he was playing on before.

My point? I HATED that guitar. I couldn't make it sound good (not that I've played much in 20 years). I was used to my US-built Gibson that had a completely different neck feel and action. I have big hands, so the satin finished, low-string-action, flat fretboard, wide neck, and study bridge of the Gibson feels/felt WAY better than the gloss-finish, high-action, curved fretboard, skinny neck, thin bridge of the Dean (and cheap Strats).

A good guitar player can make anything sound great. Hacks like me get used to one and can't play another.

[sammyg2]

Here's the cube 80, lots mo' money but kicks butt. I'd love to have that looper feature, maybe I should ask the wife for a looper pedal for Xmas.

[sammyg2]

BTW IIRC, I paid around $60 for my micro-cube, brand new from the manufacturer

(employee discount)