How the other half lives...

[Nork]

It's amazing how much I've learned over the years, I thought I had to have tons of knobs and options and such, and I found that I just got lost in the gear and never in the music. Downgrading the number of knobs was upgrading my gear and musical possibilities.

+1 to that. selling my stiletto was the best thing i've done so far for my music. the TT is easier to set up, home friendly, opens up some recording possibilities. just...everything.

[CD9266]

And it's not like you have to dive into the Orange price range to get good tone! I've REALLY been enjoying my Carvin Vintage 16 I just got, and it cost me $350 shipped (and that was including speaker upgrade and new EHX tubes!)

There's just something about solid state that takes a heck of a lot of circuitry to massage a good tone out of it while even the most basic tube just has the jangle.

Hey Neil, care to dive into and explain what the Vintage 16 sounds like?

[Neiloler]

The V16 sounds...good. It's got a very nice clean tone, perfect for pedals, and the tone stack is very useful. Carvin's speaker they put in there isn't that great, it's REALLY sharp on the highs and mids, so it sounds overly piercing. Replace it with a Celestion V30, or your fav 12", and you'll be sitting pretty.

When you crank the gain knob (labeled "soak"), it sounds pretty nice. Not so much on the triode mode, it sounded a little rough and nasty in a bad way, but it could just be the tubes, they like pentode but not triode mode. The distortion won't get you to metal territory, it'll probably stop at about harder classic rock, but it's a great tone. They don't use anything but tubes to get the distortion (so no clipping diodes, transistors, etc), so it's a very warm sounding amp, clean or dirty.

The reverb is cool stuff. It's been a long while since I've had an amp with reverb, but to my ears, like I thought the first time I had one of these amps, it's not a Fender reverb. It's more like a nice hall reverb, slightly muffling the highs in a more natural way than the fender reverb does.

I really think this amp is a sleeper of a deal, especially if you get it used. I don't know that I'd buy new, because the cost of replacing the speaker and retubing (if you want to retube) would put it out of the "sleeper deal" price range, but used it's an amazing deal. A great example of smart engineering, mass production with PCB that is quality stuff, and cost effective yet very well built craftsmanship.

[Borderline Productions]

I agree with Neil: there are lots of decent tube amps to be had for $400 or less. You can buy one of them first and save it as your back-up amp when you buy your Orange. I saw my 50 watt Silvertone on ebay for about $150. How could you go wrong. All tube, 2 6L6s and two simultaneous channels. My 90s Vintage 30 Crate is all tube. Runs about $300. Put in a new speaker and wow, it sounds great.

I have to agree that these young players are not getting good advice or they are getting it at GC. A basic tube amp that sounds decent is all you need to start. The other piece of advice that I have given to the deaf ears of youth: don't buy any pedals until you can sound decent without them.

It's easy be snobs, but I think we all know of some great sounding gear that doesn't cost a fortune.

[Drdos]

I agree with Neil: there are lots of decent tube amps to be had for $400 or less. You can buy one of them first and save it as your back-up amp when you buy your Orange. I saw my 50 watt Silvertone on ebay for about $150. How could you go wrong. All tube, 2 6L6s and two simultaneous channels. My 90s Vintage 30 Crate is all tube. Runs about $300. Put in a new speaker and wow, it sounds great.

I have to agree that these young players are not getting good advice or they are getting it at GC. A basic tube amp that sounds decent is all you need to start. The other piece of advice that I have given to the deaf ears of youth: don't buy any pedals until you can sound decent without them.

It's easy be snobs, but I think we all know of some great sounding gear that doesn't cost a fortune.

I'm Old and all I buy are budget Tube amps......

[CD9266]

Yeah I was a bit more hopeful but I can't see getting it unless it puts out something that none of my current amps can.

The clean seems like it's awesome, but so is my RV50s, and my Tube Works. The distortion is kinda mid gain and all from tubes so it might be better at that than any of my current amps but I rarely play anything that involves light distortion and if I do want to mess with that tone I just us my volume knob on my guitar as a gain knob. Shucks cause it was something I was toying with in my mind to get another amp. I'll just stick with my priorities for now...

[Neiloler]

Yeah I was a bit more hopeful but I can't see getting it unless it puts out something that none of my current amps can.

The clean seems like it's awesome, but so is my RV50s, and my Tube Works. The distortion is kinda mid gain and all from tubes so it might be better at that than any of my current amps but I rarely play anything that involves light distortion and if I do want to mess with that tone I just us my volume knob on my guitar as a gain knob. Shucks cause it was something I was toying with in my mind to get another amp. I'll just stick with my priorities for now...

Oh yeah, I totally hear ya. I'd love to build like 5 different amps just because I'd love to build them. Right now the Carvin helps out because I can get some edge-of-breakup cleans at volume levels that aren't going to neuter stray animals from 50 yards.

[CD9266]

That's why I love my solid state Peavey Transtube EFX100. I can live without the "tube-ness" in my bedroom at low volumes. Or that's also why I'm glad I have a RV50. Cause at home I can still use it at bedroom levels and it still sounds phenomenal.

I bet the animals around your place have some interesting conversations.

[jangle]

young players are not getting good advice or they are getting it at GC.

If they're getting advice at GC it's axiomatic that it's bad advice.

I'm a relative piker on the technical front but I went to a GC recently with every intention of keeping an open mind. The absolute rubbish trotted out by clueless (and quite possibly desperate) staff had me shaking my head in spite of myself.

To top it off it's Xmas season which means they have more plastic in the place (5w solid state amps as far as the eye can see) than a mannequin factory.

[Wired]

oi, yea we get spolied with our high end stuff quite a bit...


In the reformation of my current band (Rolodex) I was having problems finding another guitarist, so my drummer asks his cousin who is a badass guitarist but has next to nothing for gear! His iPhone is his tuner for crying out loud.

So he shows up to the first practice with this little Peavey modeling amp 15w thingy a an Ibanez with a floyd rose... we're an alternative rock band.

Anyways, I tell him its' not gonna work, and he can't even get loud enough at 10 to compete with my AC30 at 2. So I pulled out my Fender Twin out to let him plug in. It died.

Then my bassist brings an old Traynor 115 cab and a YBA head. He plays that for a while and borrows my Les Paul every once in a while and loves the tone.

Then he rents a YCV50B for a month, and really likes that and you can tell he's enjoying the tones.

So playing devils advocate... I got a borrow my old RV50 and 212 cab from the guy I sold it too for the gig and let him use that.

Yea... he's a convert. Thank bloody hell for that.

[ESBlonde]

For the Youth/beginner guitarist, they can get a $99 stratolike and an combo with lots of knobs and lights for the same. It looks the part, is very playable as an instrument, and makes lots of varied sounds in the shop. The shop likes to move lots of units and everyone is (on the face of it) happy. Trouble is the new player is conditioned to get lots for his Euro/Pound/Dollar/Yen and doesn't learn that the gear is now holding them back. So when they go to upgrade, they get a bigger version of what they had with more lights and a footswitch and multichannels and knobs galore. It is beholding on us that have seen the light, to lift these poor unfortunates into the realms of good tone. Playing music is not a technological cutting edge thing (I think thats to be left to the Rappers ) so lets go entertain and educate folks.

[kmlabs]

Is this what they call 'The Wagon?'

Yep:

WAGON is the opposite of GAS...

Gear
Acquisition
Syndrome

is cured when:

We've
All
Got
Oranges
Now!

[Neiloler]

Is this what they call 'The Wagon?'

Yep:

WAGON is the opposite of GAS...

Gear
Acquisition
Syndrome

is cured when:

We've
All
Got
Oranges
Now!

Haha, nice!

[Ronin_on_bass-Matt]

I think to a certain extent that its not just the gear that people are using to get their terrible tones but also a basic lack of knowledge of how to set up what they've got to get the best out of it.

Sure there's no comparison between a good tube head like the TT and something from Behringer but far too many times I've seen players just outright not get what it means to play in a band. They've got a great bedroom tone but when its turned up to band volume it sucks. Making the most of what you have is a really important part of being a musician and of course so is the ability to make those instruments sound fantastic.

If you suck as a musician in both manipulating tone and playing ability, no amount of money spent on boutique or expensive equipment is gonna change that fact you can't play. Its not just about gear.

[Thinline_slim]

If you suck as a musician in both manipulating tone and playing ability, no amount of money spent on boutique or expensive equipment is gonna change that fact you can't play. Its not just about gear.

Damn, I'm screwed.