The Best amp/axe combinations?

[Tele Master]

I read that Keith Richards says to make a Fender guitar really scream you need to match it up with a Fender amp.

A common combination is a Gibson LP or SG matched with a Marshall stack(ala Jimmy Page and many others)

I am running an Epiphone and Fender through a series of pedals into a Fender amp.

What do you think is the best combination?

[Incidents Happen]

I play a Gibson Les Paul Double CutAway + through a Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb, which is uncommon. That's a hard question to answer, all I can do is tell you what I play through.

~Incidents

[Tele Master]

Do you play mostly clean or dirty channel?

[Incidents Happen]

Clean; Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb (tube amp) doesn't have a dirty channel, remember. I use a Line 6 POD XT for effects, and often use slight overdrive, but i usually keep it clean.

~Incidents

[Tele Master]

I bet that has a sweet sound.

All i really want to know is what combination you use and if you like it or not. Or if your looking for something more.

[Incidents Happen]

Oh okay, I can totally answer that.

Yes, the sound is very nice, although I'd like more headroom, so I will likely be buying a Fender Twin Reverb (100 Tube Watts, compared to 22 Tube Watts).

I have gotten used to 3 different sound levels-

At Home- Volume is at 2;

At Jams- Volume is at 4.5;

At Gigs- Volume is at 7 (and mic'd)

Don't get me wrong, my setup is better than 99% of 15 year old guitarists, but how many 15 year old guitarists are gigging?



~Incidents

[Tele Master]

Well I'm 16 and gigging. At home I set it at about 1 1/2 depending on which axe I'm using(the LP is louder). Dirt channel(master) at about .5. My amp is very loud.

Gigs: Outside and without a mic- 4-8
Inside without mic- 3-6

I have no complaints about my setup either, I love it, sweet sounding, more power than I need, its perfect.

[Incidents Happen]

I know you recently purchased a Les Paul, but what amp do you use? Marshall?

~Incidents

[Tele Master]

Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.

[Tele Master]

What kind of music do you play?

[Incidents Happen]

I'm in a Jam Band that plays alot of Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, a little bit of Phish, alot of traditional folk tunes (played electric, we call it electric folk), etc. We do some Jazz as well. As a lead guitarist, I'd have to say that I'm a Jazzer, occasionally throwing some blues licks in. I would say I'm a mix between

Jerry Garcia/Carlos Santana/Dave Gilmour/Trey Anastasio/Django Reinhardt/Allan Holdsworth

and many others. I recieved three offers to work as a Session player in my town, all of which I couldn't accept due to a lack of transportation (don't have my license).

You?

~Incidents

[Tele Master]

Our band is a light rock band, but I dabble in some other bands for sessions and recordings, doing blues and rock mostly.

All our songs are original tunes.

[Incidents Happen]

I recently started jamming with a saxophone player; I noticed an immediate increase in my ability to sightread, and to adapt to different musical possibilities...Saxophone is a wonderful instrument.

~Incidents

[Tele Master]

I agree, I can't play them., but I know a few poeple who do and its fun to get them in a jam sometimes.

Personally I don't like jazz, its not my thing, but we get him to play some rock and ska.

[Incidents Happen]

See, I'm not a fan of ska, but I know alot of people that are. I'm more into the mellow trip, the John Coltrane, the Miles Davis, the Charlie Parker....

Although, I've listened to Less Than Jake before, they are listenable.

~Incidents

[Tele Master]

I don't like much ska either, but I liek The Specials.

[PonyOne]

The Specials are one of my fave bands... I think that to call them ska is to berate them...

Heh, when I was 16... I dropped out of school to buy my SG (how's that for dedication?)... and I was rehearsing shortly thereafter, and gigging at 17. I got really sick of it though, and I've just been playing on my own for most of the past two years.

The thing that I've found advantageous about doing this is that I've come up with a sound that is more my own than I ever thought possible. I can shred through whatever, I can sweep, I can play chords (now I just need to work on figuring out what the chords are called), etc. I don't know much traditional theory; it's like I've got my own theory and my own way of doing things catalogued in my brain. You may notice that I never contribute much to theory threads... that's why... I do everything everyone else does, I just do it differently.

Probably has something to do with the severe ADD, the psychological trauma, the high i.q. (tested at 136 when I was 6, by jove) and getting hit by ligtning when I was 13...

wait a minute.... this doesn't have anything to do with this post!!!!!

My favorite combo is probably an old Gretsch or ES335 being played through an old Vox AC30TB with mild overdrive. I also have a tone envisioned in my head for the ultimate hard rock sound, it involves a Mesa Dual Recto and a semi-hollow nech through guitar, but, I have to make the guitar myself (spits in hands)...

Better get that protractor out.

[Incidents Happen]

You got hit by lightning, Pony? I've never met anyone who was hit by lightning...tell me, how did it feel?

~Incidents

[The Other One]

Hey dudes, i dont get it...alot of you are just a few years older than me and you have bands where you play alot of anything that you have interests in...while, NO ONE i know who is my age that likes any of the Jam, 60's Psychadelia, Jazz, Progressive NOTHING....i cant find ANYBODy who has the same tastes as me which is why i play in a heavy metal band that i am not to enthusiastic about....what i really want to do is play in a sort of a Progressive Jam band only with a much harder Metal edge....Please help me for i do not know how to find anyone my age who has the same interests as me....what am i to do?:confused::confused::confused:

[The Other One]

O yea my rig, despit an average guitar, has a sweet sound...it is my Squier Strat II played through my Marshall AVT150....I love the sound...cant wait to get an Acoustic/Electric Ovation or something new to play into it.....

[Pantallica1]

I use an Ibanez RG570 played through a little practice amp.

I use to own a 5150 but I got rid of it, didn't need that much power then, but wish I had it back now.

[Lordathestrings]

I've sold off my Gallien-Krueger Backline 100, and one of my Peavy Rock Master preamps. They just weren't getting used anymore.

I find that an old Ampeg brings out the best of any guitar. Even the little G-18 10 Watt transistor 'practice' amp sounds great. I rebuilt the 60 Watt VT-40 tube amp in a new cab with a Weber speaker. This combo sounds so good that I may decide to part with my VT-22. 120 tube Watts is major overkill, but I live for the way it brings out the little differences that made me fall in love with each of my guitars in the first place.

Ampegs don't have a 'signature' sound. There's nothing like a 'Fender Black Face' sound, or a 'Marshall Plexi' sound. Maybe some of the early HiWatts. With old Ampegs, you hear the guitar in a detailed kind of way that makes people sit up and listen closely.

If you play clean, this is the real deal. If you push the power section into saturation, the vibe is heavy enough to cause genetic mutations on anything in the line of fire!

[PonyOne]

My Roland JC120 is awesome for clean tone, I must say...

Yeah when I was 13, I was over at a friend's house and we were watching TV, when a news alert came on warning of a really bad storm with lots of lightning coming in (this was in Washington State, about 30mins outside Seattle). It said it would hit in about an hour, so, I figured that it'd be best to leave right then, since I lived abotu 1/2 an hour away.

So I started riding my bike... 5 mins later, rain hit, and so I decided to cut some time off the trip by taking a different route. It was all going fine & dandy until I decided to make a short cut through a field. The frist bolt of lightning homed in on me and nailed me in the back, just to the center of my right shoulder blade, blowing me clear off my bike.

I get asked how it felt quite a bit. To put it quite bluntly, it hurt, it was easily one of the most painful things to physically happen to me. In a fraction of a fraction of a second, the air around the bolt become electrified, and that gives you a moderate shock on its own. Your mind gets totally messed with; you're in the process of being severely inured and the way you percieve things is thrown totally askew, so your perception of time gets slowed down to the point that you can feel the separation between getting zapped through moisture and getting hit directly.

Everything went totally white from the bolt, and it burned my corneas, so it went from white to searing orange. The weirdest thing of all was the way my head felt. It's indescribable, but it felt like my brains were gonig to blast out my sinuses, it just felt like everything inside my cranium was pressurized so badly it would kill me. I've always had this weird thing where I can taste pain on my tongue, also my vision gets an orangish black haze over it; the last thing i recall was seeing my vision going toward the ground and then pointing toward the sky, seeing my feet go over me and then i blacked out.

When I came to, my watch had been blown out, it was still pouring and I had the mother of all headaches in addition to a massive welt/burn on my back (i still have the Nine Inch Nails shirt I was wearing when I got hit; I'd left my backpack at my friends house cause it wasn't waterproof and didn't wear a jacket that day). I waited out most of the rest of the storm by some houses and then continued to my house. I got there about 5.00 so I had probably been out for a half hour or so (no one saw it happen or saw me).

When I walked in my mom, who was expecting my sister at the time, said "what the hell happened to you? are you okay?" and I just kinda went "I think I got hit by lightning," and lifted up my shirt. She took me to the hospital; their response was more or less "yup, you lucky little sh!t" but since I was functioning okay and all they let me go after an hour or so. Most of the visit was having hospital staff seeing me and going "wow," then gonig and getting guys from obstetrics or gynecology or pediatry or the morgue and having them see the wound, go "wow" and tell me I was lucky.

For the first six or so months all was okay, but then, I started to have all sorts of neurological problems: seizures in my sleep, severe aches and pains and random numbness, and in a strange little twist, getting poked along my spine meant that I could very well have a seizure. It's all gotten better than it was but for awhile, damn, it was bad. I still have seizures at night, and it's kinda crazy, some nights I'll wake up before my body does and I can't move... there's this massive amount of pain, but, if I can get past that it's quite extraordinary. Your brain is basically functioning completely, but not controlling your body... in the apartment I used to live in, sometimes it would happen, and I was so sensitive I could hear the neighbor's conversations through the 6-inch thick concrete walls, through the searing whine of pain... bizzare to say the least.

I came up with my own hypothesis after I went to my doctor about the whole issue the first time, and they agreed it may be valid: if you plug a computer into an outlet without a surge protector, and you have a power surge, it can blow out your computer completely, or, it can damage it, so that your hard drive no longer functions properly. Since the brain is so wrought with electrical activity, and since our bodies transmit electrical energy through our nerves, spinal cord, cerebellum and brain, isn't it possible that overcharging it with electricity could damage it in a similar fashion? Because since that happened, I will randomly fluctuate in and out of hyperactivity and lethargy, and among a billion other bizarre things, there's that whole sleep thing... one thing though, since that happened, I feel so much more aware of my surroundings it's crazy. It's as though some of the "normal" constraints for senses got blown away, leaving open new avenues, while, simultaneously, my hearing in my left ear has been damaged (my overall hearing is about 80% what it was and that ear has lost some it's ability to recognize tonal changes in the low range; until I get about halfway up the A string, if I can only hear out of my left ear, I can only hear fine definition every few steps; for instance, I can hear the difference between A, B, and C, but cannot hear the sharps). Fortunately the right ear is A-OK, so it's not much of an issue. There is no truth to the "tone deaf rocker" in me.

Most people who get hit don't really survive, so, I'm somewhat of a rarity in that sense. I've had a few free CT scans and MRI's for universities and medical groups for research into brain activity and trauma since then, since I'm one of few survivors. Most either die or walk away unscathed. I find it more difficult to talk now, as well. We know so little about our own brains it's amazing.

At first it all kind of freaked me out, now, for better or worse, i am kind of glad it happened, because it's made me analyze what makes me myself, and how our minds work. That, and it's a great party story...

[Azrael]

that sleep thing you have sounds pretty similar to what we call "OoBE". there is alot of info on this topic spread throughout the net and it is pretty cool - i´m very deeply involved into that matter myself, hosting one of the biggest german sites concerning that topic.

[PonyOne]

That's interesting... does OoBE stand for anything? I had a friend who had similar experiences, but he chalked it up to alien abductions.... to each his own, right?

And props for the Guybrush Threepwood signature.

[Azrael]

here´s a lil introduction

http://www.psywww.com/asc/obe/faq/obe02.html

[PonyOne]

This is actually very interesting, it's also making me think much more hard about each little thing i have... thanks very much...

Have you ever seen the film Donnie Darko? If not, you should see it... I think you'd find it extremely interesting.

[Azrael]

no i havent - can you give me a short survey of what it´s about?

[keeftele88]

While personally I think there is nuthin better than Fenders through an early bassman or deluxe cranked all the way up, listen to Trey Anastasia of Phish for an incredible tone. (He plays through a custom made hollowbody, a couple of tube screamers, a compressor (brand?), and a 65 deluxe
(I am not sure).

[Number of the Beast]

Originally posted by Incidents Happen
You got hit by lightning, Pony? I've never met anyone who was hit by lightning...tell me, how did it feel?

~Incidents

I would imagine that he doesn't know, having probably been instantly rendered unconscious.

[Incidents Happen]

Originally posted by Number of the Beast
Originally posted by Incidents Happen
You got hit by lightning, Pony? I've never met anyone who was hit by lightning...tell me, how did it feel?

~Incidents

I would imagine that he doesn't know, having probably been instantly rendered unconscious.

Had you read Pony's long post, you wouldn't have made an ass out of yourself with a post like that.

~Incidents

[Incidents Happen]

Originally posted by keeftele88
While personally I think there is nuthin better than Fenders through an early bassman or deluxe cranked all the way up, listen to Trey Anastasia of Phish for an incredible tone. (He plays through a custom made hollowbody, a couple of tube screamers, a compressor (brand?), and a 65 deluxe
(I am not sure).

His rig is much more complex than that; He has an assortment of 13 pedals, as well as much more. Most of his tone, by the way, actually comes from his guitar, and not from the '65 Deluxe Reverb, he even says so himself.

Problem with tube amps is the fact that they sound great when the volume is about 4 or higher (That's my 22 Tube Watt '65 Deluxe Reverb; This number varies, obviously); but below that, they feel pretty thin. That's the only complaint I have about tube amps; that, and maintaining them can be a bitch, dealing with the tubes, bias'ing it, etc.

~Incidents

[PonyOne]

That's the great thing about Mesas... with a Mesa the master volume is actually a master volume. If you have the volume at 3, but you move your gain up from 1 to 10, there is no change in volume, only in gain. That's why I want to get one so badly, probably either an F30 or F50, depending on whether I want to (alright, fine, whether I can or can't) spend $750 or $950... in addition to all the shredders, you have alt rock bands like the Foo Fighters, and Al Di Meola plays one too...

Oh, Az, I owe you a synopsis of a movie...

Donnie Darko is about a kid who lives in a wealthy suburb and goes to a prep school, whose life starts unexpextedly being punctuated with bizzare and inexplicable incidents. He begins sleepwalking; in the opening scene, he rides his bike back home after he wakes up on a scenic lookout miles away from home. Later, you discover why he's sleepwalking: he is hallucinating and seeing someone in a demonic-looking rabbit suit who is giving him predictions of the future. It tells him that the world is going to end in exactly 28 days, 12 hours, etc mins etc secs from that moment. He wakes up on a golf course and comes home to find his house cordoned off because a jet engine crashed through the cieling, straight through his room. They trace the jet engine's serial # back but discover the plane it is matched to still has all its engines.

He ultimately gets diagnosed as being a paranoid schizophrenic, and medicated... I don't want to say too much more about the movie becuase it is such a brain teaser that it is best explained after you see it 3 or 4 times. The OOBE thing you described with people seeing things comin gout of them plays a huge part later on in the movie (the scene where his dad and neighbors are watching the football game, and later, when the house party is on).

Go and rent or buy it as soon as you can... I'll try to explain anything that doesn't make sense. One hint when watching: notice how many times the red Pontiac Firebird goes by in the background...

[Pantallica1]

Sounds like a very interesting movie. I always like the movies that keep you guessing until the very end. And just when you think you've finally got it figure out, bam, another suprise.

"Identity" is another good one. If you haven't seen that check it out. It's along the lines of paranoia schizophrenia as well. Great movie. I think it just came out on video today.

[BleedBlsSdmf]

Speaking of mesa's, I play 1974 Gibson Sg III through a 22 watt mesa boogie subway rocket. (Pony, my combo only ran me 425 bucks)

[Jolly McJollyson]

Originally posted by Pantallica1
Sounds like a very interesting movie. I always like the movies that keep you guessing until the very end. And just when you think you've finally got it figure out, bam, another suprise.

"Identity" is another good one. If you haven't seen that check it out. It's along the lines of paranoia schizophrenia as well. Great movie. I think it just came out on video today.


Identity was AWESOME! especially that last line.