I am loving that Epiphone ES339. It just needed to have a few frets levelled. pickups sound good to me.
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Beginner and intermediate import instruments have become seriously decent instruments over the last 25+ years or so.... WAY better than the crap of the 60s-70s sold cheap for starting out. I was at a rehearsal a few years back and grabbed my drummer's cousin's Ibanez starter pack bass and jammed it through a cheap 1x12" Ampeg combo for 20-30 minutes with the full band and blew the 2 of them away with how good it sounded... $99 with amp, strap, and cord! My 1970s short scale Harmony bass from the Sears Wishbook needed tuning every 2 minutes and sounded like hitting wet cardboard with a length of copper water supply pipe!
Still, I will give my money to the boutique guy making their own products. I 'know' the people who have made my basses and cabinets... and some of my pedals. My current amp was a imported, but I interact with the designer on a facebook group for amp builders regularly. Even my main solid state amp from the 90s until a few years ago was designed by a guy I email with from time to time and is on my Linkedin page
Even my vape stuff (I'm still successfully not vaping) was all from original designers/builders
Still, I will give my money to the boutique guy making their own products. I 'know' the people who have made my basses and cabinets... and some of my pedals. My current amp was a imported, but I interact with the designer on a facebook group for amp builders regularly. Even my main solid state amp from the 90s until a few years ago was designed by a guy I email with from time to time and is on my Linkedin page
Even my vape stuff (I'm still successfully not vaping) was all from original designers/builders
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You make me feel so young, I was born in the 90s but I love older music an want a 1960 triumph trophy.Beginner and intermediate import instruments have become seriously decent instruments over the last 25+ years or so.... WAY better than the crap of the 60s-70s sold cheap for starting out. I was at a rehearsal a few years back and grabbed my drummer's cousin's Ibanez starter pack bass and jammed it through a cheap 1x12" Ampeg combo for 20-30 minutes with the full band and blew the 2 of them away with how good it sounded... $99 with amp, strap, and cord! My 1970s short scale Harmony bass from the Sears Wishbook needed tuning every 2 minutes and sounded like hitting wet cardboard with a length of copper water supply pipe!
Still, I will give my money to the boutique guy making their own products. I 'know' the people who have made my basses and cabinets... and some of my pedals. My current amp was a imported, but I interact with the designer on a facebook group for amp builders regularly. Even my main solid state amp from the 90s until a few years ago was designed by a guy I email with from time to time and is on my Linkedin page
Even my vape stuff (I'm still successfully not vaping) was all from original designers/builders
My first guitar acquisition was when I was 12 in 1963. That's when guitar lessons started. The Ventures were hot and every new guitar player had to learn "Pipeline" and "Walk, Dont Run". I was hooked then, but when the Beatles and the Stones hit I knew I had to be in a band!
I have one Gibson Studio Les Paul. After comparing the prices and quality of Epiphone, I went with the higher end Epiphones each time I bought a new guitar.
When I bought my Strat I bought Fender's flagship American brand instead of a Squire. I did buy a Fender Squire Chinese Tele, but I wish I had paid the extra and bought the Mexican version instead of the Chinese one. After putting Fender custom shop pickups on the Chinese model I ended up equal with the Mexican Tele's price.
I was 12 in 2002 haha, I started guitar in primary school though. My first electric was a les Paul vintage
gonna check out them epiphones soon
I had a Ventures "Learn to play the Bass" book plus album when I started in 1980.
My Squier was a gift and needed tuners, pickups and pots to be decent, I would have bought the Mexican version had it been my money spent. I do agree those Epiphones are decent, here is a limited time deal that is hard to pass up... Stupid Deal of the Day | Musician's Friend
I just can't do 6ers or I would have kept mine. It was heavy as hell but the stock PU and pre were actually pretty good on a gig. Be amazing with a full Aggie or Nordy setup though.
I am a 5er guy and can do B-G or E-C but B-C just screws me up!
Full octave below is crazy though. .266 string must be a pound on its own!
Yeah, you could win a fight against six ninjas in an alley with that thing.
Honestly, I wish Ibby would make a seven string version of the Terra Firma. An extra high string (would be a "normal" bass A string in my case) would be nice.
I lie in wait.
Don't get me started! That's how I ended up ordering my Epi '56 Goldtop! "It's on sale! Gotta have one!"Now, I'm wishing I had held out for the '57 model with humbuckers.
It didn't take any skill on the salesman's part to get me to drop the money on my HT Club 50. It's the first affordable amp that I found to be an upgrade from my Tube Works MosValve with twin Vintage 30's.
I need to bring my Peavey Vypyr Tube 60 home and go through it. My KT88 output tubes are getting slightly noisy. It came with a pair of 6L6's in it, but the KT88's really bring out the bite and smooth distortion I like. A hard rap on the top silences it for a while, but it comes back here and there. I took a can of tuner cleaner spray in earlier this year and sprayed sockets and reseated all the connections. That fixed it for a while.
I think I'll take the Roland Cube 60 in this weekend and bring home the Peavey for some contact cleaning and an overall check. I haven't played the Roland in a while. It's a tough bird that plays loud and clean with pretty good amp models. It's surprising how much raw power and tone that amp has with only a 12AX7 for preamp and solid state output.
It's been about 10 years since I went amp shopping. From the reviews I've read solid state modeling has progressed to the point where there's no reason to use tube amps anymore. At least that's what a lot of the amp reviewers are saying.
I think I'll take the Roland Cube 60 in this weekend and bring home the Peavey for some contact cleaning and an overall check. I haven't played the Roland in a while. It's a tough bird that plays loud and clean with pretty good amp models. It's surprising how much raw power and tone that amp has with only a 12AX7 for preamp and solid state output.
It's been about 10 years since I went amp shopping. From the reviews I've read solid state modeling has progressed to the point where there's no reason to use tube amps anymore. At least that's what a lot of the amp reviewers are saying.
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So, who's been seriously checking out all the combo amps for blues and rock tone? There has to be a recent standout for best amp of the last year or two. I've checked out the internet reviews, but haven't made the rounds and tried them in person.
Last time I bought amps I went to several music dealers and spent a couple of hours jamming on amps. That's been 8 or 10 years. What I like about the Peavey Vypyr Tube 60 and the Roland Cube 60 is that the models and effects are good enough to do away with the pedals I used to use.
Last time I bought amps I went to several music dealers and spent a couple of hours jamming on amps. That's been 8 or 10 years. What I like about the Peavey Vypyr Tube 60 and the Roland Cube 60 is that the models and effects are good enough to do away with the pedals I used to use.
Since you guys were talking about Epiphone...
I picked up an Epi Les Paul Special, the one with the P90s. Got it for a ridiculous low price. Only wanted it for the P90s, figured I'd mess around and upgrade the rest of it. But I haven't touched ANYTHING on it yet! I'm loving it just the way it is. It's about the only one I've played now for 2 or 3 months. I DO plan on changing the tuners tho...
I picked up an Epi Les Paul Special, the one with the P90s. Got it for a ridiculous low price. Only wanted it for the P90s, figured I'd mess around and upgrade the rest of it. But I haven't touched ANYTHING on it yet! I'm loving it just the way it is. It's about the only one I've played now for 2 or 3 months. I DO plan on changing the tuners tho...
I brought home the Peavey Vypyr Tube 60 last Sunday and took the Roland Cube 60 to church yesterday. The Peavey is way too heavy to transport for me these days and the newer small SS amps are plenty loud enough to use, especially when mic'ed through the PA.
The Cube sounded great and I can walk off with it like a medium sized suitcase without having to bend over to balance! I'm thinking now about trading the Peavey on something more the size of the Roland. Gotta have a 12" speaker and 40W-60W output, though.
Any suggestions on what I need to look at? I like effects built in. I use distortion, flange, chorus, reverb, and a slight delay mostly.
The Cube sounded great and I can walk off with it like a medium sized suitcase without having to bend over to balance! I'm thinking now about trading the Peavey on something more the size of the Roland. Gotta have a 12" speaker and 40W-60W output, though.
Any suggestions on what I need to look at? I like effects built in. I use distortion, flange, chorus, reverb, and a slight delay mostly.
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Alot of amps use that, my last amp was a blackstar. Came with a distortion pedal which was pretty cool but was damn heavy.
I had a tube amp by indie which would fit your needs but haven't been able to find any indie amps since
Alot of amps use that, my last amp was a blackstar. Came with a distortion pedal which was pretty cool but was damn heavy.
I had a tube amp by indie which would fit your needs but haven't been able to find any indie amps since
Since everything on our stage is mic'ed and I'm listening through a Shure beltpack with earbuds, my amp needs have been reduced to a minimum as long as the tone, and good usable effects are there. Once upon a time I lugged around a 4x12" Peavey and even an 8x12" Gibson amp before that. Of course, both were overkill, but it was the 70s and bigger was better on the backline!
Nowadays, I can just put a mic on it and use a tiny amp with great tone.
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I know what you mean there, I use a 60 watt Peavey amp for gigs & does for practicing too but I've used a fuzzy big .... for a good few years. I like noisy grunge sound
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