Have you reached your ideal setup yet?

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 9:57 pm

The answer to this for me is yes. If what I have today was all I was ever going to have I would be completely satisfied.
I've not significantly changed my board around since I got the Pedaltrain mini - that is all I need. I can swap one pedal in or out, but basically it's perfect for me.
I have a good range of guitars and swap them in and out depending on mood or requirement. Fenders and Les Pauls and I am happy. I have never had a tele, which I would like, but not a necessity.
Think that the amps are a big thing. Have owned a few in the last 5 years and what I have now cater for everything I could imagine wanting. Getting hold of James' Bassman is a big part of the satisfaction. Another purchase that I got yesterday and that I'll take pics of tomorrow really makes me think that I have all I need and want.
Sure I still look at new things and want to try stuff out, but not sure much will come along and drastically change my setup now.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 10:06 pm

I'm there and then some.

Guitars - '68 Ovation Tornado, Rickenbacker 330, or '68 Hagstrom Viking, if I bought any other guitars they'd be gimmicks at this point...I'm past the phase of needing a different guitar for every possible style of music or having to own every guitar I find visually appealing.

Pedals - I have several, I use only one.....DOD YJM 308. The DOD 250 type pedals are in my opinion the end all solution for usable gain. If I want more fuzz I just play harder.

Amps - I have a 1970 SIlverface Twin, a 1965ish Hilgen Challenger, and a 1968 Magnatone Firestar 150R. All of them have footswitchable reverb and vibrato or trem, which seems to be my criteria for buying amps

I have a good acoustic (a beat up 1972 Guild BLD).

I can honestly say there's no gear lust whatsoever at the moment, though I can see myself buying a Big Muff Germanium4, farting around with it for about a month before getting pissed off at all the knobs on it and going back to my DOD. I'd also prefer to own an old yellow box DOD 250 but I kind of like having the YJM for the irony factor, and it sounds just like the 250 so why would I shell out $150+ for a vintage one?

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 10:07 pm

Please tell me you've joined the orange clan again?!

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 10:10 pm

stewart wrote:guitar-wise, i'm definitely there (except for my irrational hankering for a tele, but that's no biggie).

(pedals have changed a bit since that was taken, bad monkey and fuzz factory added)

I always had you down as a Gibson kinda guy?

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 10:14 pm

Progrockabuse wrote:Please tell me you've joined the orange clan again?!

It was only a matter of time

There's a whole story and I'll tell all tomorrow when I have more time and get pics up.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 10:20 pm

I am guessing one of the rocker heads that was just recently on clearance....

Will · Post by **Will** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 10:42 pm

I'll probably need a new cable soon, but yes.

plaidbeer · Post by **plaidbeer** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 11:43 pm

hotrodperlmutter wrote:
plaidbeer wrote:amp: Vox Pathfinder 15r (was influenced by the good reviews of it I read on here). Just got it yesterday.
have you had much play-time with effects through it? it really handles them well.

i can waste 5 hours playing:

squier vista jagmaster > white coil cable > boss fv-10 > gfs chuner > black coil cable > pathfinder w/footswitch

Haven't had a chance to play it today (parentals in town), but I played the JM through it last night through headphones (in an apartment). I had a combination of the Growler (fuzz w/ boost) and RV600 going to it and then using the tremolo on the Pathfinder. Fun combination and played until my fingers hurt.

Freddy V-C · Post by **Freddy V-C** » Sat Oct 30, 2010 6:04 pm

I'm getting there.

My Baja Tele can get me pretty much all the sounds I want, I would quite like a nice SG as well though for when I want to get my doom on. I nearly bought this second-hand Gibson SG instead of the Tele, but I didn't like the feel of it anywhere near as much and it was Â£125 more expensive.

Pedalwise I don't think I'll ever stop wanting different fuzzes, and more than one delay would be cool, but really I've got pretty much all bases covered. The only pedals which could really add anything substantial would be a nice amp-like distortion (although we'll get to that in a minute) and maybe a Micro-POG even though I haven't quite figured out why I want one, I JUST DO.

Amps - I love my Tiny Terror's clean sound and I love how it sounds with my pedals, and the distortion on it is just beautiful. The only problems with it are that I sometimes struggle ever so slightly with volume at gigs and that it only has one channel so I can't switch between cleans and distortion. Kind of points me in the direction of a Dual Terror, right? I've wanted a 1x15 cab for ages and it looks like soon I will have that very thing, hooray!

So yeah, getting close.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Sat Oct 30, 2010 6:43 pm

dezb1 wrote:I always had you down as a Gibson kinda guy?

i sense a tongue firmly lodged in your cheek, dez.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Sat Oct 30, 2010 7:10 pm

stewart wrote:
dezb1 wrote:I always had you down as a Gibson kinda guy?
i sense a tongue firmly lodged in your cheek, dez.

Must be that 335 copy..

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Sat Oct 30, 2010 9:40 pm

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Sat Oct 30, 2010 9:51 pm

See, I could quite see Stewart with a 335. Anyhow... I'm pretty close to my dream rig. Much as we take the piss about dual-amping, it's getting the Vibrochamp back that has got me here; means I can run stereo outs from the M13, so all sorts of shenanigans, plus I can set both amps as Champs, or have the Champ clean and the Matamp set to a more gritty, British sound. Much as I'm boiling down my guitar collection at the moment, I feel that a Jazzmaster and a big-necked fixed bridge guitar does me pretty well; what I will be picking up in the not too distant future is another baritone, maybe a Jerry Jones. Effects-wise, I'm happier than the proverbial pig: as well as the M13, which makes all the spaceship noises I could ever wish for, due to the unique way the decals side of the MBM business is funded, I get to audtion a lot of my dream fuzzes.

Now if only I could play for toffee...

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Sat Oct 30, 2010 10:46 pm

I love my amp and the only effects I am using at the moment are the memory toy and green muff. The 2 channels on the amp fulfil most of my needs. I like the guitars I have but recently have been wondering whether selling them all and seeking "the one" might be the answer, this might just be GAS building, who knows.

For my current needs the CVC and the VC15 are all I need to be honest and may be the GAS is just some kind of substitution for something I feel is lacking in my playing

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Sun Oct 31, 2010 4:40 pm

guitar- pretty much there thanks to the jaguar, but in the future i'd like to acquire a solid hardtail guitar, like a telecaster/esquire, or a duo sonic. and a semi hollowbody/full hollowbody guitar.

amp- i'm not too happy with, even though my amps do it for me, but i'd prefer a tube amp, like a fender twin/silverface, or perhaps an old silvertone half stack amp, or vox or some shit. i'm still keeping my mind open for a new amp so i dont take a plunge yet.

effects- the me-70 pretty much does it for me, but once in a while i'd rather have a tuner-->fuzz-->reverb-->tremolo-->delay setup.
which is essentially what my pedal does... so i'm kinda square.

onedaycloser · Post by **onedaycloser** » Sun Oct 31, 2010 11:54 pm

Josh wrote: effects- the me-70 pretty much does it for me, but once in a while i'd rather have a tuner-->fuzz-->reverb-->tremolo-->delay setup.
which is essentially what my pedal does... so i'm kinda square.

Ha - I run about the same thing with my ME-70. It does everything pretty well but I would like to have more Fuzz options, who doesn't though? I'll probably start piecing together a small pedal board in the next year or so since the rest of my gear is sat.

My Strat is my all around favorite, also it has a bit of sentimental value. My #2 so to speak is my Toronado, used for heavier sounds and lower tunings, although I haven't had it for awhile and there's still a few things to sort out on it. The jack needs replaced and there seems to be issue with the nut/intonation, as some strings don't ring out as clear/in tune as others.

I've got an SX Thinline Tele copy and an Agile Les Paul that are very nice, but have all 4 of these seem very excessive for someone that only plays at home as a hobby. I've thought about selling/swapping them but do enjoy them when I get them out.

As for amps, my modded Valve Junior is all I honestly need (although I "want" something with more speakers). It was modded by a friend of mine that goes by "TWANG" on several forums. Basically swapping the transformers for better units, revoiced the circuitry and then added several features. It'll do a very nice clean or a proper raunchy crunch depending on how it's being ran. Also, there's my 30 watt SS amp I picked up from a flea market for 5 bucks, that I keep for hauling around or quiet bedroom playing.

Wow, assessing my gear and typing this has made me feel like a real schmuck. I've got waaaay too much for my skill level or true need, but it's pretty much my one and only hobby.

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 4:28 am

amps - I am currently learning what kind of amps I like. I still adore my Marshall JTM30. Cleanest, most Fender-like Marshall I have heard. My Musicmaster Bass amp is much simpler (volume and tone) but has the mojo and tone I like though I wish the controls were more sensitive. I am going to sell my Bugera V5 since it doesn't compete with my MM Bass amp, though a quality amp. My Fender Acoustasonic JR. is one of the best acoustic amps out there and is loud enough for most situations. I still would like to try out Egnater Tweaker and Orange Dual Terror. Maybe enough put together my own at some point.

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Pedals - My pedals have gone through lots of changes. I built my own pedalboard, filled it up and then purchased a Pedaltrain Pro with hard case. The pedaltrain allowed me to clean up the cable and power wart mess by mounting the Pedal Power 2 under the board. After some trades and selloffs, I am left with my current pedal configuration. The MBM pedals give me a nice variety of dirt from boost/definition to overdrive to heavy fuzziness. I want a MBM IC Big Muff down the road. My modulation pedals get lots of use and really help bring variety to the tonal palette. My DL4 is starting to get more use, though I would still like a EHX Memory boy just to get a better understanding of how to tweek a delay pedal. I am a delay novice for sure. My EHX Wiggler is the best Tremolo/vibrato I have played and I love the tube tone. I am not there yet, but I am definitely more confident and feel like I am making steps in the right direction.

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Guitars - My first good move was selling my PRS McCarty. I wasn't playing it enough and it need to go. My AVRI Jaguar came soon after and changed everything for me. Along with my Squier CV Duo Sonic, it cemented my love for the shortscale. When I started building guitars, I have learned volumes about what I like and don't like about guitars. My Squier Jagmaster gives me the heavy single coil tones. My new Baja Tele project was great and the guitar is so good that it almost rivals the Jaguar. I have a Musicmaster and Mustang projects waiting in the wings and maybe a Super-Sonic project after that. I sell the guitars I don't use, but I do foresee more guitars in my future. Each guitar is like another tool in the toolbox

I have 3 acoustics and don't need anymore for now. (Taylor 614ce, Baby Taylor R, and Airline acoustic) I would like a Taylor T5 to run the acoustic amp and my electric rig.

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Haze · Post by **Haze** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 4:45 am

those T5s are NICE. Glad to see that lava cable get used, great in tight spots and longer runs when a 6" or 1' won't due

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 4:47 am

Haze wrote:those T5s are NICE. Glad to see that lava cable get used, great in tight spots and longer runs when a 6" or 1' won't due

I might get the lava kit down the road.

less_cunning · Post by **less_cunning** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 9:12 pm