The other month, I was thinking about buying some gear. Right now I am pretty ghetto:

Yamaha S03 keyboard
M-Audio Audiophile 2496
Les Paul Epiphone Classic
preamp: M-audio Audio Buddy
Shure PG58

Reason 4.0
Ableton 7

Hope to buy a cheap mixer, midi controller, and some monitors eventually. I just make music at home as a hobby for myself mostly.

I'm a hacky, hobbyist guitar player.

Mexican Deluxe Lone Star Stratocaster with nonfunctional middle pick-up that I got for $100.

Peavey Valveking 212 I bought for $200. Had to change the power tubes and now that I'm playing on the clean channel some more, I think one of the speakers is blown because it sounds a bit pooty. Will probably replace them with some Eminence speakers anyway, a Governor and something else.

Boss ME-25 I never use. I got it for about $75 I think.

I've been contemplating getting this Jim Root strat with mahogany body and humbuckers. I like the Les Paul sound but not to thrilled about the feel of the Les Paul body and neck. I've never had a guitar with active pickups so not sure about that.

I think the ME-70 is alot better than the ME-25. Next time your are at a music store that sells Roland, check it out. Its worth the extra money imo.

fender squire kit from musicians friend. i suck, but am learning. got a good kit coming to help be set up this toy. gonna sound like a full grown geetar before long.

Guitars:

1972 Gibson SG Deluxe
1960's Japanese Esquire Tele Copy
1970's Harmony - Thinline Hollowbody with "F" Holes
1998'ish - Washburn Red Rocker - Sammy Hagar Sig. (acoustic/electric)
1999 - Maton Acoustic M225 (aftermarket electronics)
1990's - Alvarez Artist 12-string Acoustic
Late 1990's - Fender Squire Acoustic

Bass:

early 2000's Monterey

Live Sound:

Yamaha EMX660 Powered Mixer
Yamaha Passive 12" (S12E) Front of House Speakers
Yamaha MSR250 10" Powered Speaker (Foldback)
Shure SM57
Shure SM58
Bigfoot Stompbox

Amps:

Australian made Fisonic 20w Valve
Australian made Goldentone 5-6w practive Valve x2
Trace Elliot 50w Hybrid (Valve Pre-amp)


Pedals:

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff PI
Ibanez TS-808 Modded Tubescreamer
Vox Compressor
Boss Noise Gate NF-1
Ibanez Prime Dual Chorus PC10
Joyo Crunch Distortion
Tri-Reverb
Zoom G2.1u Multi

Recording:

Fostex MR-8
Nio 2/4
Cubase
Audio Technica condenser
An old Tascam 4-track Portastudio that a friend is "borrowing" but I would like back at some stage!

Would like:

Gibson ES-335 Walnut
Allen & Heath ZED-10FX Mixing Desk
Electro-Voice Live X12" Powered Speakers (ELX112P)
Vox AC-30 (one of the British Builds)
1001 Boutique Pedals!

wow dude.

lol

it's 15 years worth of collecting ****

when someone like mitch evans or le gonso posts their collection, mine will look as pathetic as it deserves to look!

regardless, it is pretty impressive to me. i have a fender squire electric, and a sunlite acoustic.

I started off with the squire acoustic on my list around 15 years ago.

If I would make any suggestions I would say that generally go with the best you can afford at any given time.

Price is usually indicative of Quality.

I have bought some tripe in my time, going for the cheap options.

The Fender should be ok, if as we discussed earlier, the setup is as good as it can be.

When you are cashed up and ready to buy your next guitar, make it a couple of steps up and you will notice the difference.

Also second-hand can be, in the case of guitars and a lot of musical instruments, a better thing.

FWIW I probably wouldn't buy a new guitar or amp ever again. I know others will think that's ridiculous, but it's definitely not a critical thing to buy new imo.

Agreed!

define 'afford'

what any given person has in available cash (or potentially non-liquid assets if you want to go to that extent) that they are willing and able to spend on said item any point in time

at the moment if I was in the market for a guitar the most I could "afford" to pay is around $200 - like eating is the most important thing for me at the moment

10-15 years ago it was $2000-$3000 - I was cashed up and ready to rock!

define "Low Key"?

This is my actual studio:



Don't have pics of "Guitar World" yet, but analoguesounds is a good starting point for what's in my studio. Not as many actual guitars, but close to 30 guitar pedals and 10 amps. I'll try and get some pics during my session on Sunday.

i have done this for trumpets. if you know what you are looking for, or have an idea of what quality it, then second hand can be amazing at a great price.

@DC11GTR

I may just be a little jealous

whoa, you just blew my mind!

well it's a perspective thing right?

like low key could mean keeping things low profile, relaxed etc

it could mean that far left key on a piano

it could be all the keys I change my songs to because of my lack of range!

it could be a pun on a norse god

and so on and so forth

loki i think is the plural of crazy in spanish.

Thanks. I'm trying to remember what all guitars, amps and pedals are in there. I know we have a early 60's strat, '57 and 2 '62 Les Pauls. A couple of current Pauls and an old Firebird.

For amps, there's a Vox 2-12" thats pre-AC era. A Reindhardt with a 4x12 and 2x12 cabs from Avatar, and a few others. The creme of the crop as far as amps go is one of the very first 100 watt Marshall heads ever made. So old, that the casings that the 100 watts are held in didn't exist yet, so one had to be custom made. The guy that owns the house my studio is in's friend gave it him and said "You have to give it back when I ask, but it's yours till then." It's been over 10 years, so I'd say its ours. Steve Lukather offered $5k cash for it before and was that offer was laughed at.

Pedal-wise, I don't even know where to begin. There's 10 different Fulltone pedals, probably 10 boutique pedals of different types, and then the standard pedals that every studio has.

Microphones are where we're "lacking". We've got a ton of SM-57's, old-school creme colored Sennheiser MD-421's, Shure D-112, D-12, and Beta-52, which are the must-haves for studios. For vocals, there's a Boch 121, a really old Neumann and an Area 51.

yes, these all sound plausible

@ DC:

That friend will never forget, trust me.

That sounds beyond awesome.

Obviously Steve Lukather wanted to get some Toto'esque sounds with that Marshall!! LOL - I thought of those guys as more of a clean Fender'ish or VOX sound for some reason.

Are you willing to list those pedals and maybe a run down on the bestest?

Also photos of said amps and guitars would be pretty fantastic - just to up the ante on my jealousness!!

What's your band called? Or are you a studio musician?

We sent the amp in to get it repaired, which took probably 2 months of solid research just to find someone who could fix it. They had it for 4 months and everyone who came in "just had to play it" and they gave it the nickname "Gorilla Balls". When we got it back, I plugged in a strat (I'm more of a Les Paul/SG guy) and an original Ovtava and for the first time ever, I realized why Hendrix and Page sounded so good.

I was in a few bands that toured around, but this is a private studio that I built at a friends house. They had a horrid setup (aside from "Guitar World), and I came in and whipped it into shape. I pitched them the idea of turning it into a fully functional studio, and they agreed. They even got bigtime into the gear collecting, which is why there are 2 original Pultec's in there. I'm retired from playing, but I engineer.

I'll try and get some pics during my next session, but here's a list of the pedals I can remember:

Fulltone 70's Fuzz
Fulltone Souldbender
Fulltone Deja Vibe 2
Fulltone Deja Vibe
Fulltone Fulldrive 2
Fulltone Tube Tape Echo
Fulltone OCD
Fulltone Clyde (original white one)
Fulltone Ultimate Octave
Fulltone Supatrem
Echoplex (never use it cause it's rusty and we have the Fulltone)
Prescription Electonics: Experience Pedal
Ibanez TS-808 (with THE mod)
Original Octava
Lunar Echo
Big Muff
Seek Wah
TC Electronics - Chorus/Flanger

Goddammit. I can't think of anymore, but there are a bunch left. I'll try and get pics soon.

Warmoth Custom Strat
Japanese '62 RI body with custom neck/ebony board
A mexican strat body with a Warmoth neck (I play this one a ton, great guitar)
Greg Bennett semi-hollow
Warmoth '72 Tele Custom (the Soul Asylum guy guitar, ash)
Warmoth Tele Deluxe (ash)
Some Ibanez 5-string bass, wasn't expensive
Warmoth Les Paul (25" scale and dope as ****)
Epi Les Paul Custom (modded out to death)
Epi LP standard (repaired, again modded out everywhere)
Yamaha acoustic
One Ibanez Jem body, unfinished
One Warmoth baritone Les Paul neck, finished, nothing to bolt it to
A Warmoth Flying V body routed for a Floyd, no more parts for
Loose necks and pickups everywhere

Pedals I don't use much. I have a Tube Screamer and a couple others I keep in the chain, but mostly just that and an ISP is what I use. A Pod X3 Live to fill in the occasional delay or oddball effect.

I'm in between amps until I sell my condo, but I do have a modded Bugera tube amp to get me by and a couple nice cabs waiting. My next amp will most definitely be the Mesa Mini Rectifier though, which I swear must have been created for me. It sounds just flat out fantastic. However, we do have to move, and if I start buying big **** she'll stop saving money too and we'll never move. I can't turn up beyond like 3 with a 22w amp here so the Mesa is kind of out.

Anyway there are a couple of mics here, a condenser and an SM-57. Some studio monitors, a dedicated computer and keyboard. Nothing special, no racks of gear. Running Reaper 4.something with Steve Slate drums. Not really a lot going on gear wise, my more valuable stuff was sold off as I didn't need it and built replacements through Warmoth and so on. I'm heavy by a few guitars as it is.

Premier Astria shells (I use a four-piece; never trust a drummer with two centre rack toms)



Sabian AAX cymbals and hats



Dixon/Brady snare (seriously, I cannot recommend these snares highly enough; made by Chris Brady without the Brady pricetag)



Tama Iron Cobra single pedal

so my whammy bar broke tonight during my gig. I was giving it hell and it just snapped right off. are there like some super strong after market ones that will fit? did I just get a bum bar or are these weak?