Guitar tone hell

[Frodebro]

Back in the mid 90s, my bar band rig was a Rockmaster into a GSP21 Legend (for effects only), and a MosValve power amp. One night the Rockmaster started cutting out on me (turned out to be a dirty switching jack in one of the effects loops), so in a fit of desperation I plugged the Digitech straight into the board and finished the set with it, using whichever preset I found that didn't sound too bad. I noticed the difference immediately, but it worked and people continued to drink and dance. But, keep in mind this was around 1994 or 95, so it was pretty new technology still...

 

[Hapless]

I played several gigs with a V-Amp 2 way back in the day. On purpose.

 

[DieSchmalle]

I mean it could have been worse. Imagine being given a Zoom 505!

My first "amp" was a radio used as a distortion device (abusing it's mic input) into a valve TV's SCART input - it rocked hard

.
The Zoom 505 I bought later was an upgrade.

 

[AFKAEjay]

My first "amp" was a radio used as a distortion device (abusing it's mic input) into a valve TV's SCART input - it rocked hard

.
The Zoom 505 I bought later was an upgrade.

Lol…I used a cassette recorder…I had to put it in record mode…crank the input level…and playback through hifi speakers.
My upgrade was the zoom 9001…was that the first digital amp ever?

 

[Sascha Franck]

What is annoying is posting here just to have some fun ranting with fellow guitarists and having people tell me it’s my fault, I’m not being professional, and I’m not running my business correctly

Nobody was telling you anything like that.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I played several gigs with a V-Amp 2 way back in the day. On purpose.

Doesn't sound too bad, preferred it over the POD. Has just been pretty noisy.

 

[ispunk]

Sometimes you just have to go with what you’re given.

If I bring my own it might sound better to me, but it’s going to mess up levels, the sound guys will have to change all their settings for me, and it won’t sound the same as what everyone is expecting to hear.

Sometimes the people you work for are going to be happier if you just go with the flow and don’t cause complications for them rather than changing everything up and creating more work for them for “improvements” in tone that they might not even notice.

What kind of gigs are you people playing where a "soundman" cannot adjust levels on a mixer?

 

[Stratzrus]

I’m still keeping your TGF membership revoked. TGF members are expected to show up with a huge primary rig that may or may not fit on the stage, at least one backup rig, and a stomp in the gigbag on top of that.

D

Makes you appreciate what Fractal Offers

My primary rig is a 1x12 combo and a FM9. I'll take an Atomic Ampli-Firebox Mk II and a BAM200 as my backup rig. The backup rig fits in the gigbag.

Hopefully my TGF membership is still intact.

 

[megametal7]

Make small rig of your own ( travel rig) and more or less you’ll get same sound anywhere you play?

Just a thought..

Good luck

 

[Frodebro]

Make small rig of your own ( travel rig) and more or less you’ll get same sound anywhere you play?

Just a thought..

Good luck

I don't think that always works with theater gigs...

 

[dk_ace]

My primary rig is a 1x12 combo and a FM9. I'll take an Atomic Ampli-Firebox Mk II and a BAM200 as my backup rig. The backup rig fits in the gigbag.

Hopefully my TGF membership is still intact.

 

[kartikg3]

My first "amp" was a radio used as a distortion device (abusing it's mic input) into a valve TV's SCART input - it rocked hard

.
The Zoom 505 I bought later was an upgrade.

I used a Chinese cheap walkman knockoff, it's mic strapped onto the guitar, as it's "pickups". It's nice would go into natural distortion, and sounded great to me ears. The zoom 505 was an upgrade. The rp250 even more so. The amplig Satch model even more so.

 

[metropolis_4]

Makes you appreciate what Fractal Offers

At this point it even makes me appreciate what my old POD XT Live had to offer!

 

[metropolis_4]

Funny that so many of you have similar “first amp” stories as me. My first was my parents bookshelf stereo. It had a mic input for karaoke and I’d plug my guitar into it.

Later I got a Zoom 505 and a Crate GX-15 and I was in heaven compared to the stereo

That definitely sounds like a turned off cab emulation to me.

This was my hope, but no dice. I checked it tonight and it’s turned on. They do have it running out the 1/4” though instead of the XLR. Is there something weird like the cab emulation isn’t applied to that output?

 

[kartikg3]

Funny that so many of you have similar “first amp” stories as me. My first was my parents bookshelf stereo. It had a mic input for karaoke and I’d plug my guitar into it.

Later I got a Zoom 505 and a Crate GX-15 and I was in heaven compared to the stereo



This was my hope, but no dice. I checked it tonight and it’s turned on. They do have it running out the 1/4” though instead of the XLR. Is there something weird like the cab emulation isn’t applied to that output?

Not sure... I remember the rp250 had an amp in/mixer in toggle switch..

 

[laxu]

Later I got a Zoom 505 and a Crate GX-15 and I was in heaven compared to the stereo

You basically described my first rig here. Obviously the GX-15 was set with mids on zero, "because that's how Metallica gets their sound." Later on I learned it would do a pretty decent Santana tone by turning the mids up.

I really should have listened to my gut when I didn't quite like the Zoom 505-II in a store, but just thought that maybe I didn't know how to use it.

Ah, how nice it would be to go back and be young and stupid again. Now I can just be stupid!

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Jeez all these stories about MacGyver'ing a fork and a toaster together to get your first amp sound. My first rig was an RP300 into a Peavey Bandit and now I feel like royalty.

 

[laxu]

Jeez all these stories about MacGyver'ing a fork and a toaster together to get your first amp sound. My first rig was an RP300 into a Peavey Bandit and now I feel like royalty.

Imagine someone picking up a Boss Katana as their first amp and people online shitting all over that. When I started, I would have killed for something like that. But nope, instead all we had was some dinky little combo with a shit tier speaker and a rectangular button that says "overdrive" or "distortion".

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Imagine someone picking up a Boss Katana as their first amp and people online shitting all over that. When I started, I would have killed for something like that. But nope, instead all we had was some dinky little combo with a shit tier speaker and a rectangular button that says "overdrive" or "distortion".

Ha, my Katana is semi-permanently living in my son's room and is his first amp (unless we're counting the Blackstar microTurd)

 

[Will Chen]

Honestly...I have some fond memories of that box. I bet I could use one today at a gig and be happy as long as the monitoring was good.