Back where we started?

[gnoll]

I've found that the gear I like the sound of the most is more or less the first stuff I bought when I started playing. Both my first guitar and my first tube amp are still here and they sound fucking awesome. (An LTD 400 series guitar and a 5150.)

So either A) I got so used to this gear that everything else sounds wrong in comparison, or B) I fucking nailed it when buying gear as a teenager.

Do you guys have the same feeling, like it's hard to improve on the stuff you started out with? And if yes, why do you think that is?

 

[MetalDestroyer]

no

 

[MaxOfMetal]

I've found that the gear I like the sound of the most is more or less the first stuff I bought when I started playing. Both my first guitar and my first tube amp are still here and they sound fucking awesome. (An LTD 400 series guitar and a 5150.)

So either A) I got so used to this gear that everything else sounds wrong in comparison, or B) I fucking nailed it when buying gear as a teenager.

Do you guys have the same feeling, like it's hard to improve on the stuff you started out with? And if yes, why do you think that is?

It just sounds like you were lucky enough to start with some pretty solid gear.

5150s and LTDs didn't even exist when I started playing.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Hell naw. I started out on an Ibanez RG3EXFM and a gorilla amp. Everything is an improvement over that shit. The guitar was so dead sounding even after swapping an evo2 set and a titan set into it. I jumped from the gorilla to a shitty crate solid state, and then an even shittier raven solid state, before finally getting my mesa f30 (that I love to death).
All the stuff I have now sounds and feels infinitely better than what I started on.

 

[MatrixClaw]

First tube amp I owned was a 5150 and the second was a Mesa Mark IV. Both are still in my top 5 and I've owned a shit ton of amps. I don't know that it's necessarily that I was good at picking amps when I was a teenager moreso that there's a reason those amps are so well-loved and were heavily suggested back then. Of the amps I've owned since, most weren't objectively better, just different. It's really hard to beat the 5150 and Mark IV for metal.

 

[ThunderUnderground]

I started with a Korean (i think) Aria Pro II and no amp, i then swapped that Aria Pro II for an RG270 (i think) and still no amp.

Il take the rig i have now

 

[gnoll]

Hm, yeah...

To be fair I did have a Line 6 Spider before the 5150 and I def don't miss that thing. But I mean that's not a real amp!

 

[sleewell]

i've tried out a lot of gear and am quite a ways from where i started.

but i am happy that i finally found what i liked and that i havent really changed my rig in years now.

 

[Demiurge]

My first guitar was a Suzuki-brand knockoff strat and an "Axetech" practice amp with on-board AM radio modeling (overdrive). I paid the equivalent of ~$500 in today's dollars for them, and this was before the time when some low-price imports that punched above their weight. It did not sound good by any stretch.

So, the answer is no, but I imagine that a new player with that amount of money now could put-together something decent to get off the ground that would sound 100x better.

 

[jaxadam]

To be fair I did have a Line 6 Spider before the 5150 and I def don't miss that thing. But I mean that's not a real amp!

Bro…

 

[Crungy]

To some degree I could say it's hard to improve on my first instrument, a Japanese made Fender P bass. Maybe not the best choice for every genre but it does a lot well. I could swap the pickup to get different tones but I like it stock. Plus, that gave me reason to try other basses for bands I was in over the years.

Amp wise I could only go up from what I started with. A Crate BX50. It sounded decent but it wasn't loud enough for any band.

 

[lattjeful]

Started on a Line 6 Spider IV 75, and now have an Archon.

...yeah there's no contest LOL. Can't hate the Spider though. Thing lasted me for over a decade before I decided stop putting it off and fork out the money for a real amp.

 

[rexbinary]

No. I started on a Peavey Backstage Plus and a Peavey Mystic guitar. I think you nailed it right off, but I believe there is less real bad gear out there today. For instance, today there are amps where you can't really dial in a bad tone.

 

[Jon Pearson]

I definitely did not nail it when I started on the gear journey lol.

I did a Fender FM65, then a Marshall MG100, then a Valvestate, then a Bugera 6260, and from there it was off to the races with every possible kind of amp. Guitars have always been all over the place, though I think I would have been better off if I had gotten over my reluctance to Ibanez sooner.

I've owned so many different things that at this point I'm going back through and buying some of the stuff I liked best again, or versions of it anyways.

 

[crushingpetal]

No. Started with a solid state amp and DOD FX55. I'd like to think I make better choices now.

 

[crushingpetal]

Hell naw. I started out on an Ibanez RG3EXFM and a gorilla amp. Everything is an improvement over that shit. The guitar was so dead sounding even after swapping an evo2 set and a titan set into it. I jumped from the gorilla to a shitty crate solid state, and then an even shittier raven solid state, before finally getting my mesa f30 (that I love to death).
All the stuff I have now sounds and feels infinitely better than what I started on.

At some point in my young life I had the "brilliant" idea to simultaneosly run 4 gorilla and crate pratice amps together (because, more amps, more better?). It was shite.

 

[protest]

Very first stuff? Not really.

First legit stuff? Pretty much. Mark IV and a JP were my first full sized tube head and first USA made guitar. I have more stuff now, but still have a Mark IV and JP.

 

[Werecow]

I've found that the gear I like the sound of the most is more or less the first stuff I bought when I started playing. Both my first guitar and my first tube amp are still here and they sound fucking awesome. (An LTD 400 series guitar and a 5150.)

So either A) I got so used to this gear that everything else sounds wrong in comparison, or B) I fucking nailed it when buying gear as a teenager.

Do you guys have the same feeling, like it's hard to improve on the stuff you started out with? And if yes, why do you think that is?

You probably just nailed it first time. I hated my first big amp (a Marshall 6100). I had to have an EQ in the loop just to make it barely tolerable. There were many years where i couldn't afford to change it, and i barely picked up the guitar.
It wasn't until i got a 5150 that i started enjoying guitar again. Just instantly i was playing all evening and through the night every weekend on getting it.

 

[jaxadam]

My very very very very very first shit sucked. Just like toy crap. One was an electric guitar from Sears with a speaker in it. My brother had all of the good shit.

I got a Fender Power Chorus new in like 1989 and that bad boy is still here and has one of my favorite clean channels ever.

 

[gabito]

No. Not even close.