Epic NGW(eek)! (Pod, M-Audio, TC Elec, Mesa content)

[meisterjager]

Well, week-and-a-half-ish, actually!

So last Friday I picked up a new HD500..

.. which is every bit as good as I was expecting it to be! I haven't played with it much if I'm honest, but then again I haven't felt like I've had to - I got some really nice tone straight away! I'm also not really looking to invest much time getting it set up with my Mac as I'm gonna have a whole new recording setup real soon anyway..

So, now I've got the Pod, I had to pick up a new interface, right?

.. so I went for an M-Audio ProFire 610! Really nice bit of kit, and feels solid.. solid as a rock. Sounds really killer too, you can tell the headphone preamps are way above and beyond the TonePort UX1's that I was previously using.

So next, I decided to concentrate on my live rig. I figured, recording demo's and albums at home with the pod, I'd need something to replicate some possible effects I'd end up tweaking in, so I treated me live rig to..

A TC Electronics G Major! Thing is absolutely mint, but I'm still ironing out some kinks within it's patches - some quite weird stuff going on that I have at least found a temporary solution for, but time will tell whether it's a permanent fix! I'm controlling this with my G-Lab GCS-1 MIDI foot controller, though I haven't sat down with it long enough to figure out exactly how to get patches switching properly via MIDI, but I'm sure after a long boring day at work today I'll have it all figured out!

Everything up to now kinda had a meaning and reason.. this one was just epic, epic GAS attack. And can you blame me?

Picked myself up a Mesa Boogie Single Rectifier! This thing is an absolute beast, I love it! I have a strong suspicion it's in need of some new preamp tubes, so I'll be hitting up Eurotubes pretty soon. With no boost, it doesn't really have any chunk to it, but running my SD-1 with the drive at around 9 o'clock really brings out the brutals!

This is a super early Single Rec, but it's in insanely good condition - actually better condition than my Triple X! It was sat in a cold garage, and the guy had to really jimmy the lock to open it, so I think it had been there a while.. I'm glad I rescued it in time for a cold, cold winter!

So that was my week of epicness. I also bought a 3u Gator rack, a rack mount kit for my AKG WMS40 wireless unit so I don't have to carry around that flimsy case, and got a really good deal on a 4-point power strip with surge protection and individual switches!

 

[mayx]

yep, pretty epic gear week !
congrats!

 

[cwhitey2]

most epic gear week ever!!!

nice rig

 

[JPhoenix19]

very niiiiice!

 

[youshy]

I wish I had so epic NGW BTW. I'm picking up new HD500 on wednesday

 

[meisterjager]

I held off from the ol' GAS prangs practically all year, so I really blew it out with a bang!

I'm gonna give the Mesa a month to check reliability, then I'll probably sell my Peavey. It still sounds great.. just not as great as the Mesa.

 

[habicore_5150]

what peavey do you have exactly?

rig looks awesome btw

 

[meisterjager]

Triple X. It's totally stock, but I dunno how the tubes are biased up. I'm sure it could be better.

Here's a pic of everything

 

[TasmanSam]

Epic week indeed!, nice work

 

[Rook]

Wow man, HD500 4CM with that single will be awesome!

You gunna use the G Maj and the HD?

Enjoy, I'm a big Mesa fan.

 

[Leuchty]

Epic rig mate!

Congrats on the gear. Can we get clips of the Single Rec?

 

[emperor_black]

Nice! I'm intrigued by that m-audio box you got there.

 

[meisterjager]

Wow man, HD500 4CM with that single will be awesome!

You gunna use the G Maj and the HD?

Enjoy, I'm a big Mesa fan.

I must say I've never been much of a fan of the Dual Recto's I've played through, but I've always really liked the Singles I've played. Weird.. probably just fluke though.

The HD's pretty much living at home as a studio preamp + effects, and the TC Elec is there to try and mimmick possible effects I get with the HD, but in a live situation.

I can get a crappy clip or two with the Single, though it does massively need a retube. Gonna get a high gain kit from eurotubes.

 

[TheSilentWater]

This is just the most amazing week's haul one could hope for.
I'm so jealous.
Congrats, dude!

 

[7 Strings of Hate]

congrats on the gear! and my condolances on the line 6 gear

 

[meisterjager]

^ hahaha

I'm waiting for my tech support (a.k.a Chimpspanner) to get his ass off tour and hook me up with a recording PC so I can make some serious use of that Pod and interface - I just really, really don't wanna try and use my Mac for recording any more.

Here's a question for anyone with a Mesa - have any of you tried polishing the treadplate? I've toyed with the idea of getting it chrome plated, but I'm not sure how viable that is. I've also been told there's a company near me that does chrome powder coating, but I'd rather have a crack at buffing it out and making it bling myself, so anyone got any suggestions for pimping my Mesa?!

 

[emperor_black]

Once you tell someone that the amp's been modified, its value goes down significantly. Even if it looks better, people don't want to buy something that's modified.

 

[meisterjager]

I don't know whether that'd come into play if it was simply cleaned... It'll still look the same - infact, I just want it to look like the 2010 recto's I've seen.

Just like this, in fact

 

[s_k_mullins]

Congrats dude, you scored some awesome gear this week!

 

[meisterjager]

Well hot DAMN!

I picked up some AutoSol

on the recommendation of someone at work who used to buff the shit out of his old Porsche, and while it isn't as ridiculously mirror-shiny as the one I posted a few days back, the amount of THICK, BLACK SHIT that came off the face of the amp shocked me! Looks like fucking carbon or something. I guess that's 15+ years of just utter scum, but it looks massively better now, after one going over. I'm gonna go over it again and again 'til the rag stays clean - this is gonna look excellent!