What is your next guitar/gear purchase gonna be?

[Shask]

I think at this stage its a labour of love, there's lots of modern pedals and even plug-in's that can come close to the sound the olds racks make but there's just something about those pastel 80's colour control knobs and the 8bit computers that's hard to let go of.

Il be changing just under 50 electrolytic capacitors on my Ibanez HD1000 soon and im actually looking forward to it in some ways

Oh, I love older racks. I have several, like the Intellifex, Replifex, MPX-1, and G Major 2. I just don't know about the really old stuff. I still think many of these old units sound better than newer units.

I'm in the process of building a Dimension Chorus clone right now.

 

[ThunderUnderground]

Oh, I love older racks. I have several, like the Intellifex, Replifex, MPX-1, and G Major 2. I just don't know about the really old stuff. I still think many of these old units sound better than newer units.

I'm in the process of building a Dimension Chorus clone right now.

I think if you buy a functioning unit and you can put in the work then its do-able but it depends on how dedicated you are. I do it for a few reasons, im always building or repairing something and i have a college degree in mechanics so its just in my nature to be attracted to this work, i genuinely enjoy it.
There's also some part of me that recognises that these units are approaching half a century old and the fact that they still function is mind bending, i think its respectful (if you can) to try keep the old machine's running, the kind folks in Japan know a thing or two about engineering and i like to try keep that alive if i can.

You could even take the eco angle and say its saving waste going to landfill, we ditch mountains of electronic equipment each year just because people wont fix their stuff and just buy new when something so much as hiccups.

Either way, i think these units are still viable and worthwhile if treated and maintained correctly, failing that if you could clone this Ibanez HD1000 or Ibanez DM1100 it would save me a lot of work

 

[MatrixClaw]

sig-x incoming...

Hope you like it better than I did. I had really high hopes for that amp, but the only part of it that blew me away was the part I didn't buy it for (the Plexi channel).

 

[narad]

Hope you like it better than I did. I had really high hopes for that amp, but the only part of it that blew me away was the part I didn't buy it for (the Plexi channel).

Ha yea, I saw your comments in my last-minute review cram. Though I think there are some red flags in your experience -- like not enough gain, on that and the UL? Maybe this is subjective but I have two ULs and they definitely have more than enough gain for me, playing low volume. I almost always boost though, so I don't know if that's what separates our experiences there. It's confusing, but there is a lot of conflicting views on these amps. Even though I can totally see the UL as a polarizing amp, some things shouldn't be polarizing, like whether it can sound good at low volumes. Not sure I'll ever understand where all the different views there come from.

The versatility for me is really not so important, and in my reviewing it definitely sounded like the deliverance had a bit more thump and depth, so in theory maybe the better amp for me. Still, the Sig-X was one of the last amps released in the days of me reading physical guitar magazines, seeing full page ads for these things, and I just loved the look and feature set of that front panel. So a bit of a nostalgia factor for me. If I could play a walnut carvin into a sig-x I think I'd be in my ~2008 magazine/catalog dream rig.

 

[Blytheryn]

I dig that. Really cool and different.
Which are exactly the reasons why ESP never probably released it in the US lol.

Yeah this one’s pretty wild. It’s got an unfinished neck too, which I’m particularly excited for.

 

[youngthrasher9]

One of my homies that I met many many moons ago on another forum asked me for my mailing address out of the blue. Fast forward to today, I pulled a small package out of my mailbox and found a Kent Armstrong Grinder inside!! I’ve been wanting to trying this one for a while after hearing @KnightBrolaire ’s clips, and my friend got a wild hair and sent me one!

 

[DECEMBER]

Just got this Peavey ValveKing II 20W combo. Way better than the Marshall DSL20CR and half the price. Now I wanna sell the Marshall and get another VK so I can get completely balanced stereo recordings. Got the same 2 mics on each but the speakers and power amps are so different, one side always sounds louder than the other, even when the quieter sounding side is clipping first. Running the VK preamp, FX send thru EQ and stereo FX, to both returns.

 

[danZingWolf]

I've been thinking about having my version of Gilmour's red strat.
Been looking at Tokai TST95 in candy apple red but yesterday I saw the Fender American Vintage II 57 Strat and need to play both of them. That tokai comes with a very nice tweed case as well. But need to play them both.

 

[Choop]

My friend's blue angel combo is at my place rn. Busted as hell but even with the volume knob fucked and the reverb and bright switch broken it sounds INSANE. Assuming you know what you're getting into you're gonna have a great time.

Picked up the Blue Angel yesterday, and...it's incredible. I'll get pics and elaborate on it more when those get posted up, but initial impressions are very good!

 

[DestroyMankind]

This came in today. Pre ordered it back in February. Worth the money and the wait.

 

[Valdra]

Got this in the mail from GC's used website for $160. It's an Ibanez GIO GRGR131EX (rolls off the tongue!)

Was scrolling a generic search for "Ibanez" in their used section and it caught my eye. Noticed the one pickup config and on closer inspection noticed the EMG and Hipshot locking tuners. Pretty killer guitar! I don't know if the previous owner touched the frets up themselves or what but these are perfect. Suuuuuper smooth & polished and the fret ends aren't sprouting anywhere. Unlike my JBM27 I bought brand new which was extremely disappointing for the price in the fit and finish department.

Neck is a little thicker than what I am used to from Ibanez. My first guitar a long while ago was an Ibanez RG2EX1 which had more what I think of when I think of Ibanez; flat back, feels like a flat board with the edges routed round. This is definitely more round like my LTD. Also probably thicker / rounder than my Fenders / Squiers strangely.

Haven't checked which EMG it is yet. Will do that when I change the strings.

I broke the e string almost immediately, don't @ me.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

I have GAS for this, but it's less mint than I would normally go for. The corrosion of the bridge and the damage to the bottom edge is what particularly bothers me.

 

[Kyle Jordan]

Annnnnd suddenly a custom from Waghorn comes roaring back to the top of the wishlist.

The dinos are inlays.

 

[narad]

New cab day. Altec 417-h. Spent some time trying out metal polish + dremel on the top hardware and washers, and though far from perfect, proud of the result/effect. You can see in the bottom left what they originally were like. Still some pitting... maybe should have used some steel wool first? Washers still have pitting or something too that doesn't come off with the polishing alone, though from here you basically just see the shine.

 

[MatrixClaw]

Ha yea, I saw your comments in my last-minute review cram. Though I think there are some red flags in your experience -- like not enough gain, on that and the UL? Maybe this is subjective but I have two ULs and they definitely have more than enough gain for me, playing low volume. I almost always boost though, so I don't know if that's what separates our experiences there. It's confusing, but there is a lot of conflicting views on these amps. Even though I can totally see the UL as a polarizing amp, some things shouldn't be polarizing, like whether it can sound good at low volumes. Not sure I'll ever understand where all the different views there come from.

The versatility for me is really not so important, and in my reviewing it definitely sounded like the deliverance had a bit more thump and depth, so in theory maybe the better amp for me. Still, the Sig-X was one of the last amps released in the days of me reading physical guitar magazines, seeing full page ads for these things, and I just loved the look and feature set of that front panel. So a bit of a nostalgia factor for me. If I could play a walnut carvin into a sig-x I think I'd be in my ~2008 magazine/catalog dream rig.

Yeah, I have a strange relationship with VHT / Fryette amps. I'm very intrigued by the Pitbull voicing, though they always sound super hollow to me and I can't understand how people say they cut really well live, but man do they sound huge in the room... But every single one of them I've owned, save the 50/CL, has just not had enough gain on it. Very strange, considering they're all basically supposed to be the same preamp regurgitated with different power amp setups or less/more features. I'm not a gain whore by any means, but my old 5150 III had more gain than the SigX and UL that I had with the blue channel's gain at 4/10.

I decided to take a chance on the SigX, even though I was disappointed by the UL before and came to very similar conclusions with it. Oddly enough, I've heard it described as being more along the lines of the Deliverance line on the second channel and I really didn't think so. It's been a while since I owned a D60, but based on my experience with the Synergy modules, the UL module nailed the SigX tone, while the Deliverance was pretty far off.

Both the UL and SigX I actually thought may have had issues, but both people I sold them to ended up loving them, so I'm even more confused. Same thing happened with my Mesa Stiletto Deuce - that's the only Mesa amp I've owned that I flat out didn't like at all. Both amps had the same issue, they only sounded right to me really loud - the SigX was much more tamable though as you can use the FX loop as an attenuator of sorts.

I really could've cared less about versatility on the SigX as well, but when it didn't live up to what I was hoping for on the high gain sound, I started experimenting and was blown away by that Plexi channel. Everyone raves about the Plexi on the XTC Blue channel but I liked the SigX's version WAYYYY better. Still, I really want to love one of Steven's amps, so I'm always on the lookout for a good deal on another one. Maybe one will stick

 

[narad]

Yeah, I have a strange relationship with VHT / Fryette amps. I'm very intrigued by the Pitbull voicing, though they always sound super hollow to me and I can't understand how people say they cut really well live, but man do they sound huge in the room... But every single one of them I've owned, save the 50/CL, has just not had enough gain on it. Very strange, considering they're all basically supposed to be the same preamp regurgitated with different power amp setups or less/more features. I'm not a gain whore by any means, but my old 5150 III had more gain than the SigX and UL that I had with the blue channel's gain at 4/10.

I decided to take a chance on the SigX, even though I was disappointed by the UL before and came to very similar conclusions with it. Oddly enough, I've heard it described as being more along the lines of the Deliverance line on the second channel and I really didn't think so. It's been a while since I owned a D60, but based on my experience with the Synergy modules, the UL module nailed the SigX tone, while the Deliverance was pretty far off.

Both the UL and SigX I actually thought may have had issues, but both people I sold them to ended up loving them, so I'm even more confused. Same thing happened with my Mesa Stiletto Deuce - that's the only Mesa amp I've owned that I flat out didn't like at all. Both amps had the same issue, they only sounded right to me really loud - the SigX was much more tamable though as you can use the FX loop as an attenuator of sorts.

I really could've cared less about versatility on the SigX as well, but when it didn't live up to what I was hoping for on the high gain sound, I started experimenting and was blown away by that Plexi channel. Everyone raves about the Plexi on the XTC Blue channel but I liked the SigX's version WAYYYY better. Still, I really want to love one of Steven's amps, so I'm always on the lookout for a good deal on another one. Maybe one will stick

I think mine should arrive tomorrow. In the meantime, I found like a hundred bad sig-x demos from the early youtube era of 2008 And two good ones. It was so-so in the beginning, and has this sounding pretty good by the end:



The gain is interesting. Actually on my Pitbulls the gain is basically at max, but at that point, I wouldn't want more gain. It basically peaks right past where I would ever set it. That's boosted. And I heard the sig-x has more gain. At any rate, we'll see, I'm kind of entering it with high expectations since it's been on my list for so long.

 

[MatrixClaw]

I think mine should arrive tomorrow. In the meantime, I found like a hundred bad sig-x demos from the early youtube era of 2008 And two good ones. It was so-so in the beginning, and has this sounding pretty good by the end:



The gain is interesting. Actually on my Pitbulls the gain is basically at max, but at that point, I wouldn't want more gain. It basically peaks right past where I would ever set it. That's boosted. And I heard the sig-x has more gain. At any rate, we'll see, I'm kind of entering it with high expectations since it's been on my list for so long.

Yeah, I've wanted one since it came out. I remember everyone buying them back then and seeing very few positive reviews. They were being sold off in droves right after release and then I never really heard of them again until more recently and everyone was raving about them
The John Brown demo is the one that sold me on it. All the tones he was getting in that video were killer, the majority of them unboosted, which is typically how I run an amp. I think the most disappointing part of the amp was, I was hoping the switches would make a big difference on the voicing of each channel, but they barely did anything to the EQ on mine and really just slightly affected the low end and gain level. I just ended up running all of them in a way that gave me the most gain.

Hope it turns out better for you. The amp had a ton of potential in it, but even after a full retube, it still just didn't sound right to me. Traded it for my 101b and I'm far more happier with it. The new owner loved it, though, so maybe I just have no idea what I'm doing with those amps

 

[MoistTowelette]

The gain is interesting. Actually on my Pitbulls the gain is basically at max, but at that point, I wouldn't want more gain. It basically peaks right past where I would ever set it. That's boosted. And I heard the sig-x has more gain. At any rate, we'll see, I'm kind of entering it with high expectations since it's been on my list for so long.

Yeah I think it might have a bit more gain that the pitbull and the deliverance. It's also a very fat/juicy gain structure. The 3 way mode switch really does change the tone and feel of the amp in addition to the amount of gain.

 

[narad]

Yeah, I've wanted one since it came out. I remember everyone buying them back then and seeing very few positive reviews. They were being sold off in droves right after release and then I never really heard of them again until more recently and everyone was raving about them
The John Brown demo is the one that sold me on it. All the tones he was getting in that video were killer, the majority of them unboosted, which is typically how I run an amp. I think the most disappointing part of the amp was, I was hoping the switches would make a big difference on the voicing of each channel, but they barely did anything to the EQ on mine and really just slightly affected the low end and gain level. I just ended up running all of them in a way that gave me the most gain.

Hope it turns out better for you. The amp had a ton of potential in it, but even after a full retube, it still just didn't sound right to me. Traded it for my 101b and I'm far more happier with it. The new owner loved it, though, so maybe I just have no idea what I'm doing with those amps

Oh crap, you even changed tubes?? That's more effort than I usually give to an amp before giving up on it At any rate, trading out for a 101b is a great deal.

 

[MoistTowelette]

Got some Lace Drop & Gains to add to my regius. The guitar naturally has a very bright and snappy tone that shows up no matter what pickups I use. From the small amount of info I could find about this set, they seemed to be on the darker side. Having them now installed, they really do complement the guitar well. It doesn't have the same harsh high end and the low mids and pretty filled out now. Really happy with these pickups (but wouldn't recommend them for a dark sounding guitar)