I'm going only semi-ridiculous this year.
I spend way too much time on Ceriatone's site. I built a custom DC-30ish kit from there and really like it - both the experience and the amp. Don't let my enthusiasm fool you - you can get a kit or a built. If you get it built, you will not be disappointed: I've seen Nik's work and it's like art. This is not only striking, it's great wiring, which helps the amp against noise and oscillation.
The closest to the unit I built is the Muchle$$ DZ 30. It's a clone of the Matchless DZ 30, which itself is close to the Vox AC30. It has a half power switch, so you're playing at 15 or 30 watts. Make no mistake - it's loud in either position. It uses the EF86 tube in the high gain channel, which you have to make sure you have spares for. The spares tend to go or be microphonic, so test everything.
The British Style 2525 is a copy of the Marshall 2525, itself a reissue of the famous JCM800, but at lower wattage and size. I heard a demo of the Marshall at a guitar show and would have bought it on the spot, if I needed another Marshall - it's that good. It was also expensive, as Marshalls tend to be. ($1600?). The barebones kit is $425 and it's $725 totally assembled. It's tempting....
If I were playing out and beating up my old Marshall, I'd buy the Hot Rodded Plexi Yeti. Give it a listen and tell me you wouldn't want a high gain Marshall that sounds like this. $640 barebones kit, $1085 or less assembled.
This is where I'm heading. The Trainwrecks have always been items of curiosity. There were a handful (100?) built by hand by Ken Fischer in New Jersey, before he died. Every amp was individually tuned. No frills, no master volume. The tone is hair-raising. Full out clean distortion, but cleans up very well with you guitar's volume control. There are 4 models: LiverPull, Expression, Rock It, and C-Wreck. I believe the first 3 are from actual Trainwreck models, and the last is a clone of the Dr. Z Wreck. The LiverPull uses EL84 outputs. The Expression uses EL34s, like a Marshall. The Rock IT! seems to be AC30-related, using EL84s and a tube rectifier. They all hover around $1,000 built, close to $600 kit. I'm having a lot of trouble deciding. At this point, it's either the Expression or C-Wreck. Listen to the videos...tone and sustain for days.
Note to kit builders: when I say barebones, I mean everything except box and tubes. Do yourself a favor and buy the box, unless you can build one better. They can be twice the price elsewhere.
Project time: I love my Fender Pro Jr amp. 15 watts, 2 knobs, great tone. I did a few mods, but I really want to rehouse it in a cab made out of real wood, that will handle a 12" speaker. The stock speaker is 10". Not sure which speaker, but Celestions never hurt. I did a show with the Pro Jr through half of my Marshall 4x12 and it was heavenly. Too loud in spots. Amazing what 15 watts through great speakers will do (original Greenbacks). I couldn't have heard it through the stock speaker. I say this like I've played a gig in the last few years...
I'm still farting around with my Nash ST-57, his Strat-style beat up vintage. It's not for me -probably the 10" radius puts me off. I haven't seen a lot that excites me lately. Time for a 1 day trip to Southpaw in Houston. Like I have that kind of money. Santa's going to have to put some hard time into guitars this year. On the advice of Seymour Duncan's person, I got an SSL5L to try out in my main guitar, to see if it overcomes some of the inherent bassiness. It's a very heavy guitar, with a very heavy bottom end. The Nash's front pickup has more top end than the rear of the Fender. At one show I put down the Strat and picked up my G&L, and spent the whole next song trying to figure out where the bottom end went. It was eerie.
Pedals are starting to line up, requiring some comparisons and more to compare. Instead of a $50,000 to $100,000 Dumble, buy a The Dude pedal and spend more time adjusting it and your amp. Pretty good deal around $150. If you're looking for a balls to the wall modified Marshall, get a Super Crunch Box v2. I'm putting together a full review, but this thing screams. More gain than you can ever use. Definitely better for a Les Paul, but you can do Stratty things with it too. There are a lot of controls, and I'm working on less gainy tones too. I'm using a clean modeling amp, so I have no idea how it sounds pushing an already dirty tube amp. Sitting next to it is the Lovepedal Superlead, which is a Marshall Superlead (really?) but with more gain. Good sounding pedal, less pure gain than the Crunch Box, really sounds like a Superlead. Lovepedal makes great-sounding pedals, including a JCM800 pedal that sounds exact. Obviously I need to pick 1 category and spend a long time and a lot of money comparing the pedals.
I have pedals in most of the categories except reverb. So naturally I'm looking at reverb pedals. Nobody knows why. It's not like I'm playing out anywhere. It's not like I even have a band. Dammit, I'm the best equipped player in my neighborhood, perhaps for a few blocks around it. As with most categories of pedals, there is a ridiculous amount of choice, at incredible to gut-wrenching prices. Spend a lot of time looking and listening, folks. Traditionally we plinkers have used spring reverb, called so because (get ready for it) - it uses springs. I can get an external Fender reverb unit for $Lots and a vintage one for $LotsMore. I can even get a kit to build one, all tube. It's original, it's tubes, it's cool, but it's another large-ish piece to carry (on my many many gigs) and it does exactly one thing. You can get one of those many Asian knockoffs that do just spring or a variety of reverbs for incredibly cheap.. some even sound good! You can get the Gold Standard Strymons for $OhMyGod. Considering we really only use(d) spring, I can go cheap, provided it sounds good. But there's a part of me that wants to experiment and do Neat Shit. Some of the other pedals have functions that will turn 1 guy playing into a sort of atmospheric etheric mono-tri-theric concert - it's sometimes called shimmer. Be careful, it sounds like crap on cheaper pedals. They have different reverb settings: spring, hall, church, room, bat cave. There are quite a few pedals. My current favorite is the Digitech Polara. It's kinda expensive, but has really great sounds, which came from Lexicon, a Big Player in reverb. It has the added advantage of being very ugly and hiding the control names so you can't see them from more than 1' away. If I use a little more sense and a little less $$, the Electro Harmonix Oceans 11 is a great little box - it has a lot of versatility. Also the Hall of Fame (you load patches by pointing your phone at your pickups). If I come to my senses (sense), a basic, good-sounding unit will suffice. It's unlikely I'll need to perform a 1 man concert. Leave me any recommendations you have in the comments.
UPDATE: got a really great deal on an Oceans 11
If/when I do some YouTube pedal reviews, I promise these things:
- no downtuning
- no 50s tweed amps or anything no one can afford.
- Just basic clean tone, with no bloody reverb or distortion.
- no designer guitars - a basic Strat, LP, maybe Tele
- no Eric Johnson riffs - it takes away from the pedal and I can't do them anyway
- no shaking the guitar or wanking the bar to get the last possible vibration out of it
- no right handed guitars, at all, ever
- I swear to you, no bare feet, raw chicken, and more or less no boobies
- no curly cords, lava lamps, or clean areas to film
- content and attitude that will piss off even non-guitarists
- the most sarcasm of any pedal reviewer
Happy Whatever to Y'all!
Tell me what you want for the holidays in the comments.
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