Nothing to see here

thecolourbox

So I've decided the likelihood of me ever making any music people like enough to hear outside the bubble of my spare room is precisely zero, and my spare room is too small for the stuff that is in it, so I've deicded to sell up and try to source a smaller more appropriate set up to save some space and give me some spare money to buy better non-music things (I mean put into savings of course).

So was hoping to get some words of wisdom for such an undertaking, but also to kind of talk through the process as I go a little bit. I think I may get around £2k if I sell all but a few key bits (mental when you add it all up isn't it) but I don't want to spend anywhere near that really. But at least it means I should have a bit of choice.

Instrument-wise, I'll just be flogging a couple of surplus electrics. Keeping an Eastwood Twintone, my diy SG and a resoglass Airline type thing. Keeping acoustic even though I find acoustic really dull, I always seem to need one if I flog them. That bit is easy.

The FX and Amplification are where the trouble is at. I basically don't need an amp, as I'm never likely to play in public for various reasons, although chiefly because I don't get on with people and I'm not that interesting.

But do I get a cheap ish amp to sit under the desk just in case? Or an FRFR (like the Alto ones at PMT) or PA set up as that may be useful in other applications? I have a Digitech GSP1101 that it wouldn't be worth bothering to sell, that sounds absolutely fine hence the FRFR amp idea, though would be a bugger to transport I imagine without one of those ghastly looking plastic or carpet covered rack cases should I ever need to leave the house with musical intentions.

I do have a Supro 1x12 that I did think about trying to convert to a powered cab (by velcroing one of those mini pedal sized amps to the back) but when you add up how much the mini amp would cost plus how much I would be able to get for the Supro cab if I sold it (maybe up to £150) then I imagine I could just get a much better sounding combo set up for around £200 and "save" myself a bit of poundage. Or as mused above, an FRFR for about the same.

Mostly I play at home, so it's the GSP into cheap studio monitors, which sounds spectacularly adequate. But I don't have a foot controller for it, so to change sounds from drive to fuzz mid song requires a lean over, a bash of the headstock on the desk, a slight tugging out of the cable from the instrument etc. If I sold my pedals, my Princeton amp which was utterly useless at home, and my mini Supro 5 watter, I'd easily have enough to get a Helix HX FX thingy which would also give some lovely stereo possibilities and better fx than the GSP. I could even use it as a midi switch thing for the GSP I guess.

It's a bit of a ramble I suppose but hoping somebody reads at least some of it and has some thoughts, even if it's just "shut up Matthew and go and play the bloody piano instead".

HAL9000

thecolourbox said:

So I've decided the likelihood of me ever making any music people like enough to hear outside the bubble of my spare room is precisely zero...

On what basis? Have you actually tried playing your music to mates, family, etc to get their feedback or opinions? You’re probably a better/more interesting player than you think. Even if you only strum a few chords there will be lots of people who wish they could do what you do - it’s very easy to be your own worst critic. How about going along to a local jam night or something of that ilk?

thecolourbox said:

... I basically don't need an amp, as I'm never likely to play in public for various reasons, although chiefly because I don't get on with people and I'm not that interesting.

Again... on what basis do you think you’re ‘not that interesting’? Playing an instrument automatically makes you a bit more interesting than lots of people.

thecolourbox said:

 

The FX and Amplification are where the trouble is at...

... I imagine I could just get a much better sounding combo set up for around £200...

Standard reply I know, but Katana is the answer. Quiet enough for home use and loud enough for a small gig. Absolutely stonking amp for around £200.

Anyway, if you want to do more than just play in your bedroom, you need to get out there (jam nights, open mikes, etc) and meet other musicians. Unfortunately it doesn’t happen by itself - you do need to be making the first moves.

Best of luck.

JMP220478

best way to improve as a player is to involve others IMHO .. guitarist becomes musician 

re a home setup with minimal kit - if you have any tech and assuming you're on a pc / mac / ipad / tablet atm - then look at software route with a simple interface - theres loads to choose from inc freebies to serious studio capable packages .

many recording packages / .DAW ( digital audio worksation )  come with built in guitar / bass stuff ie garageband on mac or ipad  

one of many articles on subject 

https://www.musicianonamission.com/guitar-amp-simulators-vs-real/

good luck n happy to talk through if it helps - pm me ..

thecolourbox

Thanks for the replies chaps, though I must admit about ten minutes after posting I thought... This was a silly post to post haha as its not a clear question or discussion, mostly just me feeling sorry for myself.

HAL9000 said:

thecolourbox said:

So I've decided the likelihood of me ever making any music people like enough to hear outside the bubble of my spare room is precisely zero...

On what basis? Have you actually tried playing your music to mates, family, etc to get their feedback or opinions? You’re probably a better/more interesting player than you think. Even if you only strum a few chords there will be lots of people who wish they could do what you do - it’s very easy to be your own worst critic. How about going along to a local jam night or something of that ilk?

Yes I did an EP of songs and sent them to my family (I don't really have friends to share it with) and when they eventually bothered to listen (took about three weeks and even then I had to ask again if they'd received it before they even made any comment at all) they said it was boring and my dad asked me if I was "going through one of my silly depression phases again". I posted here and the (much more useful than family feedback was that I used too much reverb and the songs weren't particularly interesting

dazzajl

The depression comment is quite interesting. I’d say at least half of the time I spend playing is just mindfulness to help me deal with life and keep pointing in roughly the right direction. For this sort of stuff, the only part that really matters is that then guitar feels super comfortable in the hand. 

As for the rest, it sounds to me like a little kindness and interest in your passion is more needed than any particular kit. Hopefully the community here has enough peeps that totally get that. 

On the kit side, sometimes a review and planning a new rig is a great project. The only real advice I can offer is don’t get rid of what you have for something else unless you’ve actually tried it and know you like it. It’s so easy to think something will fit the the bill based on reading and net videos, only to find when you get it, it’s crap. 

thecolourbox

Re the Modelling amp or computer software ideas, I can see their use case absolutely but as I already have a modeling unit I may as well use that for the same purpose and use the sounds I like from there rather than having to redo everything. That's why I thought of getting one or two frfr speakers and just using what I have as if I ever by some miracle needed to play in public i could put the modeller and vocals and even keys through it of needs be. Only thought against this so far is when I listed the three possible use cases for my playing (in order of likelihood - home, grab and go, full public setup), taking a rack modeller with a pedal board and a slightly too large frfr speaker is less than "grab and go" so maybe a small amp for £150-200 would be fine for such a purpose with a pedalboard.

Normaly Dazzajl I'd agree with you about not selling all to buy replacements as that's what has happened to get me here - I sold a load of stuff at knockdown prices to buy a Princeton amp which has been utterly useless to me ever since. So in this case i have absolutely no issue selling the stuff to replace it as its no use to me. Since posting the op the other day I've kind of resigned myself to the following:

Home : get a HX FX, into the GSP, into monitors
Grab and go : HX FX into a small amp
Public : either HX into the GSP into frfr, or HX FX into an amp 4cm then send IR effected outputs to the PA or another frfr

JMP220478

didnt know much about the gsp. quick read up  - and wondering why bother buying anything else for home use apart from a monitoring solution - either FRFR or improve your "cheap" studio monitors .. 

kin

Perhaps send one of your tunes into the mixing challenge on here,, a fresh perspective from someone else may open it up and give you some inspiration , best songwriters in the world find a producer quite handy.

  Having heard your stuff on several of the composition challenges i'd say you were being overly harsh on yourself, none of it was boring. 

  Regarding gear, i decided a while ago that an iPad and garage band was more than enough to get something going, if i ever come up  with anything worth spending more on, i'll save up for some studio time.

  Make music to please yourself first and foremost, music is consumed in such a different way these days, to most people it seems to be a very transient thing rather than something to be cherished.

   I'm lucky if i get more than a few bars of a tune, i rarely finish anything so for you to have completed an EP of songs makes you interesting in my book.

fftc

The first thing I would say is if you have no real intention of playing in public then having a set-up so you can 'just in case' is a bit daft. If the occasion arises that you do want/need to play out you will more than likely be able to beg, borrow, rent or steal something you can use to do it. So I would say you are just looking at kit for home.
A lot depends on what style of music you want to play and what you want to achieve with your playing. Since it seems that you have decided you only want to play for your own enjoyment then only the style question remains. There is a lot to be said for simplicity IMHO. My main set-up at the moment is guitar, lead, Fender Champ. I have 3 different guitars to choose from and the only other tone shaping ability comes from me and how I play. It helps me just play rather than chase tones around on some multi-option platform, and for me it is a big help. I realise that this won't work for everyone, but if you are in the 'traditional' camp when it comes to your guitar playing then it is worth some thought.

thecolourbox

JMP220478 said:

didnt know much about the gsp. quick read up  - and wondering why bother buying anything else for home use apart from a monitoring solution - either FRFR or improve your "cheap" studio monitors .. 

The HX has more and better effects and the ability to change those effects on the fly without having to lean five feet over to the unit to twist the knob, then back when I accidentally change to the wrong preset in the list, each time smacking my headstock against the desk and bending the pickup selector while I lean over it!

Plus more useful than my existing crappy pedals for when playing outside the house.

As long as it sounds as adequate as the GSP does for amps it will be fine.

It was a pretty pointless OP from me to be honest, just feeling sorry for myself being not very good at things that I've not put enough effort into, and not being able to sell any of my tat (chiefly for the same reason that I don't want it I imagine). I was quite glad the post had sunk down the pages without anybody noticing to be honest!

TA22GT

Everyone on this planet has a life to lead and a story to tell.
Your story is not boring when you find the right listener. That just might happen to be a fellow musician in the same boat. Then you will both have great stories to share and great music to make.
Don't be so hard on yourself.

ICBM

I'm puzzled as to why the Princeton is useless - in my experience they're a really nice home amp. Is it possible that there's something wrong with it? Or are you expecting something that it won't do - ie overdrive at low volume?

For me, a Princeton and a few pedals or a half-decent multi-FX would be far preferable to any sort of modelling and FRFR set-up for home playing - it just sounds much more natural.

thecolourbox

ICBM said:

I'm puzzled as to why the Princeton is useless - in my experience they're a really nice home amp. Is it possible that there's something wrong with it? Or are you expecting something that it won't do - ie overdrive at low volume?

For me, a Princeton and a few pedals or a half-decent multi-FX would be far preferable to any sort of modelling and FRFR set-up for home playing - it just sounds much more natural.

It's a small room so 1 on the knob is too loud and it is quite bassy, particularly as it projects at my ankles, so is no good if you're sat a for away from it. Plus I've never really played loudly with amps and prefer the sound of recordings to amps in the room anyway so to me, playing through monitors feels more natural. 

Plus the fact the Princeton plus a few pedals is around £600 more than I paid for the GSP, which has seen much more positive playing time

Bridgehouse

You sound like you need to collaborate - you clearly have talent, ideas, and interesting stuff to say musically - I bet a collaboration with a couple of others would bring out some real gems.

thecolourbox

Thanks all for the kind posts but I an regretting posting this so probably best to leave it here and hopefully let it sink back down the pages as you were all

Bridgehouse

thecolourbox said:

Thanks all for the kind posts but I an referring posting this so probably best to leave it here and hopefully let it sink back down the pages as you were all

If you PM @TTony or @Roland they can set it to “sink” - you can still post but it doesn’t flip to the top of the forum

horse

I seem to remember your songs sounded pretty cool - definitely shouldn't be stopping, particularly if you enjoy the creative process

ICBM

thecolourbox said:

It's a small room so 1 on the knob is too loud and it is quite bassy, particularly as it projects at my ankles, so is no good if you're sat a for away from it. Plus I've never really played loudly with amps and prefer the sound of recordings to amps in the room anyway so to me, playing through monitors feels more natural.

In that case I think you're right that a valve amp - certainly not a traditional one - is not what you want. Part of the problem is definitely it being on the floor - but if that's the only place for it you may not have a choice.

If so, and you still want to try the idea of a valve amp, I would think about using the Supro cab and something like a ZVex Nano or the little 'yellow submarine' amp @4114Effects just made... around half a watt fully cranked, and - from the Nano I had - only around 0.1W clean. The Nano was specifically designed for recording.

If that's still too bassy, I would perhaps recommend trying a very odd choice of speaker in the cab - (I can't believe I'm going to say this ) possibly something like a Celestion Rocket 50, which has no bottom-end and is very quiet for a 12" speaker. And would be a cheap experiment!

thecolourbox

Thanks all but I'd rather not continue this thread, it's just me feeling sorry for myself and can have no positive output unfortunately. Please don't waste your time here.

Thank you

TTony

Thread sunk at the OP's  request.

FWIW @thecolourbox, ; the following seems pretty apt;

TA22GT said:

Everyone on this planet has a life to lead and a story to tell.
Your story is not boring when you find the right listener. That just might happen to be a fellow musician in the same boat. Then you will both have great stories to share and great music to make.
Don't be so hard on yourself.

Especially the last sentence, whether in the context of what you originally posted, or in the subsequent regret of having posted it.

Funkfingers

SUGGESTION: Make some of your recording projects available for a tFB Mixdown challenge. 

I reckon that people here will find things in your material that you have overlooked.