Has anyone gone back to the beginning?

shaunm

Gas has been something that I’ve been pandering to of late and I’ve been on a bit of spree with Guitars, amps and pedals. Whilst I’ve been on this little gear merry go round I’ve been ignoring the amp that I’ve used the longest and gigged the most over the last 10 years or so. 

This week I left all my newly acquired stuff in the studio which meant I was left with my old favourite at home. I hadn’t tried it out with my new guitars and pedals so I thought I’d do that the other day and would you believe it, it’s the tone I’ve been seeking to buy. Even without the new pedals and plugging in my old guitars it’s just a fantastic sound and one that I think will stick with me now. 

The humble and crazily cheap to buy Laney Lionheart 4x10 combo. 

I like it it that much I’ve just bought a second one for under £300. It works perfectly too. So now I’m going to be gigging two of them set differently from each other. 

Maybe these amps are my version of Brian’s AC30’s. 

I can’t help but think that I’ve wasted some money though.

TTBZ

Not with amps but certainly with guitars. My first proper one was an Epiphone LP Custom which i used for everything and I'm back to wanting one again! I'd love a proper Gibson one but thats just way out of my price range. Stupid thing is I've had a really nice Japanese Les Paul since then which I loved and sold for really cheap to help fund a guitar which I've since sold as I don't get on with Fenders!

kreggs

Is that the Lionhart with the jensen speakers in it? I like to run my Lionheart head through some american speakers, love the sound! The laney was my first valve amp and im also working my way through different amps. mostly building them though. wonder If like yourself I will end up back with the laney haha

shaunm

It is indeed @kreggs it has the Jenson 10” speakers and to my ears they fit the amp perfectly.

ICBM

Yes. I now own the exact same models (sadly not examples) of my first electric guitar and amp that I had in 1985.

An Aria RS Standard and a Centurion Hi-Fi Five.

The Centurion seemed ancient even then, but it was in fact only 21 years old. There are Line 6 amps that old now...

shaunm

ICBM said:

Yes. I now own the exact same models (sadly not examples) of my first electric guitar and amp that I had in 1985.

An Aria RS Standard and a Centurion Hi-Fi Five.

The Centurion seemed ancient even then, but it was in fact only 21 years old. There are Line 6 amps that old now...

Did it sound as good as you remember?

ICBM

shaunm said:

Did it sound as good as you remember?

Much better, because I now know enough to make them work properly - especially the amp, since the original one wasn’t.

kreggs

I remember  having a gorilla  amp when I was 13. Dont think  I will be going back to that though!

octatonic

My first amp was a POS Marshall solid state amp.
I then bought a Crate half stack and then a string of Boogies and Marshalls.

The only ones I'd go back to would be the Boogies and Marshalls.

bloodandtears

this has inspired me to dig out my flextone 2 for tonights rehearsal..

Voxman

bloodandtears said:

this has inspired me to dig out my flextone 2 for tonights rehearsal..

I had a Flextone II plus rig with floorboard and extn cab that upped it from 60w to 100w.  Sounded great at home but I always struggled with it live to cut through the mix. What I didn't know then but discovered and use with my AD120VTX Valvetronix (that ultimately replaced it) is that a 7-band EQ and/or BBE Sonic stomp maximiser in the FX loop totally raises the amp up to a different level!

pintspiller

My first guitar was a Hondo II flat top plywood  Les Paul. My first amp was a Ross Fame 10. 

I have no intention of finding another overpriced toytown guitar. And the amp barely sounded better than when I played through my Dansette deck.

DrBob

Not quite the beginning as that was a loooooonngg time ago but I have just bought my Budda SuperDrive 30 back for the 2nd time.
I should just keep it, because all I ever do with any other amp is try and get it to sound like the drive channel on the Budda anyway.. 

Grumpyrocker

Not amps, I don't want to back to my old Uni rig of Hohner Marlin 50 amp and Korg G3 effects.

But after my first long-service guitar fell to bits I've not had a superstrat since. And while I'm not trawling Ebay for old Epiphone 435i models like I started with - recently I have begun to look at modern HSS double-cuts with the trem, after years with fixed bridge single-cuts.

munckee

kreggs said:

I remember  having a gorilla  amp when I was 13. Dont think  I will be going back to that though!

I had a gorilla 10w solid state amp as my first amp.  My wife made me take it to the tip many years later after it had sat in the loft for years, tipping a working amp was sacrilege really.

MattBanshee

Zoom digital effects into a Peavey Bandit? Noooo way.

Fifty9

My playing level seems to have gone back to the beginning but my gear is as you’d expect from 15yrs of GAS!

Grumpyrocker

Fifty9 said:

My playing level seems to have gone back to the beginning but my gear is as you’d expect from 15yrs of GAS!

Same here. No chance of these old unpractised fingers tackling the Satriani stuff I did at 19. But over 20 years later I have all the gear I'd have loved at that age.

Fifty9

I’m not quite all the gear no idea but I’m not far off...

57Deluxe

munckee said:

kreggs said:

I remember  having a gorilla  amp when I was 13. Dont think  I will be going back to that though!

I had a gorilla 10w solid state amp as my first amp.  My wife made me take it to the tip many years later after it had sat in the loft for years, tipping a working amp was sacrilege really.

these Gorilla amps really stick around...

57Deluxe

I still have my first amp from 1973 and it sits in the room with the other serious contenders and doesn't let itself down too much...