The best tone you ever had from gear you no longer own..

richardhomer

63 Strat into a 65 watt Musicman 4x10 combo - cranked it was just an awesome combination. I changed to the (then fashionable) MkIII Boogie and retired the Strat as it was getting too valuable to gig.

I listened to a recording of me playing through the original set-up recently - I was definitely not misremembering how great it sounded. Interesting reading others’ comments - seems most of us have made the mistake of getting rid of perfection....

thecolourbox

Mines a lot more humble than the rest of these I think - it was my old Squier Tele with Tele EMG pickups, on the neck pickup, into the clean channel of a hot rod deluxe with lots of reverb. I've had better and more expensive guitars and amps since (currently have a Princeton but it's not a patch on that sound) but that was the clean sound in my head as they say.

I'm terms of overdrive sound it was an Eastwood Airline bridge pickup into a Fender Greta, with occasional lashings of a Little Bear Woolly Mammoth clone

StuartMac290

Gretsch Anniversary with Powertrons into my old Custom Shop Bass Breaker - not the amp they now call the Bass Breaker, this was a Masterbuilt 2x12 version of the Bassman, and it sounded glorious. 

The neck pickup of that guitar into that amp - I don't think I've ever reproduced that with another amp. I still have the guitar but I sold the amp to a guy in France. 

NorthenLights

Well, you could say it was my Fender Hotrod Deville, originally a 2"12, but now equipped with one mighty EVM 15L speaker. I still own it, but as it was to big for my apartment it's on an extended loan with my dad. The EV really took this amp really from good to GREAT. It's weird, because I was always bothered by the ice pick tone in the original Deville-speakers. I actually bought the EVM 15L for my Dumble-style amp, because I heard EVs were the way to with D-styles. Well, with the D-style, the EV had an even worse ice pick than the Deville, so I never liked it. One day, on a whim, I decided to try it through the Fender and BAM, instant success! Sadly, the combo has become almost unusable as anything but a studio amp since it's now REALLY heavy, but that tone is to die for.

But if we're gonna talk gear that I actually don't own anymore, it must be my Dirty Chieftain, together with a Patrick Eggle LA Classic 22. Dirty is a swedish amp maker that makes really sweet Matchless clones. It was a combo that was wider and deeper than many 4"12s, and you could literally not lift it withouth help from a second person, as the side handles was too far away (at least for my short arms and weak chest). The tone was to die for. I literally stoped practicing for a while simply because whenever I turned it on, all I could do was just sit there in something very close to rapture, listening to the beautiful tone. It sounded great with strats and LPs, while teles and hollowbodies completely dissapeared. I once recorded it through the mic of a crappy digital camera, and you could hear the volume drop considerably when I went from my Custom 24-style guitar to a semi-hollow. You just couldn't get enough mids if the guitar didn't emphasize them. As I sold my strat (the Eggle) for a tele, I figured I can't hang on to an amplifier that is so humongously big and only work with one single of the guitars that I own. If I could buy it again as a head I'd go for it in a heartbeat.

tone1

I’ve always been a bit disappointed with my tone, no matter what I play through (so I guess it’s me) but my USA Strat clean through a Blues Junior was OK

Niallseroreilly

Fender American tele into a Vox Ac30 with greenbacks circa 2005 this was the first time i heard what an electric guitar could do.... ive never heard or felt a tone like it since...

Eartrumpet

Gibson Les Paul Standard, Diamond Spitfire II (bought of this forum). No pedals, sounded rather splendid. No longer own either as i do not have the time to play in bands anymore and struggle to find tome at home tbh ..... which is shite!

Majorscale

All my gear sounds better when other people play it! Miss my old J40, a 335 Luther Dickinson and although I didn’t bond with it, a Carr Rambler which sounded great with a Rodenburg 808 and a Tele going through it.

cm01

Twinfan said:

PRS DGT -> Bogner XTC Classic with matching 2x12

Fabulous sound, just way too loud for the pub gigs I play    The DGT was replaced with better sounding PS guitars but I still fondly remember how good it sounded with the Bogner.

I remember that very same DGT sounding absolutely glorious straight into my Reverend Hellhound... and then I sold it to @TimmyO - still regret it!

timmysoft

My best was probably:

Cornford RK100
Crate Vintage 412
PRS CE24 (1997)

sold it because i apparently needed more channels 

TimmyO

cm01 said:

Twinfan said:

PRS DGT -> Bogner XTC Classic with matching 2x12

Fabulous sound, just way too loud for the pub gigs I play    The DGT was replaced with better sounding PS guitars but I still fondly remember how good it sounded with the Bogner.

I remember that very same DGT sounding absolutely glorious straight into my Reverend Hellhound... and then I sold it to @TimmyO - still regret it!

...and it is going nowhere 

olafgarten

Mine isn't very special but the best tone I had was the Classic 60s Jazzmaster though a Princeton Reissue completely dimed in GuitarGuitar, thank god for soundproof rooms even though I almost went deaf. 

mgaw

telecaster-ptd minibone-ptd kush-carr slant 6

FelineGuitars

Kebabkid said:

I had a stereo MIDI rack system in the late 80s/early 90s that was fabulous.

The main tones came from an early numbered, and fabled, ADA MP1 Preamp. I've heard others, and Jonathan from Feline will testify to this, but they just didn't sound as good as those early ones. Great clean and overdriven tones.

Effects came from Alesis Quadraverb, or Art Multiverb or later Rocktron Intellifex and the switching was courtesy of an ADA Midi footswitch

Power came from a Marshall 80/80 and speakers were a pair of EV 1x12s but I later swapped  them for some Thiele, Celestion- equipped Mesa Boogie 1x12s.

You and I both had really early MP1s which were amazing (this was before they added more gain to the unit for the thrash metal brigade). I later had a chance to buy yours from a guitar shop in Watford and I so should have as it wiped the floor with so many other units.

The secret to using FX with these was to use a rack mounted line mixer so the effects were in parallel.

I had a lot of MP1s over the years and none seemed to have the magic those early ones did - we should speak to Brinsley to remind us where the serial numbers end for that first batch and seek out another of that first batch.

Mind you my remaining one has had two significant upgrades that made it a real great sounding unit :

1: The Superstock tube board with upgraded signal path http://www.marshalljmpmodshop.net/ada mp1 ss mod.htm
2 The MDRT replacement transformer that delivers a much better voltage to the two tubes and a better heater voltage too
http://www.marshalljmpmodshop.net/miscellaneous_parts_and_replacement_tubes.htm

The MDRT is a 24VA transformer which can deliver 12.6V to the heaters.The high voltage has gone up to 240Vdc / 8mA.

The original is only a 12VA transformer,only deliver between 8 and 9 V to the heaters and the high voltage is 190Vdc / 4mA.

  So the MDRT will enhance the sound,better low end,less noise and the sound will sound less compressed.

darcym

Slash Marshall head (original not AFD) best Marshall head I've played for that rock voice, regret letting it go now.

Phil_aka_Pip

I never got rid of any gear that gave me what I thought was "good tone", although there were some bits of crap that I got rid of precisely because they didn't.

57Deluxe

...if you have ever read Juno and the Paycock by Sean O'Casey, then the character Maisie Madigan is you that is!

stratman3142

When I played in a few covers bands (including a couple of fairly large ~10 piece bands) I liked my stereo rack based set-up comprising a JMP1 Pre Amp. GT Major Processor, Marshall 8008 Power amp driving a couple of Marshall 1912. I loaded the  1912 cabs with Celestion V30 speakers because the original Celestion speakers they came with were pretty dreadful. It easily coped with a large band with brass section and loud drummer, with plenty in reserve and masses of clean headroom.

There's a picture below. The GT6 on the floor was just used for midi switching, apart from the pedal which was used for volume and wah.

With my HSS Strat on the right, I could get a reasonable approximation of any sound I wanted (the black Strat Plus on the left was just my spare). I particularly liked the JMP1 drive OD1 channel. The clean channels were good, but there was a comprise in using the V30s, which were excellent for the drive sounds but a bit harsh for the cleans.

In the end I sold the rack system because I wanted a simple 1x12 combo that was light, easy to lug around and easy/quick to set up. Also, the midi switching set up was a bit of a pain to adjust on the fly. I've still got the guitars and the GT6.

https://i.imgur.com/Z1Mb549.jpg

pmg

I got a fine bass tone from my old Rickenbacker 4003 Jetglo into a silverface bassman(?) during a studio session.  Also an ampeg svt half stack that had to be moved on due to size.  The Ric was sold when the band ended and I finally moved back to guitar and needed to fund guitar gear.

Guitar wise, best live sound I remember was my Rickenbacker 330 into a cranked AC15tv heritage, fighting to control feedback when using a DMM.  Good times.  I moved onto Badcat amps after that and a few years ago had a dalliance with revisiting the ac15 sound I cherished so I bought another.  Whilst good I much prefer my current sound.  Ramble over.

Blueingreen

Best amp for tone, MusicMan 65.  I still own it but might as well not, because it's too heavy for me to lug nowadays.  Hasn't been switched on in years.