I thought I'd write this in an attempt to 'perhaps' save someone else the countless £££'s I've spent on gear - my journeys done, well nearly - here's the story:
Started with:
A squire strat & Fender Champion amp ( wouldn't stay in tune, amp sounded s**t)
Bought an Epiphone black beauty also sounded crap & wouldn't stay in tune
Sold all at a deep loss - yay
Bought a mexican strat (sounded ok wouldn't stay in tune)
bought a vox vt40 (sounded ok on dumble setting)
upgraded 12ax7 tube & put 10" alnico gold in Vox (sounded 'loads' better but still too boxy)
Sold Vox & alnico gold at a deep loss - yee hah
Strat went in loft
Got a Les Paul (loved guitar - it stayed in tune hated pickups)
Got a Vox AC4 HW - out an alnico blue in it (sounded awesome buzzed like nobody's business)
Sold alnico blue at deep loss
returned amp
Super heavily upgraded Les Paul (about 1.5 times what I paid for it)
Bought Yamaha Thr10C - loved it on the deluxe setting - hated everything else
Bought Amplitube and highend interface - nice on clean settings - unrealistic for everything else
Sold THR at deep loss
Sold interface at a deep loss
kept software
Sold strat in loft for peanuts - YES !
Spent some time with amps at my friends studio along the way - decided I liked the fender sound & liked alnico speakers - couldn't stand ceramics.
Finally - bought a boutique amp (Lazy J) - with my Les Paul plugged in, it finally sounds like the guitar sound thats in my head.
Goodness knows how much I've spent to get to this point, but I feel its finally over (for now).
I know we're all on the same journey (just look at the classifieds) but if I had one piece of advice it would be, just spend the big bucks upfront or you'll be upgrading forever.
If there's one thing left to do, it would be to buy a higher end Les Paul & upgrade that, but I'm ok for now.
Love to hear anyone else's story to tonal nirvana
Comments
Welcome to hell.
TWO boutique amps.... it never ends...
See you in the classifieds...
But maybe you spent/lost more money on all the cheaper alternatives than it would have cost to buy the ideal kit to begin with.
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
Big bucks dont equate to good tone, it's all about knowing your style and what works for you. I tried a lazy J20 and thought it was very average, I tried a few tone kings and carrs and thought they were overpriced guff too.
That way you only cry once ..........................................................as my grandfather used to say
It is true of so many things in life.
Also, I don't know why so many of your guitars wouldn't stay in tune. Sounds like you need to visit a guitar tech and have the nut filed? That will need doing on occasion anyway.
I'm glad you're happy though. Just you wait until you're bored by the tweed deluxe trick and need something new...
I also forgot - from my original posting I had a Fender Bassbreaker in there too. That was 'really nice' but my love for alnico speakers and the fact you couldn't fit one in the chassis meant it had to go.
For years I played a Marshall because I love the sounds recorded down the years with those boxes. Whilst it had the 'right' sound, it didn't really suit what I was doing.
Now I have a MESA Mini Rectifier - whilst derided by some, it suits me down to the ground. Green channel in 'pushed' mode is nice and elastic. It's not a Fender. The red channel in 'vintage' mode is a lovely hot-rod 80's drive that isn't a Marshall. Neither of the sounds are particularly 'Boogie' either.
I've come to realise that what I like about the amp is that I can make it sound more like me because it doesn't have the out-of-the-box classic amp tones. Some people can make that work for them, and fair play to them - I find it a bit restrictive.
I had a couple of sounds in my head for a long time and now think I've found them. Whether or not they're any good is another matter