Dang, my cheapo rig sounded good today, and other guitar musings...

[Katastrophe]

Got a chance to play today... As most of y'all know, I've got a fairly inexpensive rig right now, consisting mainly of an '06 MIM Strat, and a Fender Mustang I amph.

I don't know what happened today. I haven't changed an amph setting (other than selecting other models) or anything. The Twin Reverb setting, using position 2 on the guitar, sounded glorious. I can't explain it, other than it sounded like what I would think a clean Strat should sound like. My playing, on the other hand, could use some work, but the tones were just in-freaking-spiring. I was in quack heaven, and haven't felt that way about playing in a while.

All in all, with guitar, amph, strap and cable, I've got about $550.00 invested, having bought all the equipment new.

All that said, I'm just not happy with the ultra high gain sound, at least how it pertains to my playing. The ceramic pups have always sounded harsh and muddy to my ears... But lately, I've been willing to just forego the distortion and play either squeaky clean, or with a touch of grit.

In fact, right now (and y'all know how fast my GAS changes), if I was changing gear, it would be this rig here:



I completely dig the clean tones he gets here.

All THAT said, I still dig good ol' hard rock and metal. A lot. I just don't seem to want to play it anymore. Is that weird?

 

[Tig]

I like the Fender clean models quite a bin on the Mustang amp. I downloaded a "Brian Setzer" and a few other patches from their user created collection. I forgot the names since I lost the hard drive they were once loaded on.

The Mustang works well with single coils.

 

[marnold]

All THAT said, I still dig good ol' hard rock and metal. A lot. I just don't seem to want to play it anymore. Is that weird?

Yes, I prescribe massive amounts of therapy for you.

Of course, when I've been playing bass lately I've been doing a lot of slapping and popping, so there you go.

 

[Lev]

All that said, I'm just not happy with the ultra high gain sound, at least how it pertains to my playing. The ceramic pups have always sounded harsh and muddy to my ears... But lately, I've been willing to just forego the distortion and play either squeaky clean, or with a touch of grit.

I think that may be more down to the amph than the pickups. As you know I have a Mustang I also and although the cleans are indeed fantastic the higher gain and crunch sounds aren't there and sound harsh with either single coils or humbuckers IMHO. If you were to pickup something like a Blackstar HT1 and a line A/B selector you would have an awesome practice setup with the Mustang for cleans and the blackstar for rocking out. I too gave up on playing higher gain stuff because I was never happy with my tone but since getting a Blackstar HT40 I can't stop playing power chords, riffs and even tapping licks. In some ways I think the gear can dictate your playing choices.

 

[deeaa]

There's a few - to me - truths obvious about this notion posted.

First off, IMO, EVERY piece of equipment, basically no matter how bad as long as it is playable, has at least one good use, at least one good sound for which it is perfect.
All you need to do is find it and lock onto it, and it can be the best sound ever for some purpose and totally enjoyable. I don't care if it's the rattiest Danelectro and cheapest plastic belt-clip amp, it could have an insanely good dirty blues wrunk ever for some situation.

Secondly - who's saying a cheaper amp can't be good? It depends entirely on where and how you play it, for what purpose?
A cheaper amp isn't built for big stages and massive volumes etc. but there is no innate reason it should be any worse than another pile of electronics for the volumes and uses it was designed for. It's not like great big amps are made of some precious metals cheaper amps don't have, they're just built for years of use, loads of volume and hard touring...a small cheap amp will actually likely sound BETTER than a big super-$$ amp in home setting.

The same goes for pickups. There are NO greatly significant differences between any reasonable quality pickups. Sure, an expensive one might be less microphonic or brighter thanks to better materials, but again, it depends much more on the amp and the situation whether those qualities matter or not. A cheap pickup may be just the ticket for not too bright a sound from a smaller amp and sound HUGE and warm. An electric pickup has very few variables and each has just a tiny effect on tone, aside from the actual construction (single/bucker etc.) but just as with amps...any may be great.

So don't ever think cheap equipment is bad sounding or inferior for the use they're made for - that is simply NOT the case.

Think of the countless superb recordings which have been made with tiny amps in studios, often really cr*p hardware, and still made sound great.

In fact, if someone hadn't had to play with a busted cr*p amp that buzzed like crazy, we'd never even discovered overdriven sounds, I do believe...

 

[Eric]

You know, just yesterday I swapped the Jet City for the Mustang I at my storage place. I had to dig to the back of that unit to find the Mustang, but it's just so much better for playing at home right now. Since we have everything packed away while we have our house on the market, I am only allowing myself one amp. Since I can't really bring the JC anywhere near its comfort zone, I'd rather use the Mustang I.

So the point is that I agree with you that it's a good little amp and it fits the bill very nicely for home playing. Out of my three amps, it's the one I choose to have around for just basic playing and practice right now.

 

[Katastrophe]

To be fair, I haven't tried the Strat on a tube amph. I have played it through a number of SS amphs, big and small, and no matter how I fiddle with the EQ on the amphs, I get into serious mud territory with anything over, say, a light bluesy crunch.

I do have other guitars (ESP M II Deluxe, Ibanez RG 570) that handle the higher gain stuff quite well. I just wish that they had thicker neck profiles so my left hand wouldn't cramp when I play 'em.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

For higher gain you might consider humbuckers instead. If HBs tend to be too dark or muddy for you, there are brighter ones you might be happy with, such as Seymour Duncan mini-humbuckers, or DeArmond Gold Tones.

 

[Eric]

For higher gain you might consider humbuckers instead. If HBs tend to be too dark or muddy for you, there are brighter ones you might be happy with, such as Seymour Duncan mini-humbuckers, or DeArmond Gold Tones.

On the immediate topic of the Mustang amph, I have found similar things to Lev and Kat, that it's not super-duper awesome at high-gain stuff. As I delve more into modeling and modeling amphs, I'm realizing that many of them do one area really well (clean, light crunch, high-gain, etc.). It's surprising that none of them seem to put it all together so far. In due time, I suppose.