General Music Chat

I think so! I was just looking through a Sweetwater catalog and Orange 1x12 cabinets are going for $500, 2x12 going for $800. These cabs have Celestion Vintage-30 speakers in them. For the price of the 2x12 from Orange I could buy a Carvin 4x12 cab with the same speakers for the same price!

The Vox Night Train 15 watt head is going for $500.

And what's with all these small 5-15 watt practice amps going for so frickin much? Is it because they have tubes? Is it in the brand name? Why so much in this jacked up economy(U.S. at least)? Have these little guys become trendy?

Not every company is doing this, but at least half of em are. Sheesh, theyr'e charging what a 100 watt Mesa or Marshall head go for.

Culprits:PRS, Orange, Vox, and Bogner.

I think the small amps going for so much is because of the tubes.
Some are special wired and all that jazz.
You want some shock, check out the Gretsch stuff.

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/prod ... D=26039813

Man...that's just nuts.

Kru,,, With taxes at all levels going up,,, why would this be a shock?
The trickle down theory works in all directions.
I just hope your income keeps up with it.

Orange has always been overpriced IMO.
Not really that impressive either unless your one of those guys that plays so loud no one can hear the singer.

Guitar players often remind me of women shopping.
Pay $100.00 for sandals because of the name stamped on them when the same sandals manufactured by the same Vietnamese family can be gotten at Wall Mart for $10.00.

THANK YOU GEORGE...


That's my number one pet peeve about Marshall, you pay more for their name than for a Peavey that sounds great.. And the Peavey Butcher and 5150 are/were both great amps. Several mainstream groups used Butchers a while back, I think 38 Special had them onstage in a live video I saw on MTV. I played one many times, loved it...120 watts, full stack, sounded just as good as any Marshall in town at half the price.

The number one reason I never bought a Marshall is I refuse to pay that much for that Marshall logo...At one time Mesa Boogie was reasonable, but before long you were paying for their name too, and as much as I like Boogies, I can't see paying what they want for a new one.

Thanks, but I'll stick to my used and rebuilt amps...

Oh, by the way I just rebuilt my Champ...again...and think I fixed what was making the tube sockets arc. The bias resistor was wrong and making it pull too much juice, it had to go somewhere...that's fixed, it sounds great and I hope it lasts this time. It has worked great since 1990, maybe I'll get another 20 years out of it.

Do any of you use second hand gear? I can only remember buying 1 drum kit from new.

"The art of spotting the deal"

I got my Marshall Jcm 800 1959 for 565$ delivered via eBay.

NEVER pay what the cretins ask. PAY what it's worth..or not at all.

A real musician will never rip you off! (He/She knows someone that will tell someone else lol)

I am learning guys.
I can walk in a gun shop, pick up a Smith or Colt look listen and feel and tell you if it's worth the asking price or no. ( pretty much any weapon as far as that goes )
But I could get taken to the cleaners real fast on used musical gear.
So I don't risk it unless I have someone in the know with me.

Do any of you use second hand gear?

ALL my stuff is second hand. Pawn shops, yard sales etc. Try finding a 1973 Fender Super Reverb new sometime...or a 74 Champ...all my guitars are second hand, I think I have a tuner I bought new though...and a few picks...

I'm not too keen on Peavey amps.
I'm partial to some of their guitars though. They have this habit of making new models all the time, then they quit making them a few years later.
Some of them are pretty good, and semi-collectible.

All my amps and guitars were bought second hand.

I use Mesa's and Les Paul's

I went to one of those 11 band deals sat to see a freinds band and we got into a long discussion on amps and guitars. I can play on just aobut anything and sound like I sound. It may take a few minutes of tweaking and i may need a tube screamer in front to get the breakup I want, but whenever i play on anything I wind up with a similiar tone.

One of my favorite tones listening to all these bands play was a kid with a Epi Les Paul into a Fulltone distortion pedal into a little SS Marshall. He jsut had it. 18 yrs old and had great tone to my ears.

I used to be a Marshall snob, still prefer them, but I bought a boutique amp - B-52 - that rivals the Marshall sound. I prefer to buy new gear, I don't trust the average slob musician.

LOL sorry to disagree, but the Orange gear, especially the tiny terror with the 2x12 cab is well worth the $1200-

The night-train is also a really nice piece of gear

15w tube is like 50w solid state, so don't underestimate it.

I personally have tried all the "cheap" alternatives , like the peavy, line6, fender, marshall (cheaper lines), etc.. the only cheap alt I ever liked was the Vox valvertonix stuff, the tube preamp does a nice job.

I know the fender blues jr and many other amps use tube preamps now, but most still sound like crap to me. The only time I've ever heard an orange sound like crap is when it's used in metal or just plain too loud. Orange is definitely for the more relaxed player IMO.

Guitars too !!

Dang it.
Looking at an upgrade to a full scale Les Paul.
Dang it !!

Perhaps I should never have a day off.