General Music Chat

Definitely hit garage sales and flea markets, I forgot to mention those. When Mike made that comment I went DOH!! Shoild have thought of that...

My 1966 Harmony Bobkat came from a garage sale in San Antonio, $2. My Fender Champ from a flea market in Houston, $8. Best practice amp ever. I also missed a 60's Dan Electro guitar at a flea market in Cut 'n shoot Texas, (yes that's really the town's name) for $30, my uncle and I had about $27 between us including change and still needed at least $5 for gas to get home so we had to pass it up.

Also if your area has a weekly auction it might be worth checking out, I snagged an Epiphone FT 120 acoustic for $20 at a local auction here about 6 months ago that needed serious repairs, but it's to ofar gone, the block inside that the neck bolts onto is loose so I'd have to completely disassemble the guitar to fix it. I'm not quite that good at guitar repairs, so I'm planning to get some decent wood later on and build an electric from the Epiphone neck. 1/2" shorter scale than my Cort, so it should work fine. I have most everything but the wood now. The neck has tuners, I have two humbuckers, I'll need bridge and pickguard, that's it.

I found out much too late that another auction house not far away sold a friend's father's antique items, including at least a half dozen guitars (new and old) for nothing. $500-1000 guitars going for $20-30...and I didn't know about it until months later. Come to think of it the auction here has a 70's looking Yamaha electric piano sitting there, don't know when they're going to try and sell it though.

So yeah, absolutely check out garage sales, flea markets, resale shops, auctions, all have been productive for me.

Definitely hit garage sales and flea markets, I forgot to mention those. When Mike made that comment I went DOH!! Shoild have thought of that...

My 1966 Harmony Bobkat came from a garage sale in San Antonio, $2. My Fender Champ from a flea market in Houston, $8. Best practice amp ever. I also missed a 60's Dan Electro guitar at a flea market in Cut 'n shoot Texas, (yes that's really the town's name) for $30, my uncle and I had about $27 between us including change and still needed at least $5 for gas to get home so we had to pass it up.

Also if your area has a weekly auction it might be worth checking out, I snagged an Epiphone FT 120 acoustic for $20 at a local auction here about 6 months ago that needed serious repairs, but it's to ofar gone, the block inside that the neck bolts onto is loose so I'd have to completely disassemble the guitar to fix it. I'm not quite that good at guitar repairs, so I'm planning to get some decent wood later on and build an electric from the Epiphone neck. 1/2" shorter scale than my Cort, so it should work fine. I have most everything but the wood now. The neck has tuners, I have two humbuckers, I'll need bridge and pickguard, that's it.

I found out much too late that another auction house not far away sold a friend's father's antique items, including at least a half dozen guitars (new and old) for nothing. $500-1000 guitars going for $20-30...and I didn't know about it until months later. Come to think of it the auction here has a 70's looking Yamaha electric piano sitting there, don't know when they're going to try and sell it though.

So yeah, absolutely check out garage sales, flea markets, resale shops, auctions, all have been productive for me.

Yeah, I will do that. Because now, I think, I found what I am looking for amplifier wise, however, I need a multi-effect board. Late last night I went through the world of guitars online and listened to every single effect processor I could find. After tons of research I finally found the Boss GT8. Now it is a bit complex, many people have said it, but I will learn it. That is far worth it to me to buy. I really liked the sound and abilities of the processor. So yeah, that is what I want. It is expensive though, $445 retail. I found it on Ebay for about $400. So now I am going to take all of your suggestions about the amplifier and use that to hunt down my effects board. That guy I went into that was explaining to me that solid states stink and he likes tube amps, he had many used pedal boards in there. I think they were priced well, I can go back there and find myself one, just do a bit of research online about it.

So yes, I have it narrowed down between two amplifiers now. I will let you guys know which one I wind up getting.

Thanks for all of the help guys, peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

I know I keep revisiting this thread but thought I would add some more.

Sunday night I took my son to a Ron Paul Beneifit concert that my old bandmates in Chemical Zoo put together. This isnt about politics.

They held this at the New Daisy Theatre in Memphis. Ive played there a number of times, Nirvana played there, Alanis Morrisette played there, and a lot of middle of the road bands play there. Its an old movie theatre, probably hold 5-600 people. They have a house pa system and sound man, lights, big nice stage.

When I got there a redneck cover group was playing. These guys werent that great but their instruments sounded great. The bass player had a little ampeg combo and the guitar player had a little 1-12 combo. The bass sounded full, the guitar sounded good. I talked to the soundman and he said he loved bands like this with smaller amps cause they are so easy to get a good sound out of and he was not fighting with the stage volume.

The next group is a Lamb Of God kind of group. The bass player has an 8-10 cabinet and the guitarist a half stack. They have it cranked and the sound in the room is mush. The sound guy is shakeing his head. I go over to him and he takes the bass and guitar completely out of the mix, it still sounds like mush. The band is tight and are obviously good players but the sound is mush to me.

Chemical Zoo comes out next. Both guitarist play Mesa Dual Rec half stacks and the bass player has an 8-10 rig. I know these guys and they are great musicians but they sound like mush. Everyone has the bass cranked on their amps to the point it just turns into a low frequency mush bucket. Lately Ive gone to see a lot of bands in various size places and the best sounding groups are playing on smaller amps. The guys ask me how it sounded and I could tell I pissed them off by telling them what I thought, but they are a good band and it sounded mushy to me. Of course they wanted to blame the sound man and they headed over to talk to him. Sometimes I wish I hadnt opened my mouth. Im playing on the same bill as them for New Years so Im sure they will be all over me cause another guitarist that I didnt know about will be sharing the stage with me and we both run Mesa half stacks so the whole deal may blow up on me.

But back to the thread, smaller amps sound better than the bigger ones. Most of us will not play a bigger hall than the one I went to the other night. Of course New Years I will be wailing on my half stack and mushing up the world, so I guess Im a hyprocrite.

Not reasonably priced, but really for the quality it is, the Mesa Boogie line half stacks will be about the best possible choice for live gigs that you don't expect to be mic-ed. I have been using the triple rectifier for about 6 years now, and love it in the studio, and live. Live in particular, I have been to shows where there has been no mics for the instruments and no one could tell, they might have even thought I was too loud, oh well. I can't recommend any other half stack because the mesa line is just too nice. Check um out.


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Yea Mesa Boogie is a great amp.

If you don't already own a Marshall.

Lol. Where do they sell Mesa Boogie's? I have never seen them in the stores around here.

I am not sure what kind of amplifier I will want, it will depend on the sound I am looking for at that point when I have the money to buy it. I will also need a good effect pedal. There is some music gear consigment shop around here, they have stuff at low prices, I might be able to find a good effect pedal cheap.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.