Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

[DreX]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

I was the same way about volume knobs for about 30 years. Only now am I dialing it back. The secret is that you've probably been adjusting your setup for just the right amount of volume and gain.

Maybe it's due to buffering of capacitance in the cables, but I feel like I get better roll-off performance with a simple guitar-cable-amp setup than I ever do with with a pedal board or multi-effects in the signal chain. The more stuff there is between the guitar and amp, the more more wimpy/noisy the signal seems to be when rolled off.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

I was listening to a friend's solo album today - an album on which he used a Mesa Tremoverb as his primary amp - and was found myself really enjoying the tones he was getting. This in itself isn't uncommon, I really like the sound of those amps

EXCEPT When I'm playing through them.

I'm like this with traditional Strats, too. I love the tones other people get, but I've never thought I sounded as good using one myself. I don't know if it's a feel thing or an expectations thing, but Recto amps and Strats are like my achilles heel. Great-sounding products in the hands of others. Utter dog poop in mine.

This ever happen to you?? Stuff you love the sound of that you just can't enjoy using yourself?

Duncan JB in the bridge. Can't stand to play through it. You know that face Neal Schon makes when he plays a solo? That "Do I smell feet?" face? That's the face I make when playing through a JB in the bridge. However, I love the tones when I'm listening to the playback. Great separation and articulation for leads, and sits nicely in the mix. I just can't get it to growl or scream like I want when I'm not hearing it in the full mix.

 

[Rich_T]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

I understand where you're coming from on the Recto thing. I've never been able to get on with them, no matter how loud it is, or how high the mids are, I just seem to disappear into the mix when playing through one! Yet there are so many great hardcore bands out there that make them sound the mutts nuts.

The wah thing I also get. As soon as I stand on it, I sound like a crap Slash.

 

[mysquaredontfit]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

Any fuzz pedal. I guess my playing isn't loose enough or whatever, but I always sound like total garbage through a muff while my stoner friends sound huge.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

Cheesy old guitars with a zillion pickups, knobs, and switches, and tiny little frets like Jack White or Dan Zanes would play.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

I understand where you're coming from on the Recto thing. I've never been able to get on with them, no matter how loud it is, or how high the mids are, I just seem to disappear into the mix when playing through one! Yet there are so many great hardcore bands out there that make them sound the mutts nuts.

The wah thing I also get. As soon as I stand on it, I sound like a crap Slash.

Try a Carvin 2x12 with their British 12s in it. I picked up a TripleRec head last year and could not get anything resembling a scooped-mids tone from it, even with the Mids all the way down. I thought maybe the knob worked in reverse like a Rat pedal, but that wasn't it. That's when I realized why the JCM800 head through the same cabinet had so much mids. I thought it was the head.

 

[Nacho8807]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

I always liked the way some people can use loopers, but I just cant make it work for me. Yet another disappointing purchase, though less than a 5150.

 

[DreX]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

IMO it depends on the looper. I hate the single button loopers such as the Ditto, where for example you have to press and hold for an operation (nonsensical for a device that depends on precise timing), but the Boomerang III is nice, lots of buttons and ways to correct mistakes quickly.

 

[Nacho8807]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

Yeah I was using the Ditto, and the way you had to end the playback was asinine. Maybe one day I'll try a different one.

 

[Matt42]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

IMO it depends on the looper. I hate the single button loopers such as the Ditto, where for example you have to press and hold for an operation (nonsensical for a device that depends on precise timing), but the Boomerang III is nice, lots of buttons and ways to correct mistakes quickly.

My brother bought one of those a while back. I keep meaning to give it a try, but it kinda scares me. Coincidentally, he says the same thing about my pedal steel.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

Loopers can be so much more than what is available today. I don't mind things like the Ditto for practicing, but as a live tool, it doesn't have the control over the loop I need.

 

[autologic]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

I'm with some of you on the whole Strat thing. They just don't sound anywhere near as good when I play them... Then again, it may be because I have only owned squires and a MIM.

 

[Brow]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

I have a few things that fit this type of list:

Delay - I really like how other people use Delay on lead guitar lines etc but whenever I try it it just sounds awful.

JB Pickups - Until I got my 87 Kramer which came stock with JB/SSL1/SSL1 I believe I've always loved the tones other people get with JBs but have never been able to make them work for me. The JB in my Kramer seems different to the others I've tried before though, had time to age and mellow maybe?

MESA Amps in general - I have a friend with a Dual Rec that gets some great tones out of it but whenever I've tried to dial it in it becomes a flubby mess. Tony on here built a MIIC++ and when he plugs into it it's pretty much instant Metallica MOP tone, but when I plug into the same amp it just doesn't seem to work.

I'm sure there's more but those are the 1st things that come to mind.

 

[vinta9e]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

PRS Custom 24s, Rectos, and worst of all, Stilettos.:cussing:

 

[Ascension]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

I was listening to a friend's solo album today - an album on which he used a Mesa Tremoverb as his primary amp - and was found myself really enjoying the tones he was getting. This in itself isn't uncommon, I really like the sound of those amps

EXCEPT When I'm playing through them.

I'm like this with traditional Strats, too. I love the tones other people get, but I've never thought I sounded as good using one myself. I don't know if it's a feel thing or an expectations thing, but Recto amps and Strats are like my achilles heel. Great-sounding products in the hands of others. Utter dog poop in mine.

This ever happen to you?? Stuff you love the sound of that you just can't enjoy using yourself?

It was that way with me and Boogies for years till recently. I owned a couple over the years as I loved the way they sounded with other folks playing them and folks said I sounded really good playing the amps but to me they didn't "feel" right. Guess I "matured" as a player or something as I own 2 now and am digging playing the things. I got a .50 cal + in a trade a few months back and warmed up to it then found my old Subway Rocket in a local shop where the guy I sold it to traded it in and grabbed it back.
Here is a clip with the .50 cal + head from a Worship event we did a couple weeks ago.

 

[philthis]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

Talk Box

 

[B2D]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

I have a really hard time getting Les Pauls set up the way I want them to feel and sound, more so for lead than for rhythm. I love them for rhythm but for lead I'd rather play an SG.

5150's - love 'em when other people play 'em, but not me. One of my best recorded solos used one and I still didn't like it.

I'm not a tubescreamer fan. I just can't get into them like that.

I have a hard time with Marshall Plexis and JMPs - they just sound stiff and honky to me. JTM45s, 800s, no problem.

I can't get a phaser or a flanger to work with my sound. especially the flangers, they just don't work for me once I try using them in my rigs or in a band context.

I've never had a really good go with a Martin acoustic (the 1931 OM I played was an exception). I like Gibson acoustics and Taylors much, much more. The Eric Clapton Martin is nice feel and sounding but I wouldn't pay that much for one.

 

[sosomething]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

Loopers can be so much more than what is available today. I don't mind things like the Ditto for practicing, but as a live tool, it doesn't have the control over the loop I need.

Dave Torn posted an open letter to the industry about loopers on TGP a couple of months ago that really opened my eyes to a lot of things. Apparently they were doing more, and doing it better, in the '80s than anything that's come out since. Pretty interesting stuff.

 

[Rich_T]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

Dave Torn posted an open letter to the industry about loopers on TGP a couple of months ago that really opened my eyes to a lot of things. Apparently they were doing more, and doing it better, in the '80s than anything that's come out since. Pretty interesting stuff.

I would guess that these days, most people serious about loops and samples are using software and more specialised hardware to make it work. Which has probably left a bit of a gap in the market for high quality floor-based kit for guitar players.

 

[DreX]

Re: Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

I read most of his post, it's not that manufacturers are failing to supply robust looping features, it's that guitarists don't want them right now. People just want simple accompaniment, they don't want to modulate and pitch shift loops. That's why pedals like the Ditto are big sellers, and why more feature built in drum machines or clicks. His diatribe was interesting, but he's out of touch with the times. The electric guitar was more of an experimental avenue in the 80s, guitar solos were cool and all that. They're just another part of the rhythm section nowadays. People who would find appeal in modulating loops have moved on to electronica, because laptop-made music creation is cheaper and more powerful than it's ever been. Back when synths costs ten of thousands of dollars and were time consuming to set up, it was another story.