Gear you like to hear but hate to use?

[daan]

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

LPs. Man I love hearing a Paul thru a cranked Marshall, but the minute I pick one up, it just feels totally "wrong". It's the sound I'm hearing in my head as I play my crappy fake Strat, but I just can't bond with an LP. They sound like heaven, though...

 

[ErikH]

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

Compressors. I've tried enough to know that they are not for me. There is one that I was able to dial in but the price is too steep for me so I go without.

Some Gibsons. There are Gibsons that just do not work for me. I love a good SG and even a 335. Those two work best for, the SG having the edge. But I'll be darned if a LP just doesn't feel right after a while. My buddy has one that feels really comfy and I love it but long term I know that I'd get tired of it. I'm just at home with Strat-style guitars.

Fender Amps. I know, crazy. I'm a Marshall guy and even Soldano style. Those are the amps I'm most comfortable with. Fender amps just don't work for me.

And apparently, neither do Crybabys anymore. I've owned one since 1991 but hardly ever used it for the first 10 years or so I owned it. Then I modded it, used it a bit, then put it away. Modded it again and used it a lot more since I got it sounding really sweet but now it's giving me crap and intermittently working. Time to put it up.

Thin picks. BITD, I used to use them a lot. Then I used heavy picks for years. I've settled in with mediums really well. I'd rather use my thumb than a thin pick.

 

[Jermo3178]

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

Slide and Single Coils... I can't make either of those work for me. But I can listen to them all day long.

 

[Diego]

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

Super clean, uncompressed amps a la Fender Twin Reverb/JC120, etc.
I need some sort of squeeze in my sound.

 

[JeffB]

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

Vox amps. In fact most el84 amps.

P90s.

PRS

I hate to say it here, and no malice intended, but most Duncan's. Just don't get along anymore.

Love to hear all of em. Can't use em.

 

[MacBradley]

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

I fit this thread perfectly. I play a STRAT into a TREMOVERB. Haha. I'm using a strat neck pickup into it though, so its not quite what you might think. I'm not usually a huge fan of using the typical stuff used into Recto's usually. The Tremoverb has an incredible clean and blues channel on it...it probably gets overlooked
because many people buy them spend most of their time on the dirt channel or using a pickup designed for distorted tones when checking out the clean channel.

 

[Archer250]

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

Slide. I've since given up and started using the trem instead.

 

[hydro]

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

Just can't seem to connect with a Les Paul but I love the way they sound (and look)!

 

[firebirdguy72]

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

Les Paul's.... to me they are very uncomfortable to play. It's probably from years of playing Strats with body contours. The lack of body contours and the extra weight really bum me out. Plus I'm not crazy about the shorter scale length. also slide... I love listening to Ry Cooder, Rory Gallagher and Duane Allman but whenever I try to play slide it just doesn't work. I'm slide challenged.

 

[PFDarkside]

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

Harmonica & Slide.

Slide

That's another one of mine, love rock slide guitar playing!

Slide and Single Coils... I can't make either of those work for me. But I can listen to them all day long.

Slide. I've since given up and started using the trem instead.

... whenever I try to play slide it just doesn't work. I'm slide challenged.

Noticing a trend....

it just takes practice

I think we need a Jeremy led course in Tips & Clips on slide guitar.

 

[ImmortalSix]

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

Strats.

x2 - I grew up on Hendrix and SRV, so that is THE guitar sound for me, and my first electric was / is a Stratocaster, but man, when I play through an amp, I can never make it sound good.

What sounds right to me, when I play, is Les Pauls and Telecasters, which I didn't even try until my late 20s, because I was so mentally hung up on the Stratocaster.

I have played my Stratocaster a lot, it was my moneymaker for easily 10 years, way more than paid for itself, and I've had probably 20 different pickups in it, 2 different necks, trem blocks, you name it - I was really trying to make it sound right to me, and never got there.

I still have it, 20 years later (holy cow, I'm getting old) with Wilde pickups and a KGC brass block and that's it. It sounds great recorded, but I can't stand how it sounds in the room when I'm actually playing it.

Y'all have probably seen this video, but it's me playing aforementioned Strat 7 or 8 years ago back when I still had hair, and apparently a bright green shirt. It sounds fine on the recording, but it has never sounded right to me in the room.

Right from the get-go on the video, it sounds like a proper Strat. I wish I could hear that when i'm actually playing it.

 

[allbutromeo]

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

As much as I love them and no matter how hard I try I cannot get a Vox AC 30 to sound right

 

[jeremy]

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

Noticing a trend....
I think we need a Jeremy led course in Tips & Clips on slide guitar.

ha! lesson one

step 1 - get a slide
step 2 - grab a guitar (preferably with heavier strings and higher action)
step 3 - send everyone away for two hours
step 4 - place the slide at the 12th fret and play only the B, G & D strings. try and make the three notes ring out. move the slide around to different chords and remember that the slide should be over the fret, not between them.

repeat steps 3 & 4 until it doesnt sound like you are torturing something, then just repeat step 4 till you can play that three note major chord any where on the neck in tune and without the other strings ringing out and making everything sound like crap.

muting with left and right hand is important. slide pressure on the strings is important. keeping the slide perpendicular to the strings is important.

 

[treyhaislip]

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

ha! lesson one

step 1 - get a slide
step 2 - grab a guitar (preferably with heavier strings and higher action)
step 3 - send everyone away for two hours
step 4 - place the slide at the 12th fret and play only the B, G & D strings. try and make the three notes ring out. move the slide around to different chords and remember that the slide should be over the fret, not between them.

repeat steps 3 & 4 until it doesnt sound like you are torturing something, then just repeat step 4 till you can play that three note major chord any where on the neck in tune and without the other strings ringing out and making everything sound like crap.

muting with left and right hand is important. slide pressure on the strings is important. keeping the slide perpendicular to the strings is important.

...so simple but yet so hard! lol

I can play with a slide...it just doesn't sound awesome like others! oh wait, thats all of my playing!

 

[DreX]

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

E-Bows

 

[Matt42]

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

Les Pauls for me. Hands down. Gibson guitars in general really, I love the tones of both Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, but when I pick up a Paul or an SG, it just doesn't feel or sound right.

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

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

Any sort of complex equipment - be it a stomp box, an amp, or what have you. I'm not a "tweaker". I hate having to sit there and fiddle with knobs to find sounds. My buddy is an effects nut and he gets these amazing tones out of these complex pedals and digital multi effect units. I love to hear what he comes up with. I just do not have the patience for that. Give me as few knobs as possible.

 

[Chazzy]

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

for me its weird, im horrible at using a crunch sound overall, im a high gain player and a clean player, but whenever their is only a slight amount of gain i just cant play, but i love that slightly crunchy blues sound...

 

[Boogie Bill]

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

Tremoverbs are terrific amps; I love to get my hands on one. So no problem there.

I like Mesas, so Marshall's are really foreign to me, though I used them years ago. I can get them to sound good, but it's not MY sound, if you know what I mean. I used a DSL 50 half stack at a festival a few years ago and got it dialed in perfectly for the guitar I was using; got a lot of compliments when I walked off the stage, but it felt really weird the whole time.

And I feel the same about Fender amps these days. Since I don't like using pedals for lead tones, I'm kinda stuck, ya know? In the past I've owned several BF amps: Deluxe Reverb, Twin Reverb, Tremolux, Bandmaster, Fender 75, Super Champ; gigged with many different Silverfaces, and tried the Hot Rods and Supersonics and Prosonics and Vibroluxes and Vibro Kings and the SS amps and they just don't do anything for me. With the Mesas, I get a nice clean tone and a great lead tone--the Fenders have the great clean tone, but then everything gets complicated.

For guitars, I like my G&Ls (strat body style) and I don't have any use for Fenders anymore. I use Gibson Les Pauls and ES-335s, too. I've thought about getting an SG, but I'm a big guy and they look like a toy on me. And I'd love to have a Firebird, but the Firebird, like the SG, has its control knobs so close together they are hard to manipulate.

And I'd love to have a big fat Gretsch Country Club or Falcon, and a Ric or two, but I would rarely play them. Rics are such beautiful guitars, but they are so frustrating to me with those narrow necks. Would love to have a jazz box, like a Gibson ES-175, or ideally--a L-5CES with a Florentine cutaway--but heck, I only know three chords anyway!

Hey....I'm old, I know what I like, and I'm set in my ways!!!!



Bill

 

[Diego]

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

Forgot about Les Pauls. Hate their ergonomics, if you can even call them that.
But to be honest, I've never been crazy about any Les Paul player's tone. Sacrilegious, I know.
By far the worst of the classic body shapes for me.