Never write off 'bad gear'

[xxxplorer]

My band Friends of Pedro had the pleasure of opening up for American Hitmen this past weekend while they were in Chesapeake.

Besides it being awesome, two pieces of gear REALLY sounded good that night that normally get snubbed on forums.

One was a Boss BF-3 Flanger... It just worked and sounded great for Mark, the guy in Remnant... Have no idea what setting, I just know it was awesome.

Second, the guitar player for AH, was using a Marshall Mode 4! GREAT tones... Heavy, clear and LOUD. Nothing bad to say about his tones at all! He even used one of those MXR Slash octave fuzz and made it sound great...

Sat was a night that reminded me it ain't the gear, it's the player... And I'm practicing lol.


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[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: Never write off 'bad gear'

One of the best tones I've ever heard live was a few years back. I talked to him afterwards and it all came from a stock 1998 American standard strat into a Yamaha modeling amp. He said he just set the presets and went for it. Didn't hurt that he was a hell of a player.

 

[Boogie Bill]

Re: Never write off 'bad gear'

For me it was seeing jazz greats Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel at a club in Seattle back in the late '70s, Ellis plugging his ES-175 into little Univox 25-watt 112 SS combo; Kessel into an even smaller Polytone--playing their asses off and sounding magnificent. There's a lot to be said for just knowing HOW to play the instrument, and TASTE.


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Years ago, early '70s, there was a Canadian band called the Wackers. They were a one-hit wonder on tour, and I saw them perform at the largest club in Seattle at that time.

Their PA was all made by Acoustic Control, the wonderful folks that brought the work the 360 and 370 bass amps and some killer SS guitar amps like the 156 that dominated club stages in the '70s. Now this Acoustic board was 12 channels I think, and roughly the size of a football field. They used four speaker boxes on each side of the stage. Each of these cabs had I think six, 6"X9" oval co-ax speakers--car stereo speakers. The cab was about the size of your typically 215 bass cab. The speakers were aligned vertically in the center of the cab, and each side featured a radiused fiberglass flare to make a horn shape. Each cab had it's own Acoustic power amp, based on the power section of the 370, which I recall was around 200 watts. No subs. No HF horns. No huge racks of processing gear.

I don't think Acoustic sold a lot of these. PA was really starting to come around, and people like Peavey, JBL, Cerwin-Vega, et. al. were really getting into building some massive tri- and quad-amped systems with folded horn subs and horn arrays with multiple drivers. So this system really wasn't cutting edge, at all. Compared to some of the systems I'd seen other bands using, well--frankly it was almost laughable.

And it sounded fantastic. Just crystal clear throughout the club, no distortion, and no coloration. Amazing.

So especially with PA gear, it's not so much what you have, but the knowledge to use it properly is what's important.

Bill

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Never write off 'bad gear'

If it wasn't for bad gear I wouldn't have no gear at all.

 

[xxxplorer]

Re: Never write off 'bad gear'

The guitar player for American Hitmen knew exactly how to use his stuff and he played fantastically.


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[Aceman]

Re: Never write off 'bad gear'

There is very little bad gear IMO. There are, however, a LOT of guitar players looking for an excuse besides admitting their chops suck or they don't know how to use their gear…

 

[Diego]

Re: Never write off 'bad gear'

I saw Marty Friedman get great tones onstage from a Crate Blue Voodoo stack.

 

[King IzzO)))]

Re: Never write off 'bad gear'

One of the most awesome metal sounds I've heard was neck thru Jackson, emg81, rat, stock Windsor into one of my Kustom cabs with 65 celestions.

 

[Oinkus]

Re: Never write off 'bad gear'

It's not the gear , it is what you put into it.