Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

[LatsMcGee]

So the amp I've been the most happy with ever was my old Pittbull 45 combo, I'm really coming to the realization it's probably the only amp that does just about everything I want and I'm wasting my time with anything else....

I sold it years ago in anticipation of being financially buried and it turned out that wasn't the case and I never really had to move it, thinking about just going back to what I liked the most....

Any of you guys ever have a realization like this?

 

[Matt42]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

About a year and a half ago I sold my Mesa Lonestar (the 100w/50w version before they released the Classic/Special). While it was definitely louder and heavier than I needed, I've never really replaced it, and I wish I had never gotten rid of it.

 

[dystrust]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

So the amp I've been the most happy with ever was my old Pittbull 45 combo, I'm really coming to the realization it's probably the only amp that does just about everything I want and I'm wasting my time with anything else....

I sold it years ago in anticipation of being financially buried and it turned out that wasn't the case and I never really had to move it, thinking about just going back to what I liked the most....

Any of you guys ever have a realization like this?

Somewhat, but I luckily still have the amp.

I picked up my '88 Marshall Jubilee 2555 head for $550 in 2001, and ironically I didn't even really want it at the time. I'd been gassing pretty hard for a split-reverb JCM800 when I saw a guy carry a Marshall head through the front door of Dave's Guitar Shop. I could only see the pack panel at first, and thought it was exactly what I wanted. After the shop bought it I got to take a look and realized it was a Jubilee instead, but decided to try it out due to the great price. It sounded pretty good, so I took it home and proceeded to get to know it.

In the years since I've tried 3 rack systems (ADA MP-1, Voodoo Amps MP-1, & Soldano SP-77) and a Hughes & Kettner Triamp in an attempt to find something with a bit more versatility because the Jubilee is a bit of a one trick pony. OTOH the Jubilee is probably the most amazing trick I've come across and I've played lots of nice amps (Soldano, Bogner, CAE, etc). As I write this I'm torn between a 20W H&K Edition Tube combo (decent sound, nice & light) or just sticking with 'the beast' as I call it.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

Getting rid of Pitbull 45's and Lonestar 100/50's?

You guys deserve your pain and sorrow for your foolishness!

 

[jon the art guy]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

Its only money, right?
I mean, I have very little intention on selling any of my meager scraps and castoffs, but for people who go thru nice gear like toilet paper, what's the problem?

off u see did MRSAge, I m on tapa talk and auto correct is hating on me

 

[Matt42]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

Foolishness is the problem. At least for me. Sometimes extreme financial distress, but most often just plain foolishness.

 

[dystrust]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

Foolishness is the problem. At least for me. Sometimes extreme financial distress, but most often just plain foolishness.

All of the gear I've had to sell was due to financial distress. I've sold a few others that I just couldn't bond with, but I can't say I miss them either. For example the Triamp mentioned above paid for my relocation when I finally found a decent job about 150mi from where I grew up. The one piece of gear I really miss (sold to pay rent) was #49 from the original Charvel 25th Anniversary run.

 

[chadd]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

About a year and a half ago I sold my Mesa Lonestar (the 100w/50w version before they released the Classic/Special). While it was definitely louder and heavier than I needed, I've never really replaced it, and I wish I had never gotten rid of it.

I had a Dual Recto back around 94 or 95 and sold it because I wasn't playing much anymore and had a second floor apartment. I wasn't happy with my tone until I got a Roadster a month or so ago.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

Meh... I've bought, sold and traded a bunch of many people's holy grail amps over the past decade. I have few regrets. It's all about the journey... checking out the grass on the other side of the fence. As it turns out... not that much. But ya gotta find out for yourself. If I could snap my fingers and get any of em back it might be the Lickliter Rage prototype or Bogner Shiva. But then again... I'm completely satisfied with my Ceriatone RP 36. (18/36 watt 4xEL84 plexi clone). I've played the field and am pretty cool.whee I'm at. But I'm sure I'll spot some green grass again and hop the fence for a closer look at some point. Won't matter... because no matter what I plug into I'll dial it in to sound just like I want to sound.

 

[Drunken Bowling]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

So the amp I've been the most happy with ever was my old Pittbull 45 combo, I'm really coming to the realization it's probably the only amp that does just about everything I want and I'm wasting my time with anything else....

I sold it years ago in anticipation of being financially buried and it turned out that wasn't the case and I never really had to move it, thinking about just going back to what I liked the most....

Any of you guys ever have a realization like this?

Sort of. I sold a Les Paul Traditional to keep myself from accumulating too much interest on my credit card debt. Later on ended up accumulating a lot more debt than I ever imagined I would.

 

[LatsMcGee]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

I have a problem with money that I'm always afraid I'm going to lose my ass, I thought my wedding was going to ruin me and It didn't do so in the slightest, that's why I always kick myself for selling the amp; The guitar I sold sounded great but played like **** so I don't regret that one bit...

 

[Aceman]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

I understand financial distress. Perfectly legit reason for dumping the gear. Heck - gear might be the reason for the distress!

But letting go of say a Lonestar or Stilletto for tone chasing because it wasn't quite right? That is just all on you!


But - kudos' for recognizing where the home of the tone is, and being able to get back to it!

 

[phil_104]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

I understand financial distress. Perfectly legit reason for dumping the gear. Heck - gear might be the reason for the distress!

But letting go of say a Lonestar or Stilletto for tone chasing because it wasn't quite right? That is just all on you!


But - kudos' for recognizing where the home of the tone is, and being able to get back to it!

I sold my Stiletto, and I regretted it for some time, until I realized that I had sold another amp to get the Stiletto, and it was that amp that I should be returning to.

My first decent tube amp was a Fender Blues Deluxe. It was an older model, tweed, and badly overpowered for what I was doing at the time. I sold it because I read somewhere on the Internet that for driven tones it was better to use the gain from the amp, and to use as few pedals as possible. I believed it. Bought a Mesa Express, to get into the Mesa game, and then I sold that to make room for the Stiletto. I loved that amp, it was a great amp, it sounded beautiful, but it was not 'my' sound. So I sold it, and bought a Blues Jr that I got on the cheap. Gigged with that for a few years, and it was pretty good. Something was still missing though. At that point, I learned more about how to build my rig, and had come to the conclusion that I wanted to get back into the game of having 40 watts of ultra clean amp with me on stage. So I contacted the guy I had sold it to, a good friend of mine, and he agreed to trade me back my old Blues Deluxe for the Junior and a bit of coin. As soon as I got it back, I plugged my Plimsoul, a Muff and my Carbon Copy in front of it, and there it was again, my sound. And I was happy.

If you think you need to get back to it, then get back to it.

 

[Matt42]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

I understand financial distress. Perfectly legit reason for dumping the gear. Heck - gear might be the reason for the distress!

But letting go of say a Lonestar or Stilletto for tone chasing because it wasn't quite right? That is just all on you!


But - kudos' for recognizing where the home of the tone is, and being able to get back to it!

While the Lonestar wasn't 100% what I needed at the time that I sold it, it was definitely more of money issue than anything else. Even though I really wasn't using the Lonestar to its fullest potential, it was a great pedal platform, and if I had known then what I know now about overdrive pedals, I could have gotten a lot more out of it than I did. However, I wasn't working at the time, and needed to upgrade my acoustic rig a bit for the band I was in, so it got let go.

One of the amps that's on my list of possibilities is a Lonestar Special, which I think will fit my needs better than the original 100/50, simply because I tend to like EL84's more than 6L6's, and prefer to have a lower wattage amp. Even 50 watts is overkill for what I tend to do.

 

[philthis]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

Somewhat, but I luckily still have the amp.

I picked up my '88 Marshall Jubilee 2555 head for $550 in 2001, and ironically I didn't even really want it at the time. I'd been gassing pretty hard for a split-reverb JCM800 when I saw a guy carry a Marshall head through the front door of Dave's Guitar Shop. I could only see the pack panel at first, and thought it was exactly what I wanted. After the shop bought it I got to take a look and realized it was a Jubilee instead, but decided to try it out due to the great price. It sounded pretty good, so I took it home and proceeded to get to know it.

In the years since I've tried 3 rack systems (ADA MP-1, Voodoo Amps MP-1, & Soldano SP-77) and a Hughes & Kettner Triamp in an attempt to find something with a bit more versatility because the Jubilee is a bit of a one trick pony. OTOH the Jubilee is probably the most amazing trick I've come across and I've played lots of nice amps (Soldano, Bogner, CAE, etc). As I write this I'm torn between a 20W H&K Edition Tube combo (decent sound, nice & light) or just sticking with 'the beast' as I call it.

I had an old Marshall Silver anniversary head in the 80's. It was a one trick pony. It also had a short in the volume pot so it went from nothing to 3 really fast. It was quirky and rather nasal sounding if not EQ'd just right but at the end of the day.....It ate other amps for lunch. I hated its one trick pony-ness and bought a slew of dirty/ clean amps boogie 50 calibre, boogie tremoverb, tri-axis rack system, subway rocket 44+ with the tremolo and 4 tens, and then I bought a little ol Fender amp and loved the cleans so much I thought, thats it, no more combo's. I am gunna do the dreaded A/B box and just get one trick ponies on both sides of clean and dirty. I wanted tone not convenience. I ended up with a EVH 3 50 watt head run through 2 2/12 vintage 30 cabs and the new Fender 68 custom twin reverb. Big? Yes, Clean headroom? Yes. Dirty over the top distortion? Yes. Convenience? Hell no! Tone for days and loving it. To be fair and honest people are right, its a lot to carry. But I am getting a fancy compact dolly to avoid carrying the load by hand. People I play with love the tone because no its not a slick little combo amp-its a big simple set up made for maximum tone and it sounds that way too. Its not for everyone I agree but having one trick ponies usually sounds the best just look at the "rig set ups" of the pro's on youtube. Its not the end of all end answers but if you can do it that way it can and usually does sound amazing.

 

[LatsMcGee]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

I tend to worry too much about money in general, my wife and I have great jobs and my wife is always on me about not spending money on myself, I'm thinking about tracking down another pittbull45 and another smaller amp I've been lusting after too...

 

[Aceman]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

That's a good woman. Keep her! But always worry about the money.

 

[philthis]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

I don't want to lie to you guys, I still have a Blues Jr 3 which I always plug into at the house too. It's just a quick convenience thing when I am watching TV or playing out on the patio. It's also good for vacation or teaching a lesson to someone. It has its place and it's a good sounding little amp and if you don't need a lot of big clean head room it's great. Like playing a long to You Tube or a video lesson on my laptop.

I will say this though. I have toyed with the notion of selling it and getting a new custom 68 deluxe reverb becouse it has one side bassman and one side deluxe reverb in the same amp with Tremolo and reverb on both sides. It just so sweet. Its like having two amps in one and not much louder then the Blues Jr 3. Still the blues jr is so portable and small it can go more places. That's my next new question I have to resolve.

 

[Matt42]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

I'm GASing hard for a 68 Custom Deluxe Reverb right now. I played one at my least favorite guitar store (only place locally that has one) and loved it.

Of course, I can't afford anything at the moment, and by the time I can, I may be GASing for something else.

 

[TwofacePimp]

Re: Really thinking about saying fudge it and going back to my old rig....

I never owned a Pitbull 45, but I let one slip through my fingers once and I'm STILL bummed. It's a great amp, with some of my favorite cleans ever (and my favorite from a VHT/Fryette).

If there's something I regret selling, it's my Mesa Single Rec stack. I retubed it, and it just wasn't the same. Instead of considering my options I just sold it like a moron, and tried a bunch of heads that I didn't like as much and didn't hold on to. The cab went with the head, and it while it was old the tolex was still great and the speakers were perfectly broken in.

Come to think of it, I think a thread talking about amps that you sold and DON'T miss would be pretty cool...