Guitar Nerds Anonymous

^^ king of gifs.

If anyone is at a loose end, check out my band Swan Fight in Hoxton tonight!

looking at these:

http://www.gak.co.uk/en/gallien-kruger-mb112-bass-combo/60011?gclid=CMP-u9-l8boCFerjwgodt3cAaA

Seems to be little or no info or reviews on them though. Really weird.

Doesn't seem to have a horn, which I've heard to be essential for upright playing.

Decent brand, but anything that cheap is a bit hmmmm. I wish the website had decent info, like what the box is made of, who made the speaker.

It's weird isn't it? GK, 200w class d amp, neodynium speaker and from the US forums I've read it appears to have a horn. Sounds perfect. EDIT: it doesn't have a horn.

I rang GAK and they told me they expect them in a week or so. But then he told me they've been waiting for them (with plenty of pre-orders) since June so....

and why are the existing "MicroBass" series in the order of three times the price of the new "MB" series? No info explaining any meaningful spec on the GK site either.

Kinda tempted to drive up to MK and collect this for a song. There was a time when every rehearsal room in christendom had one of these and they're GREAT! Not very portable though.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Peavey-TNT-115-Bass-Guitar-Amp-Scorpion-Equipped-160watt-/261326904003#ht_197wt_1255

I miss my ampeg

Those amps are great but have the worst handle to weight ratio of anything ever. How do you move it up a step??? You can't.

This is in manchester but OMG
http://basschat.co.uk/topic/217779-the-ultimate-in-home-practice-amps/
This seems decent
http://basschat.co.uk/topic/210224-new-roland-cube-bass-120xl-ridiculous-price/
This is cheap but in oxford
http://basschat.co.uk/topic/222783-warwick-cl150-combo/

There are loads more on that forum.

wicked. thanks harold. forwarded to my bass buddy.

clicked on those links and brought this back...

i don't even

Good grief... :$

Basschat is a very odd place. A mixture of old punks who still can't play bass, people who play in their church band and self confessed 50 year old bedroom players who continually order £6k 9 string basses.

Oh and those who pick up the spoils of cheep second hand gear.

i have just learned that billy sheehan is a scientologist. wac.

Does this mean we get to burn the Spector™?

he played yamahas.

/screaming or yawning?

So we borrowed the little other pub's Hartke bass amp for the gig last night and after much deliberation the bass player is going to stop fannying about with cheap substitutes and drop the cash on a "proper" Gallien Krueger. This one I think.

http://www.gak.co.uk/en/gallien-krueger-mb150s-iii-112/2658?gclid=CP2qs72U-7oCFSoUwwodfngAyQ

Without a PA last night, and because I'm a nice guy, I let the other singer guitar player use this (also borrowed from our regular gig):

http://www.dv247.com/assets/products/84317_l.jpg

Which meant I was stuck with our horrible shit-at-all-trades Laney "PA" which is basically a cheap and nasty keyboard amp with 6 inputs. That sounded so bad that I kept switching between that and an equally horrid little Roland keyboard amp for my guitar and banjo which just distorted horribly before getting anyway near the volume I needed to cut it in a busy Friday night bar. I lost my voice from yelling trying to compensate for the shit PA and cut the crap out of hand bashing the guitar for the same reasons. It was a tough gig.

So! I'm now we've got the bass sorted I'm thinking, fuck getting a PA, we'll get two of those decent little acoustic amps. One for me for for Lucy, we each have our own instrument and vocal going though our own amps. The bass player and accordion player can just lean in for their BVs.

Anyone know 'owt about acoustic amps? That little Trace Eliot is fucking fantastic. They're about a grand to buy new though. I hear nice things about AER but again... VERY expensive. Anyone have any experience?

Cheers.

A

http://www.ztamplifiers.com/products/lunchbox_acoustic.html

These look great

this lady is cool

http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/ZT_Amplifiers_Lunchbox_Acoustic_Amp_Review

Too slow LFGSS, what are you all out riding your bikes or something? Pfffft.

Decided to go for the ZT just because... I'm smit with it. And I can always stick it in the bay if I don't get on with it. Turns out they're out of stock (and not expected in till at least January) pretty much everywhere. Nowhere in London has them and none of the usual online retailers have any. After an hour or so ringing round dozens of music shops I found one in Derby. Ordered over the phone and should be getting it on Tuesday. Woo!

http://www.fouldsmusic.co.uk/guitars/amplifiers/zt-lunchbox-acoustic-1.html

Also watching a Trace acoustic on the bay. If that looks like going for under £250 I'll nab that too. I know it's a bit of a splurge but I'm fed up of crap gear and PAs ruining potentially great gigs for me.

Good for you getting decent amps. I can remember hearing so many bands that were let down by cheap amps. Never heard a band that were let down by cheap guitars.

Cheap guitar plus decent amp, never the other way round.

High five Harold. That's always been my motto too.

To be fair, I've always had pretty nice electric amps, I've just never been in the market for acoustic stuff before. I used to buy guitar mags all the time in my younger days and I'd read every page except the one bit I'd always without exception skip over was the acoustic amp reviews. BORING! hehe.

Tell you what though, this whole experience of trying to buy relatively niche kit online has really highlighted to me the lack of informed and trusted reviews of the type I used to get from Guitar & Bass mag etc. For example, with those new GK bass amps, there's a real dearth of detailed technical data online, no professional reviews anywhere, only a smattering of erratic and unfathomably subjective write ups on US message boards. It's really hard to tell what the deal with this stuff is based on that chatter. Me and the bass player even did the rounds in Denmark Street last week and talked to a few people. It's amazing how little the people in the shops know about what's going on in the market. They seem to have their supplier deals sorted out with the usual big players, (and manly catering to budget and low-end stuff it seems) and they just try and flog you that. Ask them about anything else that isn't the two brands of amp they stock and they either try and bullshit you or or just refuse to engage.

There's got to a market for trusted, informed and reasonably objective gear reviews online hasn't there? You listening Rickster?

I'm having a clear out and have an Ultimate gs-100 folding guitar stand and a normal a-frame folding stand that need to go.

£15 for the ultimate and £5 for the a-frame. Anyone interested?