Guitar Nerds Anonymous

I just picked up a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III for £300. 40W is enough for smallish gigs but you can play it at bedroom levels. Proper spring verb too. Doesn't have the cool points of a Matamp but definitely functional.

We've got one of those at work (good price BTW) and I think they sound really dull, compared to a proper old Fender anyway... They're not one thing or another, not the Fender sound and not the British sound... Matamp have that really flat sound that seems to work very well with pedals, very little fuss, just volume, master volume and a bit of EQ...

Just My 2p, obvs...

I'll be honest, I've really fallen in love with mine, and I didn't expect to. I think 40W is a real sweet spot for me, powerwise, and the clean channel is lovely. Verb is a bit too tasteful for surf, and the distortion channel is dogshit, but the clean channel is lovely, and it's found its way into loads of my projects.

Matamps are fantastic amps but by christ they're loud. My old band used nothing but Matamps and I think I'm the only one without long-term hearing problems because of the damn things. Very beautiful though.

...turn it down a bit...?

Couldn't do it with those old 100w Matamp / vintage Oranges. To get that nice power valve distortion they had to be up more than half way, and that was 'drown out your drummer' territory. I had an old pix only OR120 from the 70s, was older than I was, didn't even have a master volume. Fantastic amp. Absurdly loud.

Cheers! Passed on to my buddy. He was put off Orange amps by my owning one in the early 90s which sounded SO BAD that I actually flogged it and bought back the same giant solid state Peavey I'd sold in order to buy it.

In other news, ran the plan to buy myself a 40th birthday Vintage Gibson acoustic past my wife and she is down with the idea. I'm extremely excited.

Ha no way. Congrats dude. Going to be a proud day.

Can't believe she fell for it, such charm...

This was such a bargain...

1 Attachment

^^^fantastic cabs.

Got my Mosrite clone back, met the builder at an instore at Tym's... Isaiah from Earthless only went and had a little play on it then signed the fucking back!?! #fanboy

1 Attachment

I pulled my amp out of storage for the first time in about 3 years yesterday. It's an old Vox Valvetronix and I'm getting sporadic output regardless of what guitar I use and what setting it's on. Does this sound like an easy fix, or is there a recommended shop to perform an service on it?

I've got a VT120 and it's the same. They use very cheap jack sockets and other components.
I've always found it worse if you plug the pedal controller in.

However a few blasts from a can of switch cleaner and a couple of patch leads at the back running from FX out to FX in usually see it working again.

Crap "my mate" story alert but my mate met Wilko this week. Another buddy who plays with the Smoke Fairies and Viv Albertine (who had met Wilko when Viv opened for him at one of those Meltdown things) introduced them at some thing... I was jealous. /CSB

Finally got my second cab for the bass rig - sounds ssooo nice, can't wait for the next gig!

Massive shitstorm coming in my new band, we haven't even rehearsed yet... Turns out the drummer's boyfriend didn't want her to play with us cuz he thinks the other guitar player has got the hots for her... I just thought he was a jealous, controlling prick... But...

Went and got pissed with other guitarist on Friday night and turns out they've been seeing each other on the sly, to further complicate things he's just left his wife of twenty years...

I'm too old for this fucking shit...

Met the bass player the other day and he did not stop talking for an hour, normally that would be fine but he didn't listen to a single fucking word I said...

I need new personnel...

I also can't wait to play the shit out of a full stack, so much stuff to get out of my system at very loud volume...

Still haven't found a Jag...

amazing!

we'll be on the next plane out there. send a taxi.

anyone got a lp special DC? i want a scratchplate on mine. does yours have one? singly ply?

^^Run. Run away now.

Pretty sure I'm after a 1950s J-50. Small pickguard, scalloped braces. Hard to find examples that aren't either too spendy or beaten to sh*t. Still looking.

@>>>>>> oooooh shit...

@Apone the early '50s small guard/straight bridge/scalloped ones are the coolest, but slightly later'n'cheaper ones can be ace too... did you ever try my '58?

Do you still think you can have another band after the Fucktones? :)

#impossibleacttofollow

Joe - I had a few matamps. They are lovely. Have some photos somewhere online, but need to dig em out...

FWIW all mine have been low wattage versions.

The proper amps are belters. Loud as fuck!!! Good way of pissing off sound guy.

They are great with pedals though and i find they really let the character of a particular instrument shine.

Joe just made me look in my photobucket account (lol!)

I REALLY regret selling that minimat, was EL84 model rather than standard 6v6.