Leaderboard

Well hello -like my name says, I'm an occasional guitar player I've got GAS like anyone else, I do have a nice guitar collection, Ibanez, Fender, Gibson, Musicman, etc, and what i love to do is trade gear so I can try as much stuff as possible. Guilty. At least my wife leaves me alone when I don't just spend too much... I mostly listen to blues, pop, rock, and some prog here and there. See ya!

Hi folks. I am having a hard time choosing my next amp. I think I have dialed my choices down to these two amps: Vintage 1963 Supro (Valco) “Super 1606” Mezzabarba Z18 I have tried a Mezzabarba, and it was extremely good. But they cost over $3.000, so I don't think that is an alternative. Yet. There isn't much info on the web, so can anyone help me out here? Other amps are also welcome I havend decided if I wanna go digital either, when I think about it. I have looked at the new Quad Cortex and a bit at Kemper and Helix too, but I don't know. There all these menus, and you can scroll forever. Also, people says that you have to pay for good amp simulations and so on, so it's even more expencive. And I need a cab too... x2 for playing in stereo... I like to see stuff visualy so I know what the knob is set to. Then Kemper is the way to go. But its old. Maybe wait for them to come up with an answer to quad cortex? So I guess this is a double topic: tube vs amp modeller and two tube amps against each other

I wouldn't say I love it, but I do really like it. For me, it's the portability. I have a guitar lesson after work once a week and can sit in the car for half an hour beforehand and practise. It sounds decent enough too. Obviously it's not going to be as loud or full sounding as a larger amp, but it's good enough for my needs.

I’ve been in the audience when the guitar players were using Kempers and they sounded great. However, I have heard that on stage experience can be ‘off’ as they lack the ‘feel’ of a valve amp. For my part, I used to use a lot of Tech21 gear (still use their preamps for bass) and never felt that they were lacking in on stage feedback, so I’m I do wonder if a lot of players do a lot of hearing with their eyes. The downside with valve amps and especially vintage ones is the maintenance and their susceptibility to damage when being lugged in and out of vans, etc. in addition, eventually the supply of valves will dry up, I understand, that with the current situation with Russia, valves are harder and, therefore, more expensive to acquire. If it were me, I’d grasp the current modelling nettle and get the box I felt most at home with. This is tinged by having a buddy who uses a Kemper for guitar and bass duties and he loves it. Either that, or find a solid state amp that I really liked the sound of; YMMV.

For what it's worth, I did make my own Harley Benton in the past, with a kit like this: https://thmn.to/thoprod/115992?offid=1&affid=1771 It's really cool to make and I gotta say you learn a lot by building your own guitar. And tbh the quality of HBs now are insane for the price... I'd recommend that to anyone who wants to start or needs a cheap guitar on the side (travel etc). It's not Fender quality of course, but it's still pretty, pretty good

I'm no expert but what I do know is that it is a lot better than my older Hohner, and it was the best of all those that were thrust in my hands, both in feel and sound - it also happened to be the most expensive. None of those guitars were dogs by any means, which is a world away from my experiences some 40 years ago. After I parted with my cash the guys claimed that this £400 guitar holds its own up against more expensive guitars, and he was actually going to have this one for himself. I am extremely pleased, I just need to improve my playing!

Ooh, that Jag looks very tasty!

Most physical shops will already have looked at an instrument and made sure it didn't have any issues with action etc before putting them on display. An online service where they are just shifting boxes will be different and minor remedial action may be needed, but most new instruments are decent from the factory and only need minor fettling to get them right for personal preferences. But any reputable shop will sell a good instrument off the shelf (if it wasn't, they would have sent it back). As Douglas says, if you see and play it in person, you shouldn't need to do anything to it. If it feels right, it feels right. If something feels off then it isn't the one for you. Feel free to negotiate about anything, the smaller the shop, the more flexible they may be about including soft case, spare strings etc but don't pass up a nice instrument just because you don't get a case.