randythoades

I do use an amp at home and occasionally live, but I tend to use a Zoom multi effects or Joyo American sound pedal along with a boost into a H+K Red box and into PA for most live work for the convenience (which is few and far at the moment). I have started seeing ads and You Tube reviews for a variety of preamps built into small pedal board amps, which seem to fit a nice gap and might suit for both my uses. I could use this as a small standalone amp on a pedal board with boost and reverb for both home, rehearsal and live. Does anyone have any experience at all with them? Do they actually work as both an amp and a DI stage solution? I only need one 'sound' (nothing too high gain or modern - Fenderish crunchy country/rockabilly and 70s rock sounds), although having 2 channel flexibility would be nice to set an almost clean and crunch sound as I do with my normal home amp, rather than needing to either use an overdrive or be knob twiddling between tracks or sessions. Apart from that, maybe 10-20 watts output would be more than enough for home, rehearsal and monitoring purpose and a cab sim DI for PA use or into my audio interface for recording. Any one using such a setup? I know there are plenty of preamps and FX systems available, but then you still need some form of power amp to run at rehearsal and monitoring, so mixing the two into one small format pedal seems like a great idea. But is it a better idea on paper than in practice?

I agree with @ezbass. I would keep the King of Tone if that were my choice. Never been a massive fan of the tubescreamer, but vintage ones are very sought after. The versatility of the KoT would clinch it for me. To be fair though, at home I don't use any overdrive, I use the natural drive of the amp and ride the volume control and I use a TC electronic spark boost for the solo lift. Live, I have gone the FRFR route and just plug my multi effects into PA, much easier set up and not even my band mates can really tell the difference.

Thanks, I will give them a go next time I change strings. Much appreciated.

Certainly makes a statement. I like a guitar that doesn't look entirely traditional, and dare I say, boring. Might need to have a disclaimer when you gig with it though for people with photo-sensitivity. You might get headaches like a strobe light after looking at it for any length of time!!

That sounds good. I don't like the phosphor bronze strings, I don't like the strident tone and I don't like the finger noise. have started using D'addario Chromes flatwound electric strings on acoustic which i prefer, but would prefer something a tiny bit brighter and maybe a little more percussive. I might give these a go. Do you happen to know if they would work with magnetic pickup? I like that mid 70s country sound on occasion.

That sounds great, well done for keeping up with the practice, it is certainly a fantastic instrument to play. But, just for a confidence boost, don't run down your abilities either now or in the future. My guitar teacher back in the day said something to me during a moment of frustration I was having for not being able to master something. 'Just remember that all the artists you are trying to emulate, only play their own material. Eric Clapton can't play like Eddie van Halen, Eddie van Halen can't play like Jeff Beck, Jeff Beck can't play like Chuck Berry, and none of them can play like you **insert your own name**. Be proud of what you can do, because there is always someone better and someone who hasn't reached those skills yet.' Everyone plays differently, both good and bad, everyone has bad habits, everyone has their own style. Whatever stage you are at, there are people not as accomplished and look at you thinking that they wish that they could play as well as you. Even recording artists have good and bad bits. Kurt Cobain played completely differently to Eric Clapton with different aggression and different speed and note choice, but would you say that one was better than the other? If the music you play fits your style and the note choices work with rather than against the music, then I would say that it would be considered successful. but there is ALWAYS something new to learn.

It certainly isn't conventional, but if it works for you I would say 'just go with the flow'. I have a similar technique. There have been dozens of guitar heroes with unconventional playing styles and setups (Jeff Beck springs immediately to mind), but it just makes you be more individual and creative in comparison to everyone else. Some things may be easier to play with that style, some not. Unless it starts to hurt in the base of your thumb.. then you may need to do physio and start 'correcting' the technique. For myself, I anchor the palm of my hand on the bridge and my pinky on the scratchplate. I can't do the floating tremolo picking of people like Steve Vai, I have very limited movement and do use the thumb a lot more than most, almost extending and arching it with the picking up and down respectively, just like you do, but mine does come slightly more from the wrist rather than the thumb.

That sounds really interesting. I am looking for something along these lines to leave at work for lunchtime noodling. I shall have a look...!

If the link below works, that will give you a visual representation of what @Dad3353 explained... https://guitarelectronics.com/2-humbuckers-3-way-toggle-switch-1-volume-1-tone/

Or just get with the times and use technology, plug-ins, modelling effects board or even modelling amps in the studio. I am not a pro by any means, but I wouldn't even think about using an amp in the studio now with all of the various Sanamp and cab simulation solutions. In fact, I rarely use an amp at all these days and just plugged into either FRFR monitor cab, or into PA depending on what I am function we were doing (not playing live these days since COVID though). The only band I used an amp for is a rockabilly band, and then I have a 30w solid state Roland Blues Cube Hot which stays clean pretty much the whole way up and use a boost pedal for a tiny bit of extra gain for solos. I used the Line out into PA for going front of house. Even a 1watt valve amp is pretty loud and the smaller speaker might not be the sound you were thinking of.

Also to echo other posts, if you already have the Squier contempory I would definitely keep it, but also suggest lowering the pickup. If that still doesn't suit for cleaner tones then a Wilkinson or Tonerider tele replacement would give you a much lower output and fit with your single coil sounds and leave the neck humbucker for some of the heavier tones. Even with a new pickup, it ends up being just a £50 investment rather than trying to sell it and buy something else. I play everything from rockabilly to blues to ACDC on my teles with no problem at all, just a question of changing the gain and tone on your amp. Different for gigging when different guitars make it easier to change tones and feel quickly. And also agree about a modelling amp solution, any of those suggestions would work for you at home at much less than your budget. You don't need anything powerful, just flexible with such wide tastes. You can then select a clean fender tone one day and click the next preset to get instant Marshall stack the next. But I am not going to suggest that you wouldn't need another guitar or amp at all. As we all know, and tell our wife, they all do something different and you can't possibly live without them.... (even though we play just the one 95% of the time)

Have to say that I'm with @Dad3353. I also can't tell the difference with different tone woods. My own custom built stratotele is mahogany and my esquire is swamp ash. I have exactly the same pickup and electrics in them and I can't tell any difference in the sound alone when I have recorded them, the difference comes to me when playing, but that is feel and weight etc playing their part. Same on bass... I have a custom precision that I built using Paulownia, a feather weight wood and it sounds the same as my regular boat anchor of a precision with an alder body (same pickups again). But my hearing just ain't what it used to be!!

I have to agree with @ezbass. I am a fan of Wilkinson pickups in general, very well made and sound far better than their price suggests. I found that their alnico bass pickup suited me better than the seymour duncan or dimarzio pickups I had in my Precision bass, for less than half the cost. My main guitars are Vintage VZ99 Zips, a mongrel between Danelectro and les Paul junior, the weight of a feather but LP attitude. I thought I would need to strip and replace all the Wilkinson pickups and electrics when I bought my first one, but they are excellent pickups, good output and very responsive. But you would need to go for 2 neck or 2 bridge pickups to make up the 3. Although if it was just for the look, then you could leave the middle one unwired and go for a standard 2 pickup wiring maybe and not worry about balancing the 3 outputs.

Also, just something to bear in mind: I had the champ XD and swapped out the speaker (to an Eminence Legend) and within days replaced the original speaker. The problem with modelling type amps is that by their nature, they need a relatively bland clear speaker in order to give a wider range of tones put out by the preamp. So I think it is purely the modeeling putting out the drive rather than the speaker, it is designed to cope with the various tones, both very clean and very distorted, and wouldn't be great if it distorted quickly. Mine stayed clean pretty much up to max, which I preferred. I agree with Dad3353, you could try a power soak pedal/solution between the power amp and the speaker,, or you could just spend the time on the Fender FUSE software and create your own amp models to over ride the ones you don't like with just versions of the patch you do like but with different gain levels.

Sounds like it just needs a setup. Might be a slightly high fret or a slightly low bridge that might need adjusting, which your luthier of choice can sort easily enough. Fair play though reaching up to 17th fret on acoustic, I don't think that I have gone north of 12th fret more than a handful of times on acoustic. In fact, I rarely get higher than 15th on electric.

That is a very good point. I am not really a fan of pedals, I like just setting my amp and using the volume the alter things, but my drummer (who is also a guitarist) suggested just using a preamp/boost with tone controlsto change the character without using a tubescreamer etc.

Also agree totally with @Dad3353. I did get frustrated with my playing at the beginning and went to a tutor. We did everything really slowly and then gradually built up speed a couple of bpm at a time. To repeat the other comments: Do each exercise for 10 minutes and knock the bpm up about 5 times over that period. Next day drop the bpm back a couple (but about half way to where you had started yesterday). Suddenly feels easy at that tempo. Slow and regular wins the day.

Been looking at videos on you tube for this Area T and I very much like both the normal and hot versions, the normal being a little more sedate and the hot version a little bit more raw and angry sounding in the same guitar. Exactly what I am looking for. Think i will go with one of those anbd see how things go! Much appreciated.

You are completely correct of course, maybe my wording isn't right, but I essentially want to leave my amp settings closely matched and just change guitars to get that extra bit of grunt, I just want a slightly fatter, raunchier tone out of the tele straight out of the gate which I think is mainly the pickup and the winding. I have used some varied strat pickups and got wildly different results with similar amp settings: the SD hot rails sounded like fizz, Texas Specials just lacked any sort of sizzle with a bit of drive (to my ears), and settled on some Tonerider City Limits. When I started putting higher gain into the equation they gave almost the opposite results. The videos I had found online for Dimarzio in particuler were either dead clean and sounding the same, or they were high gain and not suitable for what I wanted. Maybe you are right in that I just need to change amp settings and leave the pickup alone!! But I need one in any case, so I thought it prudent to find one more suitable to my needs. Otherwise, why do we all spend thousands changing the pickup in our precision basses to get different results?? I have more experience in changing pickups on my basses rather than guitar and there are a HUGE amount of options out there.

On the subject of Dimarzio, anyone any experience of the Fast Track or Chopper? They sound good on paper but all the videos i found were either too much gain or just straight clean and I want that crunchy side.

Cool, thanks, I will check them out. That sounds good actually, I have a p90 in a les paul junior clone and like it a lot, but need something a bit more lightweight in my older years! I was thinking about putting in a p90, but I like the look of the traditional tele bridge.

Morning good people of GC, I am about to start a new home built project, a thinline tele / strat type esquire with just a volume, no tone (single pickup). I have one Esquire strat/tele already (but solid body) with a vintage broadcaster type pickup from Oil City, which I like very much for rockabilly and country type. I am looking to do something slightly different to my normal role to cover artists such as Status Quo, Georgia Satellites, Skynyrd, ZZ Top, George Thorogood, more of the blues boogie/southern rock/country end of rock etc so wonder what pickup would be suitable for this? I could just use a similar pickup to my other one and just crank the gain but can't see the point of having one exactly the same. So I am thinking something with a little less treble and a little more mids and touch more grunt but still a bit of snap. Cost isn't really an issue as just a single pickup, but don't want anything fizzy, high gain or too modern or too high an output. And I can wire with a 250k or 500k pot as suitable. Anything that someone has used successfully and can suggest? There are so many versions available it is hard to know where to start outside my normal comfort zone. I am happy to spend the time and watch you tube, but difficult to compare with different players, amps and setups, so a starting point would be very appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I would also suggest that you could speak to other members of the band. If it is too loud for you to hear then I would say that your stage volume is too loud overall and others may also be suffering. As @ezbass suggests, you might benefit having more go through your PA out forwards and better on stage monitoring. I don't know your age, but I can tell you from bitter experience that after 30 years of gigging has left myself and 2 of my band mates with hearing issues, and it really is no joke. But it was a revelation to move onto in-ear monitors. It was very odd and difficult to get good levels and help at the beginning, but SO much better to be actually able to hear yourself and everyone else at a volume that was comfortable. Now we all go through the PA in some way, even the drums and bass guitar. I play directly out of my multi effects into a HK Red box and into PA, or use my 30w Roland Blues cube HOT which has emulated line out into PA (depending which band I am in). It also saves a huge amount of space and set up, no more lugging guitar speaker cabs and head, full bass rigs etc and our general levels are pretty much set at rehearsals so it is just a case of tweaking at each venue.

Looks totally fantastic. But I do find it a little odd though why such amazing craftsmen 'custom build' high quality guitars but still stick to the tried and trusted designs from 70 years ago rather than their own styles. I can appreciate why a customer might want the best that the design can offer, but there must be plenty of custom shop models that do that (although I haven't ever had the money available to splash out on such so haven't looked in detail). As a fully fledged craftsman, does it feel a little like selling your soul to build these rather than a new design to show off your skills...?

I would agree with other posts in that a MIM tele purchased used would be a good bet. Not everyone gets on with every style of instrument. Myself, I love the sound of a tele but dislike the feel, the weight and the look of them, so built a tele into a hardtail strat (which I love the look and feel but can't get them to sound like I want). You might be a couple of months in and find that a tele just isn't for you, in which case you can sell it for basically the same money you paid for it. If you do like it then it is a perfectly good guitar that will last you for a long time, possibly for ever (or at least until GAS kicks in). There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Squier models, I have several myself and find them excellent instruments, but you will lose money on resale if you buy one new (and you will always yearn for one with the Fender logo on the headstock). The Harley Bentons are cheap and cheerful and perfectly servicable, but I think best suited to someone that knows how to smooth the rough edges and get them playing their best.