The Amp Sim thread !!

[ernstinen]

Hmmmm--- Great points! I would love to have 10 guitars. But my '63 Stratocaster is my "baby!" It feels good, sounds good, and looks like sh!t! But I don't care. I've never been one to have lots of guitars. I found mine. My passion is finding tube amplifiers that will make that Strat sing, like I know she will! Many guitarists have multiple amps, not guitars. I've found my "holy grail:" Soldano. THAT is MY sound. I also use an early 70s Fender Deluxe Reverb for clean sounds, and a 70s (chopped) Ampeg VT-40 for in-between (think Stones) sounds.

Sure, I'd love to have a vintage Les Paul like Neil Young, or a Rickenbacker, or a Telecaster, or an SG etc. But my budget does not allow for that, currently ---- So, personally, I go for the amp sound with the great guitar that I have (and will always have).

Best Wishes,

Ern

[elser]

I don't think it's necessarily true that you get you get what you pay for. I play Parker electrics primarily and for me they are amazing guitars, even at $3400. But I also have an Epiphone Masterbilt acoustic which is one of the best acoustic guitars I've ever played and payed $450 for it. Yamaha also makes excellent low cost acoustics. The original Strats and Telecasters were low cost guitars, that's why that sound became so popular but I think many of the new Strats and Teles are better guitars than the vintage models which people pay ridiculous amounts of money for. It's a hard thing to quantify, for some reason Willie Nelson is playing that old beater he plays he's been playing for ever.

[t4mh]

We guitar players are so funny about our instruments! So many opinions!

I've learned to play a lot of instruments in my life and the real players of each one of those can play on some and really speak through others. They are all opinonated about their instruments, brands, models and so forth. We would look at all those players and ask "whats the big deal? Its just a trombone"...

I just don't think it really matters whats on or isn't on the peghead. If a guitar speaks to you and you can speak through it, buy it, play it, make music!

I realize my opinion doesn't really help in a recommended equipment thread, but there it is...

Keith

[ernstinen]

I don't think it's necessarily true that you get you get what you pay for. I play Parker electrics primarily and for me they are amazing guitars, even at $3400. But I also have an Epiphone Masterbilt acoustic which is one of the best acoustic guitars I've ever played and payed $450 for it. Yamaha also makes excellent low cost acoustics. The original Strats and Telecasters were low cost guitars, that's why that sound became so popular but I think many of the new Strats and Teles are better guitars than the vintage models which people pay ridiculous amounts of money for. It's a hard thing to quantify, for some reason Willie Nelson is playing that old beater he plays he's been playing for ever.

Yup, you never know; guitar-by-guitar, even the same model can be TOTALLY different! My $700 Takamine acoustic sounds to me as good or better than a $4000 Martin or Taylor --- Maybe not as rich and deep a tone, but it records great!

Not so for a Stratocaster that I bought to back-up my '63 for stage work. It sounded fantastic in the store unplugged, and although it was built in Japan (Not a Squire!), it also sounded great through an amp. It had the same setup as my '63, rosewood fingerboard, etc. etc. I was SO excited that I found a $600 guitar that would rival my $25k Strat. --- NOT! No comparison at all. The new one would not stay in tune. It was a nice-sounding piece-of-sh!t. I sold it! --- I know that Pete Townsend plays a $1000 American Standard Strat live. BUT, he uses the top-of-the-line $5000 new Fender Combo Amps. And 4 of them. So his amps cost $20,000 while his guitar cost $1k! Just an interesting observation ---

Ern

[mojobone]

RE the Gibson/Epiphone comparison, I thought the Gibson was a little louder and brighter, with better note separation, but I think the Powerbridge is irrelevant; in any case, I'd be slapping a 'Burstbucker or a Lollar in the Epi, if I were hunting a great PAF sound on the cheap. It's worth noting that Slash's Appetite For Destruction axe wasn't a Gibson at all, but a handbuilt LP copy. I would have said ten or fifteen years ago you do get what you pay for, but Gibson's quality control frankly sucks, and has for years, particularly on their mid-price solidbodies. (though they do still make some nice solidbodies if you don't mind paying five grand or more) If I weren't mainly a single-coil kinda guy, I'd buy a PRS long before I'd look at another Gibson. (though my next will most likely be a Gretsch)

Totally agree on playing a guitar unplugged; most guitars that sound bad acoustically don't improve when amplified, but there are always exceptions to every rule, like those Res-O-Glas Airlines Jack White plays-almost unplayable 'til they're plugged in, yet crappy-cool at roaring stage volumes. Anything works, if it works for the player and the song.

[cardell]

I'm a Revalver user but...

I tried a demo of Amplitube 3 and it's amazing!!
I hate to admit it but it would be hard to improve on what they have created with this software. It's now on my wishlist.

Stuart

[billg1]

RE the Gibson/Epiphone comparison, I thought the Gibson was a little louder and brighter, with better note separation, but I think the Powerbridge is irrelevant; in any case, I'd be slapping a 'Burstbucker or a Lollar in the Epi, if I were hunting a great PAF sound on the cheap. It's worth noting that Slash's Appetite For Destruction axe wasn't a Gibson at all, but a handbuilt LP copy. I would have said ten or fifteen years ago you do get what you pay for, but Gibson's quality control frankly sucks, and has for years, particularly on their mid-price solidbodies. (though they do still make some nice solidbodies if you don't mind paying five grand or more) If I weren't mainly a single-coil kinda guy, I'd buy a PRS long before I'd look at another Gibson. (though my next will most likely be a Gretsch)

Totally agree on playing a guitar unplugged; most guitars that sound bad acoustically don't improve when amplified, but there are always exceptions to every rule, like those Res-O-Glas Airlines Jack White plays-almost unplayable 'til they're plugged in, yet crappy-cool at roaring stage volumes. Anything works, if it works for the player and the song.

Funny mentioning the PAF on the cheap thing. Yesterday took this guitar out of the shippng box (just tuned it and had to intonate the g)
http://store.guitarfetish.com/xvtwhuvisual.html

and recorded this http://www.billgaunce.com/song/0

This is actually a very decent guitar, the Guitar Fetish pickups seem to be pretty well thought of -

Bringing this derailed thread back to amp sims, I'm using a Vox vt15 modelling amp on the "trainwreck" setting, except for the solo which was one of the Fender amp settings. Mic'ed with a Sm7b. The trainwreck and ac30 settings sound great on this amp I think (at least for the retro vibe stuff i do) but the Fenders not so much. Maybe I just need to experiment some more.

[ernstinen]

Just Wonderin' ---

I was listening today to a classic rock recording --- I think it was "Magic Man" by Heart. I heard something that I don't hear in simulators, no matter what they are: CHEAP speakers, like low-wattage ones that will break up when you crank 'em. Think Eminence, which used to be standard in Fender cabinets.

There's something there that I've only heard through amp cabinets: The speakers seem to "implode" on themselves, if that's the correct term. Really loud notes get softer after a moment, because the speakers can't handle the power. They don't blow up, but the volume drops a bit. It's a nice sound, and I've heard it before. Can you get that sound from speaker sims?

Thanks in advance,

Ern

[t4mh]

I can if I program it to. Just a function of speaker model used in a cabinet model that gets used with an amp model. I know what your talking about, sort of a punchy, buzzy, yet mushy sound you can get out of 10" speakers. Yeah! I did it by mistake A LOT when I was a kid with crap equipment. I'm not sure if the amp sims most are using these days can go there or not. Just have to wait n hear from them.

Keith

[mojobone]

AH! Cone cry. You hardly ever hear it in isolation, cuz of the way tube amps break up; you're never quite sure which distortion is from the power section and which the cone. I hooked up a 200w solid state Kustom head to the speakers in my '69 Super Reverb, (4X10) you could really hear it then. (too much, and you start to hear chhhhh sound from the voice coil rubbing) You can simulate it with compressor settings, but it's never quite the same. Far as I know, the Palmer speaker simulator and ADA's long-discontinued Ampulator come the closest, in hardware. (that doesn't include actual speaker cones, heh)