Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: bucketshred on October 05, 2009, 09:12:57 PM
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So, whats the most obscure or under rated piece of gear that rocks your world?
Mine is an obvious one, the DigiTech Bad Monkey. I don't own one (I don't need a Tubescreamer atm) but I'd buy this over anything else first.
Another one is the Zoom Hyper Lead. Back in the day, Zoom released some stand alone stomp boxes which were awesome. I've played an old strat through this pedal and a Fender Supersonic amp, tone to die for!!!
Whats yours?
Paddy
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i'll go by what i have, because, what i have is all i've ever played.
Marshall 3203 artist. hybrid amp. solid state preamp, tube power amp. 30 watts. made them in late 80's to early 90's. come with a 4x10 cab.
i've got the head and cab. sounds GREAT. boost channel is just awesome. one of the few marshalls that can do some real heavy metal without needing a boost into it. they're also quite cheap used, though sometimes hard to find.
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I'll have to say the Digitech Grunge pedal. I picked this up from my local store for £30 and is a great sounding distortion/overdrive pedal.
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My MIJ Pearl LP Custom. Beats most Gibsons I've played and only cost £250. It did need a fret dress/setup and some good pickups though but it still only came to about £550 including all that, I think!
I've only ever seen one other (someone on harmony central has one pretty much identical to mine).
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Agile Les Paul copies
Modded Boss GE-7
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+1 on the modded GE7. Now runs very quiet and can completely transform your sound.
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I'm very fond of 80s RGs, and at the second hand prices you can get them at now they are, assuming they're still in decent nick, superb value metal guitars.
For obscure and underrated: the award session JD10 has to be my choice.
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The ToneRider Superlush Chorus is my wolf in sheeps clothing. In fact, I've also got the British Distortion and the American Overdrive and they've both superb too. The chorus sounds as good as an old CE-2 but with true bypass, and the Overdrive sounded as good as my Maxon OD-9 which I then sold. The Distortion is a Guv'nor / Crunch Box style pedal and sounds better than both of them.
For £60 each they're incredible. True bypass, boutique tone and high street pricing. Look past the name and go with your ears and wallet....
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The Emma Electronics "Reezafratzitz". Not the cheapest distortion/overdrive pedal, but not the most expensive as well. It's just so versatile. Can go from light overdriven tones to raunchy distortion. If you don't already know this pedal you gotta check it out!
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Had a zoom hyperlead.
Sold it for more than I paid for it.
I seemed to be the only one who didn't know anything about it I just remembered it sounding really thin and tinny through my old transister amp. It was retired when I got an amp with a seperate drive channel.
Before I sold it I did hook it up to my tiny terror to see what the fuss was about. I thought it was OK but it really wasn't as good as my Blackstar HT-Dual IMO.
Sound City and WEM amps are absolutely dirt cheap for some reason. Maybe people are put off by a lack of channel switching or distortion quality.
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wems do sound good..(if working)
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Had an 80s Yamaha RGX Custom which was a really nicely made guitar - just sat a little too far to the left for me and I found that I was always playing over the neck pickup
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I think I have to add the Celestion Sidewinder, 150w and still sounds essentially British.
They are increasing in price though, the last few on eBay are nearing £40 :(
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:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
gotcha!
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Glad there aren't (too many) sour feelings then ;)
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I can't add much but the Sansamp (GT2 in my case) pedal is quite impressive.Maybe not obscure but not too glamorous with lights and buttons all over the shop but easy to get a great tone out of it I reckon.
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Glad there aren't (too many) sour feelings then ;)
Believe it or not I'm actually a fun guy, but I suppose no one here cares for mushrooms either.
(http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb76/guitarzan_1/Smilies/thhysterical1.gif)
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The ToneRider Superlush Chorus is my wolf in sheeps clothing. In fact, I've also got the British Distortion and the American Overdrive and they've both superb too. The chorus sounds as good as an old CE-2 but with true bypass, and the Overdrive sounded as good as my Maxon OD-9 which I then sold. The Distortion is a Guv'nor / Crunch Box style pedal and sounds better than both of them.
For £60 each they're incredible. True bypass, boutique tone and high street pricing. Look past the name and go with your ears and wallet....
yeah, the chorus is really nice. I paid £67, though, stupid price drop... :lol:
And the distortion is that nice, is it? Might have to pick one up, eventually... how bright is it, though? My big problem with a lot of distortion pedals is that they can be really bright, and also quite noisy... :( Got an HBE big D a while back, which is very nice, but the brightness and noise are a bit annoying... I got it second hand on ebay, too, so not 100% sure it's not slightly faulty... :(
I got one of these recently, and it's really, really nice, especially for the (verging on ridiculous) price. Went up £20 since I got it, too...
http://www.valvepower.co.uk/index.htm
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Not too bright Dave - I hate overly bright distortions too. It's a bit like the Crunch Box if you'd tried that?
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I quite like my redbear amp, had never heard of them until i was buying one.
dont like it quite as much right now though since it doesnt work
Ive always though laneys are underrated, I had an aor100 for a few years and it was mean.
they always seem to appear as the retarded cousin of marshall. mostly just through marshall being kings of marketing and laney not even understanding what marketing is. if i had the choice though id generally go the laney path
I also consider my jackson jj1 scott ian to be reasonably obscure, seems to be left out of any jackson talk since its not the typical metal guitar, more lowkey gibson styled. i got mine pretty cheap and then the other guitarist in my old band also got one for even cheaper. down here anyone who wants a gibson style guitar would rather pay big bucks for a gibson, anyone who wants a jackson doesnt want a gibson style guitar
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Laney GH50L is very underrated - I really liked mine :)
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I tried to buy a laney GH100l last week, it was the only one they had in stock in the country at the local guitar place so was discounted bigtime combined with interest free Hire Purchase which I have preapproval for thanks to buying stuff previously through them, but someone had already put it on layby and the website hadnt been updated :shock:
so yeah no new amp day for me
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Not too bright Dave - I hate overly bright distortions too. It's a bit like the Crunch Box if you'd tried that?
nope, haven't tried it, sorry. But if it's not too bright, it might be worth considering, thanks for the info dave. :D EDIT: how's the noise on it?
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you can still get Selmer amps for under £300 - easily the match of any Marshall/Orange/Hiwatt/Fender/Vox of the same era.
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nope, haven't tried it, sorry. But if it's not too bright, it might be worth considering, thanks for the info dave. :D EDIT: how's the noise on it?
It's pretty darn quiet to be honest, but I only use it at band volumes for rehearsals. I have my small board at home at the minute so I'll try it and let you know?
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Miles Platting
Selmer
WEM
Linear
Impact
Wilsic
Watkins
All great vintage valve amps for so much cheaper than an old Marshall.
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Mine doesn't have any effect on tone, but rather I find it a huge practical help:
Lehle 3@1 switcher
It makes guitar changes so easy: simply choose 3 guitars, plug them into it, pick up the one you want, step on the corresponding button & play. If you want to change, simply put it down, pick up one of the other guitars, step on the button etc etc. Live guitar changes are so much easier (& quieter!)
It has 2 outputs so you can plug in a tuner with no signal loss. Also, if you want to do A/B comparisons (say to compare different pickups :)) it's so much easier than having to unplug things.
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Laney GH50L is very underrated - I really liked mine :)
You just reminded me of my favourite gigging amp ( back in the day ) - the Laney LH50R-II. For a 1950's to 1980's style(s) covers band - It covered a lot of ground for me ; from Fender-ish cleans on channel 1, to 'creamy goodness' on channel two. I had not initially submitted it for this thread, as I was not thinking of it as being lesser known.
My current 'cut price contribution' is my budget Jazz guitar (Vintage VS575) - albeit pimped with new Grover machine heads, upgraded pots and caps - and a change of knobs to match the Manhattans. I can see that it might be considered invalid as a 'budget' item, if I felt the need to upgrade components ; but the value to me - was that the woods, acoustic tone, frets, ease of set up to very tight tolerances, was good to go from the box. With all the upgrades, it still came in at half the price of a Peerless, and a fifth the price of a Gibbo or 'Boutique'.
The Phil Jones Cub 100 is my other 'little gem' . :)
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I was wondering if it would belong here.
It's my amp. The brand isn't obscure nor underrated but the amp itself is.
It's the Engl Classic Tube 50.
It's not like other Engls that seem to be orientated towards high gain and Swiss Army knives.
Those who look for a hot rodded (blonde) Fender tone don't tend to put Engl on their shortlist.
If this amp was made by Fender, it would have been a bestseller.
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im gonna have to back the Laney GH50L.
To think these are reallly inexpensive here, you don't see TOO many people using them. I think it's a good as a 5150, probably better IMO since i prefer marshall tones.
im also gonna add using grolsch's rubber stoppers from flick open bottles as strap locks. pretty awesome and very inexpensive!
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It's pretty darn quiet to be honest, but I only use it at band volumes for rehearsals. I have my small board at home at the minute so I'll try it and let you know?
that'd be great, thanks dave. home volume would be fine, I only play at home anyway. :)
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I think my Indie is underrated :p
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im also gonna add using grolsch's rubber stoppers from flick open bottles as strap locks. pretty awesome and very inexpensive!
Good idea, I have big metal washers on one of my guitars the inner circle is slightly smaller than the strap button so stays on nicely.
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im also gonna add using grolsch's rubber stoppers from flick open bottles as strap locks. pretty awesome and very inexpensive!
Good idea, I have big metal washers on one of my guitars the inner circle is slightly smaller than the strap button so stays on nicely.
I've bought these off this guy instead of drinking Grolsh! Same thing... cheaper and I can drink Real Ale.
http://www.straplock.co.uk/catalog3.html
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http://fibenare.webzeppelin.hu/index.html 8)
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im also gonna add using grolsch's rubber stoppers from flick open bottles as strap locks. pretty awesome and very inexpensive!
Good idea, I have big metal washers on one of my guitars the inner circle is slightly smaller than the strap button so stays on nicely.
I've bought these off this guy instead of drinking Grolsh! Same thing... cheaper and I can drink Real Ale.
http://www.straplock.co.uk/catalog3.html
you pay for em?
damn son! just keep a beady eye open and get them rings for free! get with the hustle!
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As a paid up member of CAMRA, I can and will not endorse the drinking or purchase of Grolsh...
Stella is only acceptable as a defence for spousal abuse.
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I just realised my valve amp qualifies for this thread under "obscure".
A "Pro-tube 50 combo, 6 knob - not AOR" Laney.
I've never, ever, seen another one, and I've just found a picture of one on the Laney Posse forum, in this thread http://www.laney-posse.co.uk/theposse/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=777 (http://www.laney-posse.co.uk/theposse/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=777)
I've nicked the pic and attached it in case the link goes away (apologies to the owner...).
Obviously, the pic's not my amp, but mine is exactly like that (even down to the handle covers that fell off!) except mine's missing a metal corner or two, and two tone knobs (the spindles snap on your kneecaps when you're trying to get the thing in the van...).
I got mine brand new in 1983. The AOR series appeared a few years later - tried a 30 and a 50, but they were cr@p and noisy compared to this.
I know I always talk about being a modellor user nowadays etc... but, even though I haven't run this thing for a few years, it is the last piece of kit I'd part with (including all the guitars).
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I think my MJM Roctavios is the most underatted fuzz octave pedal out there. It has a unique sound, with some ring modulated insane tones as well as standard fuzz-oct. http://www.mjmguitarfx.com/roctavios.htm
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This'll upset some people - 1983 stratocasters, the ones with the cr@ppy trem system and the output jack on the scratchplate. Hardtail it and live with the output jack - or better still get a guitar tech to rout out the body and install a proper strat jackplate and you've got yourself a perfectly serviceable Fender strat there.
PLUS the shorter string path = lower string tension so you can move up to a heavier string gauge. Oh yes.
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I can do obscure too, this is my ACT MP-100 midi valve preamp. Never even heard of these anywhere else, I think this may even be a prototype as the LED display doesn't even line up with the screen printed lines on the casing. Got it in the 1990s for not very much money, ex-demo unit that was listed at £999. Sounds incredible, really warm compressed sound, very Fendery.
If anyone has any info on these things I'd love to know a bit more about it. Even Google draws a blank on this one.