I am sad

[Pierre]

And very disapointed.

I'm finally very, very happy with my guitars. A warm Strat-ish axe (Charvel M4 with Duncan Jazz), a VERY versatile, fantastic sounding Strat, a Les Paul and one superstrat at the tech's. I just need a good Tele next. Already got all the specs figured out.
I'm finally happy with my pedalboard too. I managed to downsize everything and make it functional above everything. This isn't about having as many sounds as possible, it's not about making weird noises using 4 delays and 3 ring mods (all filtered of course), it's about having a fun, intuitive board I can plug in anywhere and get great tones of.
I'm actually decently happy with my amp too (Laney AOR30) but here's the kicker...

It's still not such a great amp. It's meant as a rock machine, with the gain on 10. I don't like the gain it has so I use pedals for it, which I'm actually ok with. But basically I am using a Marshall JCM800 combo as a clean platform for a pedalboard.

And with all my stuff, even if I could sell the amp and pedalboard and the spare SuperStrat I'm not using (and yes, pretty much everything of these has been for sale for the past year or so), I couldn't even afford a decent amp or the one I want (I would really, really love a Bogner Duende...).
A good amp is just so much more than a good guitar I feel. May be different for you if you can make a rig sound good easily, but I can't  :lol:

There are also very few 20 -30W head, with very, very nice cleans (think super reverb nice, not same cleans of course, but that nice), AND a sweet, singing light OD channel for Blues. Even less so three channels that can do this AND brewtal.

Though there's the JVM which gets mightly close but comes as a 50W head... fair enough. There's the Orange Rocker 30. The Dual Tiny Terror. A Deluxe Reverb Reissue I guess as well... and all of them are miles above what I could afford if I sold off everything but my guitars.

Re-thinking your rig sucks.

Rant over.

[Jonny]

I thought my VOX AD30VT packed enough for any type of music. Plus if you were ever to get an amp such as the JVM, why not just wap a Hotplate on it?

But yes, I've re-thought my rig a few times with both good and bad coming out of it. Sadly money doesn't grow on trees, except in Dave's back garden.

A rant always helps anyways.

[Pierre]

I actually used a POD 2.0 + bigass floorboard through that AOR's effects return for over a year. I really liked it but always thought it just... lacked something. I went back to single pedals + valve amps soon after and even though I was never playing very loud, for some reason everything just fell back into places. The POD rig had the versatility and fun but just... dunno. It wasn't there yet.

[Adam.M]

Hell that's nothing, i keep having to retreat to cheap guitars and VST 'amps' and its starting to really piss me off.

[JamesHealey]

Amps especially valve amps are great for tweaking, if you're struggling with your amps sound take it to a local tech and talk through what you're finding wrong with it.

too much bottom end? not enough highs? want more of that marshally grind?

simple mods such as changing cathode resistors + bypass cap can change the gain and frequency response of a tube and changing the coupling caps size can increase or decrease bandwidth of sound. modding the tonestack for a smoother or more gritty sound etc.

these little things are so easy to tweak for a qualified tech, book yourself in with one and get some cash together and discuss what you want to happen.

don't forget good tubes and good speakers make a huge difference.

[hamfist]

One thing you haven't mentioned at all Pierre is the cab you're using. I guess you're playing through the AOR30's cab (if it's a combo).
  Speakers and the cab have an absolutely huge influence on your tone.  It might be a good experiment to plug your rig into a few different cabs and listen to the difference.  It doesn't involve spending money, and may well identify whether your speaker(s)/cab are being a real weak link in your signal chain.

Personally, I haven't found a 1x12 combo that I like the cab of yet. Some people ridicule using 4x12's at home, but for me, the depth and richness of a good 4x12 is obvious at ANY volume.

Also, if you're amp shopping, don't limit yourself to lower wattage amps. Some big wattage amps have superb master volumes. Both my current amps are 100 watters, and I have recently discovered that they sound awesome at low volumes. I've sold the attenuator I was using (generally agreed to be the best on the market, globally, at the moment), because the amps actually sound better without it.

[Twinfan]

Sadly money doesn't grow on trees, except in Dave's back garden.

They're more 'small bushes' at the minute!

I agree with most of the stuff that's been said above but unlike Alan I have two 1x12 combos that I love - both Fender Deluxe-type amps.  The smaller powered of the two is my #1 home amp and it sounds great to me:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o63QtYRIhoI

I'd try a speaker swap for something less harsh like a Celestion G12H Heritage, G12-65 or Gold.

[Adam.M]

Sadly money doesn't grow on trees, except in Dave's back garden.

They're more 'small bushes' at the minute!

I agree with most of the stuff that's been said above but unlike Alan I have two 1x12 combos that I love - both Fender Deluxe-type amps.  The smaller powered of the two is my #1 home amp and it sounds great to me:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o63QtYRIhoI

I'd try a speaker swap for something less harsh like a Celestion G12H Heritage, G12-65 or Gold.

Want to buy my PRS, Dave? ;)

[Roobubba]

Sadly money doesn't grow on trees, except in Dave's back garden.

They're more 'small bushes' at the minute!

I agree with most of the stuff that's been said above but unlike Alan I have two 1x12 combos that I love - both Fender Deluxe-type amps.  The smaller powered of the two is my #1 home amp and it sounds great to me:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o63QtYRIhoI

I'd try a speaker swap for something less harsh like a Celestion G12H Heritage, G12-65 or Gold.

or, cheaper, a G12K-100! :D But seriously, a Gold might not quite be in budget!!!

[Twinfan]

I'm good for PRSs at the minute thanks Adam  ;)

A Gold might not be in budget I know, but it's an option  :)  I missed off the Hot-100 too, a great little speaker.

[gwEm]

could try a marshall 20/20 power amp - its perfect for that 'run clean and use pedals' thing IMHO, nice warm sound. or some sort of matamp, or fender.

[Pierre]

Yeah the Matamp Street King was also on my shortlist, but I'm a jobless student so everything above £200 seems like an unachieavable wad of money  :lol: especially these days.

I modded the AOR. I replaced the filter caps and coupling caps myself, I swapped out the speaker for an Eminence Cannabis Rex. And yeah I think it'd benefit from a good cabinet... I may go for an Orange 112 at some point, just to see if it improves things. I also fully retubed it/rebiased it.
Sorry for the rant everyone. These aren't easy days for us gear freaks. Not easy for students either :(

[Will]

These aren't easy days for us gear freaks. Not easy for students either :(

Surely its better to be a student than unemployed?

Theres something about internet forums and guitar mags which makes you not want to be content with your gear though, don't worry about it! Its all about the music :P

[Adam.M]

I'm good for PRSs at the minute thanks Adam  ;)

A Gold might not be in budget I know, but it's an option  :)  I missed off the Hot-100 too, a great little speaker.

Hahaha, yeah i think you have enough as it is... and theres no way i'm ever selling this, i just had james set it up and fix the trem, some idiot had messed with the 6 screws thinking they were to set the action, not realising that they're the knife edges! thankfully the trem is okay

Also, i just got a pair of Hot-100's, supposedly like the V30 as it has the treble roll off, but not that annoying mid hump... sounds ideal to me!

[Alex]

The Marshall JVM would be fine. I played it and it sounds great. 20/30/50Watts doesn't make much of a difference volume wise, the Marshall gets most of its sound from the preamp anyway.