Lost Newbie in need of guidance!

[Petre]

Hey all, im fairly new to these boards but have been reading for a lil while now. I first heard about bare knuckle pickups while reading the ESP guitars forum, but thats irrelevant.
At the moment, im not sure what to upgrade on my setup! Ive got myself a job (poorly paid, but its something) and i feel im outgrowing my fairly beginners setup. I been playing for nearly 4 years and currently play through :

Jackson RR3 (swapped out stock bridge for a Seymour Dimebucker)
Line6 Uber Metal
Ibanez Weeping Demon Wah
Marshal MG15 CDR

Its all pretty basic stuff and im not sure where to upgrade next. I have my heart set on an ESP SV standard , but thats a long way off, and through an MG15 ?  :oops:  Maybe i should upgrade pups? (going to post a message in there after this one concerning swapping out my dimebucker for a BKP). Would the upgraded pups be worth it? If i upgrade my amp (probably the most likely option) what to? I dont gig yet but i have recording equipment to record my own songs. Any help with ANY of this confusion would be great help! I like to play Children of Bodom, In Flames, Shadows fall etc.

My hunch is that my amp needs upgrading, but the real question is what to? And if its not my amp then any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance
Petre

P.S thanks for your patience! i understand most of you are accomplished guitarists and probably think this is stupid, but ive really hit a wall with my gear, and i think ive seriously outgrown it and need some advice!

[monkeywalker]

i doesn't sound stupid at all mate.

if it was me, and i was being sensible for once (which i'm not very often :roll: ) i would upgrade my amp first. however i think if you had tried out a BKP loaded guitar yourself you would go for the pickups.

the sound clips on here don't do the pickups justice, as good as they are.

your amp though, is most of your sound so i think perhaps an amp is a better option.

As usual, i haven't actually helped very much :lol:  but there are loadsa brainy people on here who will help you out pal.

[Petre]

Thanks man, was kinda worried i was gonna get flamed or something! Glad to see a friendly forum for a change.

Im damn tempted to stick a set of BKP's in my guitar, but as you say , sensible option may be to upgrade amp. The question is what to tho! Looked into it for quite some time, but not sure what to go for. I dont gig or anything , so i was thinking some sort of mesa boogie ? but liek 60 watt or something? or i could go for a nice head/cab thing, but im low on room  :lol: and might be a bit of a waste if i wouldnt use it loud.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[38thBeatle]

Welcome to the forum from me too. I can't recommend an amp but if you are looking for something to play through at home, 60w might prove to be too lound. Maybe think about a 5w amp.Some of the other guys will chime in I am sure and others have been looking at buying amps and there have been some threads.

[dave_mc]

how much can you realistically save? will you ever be gigging (or have a chance to crank it at home, if you live in the country, for example)?

I'd go amp first, maybe a delay pedal and OD (if the amp doesn't have enough gain, and if you use these effects) second, and the new pickups after that...

EDIT: oh, and welcome! :D

EDIT #2: i'm not saying you won't notice the BKP's through your amp- you will- but you'll notice the most improvement with a new amp.

And I'm also assuming that with your new job, you'll be able to afford new pickups not too far in advance of your amp/pedals.

[Petre]

thanks for the welcomes guys :)

Dave - Realistically i cant save a stupidly large amount. I was looking at around 300 - 400 GBP. I live in a fairly densely populated area, but i get chances to crank my amp at weekends and such, so far, my 15 watt has been fine for volume and such, but its just sound quality isnt so great, I was hoping to go for maybe a slightly bigger amp, but a much better quality one. I plan to gig in the future, but most probably not until next year.

thanks for the help guys, i think its definately my amp that next needs upgrading, but to what at my budget im really unsure. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Petre

[dave_mc]

^at that budget, the only real high gain combo (that's all-tube) is an ashdown fallen angel. Needless to say, I haven't tried it, so I'll be no help on that front, lol.

A marshall dsl401 might be worth a look too, it's around £400. You might need a OD pedal boost for the modern metal you're playing.

Other than that, laney do pretty good high gain amps on a budget, but unfortunately they're heads only in your budget, so you'd need a cab too- and the gh50L is about £350 without the cab.

Other than that, second hand.

That's about all I can think of off-hand (of the tube models, anyway).

[Underground_Player]

Hi Petre,

I'd definately buy an amp first. As everyone says ^ at the end of the day it's where the majority of your sound is produced, and I think would drastically change you're sound rather than tweaking your tone as pickups would.

Re. amps, one thing I think you should take into account is that the bands you've listed rely on a lot of pre-amp gain over power amp gain - so I reckon you could easily get away with a high gain 50 watt amp turned down, and possibly prefer the sound over a sub-10watter, which is likely to be voiced for a more vintage (i.e. non-metal!) sound.

Also a more powerful amp would mean you don't have to spend again when you start gigging.

[Petre]

yea my friend has a 30 watt laney combo with a couple of built in effects. I thought it was alrite, but maybe a cab is the way to go. Seems a little silly with mostly room playing though, but would set me up for the future. That was a neat idea about second hand, completely forgot about that  :oops: . I think ill give ebay a good look once ive got some cash under my belt. my guitar teacher way back said he got his mesa boogie combo on ebay at around 500, so i might have a scan for a good bargain.
Thanks loads guys, was much appreciated  :D

Petre