Doadman wrote:
With the benefit of hindsight that seems unlikely as who'd want a 42 year old playing for them, especially if he's still a gigging virgin.
Other 42 year olds? Yeah, you'll probably never play at Wembley Stadium but so what? I'm your age and even I haven't given up hope yet, and believe me I'm the world's biggest pessimist. Probably a much worse player too.
Many thanks Philly Q, reading that gave me a smile early in the morning and it's nice to know I'm not alone :D As to the last bit, perhaps you should try listening to me play first :lol:
I appreciate that Pierre is right and I do need to try things for myself but this thread has amply shown that there are major gaps in my knowledge and obviously I'd rather avoid making a costly mistake, hence my request for help from those who clearly know better than I do. At the time I bought my amp I think the logic I was using was understandable but unfortunately nobody told me that alot of the pedals I may want would only work well with valve amps. I'm now wanting advice because each of the 4 options I've come up with seem to have potential problems.
1) I buy a valve amp instead of my Crate: A reasonably powerful valve amp that may still be able to be used in the home seems to be 15w but there is a very limited choice there. The Laney and Epi Valve Standard are the only ones that leap out at me but even with those I'm limited with channels and I may still not be able to drive the valves enough at home, in which case my situation is no better than it is now. I simply don't know as I've never owned a valve amp and when I tried the Valve King it was in a bloody great warehouse!
2) Get effects pedals that work well with solid state amps. Fine, but which ones? They all seem to prefer valve amps from what I can gather so I assume my choice would be severely limited.
3) Connect to my Crate through a valve preamp. Would that mean I'd have to connect the effects through the front of the amp so the sequence runs effects - valve preamp - amplifier? Would this setup even work? Would the pedals only work properly if they connect to a full valve amp? Would the result just be slightly warmed up cr@p? I simply don't know if this solution is even worth considering as I don't know enough about the way these things work.
4) Get something like a Boss GT8. This sounds to my ignorant brain and limited experience like an ideal solution but would this actually be better at getting the most out of my new pups? Someone told me the other day that the valve amp models on these things are useless unless you're recording straight into a computer as your own amp colours the sound too much. Is that true? As I have no immediate interest in recording myself that would make half of the unit useless. For what I'd use it for would this limitation make any real difference to my ear as I've never had one of these expensive amps anyway? They advertise these things as 'giggable' so I assume somebody uses them that way and would it only make a difference to experienced guitarists? When I tried my Crate in the shop and also the Valve King at twice the price my wife actually preferred the Crate!!
I'm ranting again so I'd better shut up :roll: Seriously guys, I will try a couple of things out for myself but I really would appreciate the benefit of your experience and knowledge. Thanks.
