Lately I feel I've been extremely over concerned with gear, rather than jamming away!
I never had this issue before on my starting off basic gear, but slowly built up to the Line 6 - Dream Rig.
A sweet as setup: DT50 Amp <> PodHD 500 effects <> Variax JTV-89F
Sure it sounds great, but I'm no where satisfied by it... I'm beginning to hate it, due to the fact I tweak and adjust tones, etc, more than I do playing them now. So there's a fine line between quality gear and practice. Understand that most of the tone actually comes from your own hands and don't get carried away too far with your gear!
I'm now considering if to sell the Variax, as I play too much with the features.
Don't get me wrong - the Line 6 Dream Rig is very nice and can sound great, but my high and long period of expectations working up to it, kinda destroyed it as my dream. I'm always trying to find a better tone for it, higher gain, etc - rather than focusing on my own playing skills.
What have you guys purchased, dreamed of, and was crushed or slightly disappointed in the end when you finally got it?
Funny, I play through soundcard so output of guitar means nothing technically (as gain is from soundcard preamp).
But after doing a gazillion pickup and electrical modifications I realized I didn't like the "feel" of the guitar rather than tone. I only increased the output of the pickups and now much happier. This still puzzles me technically
Alternative to this might have been a distortion pedal (digitech grunge, boss metalzone...), did you try adding something analog to the chain?
Easy answer for me
1.)The DIGITECH 1101 (Worst High Gain Ever)
2.)Pod XT (Second Worst High Gain Ever)
Of course this is one mans opine and some folks probably LOVE the gain from those units. For me it was awful.
On the line 6, it did have a million options and parameters. I'm a bit of a parameter tweaker so it too me an entire week of non stop testing to figure that I just couldn't get the sound I wanted. Honestly, it's a problem with the line six high gain emulation IMHO. It's fine for solos generally but runs a bit muddy once you get it hot enough. Cleans were amazing though Mid gain too.
You may be better off swapping out for axe fx or kemper or Eleven Rack. That way you can get just about any tone you like pre built by somebody and just download it. All these units have killer gain at any level.
As much of a gear freak as I am, my expectations with gear is always pretty low - seriously. So I'm rarely disappointed.
I'm more surprised and fascinated by how I can make some weird or unpopular piece of equipment work for me.
The high-end guitar builder John Suhr has the best quote regarding gear and tone ...
"Most tone issues are resolved with practice".
I hear what Azza is getting at. Its not a tone problem with the gear so much its the having too many options problem. For people always hunting for the perfect tone it can be killer because u always try and get the most out of it. Least with a tube amp the options are more plug and play. In saying that I've got a POD HD Pro which I think is great but trying to bring myself to justifying a Axe FX. It sounds great from the clips Ive seen but it sure does have a price tag
This thread made me remember the worst investment in gear that I did in my life. This happened around 20 years ago. I bought this pedalboard without any experience with this type of gear. I had it for 3 or 4 years, I'd never found a sound that I liked and it broke down more than 5 times. It was very bad sounding and very bad quality. Sorry Digitech but I still have prejudice with this brand...
My biggest let down was probably my very first USA Fender Strat, believe it or not!
Having owned several different Strats ( Mexican and a few Japanese ones and also an original JV Squier) it just didn't live up to expectations, I was thinking about how much better it would be than any of the others and the truth is it was a bag of spanners!! My old JV Squier would walk all over it quality-wise and sound-wise!
The axe fx rig you are describing is pretty much the standard issue "pro rig" for touring musicians and anyone else wanting serious amounts of crazy gain in a portable package with fewer sonic limitations. The matrix power is a perfect choice and pairs very well with the axe fx, well done there.
The MFC is also perfect for the unit but keep in mind you will need a wah controller if you want manual foot control.
So yeah that rig would pretty much do it and it's portable. The speaker cab is also a fine choice as it's full range, you get none of the limits of normal guitars cabs and it's angled so it can point at your head and not at your shins so you can hear it. I'd say go for it
Todd
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