Help With Decisions, need help deciding what to buy |
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Sep 21 2007, 07:47 AM
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Is it for home use, recording, live/gigging or some combination Rob? Also do you want the amp with or without effects/modeling and any preference towards type (digital, transistor, valve...). Any must have features? ANd a price range?
Sorry for all the questions but it will help reduce the options. Cheers, Tony -------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
Be friends on facebook with us here. We use professional, mastering grade hardware in our mastering studo. Our hardware includes: Cranesong Avocet II Monitor Controller, Dangerous Music Liasion Insert Hardware Router, ATC SCM Pro Monitors, Lavry Black DA11, Prism Orpheus ADC/DAC, Gyratec Gyraf XIV Parallel Passive Mastering EQ, Great River MAQ 2NV Mastering EQ, Kush Clariphonic Parallel EQ Shelf, Maselec MLA-2 Mastering Compressor, API 2500 Mastering Compressor, Eventide Eclipse Reverb/Echo. |
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Sep 21 2007, 05:00 PM
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QUOTE (RobM @ Sep 21 2007, 01:54 PM)  I would love to have an amp that is good for home use (with headphones of course), Recording and for gigging (when i get good enough to perfom live). As far as effects go I'm not sure if the best way to go is with amp effects, pedals or a combination of both? I think having modeling and presets is a good idea in an amp but I'm looking for your highly educated opinion here. All I'm used to is an older (maybe 12 years) simple 30W Park amp. It's built by Marshall in case you didn't know. I'l try to cover the questions from the other thread aswell, as good as I can. For an amp, I'd take a serious look at the Matrix from Hughes and Kettner. It's avaibale as combo or head, 100W with headphones jack. Bedroom or live giging! It's not a modeling amp, it's a versatile solid state. Four channels, clean, crunch , lead and warp. It will cover all your influences in music really, hit the Warp channel and cut the mids for some heavy Dream Theater riffing. It's the same setup of channels I got on my H&K Switchblade. To give you an idea about what the Matrix is Demo Demo2 Demo3 Demo4 Then there's the ZenTera but it's very expensive. If I was on the look for a solid state I would probably get one from H&K, they got more models than the Matrix btw. Or possibly the Roland cube. As for recording, I'd go with a computer. I don't know your soundcard but if it has a line in for guitar it should be suitable already. For live gigs two mike plug ins should work. With a mike entrance you can also mike your amp if you prefer that. Reaper should work perfect for a sequencer tool. The guitars. You should try them out. Ibanez and Les Paul feels so differnt to play. Seeing your preferences in music I think the tone from a gibson would suit you better. If you need 24 frets the Ibanez is your only option. But as fkalish says, real men play Gibson  I belive you will enjoy Eagles better from a Les Paul than you will suffer from playing Dream Theater on it, than the other way around. Though I can feel myself that an Ibanez is more comfortable. *grmbl* just try em out and pick the better one 
-------------------- My bands homepage
All time favourites: B. Streisand - Woman in Love, M. Hopkin - Those were the days, L. Richie - Hello |
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Sep 22 2007, 12:44 AM
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QUOTE (MickeM @ Sep 21 2007, 12:00 PM) I'l try to cover the questions from the other thread aswell, as good as I can. For an amp, I'd take a serious look at the Matrix from Hughes and Kettner. It's avaibale as combo or head, 100W with headphones jack. Bedroom or live giging! It's not a modeling amp, it's a versatile solid state. Four channels, clean, crunch , lead and warp. It will cover all your influences in music really, hit the Warp channel and cut the mids for some heavy Dream Theater riffing. It's the same setup of channels I got on my H&K Switchblade. To give you an idea about what the Matrix is Demo Demo2 Demo3 Demo4 Then there's the ZenTera but it's very expensive. If I was on the look for a solid state I would probably get one from H&K, they got more models than the Matrix btw. Or possibly the Roland cube. As for recording, I'd go with a computer. I don't know your soundcard but if it has a line in for guitar it should be suitable already. For live gigs two mike plug ins should work. With a mike entrance you can also mike your amp if you prefer that. Reaper should work perfect for a sequencer tool. The guitars. You should try them out. Ibanez and Les Paul feels so differnt to play. Seeing your preferences in music I think the tone from a gibson would suit you better. If you need 24 frets the Ibanez is your only option. But as fkalish says, real men play Gibson I belive you will enjoy Eagles better from a Les Paul than you will suffer from playing Dream Theater on it, than the other way around. Though I can feel myself that an Ibanez is more comfortable. *grmbl* just try em out and pick the better one Thanks Mike, I appreciate your input, those Amps really do sound good and are pretty affordable to. I have a creative labs X-FI Extreme Music sound card in my system but was thinking of maybe changing that to something else as I have to rebuild my kids computer and I was going to use the parts from the computer that I built about a year ago and then buy new parts for mine. -------------------- You wish.
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Sep 22 2007, 12:54 AM
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H&K are great amps like MickeM says and the headphone lets you use a gigging amp at bedroom levels that has to be a big bonus.
Also agree that if you can you should go in to a guitar shop and try out as many as you can. Don't be intimidated - you're paying good money so need to try them. Try some that are more then you want to pay as well as a few cheaper ones so that you get a sense as to what you are paying for - and indeed whether or not you need a 1000USD (for example) or really need/want a 1500USD one or could get by with a 500USD one. Don't btw just look at the well known brand names - there are many excellent small guitar makers that don't get the publicty of Fender/Gibson/Ibanez etc but build guitars just as good - and sometimes better. Cheers, Tony -------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
Be friends on facebook with us here. We use professional, mastering grade hardware in our mastering studo. Our hardware includes: Cranesong Avocet II Monitor Controller, Dangerous Music Liasion Insert Hardware Router, ATC SCM Pro Monitors, Lavry Black DA11, Prism Orpheus ADC/DAC, Gyratec Gyraf XIV Parallel Passive Mastering EQ, Great River MAQ 2NV Mastering EQ, Kush Clariphonic Parallel EQ Shelf, Maselec MLA-2 Mastering Compressor, API 2500 Mastering Compressor, Eventide Eclipse Reverb/Echo. |
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Sep 22 2007, 05:58 AM
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Afraid it gets more complicated Rob. The neck profile can be different - some guitars have a very pronounced 'C' type profile, some a 'D', some have a compound radius (where the profile changes down the neck). I have two Gibsons one with quite a definite 'c' and one which is closer to a 'd'. Further the radius - although it can, and does, affect comfort/playability if you have a small hand width is only one factor. You also need to take in to account other issues like finger board width (which relates to radius), fret profile and height, neck/scale length. Style of playing is also an issue - if you fingerpick/play classical then having a wider board is a plus whilst most electric guitar players get more used to a narrow width.
The best option imo is to try out as many as you can to see which neck feels good to you. For me playing a few is far easier and quicker then trying to get technical answers out of most shop staff  .Cheers, Tony -------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
Be friends on facebook with us here. We use professional, mastering grade hardware in our mastering studo. Our hardware includes: Cranesong Avocet II Monitor Controller, Dangerous Music Liasion Insert Hardware Router, ATC SCM Pro Monitors, Lavry Black DA11, Prism Orpheus ADC/DAC, Gyratec Gyraf XIV Parallel Passive Mastering EQ, Great River MAQ 2NV Mastering EQ, Kush Clariphonic Parallel EQ Shelf, Maselec MLA-2 Mastering Compressor, API 2500 Mastering Compressor, Eventide Eclipse Reverb/Echo. |
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Sep 22 2007, 07:19 AM
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QUOTE (tonymiro @ Sep 21 2007, 11:58 PM) Afraid it gets more complicated Rob. The neck profile can be different - some guitars have a very pronounced 'C' type profile, some a 'D', some have a compound radius (where the profile changes down the neck). I have two Gibsons one with quite a definite 'c' and one which is closer to a 'd'. Further the radius - although it can, and does, affect comfort/playability if you have a small hand width is only one factor. You also need to take in to account other issues like finger board width (which relates to radius), fret profile and height, neck/scale length. Style of playing is also an issue - if you fingerpick/play classical then having a wider board is a plus whilst most electric guitar players get more used to a narrow width. The best option imo is to try out as many as you can to see which neck feels good to you. For me playing a few is far easier and quicker then trying to get technical answers out of most shop staff .Cheers, Tony Here is a link with pictures of the necks Tony Mentioned. http://www.shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic....810c01def68fcb7 All Gibsons have 12 inch radius necks. May be a few exceptions, but few. The radius measurement is really independent of neck width. 17 inch means that if the fret board was a section of a circle, that circle would have a radius of 17 inches from the neck. So you can see, that would be flatter than a 12 inch neck. The radius can come into play, in that a very curved neck would cancel out bends if the action was set very low. Some of these guys do set it very low. Tony does not. I have only a fraction of his experience, but I have learned to raise mine. Yngwie plays a fender with a 9.5 radius neck I believe, his model is that. So unless you really want to set your action low, this should not be a problem. I am not sure what the advantage of a 17 inch neck is supposed to be for shredding, other than one could set the action very very low. Personally, I feel the 12 inch is probably about right. Eric Johnson has a 12 inch, some Fenders do. I believe the actual neck width (that is, the spread of the strings) is the same on an Ibanez as on a Gibson. Personally I feel, this is much like Rifles. There are a number of quality brands, and people will argue over which is the best, but a good shooter will drop the deer using any of them. |
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Sep 22 2007, 07:27 AM
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QUOTE (fkalich @ Sep 22 2007, 12:19 AM) Here is a link with pictures of the necks Tony Mentioned. http://www.shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic....810c01def68fcb7 I have only a fraction of his experience, ... sadly my experience is very groundhog day - too much repetition rather than new stuff  .Cheers, Tony -------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
Be friends on facebook with us here. We use professional, mastering grade hardware in our mastering studo. Our hardware includes: Cranesong Avocet II Monitor Controller, Dangerous Music Liasion Insert Hardware Router, ATC SCM Pro Monitors, Lavry Black DA11, Prism Orpheus ADC/DAC, Gyratec Gyraf XIV Parallel Passive Mastering EQ, Great River MAQ 2NV Mastering EQ, Kush Clariphonic Parallel EQ Shelf, Maselec MLA-2 Mastering Compressor, API 2500 Mastering Compressor, Eventide Eclipse Reverb/Echo. |
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