Personalizing My Amp / Brand Shame?

[DeathJag]

Why have I never seen an assman that was once a Bassman? These are kind of the things I ponder.

„arsh“ (Arsch - german for ass) is a common thing to happen to Marshall cabinets (and some amps) in the german speaking area… at least in Austria I‘ve seen some… or „all“ for (outer) space for some Kraut-Rock bands maybe…

HAHA! Brilliant! I guess for a Bassman one would have to remove that letter with acetone. That's a serious commitment to the assman amp.

[seenoevil II]

Option 1: the "Haw Haw, it's a Crate, ain't that a goof?"

!!!!!
I've had that exact amp since I was 15 and I have also made it say "SOCRATES".

I got the idea after seeing Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. SM made his Orange say "Anger" and Mike Clark's Marshall became " A Snail".

I looked at my Amp and thought of Bill and Ted. So-Crates.

It is a killer Amp. US made. Super loud. Clean cleans like a JC-120. I used to use the Crunch channel with the on board "doubler" for a Mick Jones punk sound.

These days I have the speakers wired to be a either an 8 ohm 1x12 or 4 ohm 2x12 for my Quilter head. Sometimes it's a PA at shows too.

Great Amp. Mines completely beat to hell.

[46346]

i love the SOCRATES option cuz it's silly and creative, and it even took me a second to recognize the CRATE within.

i've been a gear snob, historically, mostly cuz i make much of my living with this stuff, so i can justify paying for quality and image.

but even us gear snobs are impressed by players who are free to make sounds they love with whatever gear they've discovered.

i recently was invited to join a jam/performance with some more experienced players who i really look up to.
it was a last-minute thing, and all i had with me was my Squier JM and a Roland battery amp.
i thought it was just a backyard jam, but turns out there was a full on PA, big drum kit, Fender Twins, etc.
the sound guy chuckled at my amp, but was able to mic it up and give me a monitor!
the keyboard player had a nicer JM than mine...

but without my cool gear, i had a great time just playing simple clean stuff, comping, grooving, keeping space.
turns out they were fed up with their regular guitar guy who apparently was too cool for school, and were auditioning me at their gig!
there were many smiles and nods while playing, and they invited me back to play a club date.
it really made me feel great about not having to use certain gear, even among full time professionals.

so, someday i will bring my '59 Jazzmaster or '76 Starcaster and a vintage amp to the gig, i hope that doesn't spoil anything.
but i'll be sure to play and fit in, like i don't need that stuff.

[MrShake]

I love that this thread has legs. Not for me, but for everybody.

I'd never thought to try that doubler sound for a Mick Jones thing, and I'm a massive Clash fan. There's a boot of the show where Simonon smashed his bass for that LC cover shot, and Jones is clearly digging the flange/chorus thing and instead of being super-dated, it really works. I'll have to play around with it.

And I love hearing about eye-opening experiences with cheap gear. I'm not gonna be one of those warriors who insists all cheap gear is equal to the pricey stuff. I've got my fancy toys I'm never getting rid of, but I sounded blistering this weekend at practice on my cheapo rig, just a different set of similar tools.

So, I say...



Today's rig, I think the board has finally settled in for a while. Surprised how much I'm using the Boss DF-2, and these loud, clean amps are just the ticket for making all my dynamic shifts in the arrangement with my feet. Fuzz Face and Fuzzrite ahead of the board.



Just booked our first show of 2023 already, need to get to building my 4-way buffered splitter so I can get signal to the whole thing at once.