Journey to the center of the mind, Edition 1: beginner guitarists and amps

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hexes
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Re: Journey to the center of the mind, Edition 1: beginner guitarists and amps

Post by hexes » Sat Jan 08, 2022 12:46 pm

later 90s: cheapest squier strat and crate 15 watt SS amp package. preferred plugging my strat into my dad’s old 1970s portable auctioneer p.a. speaker with 1/4” input and a microphone.
i could turn the mic and the instrument on at the same time and create glorious feedback before I ever learned a chord.

then, needed an amp to use in a band: enter awful marshall valvestate 65 watt thing. had a 12ax7 in the distortion channel, and spring reverb.

fell hard for reverb and bought a tube fender 1963 RI reverb unit for the surf tone.

My high school band was playing several shows a week, I bought a 1996 Tex Max Strat (still have) and discovered tube amps:

50w JCM800, plexi, 70s Orange OR80, ampeg V4 halfstack ampeg Jet (ampeg v4 head for $125, and cab for $100… those were the days.) sunn model t (original), all cheap amps in the late 90s…

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Gavanti
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Re: Journey to the center of the mind, Edition 1: beginner guitarists and amps

Post by Gavanti » Sat Jan 08, 2022 3:05 pm

Early 90s.
Squier P Bass in pearl white
1970s Bassman head & cab
Boss MT-2
Clueless but fun.

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MattK
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Re: Journey to the center of the mind, Edition 1: beginner guitarists and amps

Post by MattK » Sat Jan 08, 2022 3:40 pm

When I was in a band in the 90s I had some ATROCIOUS home-built solid state thing with a 15" speaker in an unbelievably heavy cabinet. I had no idea at all and figured that it was good because it was cheap and large, and the sound came from pedals, so it would be fine. I don't have any recordings but I'm certain I sounded terrible with my cheap-ass poorly-set-up noname Strat copy and my 3 Boss pedals (one of which was the uber-rare Spectrum that I bought for $20 and gave away at some point).
Then my neighbour traded me a flatbed scanner for an old, probably 0.5 watt microphone amp from the 40s or 50s. I used it as my only amp for years, the big one having been "borrowed" by my brother-in-law who never offered to give it back (one of many such examples). It sounded (and sounds) pretty nice, a bit glitchy but I was only using it for practice. Then one day I walked into a store and tried out a guitar through a Princeton Reverb reissue and my jaw hit the ground. It led me to a 1972 Twin Reverb (mistake, too much amp) and then a Strauss copy of a Peavey Classic 30 which cost VERY little and sounds great, albeit a bit flaky. And then snapped up a Pathfinder 15R I found for $50 locally, which in all truth is the amp I play 95% of the time now.

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JackFawkes
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Re: Journey to the center of the mind, Edition 1: beginner guitarists and amps

Post by JackFawkes » Wed Feb 09, 2022 9:21 pm

My first guitar was a late-90's MIM Stratocaster that I got on Craigslist "like new" for $200, and still have it.
First amp was a Roland Micro Cube that I also got off of Craigslist for $50... though it's since been passed on to another friend when they got their first guitar.

Jack

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hulakatt
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Re: Journey to the center of the mind, Edition 1: beginner guitarists and amps

Post by hulakatt » Thu Feb 10, 2022 7:11 pm

My first guitar and amp was a black Mexi strat and a 15w Fender SS amp that came together from the local classifieds. Kept the guitar a while but leveled up to a SF MV 50 watt Bassman ($250! Nothing beat Johnny Be Goodes in the late 90's!) and an unknown Marshall 4x12 cab. It sounded much better than I did but I had a black russian Big Muff and matching Small Stone to run through it too!

I gotta say, I can't understand the hype for those black russian muffs. That one was terrible sounding and hideously unreliable.
She/Her

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Re: Journey to the center of the mind, Edition 1: beginner guitarists and amps

Post by Ceylon » Thu Feb 17, 2022 1:31 am

When I started playing I knew absolutely nothing at all about guitars nor what my influences played outside of a few music videos. I had my dad and my musician uncle come with me to a guitar store and help me pick out a few candidates. I remember being really into an older Squier Stratocaster with a more reddish sunburst, but that it had some sort of issue, and eventually I ended up with a matte black Stagg Les Paul that was definitely the biggest part of my budget, I think 320€. Nice copy true to the original right down to the snapping headstock.

I needed an amp too and my dad is a semi-active bass player, so we decided to get an Ibanez SW65 bass amp that I could play through and we'd split the cost down the middle. No one else I know started playing guitar on a bass amp, and I didn't question it at the time (it sounded good), then for a brief while I questioned it a lot, and then I learned some bands (Kyuss) deliberately played guitars through bass amps for a heavier sound.
Science Friction burns my fingers
Electricity still lingers

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