My Rig
Over the years, I’ve accumulated lots of gear, and with the stuff I have now, I actually mix and match stuff given a particular situation. Since I gig a lot, I don’t use everything that you see here. In fact, even though I have a moderate amount of pedals, most of the time, I will only have a few on my board at any time, and will only bring at most a couple of guitars and a single amp. But I list everything here just to be thorough.
Also, in the past, I had all my gear in the picture – including my small acoustic rig – but I’ve since split out my acoustic rig from my electric rig because I use the two rigs almost exclusive to each other.
My Electric Rig
Electric Guitars
I’ve got several electric guitars, and amazingly enough, I use all of them – well, some more than others. The six you see above are the ones I’m currently playing. I had more up there, but I realized that I just wasn’t playing a several of them, so I decided to only show my most current active lineup. Most of my guitars bear female names because I feel they’ve got a feminine quality about them. But there’s nothing feminine about “Ox.” When I was thinking of a name for him, anything ending in “ie” or “y” was just too cute. “Ox” ain’t cute. “Ox” is a rocker, and as his name implies, he’s put-your-head-down strong, capable of doing hard work; and since I’ve had him, I’ve put him to work, and he just does what he does: ROCKS!
- “Katie May” (not shown) Perry Riggs’ Slash L Guitars, neck-thru design. This is my current “go-to” guitar, and it’s amazing!
- “Amber” 2005 Gibson 1958 Les Paul Standard Reissue (R8)
- “Ox” 1959 Les Paul Replica (if you want more info on the builder, email me at g o o f y d a w g a t g u i t a r g e a r d o t o r g)
- “Ruby” Gretsch G5122DC Electromatic
- “Heather” 1998 Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster
- “Honey” Gibson Limited Run Nighthawk 2009
- “Blondie” Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster 50′s
- Others that I don’t gig with but use in the studio: “Sharkie” PRS SE Soapbar II, “Pearl” Fender (MIM) 60th Diamond Annivesary Stratocaster, “Sugar” Prestige Guitars Heritage Elite, Ibanez Strat Knock-off (“Beater”), Epiphone 58 Korina Explorer (“Sunny”), Squier Strat (“Candy”), Fernandes Strat Copy (“Whitey”), Saint Guitar Company Goldtop Messenger (“Goldie”)
Going Mainstream?
It’s amazing that when I look at my current lineup of electric axes, they’re mostly from mainstream manufacturers. While I seemingly eschewed the mainstream for quite awhile to focus on lesser known gear manufacturers, I’ve always had a philosophy of playing what sounds great to me. As I’ve shared in the recent past, I’ve had this predilection for cranked Les Pauls through Marshall-style amps, thus my lineup of an R8, a 59 Replica, and my Gibson Nighthawk. So what’s a Squier Tele doing in the lineup? Well, truth be told, the bridge pickup in that guitar is hot enough to sound very close to a humbucker, with a nice, scooped EQ response. Very rock and roll!
Amps, Cabs, Attenuator
- DV Mark Little 40 L34. Came stock with EL34′s, but I recently swapped them out for 6L6′s, so now it’s an L6. This is the most versatile amp in my lineup!
- Aracom Vintage Rox (VRX) 22. Switchable 22/11 with 6V6′s – Awesome freakin’ amp! Check it out at Aracom Amps! I’ve also had this modded by Jeff so that Channels 1 and 2 are foot-switchable.
- Custom Aracom Vintage Rox (VRX) 18 with a tube rectifier (EL-84′s). I usually use this in the studio for those gorgeous, chimey EL84 cleans.
- 1958 Fender Champ. I’d wanted one of these for a long time, and found a good one at a decent price. This is not a collector’s item. I use it in the studio, and occasionally at gigs. The chassis is currently housed in a specially designed cabinet with a Weber 10″ speaker. The sound projection from this cab is enormous.
- VHT Special 6 Combo. Fantastic hand-wired amp for less than $200. Capable of producing a wide variety of tones from Fender-like cleans to Plexi-like overdrive. Super versatile amp.
- Fender Champion 600 for studio work
- Reason Bambino 8/2 Switchable (NOS 6AQ5 power tubes). This amp totally rocks! Go to the Reason Amps site!
- SWR Original California Blonde – I use this for both acoustic AND for a clean amp with my Gretsch and Strat.
I’ve started to get into higher wattage stuff, and will hopefully be Customer #1 of a new amp from Aracom Amps called the FlexPlex, which will be a 50 Watt amp that has switchable circuitry between Marshall JTM-45, Plexi 50, and I believe JCM-800. Totally excited about this amp!
Cabs
- Aracom custom 1 X 12 with a Jensen Jet Falcon. Swapped out the P12N to put into the new Avatar Vintage G112, and replaced it with the KILLER Jensen Jet Falcon. 50 Watts of tonal greatness!!!
- Aracom Re-labeled Avatar 2 X 12. Even as an open back cab, this has tons of bottom-end. I had Jeff Aragki load both a Celestion Blue and Gold in it. The Blue is only 15Watts, which means I can’t use this cab with a high-wattage amp, but that’s okay, since my amps, with the exception of the Hot Rod, are all low wattage amps.
- Avatar Vintage G112 1 X 12 / Jensen P12N. My beloved P12N will go in this cabinet, and this will probably be my main gigging cab for small venues and church.
Effects Currently In the Rotation
- BOSS TU-2 Tuner
- Paul Cochrane Timmy Overdrive
- The Original Geek GeekDriver
- Tone Freak Effects Abunai 2
- EWS Little Brute Drive
- Doodad Guitars Check-A-Board RED Overdrive/Boost
- TC Electronic Corona Chorus
- BOSS CE-2 Chorus
- Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe
- Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay
- Hardwire RV-7 Reverb
- ToneCandy Spring Fever Reverb
- Creation Audio Labs Mk.4.23 Booster
Other Effects…
- Maxon CP9 Pro+ Compressor
- Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer
- Digitech DigiVerb
- BBE Sonic Stomp
- Digitech Bad Monkey
- BOSS CE-5 Chorus
- BOSS RV-5 Reverb
- BOSS RC-2 Loop Station
What’s Currently On My Board…
Yeah, I’ve got a lot of equipment, and I have been accused of being defined by my gear. 
That couldn’t be further from the truth. In actuality, I only gig or record with a very small subset of what I have. I have this much gear so that when I want to get a particular tone or effect, I can just plug it into my chain. Especially with respect to effects, I just don’t like to lug around a bunch of pedals or have a crowded board, so I typically only have a few things on my board. Right now, that includes:
- BOSS TU-2 Tuner
- Paul Cochrane Timmy Overdrive
- Doodad Guitars Check-a-Board Red Overdrive
- EWS Little Brute Drive
- VOX Big Bad Wah
- Homebrew Electronics Three Hound Chorus
- Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay
- ToneCandy Spring Fever Reverb
- Creation Audio Labs Mk.4.23 Transparent Clean Boost
I used to run everything in front of the amp, but that changed when I got my DV Mark Little 40, which has an effects loop. I now run the bottom row – including the wah – in front of my amp, then run the back row in the loop. This works great!
As far as my actual pedal board is concerned, I use a gorgeous board made from multi-ply cabinetry wood called the “The Wicked Woody.” This is a very lightweight, but rigid board that has an inclined riser. I also jack up my rear line with StageTrix Pedal Risers to make it easier to access my stomp boxes in back. Believe me, that extra inch counts! (that doesn’t sound quite right, does it…)
See my acoustic board below for the effects I use for my solo acoustic gigs.
Attenuator – Aracom PRX150-Pro ~ This is the best attenuator on the market, IMO. Out of all of them, it is the most transparent.
How I Run the Amps and Effects
Okay… I know it’a bit confusing from the picture. But typically, I use the amps standalone, depending upon how I’m feeling on a particular day. At my regular church gig, one of the heads running into the 1 X 12 cab or the Hot Rod are fine (though I’ve recently been doing that gig with the PLX18 BB with no effects). I also use the Aracom PRX150-Pro attenuator so I can crank up the amps, but still keep the volume down. With these amps, good things happen when I can crank them up. For low volume applications sans the attenuator, I will use my pedalboard, as at the very least, I like to run my Timmy to get transparent overdrive and some boost.
Re-amping
Especially in the studio, or when I want to add more power to my tone, I will occasionally use the PRX150-Pro’s DI or the Bambino’s DI to feed into another amp. Re-amping adds a new dimension to your tone as you are taking the amped signal from one amp and running it into another amp. I do re-amping in two ways:
- If I’m re-amping to another head, I’ll run the DI out to the next head, then run the speaker out of the second head into my cab.
- If I’m re-amping into my Hot Rod, then I’ll run the speaker out to my cab from either the Bambino or the PRX150-Pro, then run the DI into the Hot Rod.
Both techniques provide different results. With the second technique, I can get a real cool effect as I get the flavor of both amps. With the first technique, it’s like adding a HUGE gain stage to your signal. A good example of this is Gene Baker of Baker Guitars running two Aracom Amps in a re-amping configuration using an early version of the PRX150-Pro:
Strings: Wyres Strings for both Acoustic and Electric when playing guitars I want to use for more blues-oriented stuff (These are the best strings I’ve ever played!). But for straight-out rock and roll, I’ve been using Ernie Ball Slinky Cobalt (regular) strings; the same strings Slash uses (though I use 10′s, he uses 11′s). The Cobalts are the best I’ve found for my Les Pauls and humbucker guitars.
Picks:Â Wegen Picks Fatone (Fat Tone) for both electric and acoustic. I finally found the perfect one-size-fits-all pick!
Other Stuff: Presonus TUBEPre preamp, Morley A/B/Y box, DigiDesigns MBox2 Digital Interface
My Acoustic Rig
Because I do so many solo acoustic gigs, I thought it would be a good idea to split out the gear I use for acoustic sets. It’s a pretty simple setup, as I don’t want to add too much to the natural tone of the guitars.
Acoustic Guitars
Long before I played any kind of electric guitar, I played acoustic. In fact, I played nothing but acoustic guitar for 32 years before I got my first electric, and I attribute a lot of my playing style to all those years on acoustic – how could I not?
- Yamaha APX900 – This has recently become my workhorse acoustic. It has a great, bright tone unplugged and with the ART pickup system, I’ve never heard an acoustic sound so good plugged in.
- Fender Stratacoustic Deluxe – This is such a wonderful guitar and one of those guitars that sounds absolutely horrible unplugged, but completely blows you away when it’s plugged in! As opposed to stringing it with regular acoustic strings, I string it with electric strings and use it primarily for when I’m playing acoustic with my band and want to do leads. It’s really like playing a Strat, but with a completely different sound!
Other acoustics I have but don’t play any longer: Yamaha FG335 (“Betsy”)
Effects for Acoustic
- TC Helicon VoiceLive Play GTX
- Homebrew Electronics Three Hound Chorus (THC)
- Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay
- TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb
- BOSS RC-2 LoopStation
PA System – Fishman Solo Amp
I did a full audition of this wonderful amp/PA system at a local music store, and decided to spring for it. The tonal clarity for my acoustic guitar was astounding, and vocals – even through a crappy, beat up SM58 – were incredible. The whole system weighs just 25 lbs., and fits into a single two-compartment bag with rollers! It was a no-brainer getting this system. I chose it over the Bose L1 Compact because of the mixer features built-in. The Bose system is great, but I didn’t want to spend yet another $500 to get the ToneMatch mixing board for it. I’m very happy with this product!
I’ve been gigging with the Solo Amp for a couple of months now, and I am completely happy with it. Currently, I’m using it in an outdoor venue at Max’s Opera Cafe at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, CA. The patio I play in is an open are called “The Marketplace,” so it’s pretty wide and has lots of foot traffic. I was a bit concerned with the Solo Amp being able to cover this expanse, but it has performed gorgeously!
Yeah, I have a lot of Aracom equipment…
I get asked about or accused of being affiliated with Aracom Amps – a lot! But I am not an employee of Aracom at all. I’m just a faithful customer, and being that Aracom is less than a half hour away from my house, I’ve become good friends with Jeff Aragaki, Aracom’s owner. I love Jeff’s amps! They’re the best value proposition out there, selling for FAR less than your typical boutique stuff, and their tone simply KICKS ASS! For instance, my VRX22 and VRX18 heads start at only $895! I’ve played them head-to-head against comparable BadCat, Buddha, and Dr. Z amps, and they’re just as good or better sounding at half the price! It’s a no-brainer for me. Anytime I can get kick-ass tone for a great price, I’m going for it.
Wish List
Guitars: G & L Comanche, Baker (Fire or Earth model)
Amps: Acoustic Image Corus+, Dr. Z Remedy
This page has the following sub pages.
Oscar Shmidt Delta King – original pups pulled and replaced with Gibson 57′ reissues. 10 gauge string, sometimes 11′s.
Oscar Shmidt Shallow Acoustic/Electric
Fender Standard Strat – refinished by hand (in the process), scalloped maple neck, Texas Special pups, grover pegs, new pots and wireing, 11 or 12 gauge strings with action raised a bit for slide.
Digitech GNX3000 – multi effects unit, really good for recording and writing for me to be able to create tons of sounds in one unit.
Steve Vai Bad Horsie Wah Wah
Washburn Bass
Plus a closet full of old gear and stuff I trip over constantly….
Later, McStrum
Homebuilt “Telecaster” butterscotch blond finish.
SX 24″ scale strat copy, powder blue finish with rosewood fingerboard.
Modded Vox AD30VT…I added an effects loop and replaced the cheap looking metal grill with black Vox grille cloth.
I run a Digitech RP-200 through the loop as an effect unit.
God bless,
Matt
Guitars:
PRS Singlecut – wrap-around tobacco burst – strung with 11s (main baby)
Hamer USA Eclipse – black strung with 10s (electronics need some TLC)
Taylor 310ce – strung with 12s
Amps:
Mesa Boogie Heartbreaker Combo (bone stock) run at half power for church
Epiphone Valve JR combo (modded)
Effects:
E-bow (newer model, not as smooth as older model I used to have)
Boss Chorus Ensemble
Boss Phaser (the newest one, not as rich as the older ones but does David Crowder stuff pretty well)
DigiTech digital delay set to emulate tape delay
Ibanez TS-9 Tube screamer (still stock my amps are warm enough this adds edge when I need it)
All effects are run in front of signal as apposed to in the effects loop.
Nice, DuhDewd!
My Current Equipment:
Guitars:
- Fender American Standard Strat, Lake Placid Blue,1986
- Taylor T5 Custom, Tobacco burst
- Ibanez EP9 elec. acoustic
- Ibanez Jem7vwh Vai signature (white)
- Ibanez AF105 NT archtop elec. acoustic
- D’Aquisto New Yorker (2006) archtop elec. acoustic,
Natural
- Gibson L-6 Custom, black, 1976
- Hagstrom Oval Hole Jimmy, archtop elec. acoustic, cherry
burst
- Parker P-38 tobacco burst
- Custom Fender Tele thinline with Peter Florence voodoo
- pups, cream swamp ash body
- Samick heavily modified LP copy, with all gold tonepro
hardware, Duncan Lil 59 neck and Screamin demon bridge.
Cherry Burst, 2 mg pots upgraded electronics.
(Not your typical Samick!)
- Neal Moser Custom, hand built SS ST #1, black opaque
quilted maple body, quilted maple fret board and head
stock, Kahler trem, lace drop and gain pups, and built in
booster switch (only one in existence and my favorite!)
- Neal Moser Custom, hand built Wraith neck through, white
poly over mahogany wings, with cocobolo fretboard and
headstock with lots of custom, built in Moser electronics.
Only one like it in existence and still in production.
- Vox Virage black with new 3 way Dimarzio pups and
special 3 position effect switches, one for each pup (brand
new model and not released yet, but paid for).
Amps:
- Mesa Boogie Mark III red stripe 100 watt head 1986
seperate 12″ speaker, Mesa boogie cabs
- Fender Blues Deluxe with varnished tweed covering 1993
- Fender M80 300 watt solid state
- Behringer 120 watt solid state modeling combo
- SWR Strawberry blonde acoustic
Effects:
- Electro Harmonix POG
- Electro Harmonix Synth
- Boss DR-880 drum machine
- Digitech JamMan loop station
- Vox Wah
- Teese Wheels of Fire Wah
- Sun Face Fuzz
- Line 6 POD 2.0
- Line 6 X3 Live
- Fulltone Vibe
- Fulltone OCD
- BBE Sonic Stomp
- others
Recording:
- Fostex 8HD – 8 track with built in 40 gb hd and cd burner
- VF160 Fosstex – 16 track with built in 40 gb hd and cd
burner
- Sennheiser E835 Mic
Yowza!
Yeah, I know…. nuts…. and I just added a new HarmonyMan and a Fulltone Octafuzz.
Now for the cool news… my Vox Virage showed up today (been waiting 6 months). Here’s the scoop so far:
=====
Black double cut. Let me start by saying that it’s everything Vox said it would be. Unique in many ways. First looks. IT’S BEAUTIFUL! all the hardware is very cool, even down to the “S” shaped tuners. Yep… S shaped. Your thumb and forefinger fit perfectlly to adjust. Actually, fits so well, that I felt I had even etter fine motor control of the head. Jut the way it fits gives excellent leverage for fine adjustments. Never heard abbout this and didn’t expect it. The plastic covers for the three blade pups, that some people didn’t like, look extremely cool, and match the volume and tone knobs. Very different look. The bridge is also a real looker, very different and extremely clean. The craftsmanship is excellent. No flaws of any kind. Excellent inlay and fret work. Solid wood throughout as promissed. Inside of body is very clean, without the normal bracing structures. The guitar is extremely comfortable and light as hell. It fits right into your mid section/rib area and feels very natural. Puts your picking arm and hand a really good angle.
The action came adjusted just where I like it, right from the factory. I appreciate that. The Dimarzio 3 way pups sound great. With the pup switch and two tone changing switches you have an amazing combination of voicings, with out adding any pedals. Can’t wait to start playing this bad boy through some of my pedals. No mud on any setting, and I tried them all. The tone is excellent, with exceptionally nice sustain. All tone settings are sooooo clear. Now one thing I didn’t expect…. the tone switches both work in combination to change the sound, regardless of where you have the pup selector set. I expected that each pup would be effected in some way by one switch or the other, not all pups effected by both switches. Can’t wait to here my Octafuzz, Tue creamer, OCD, POG, etc, with this baby.
Well, that’s all for now. Need to get back to my new friend.
Cheers,
Al
OMG!!!A Vox Virage?!!! Dream guitar! I’m jealous!!!
That is SO awesome!!!
yeah, I freakin love it! the designers did an excellent job. great look, feel and sound. so comfortable, light as hell and great contour.
FYI -Just took delivery this weekend of my PRS DGT. I’ll give you a complete field report after I gig with this guitar a few times. First impression: This will be one of those “legendary” instruments. I think it is PRS’s crowning achievement. Grissom was spot on when he designed the PAFs for this baby. Best neck I ever played. The finish is flawless, thin and hard as glass nitro. The neck instantly felt like an old friend. P-ups are the clearest most open sounding PAFs ever. Single coil tones sparkle and are nicely blend able with the dual volume controls. Clear, bell-like sustain forever. You can rap your knuckle on the back of the neck and the wood rings like a bell. In a word, impressive.
Dawg – drop me an email and I will send to you directly if you care to post it.
Tweed. I don’t have your e-mail address!
Congrats on the DGT!!! That is one awesome guitar, and I’d love to get your feedback. Email me at:
thedawg@REMOVETHISgoofydawg.net
Will do, look for it around Sept 7 or so. It would only be fair to really critique it after a few Saturday night gigs under the belt -with that axe in tow. I haven’t been this pumped about a guitar in a long time.
’59 Double cutaway Les Paul Jr. refinished in tung oil. Nickel Grovers, Leo Quan Badass bridge, jumbo fretwire, EMG-85 under a modded chrome P90 dogear cover.
Sound City (Dallas Arbiter) 200 watt tube head (circa 1970?) GK deep straight front 4×12 cab loaded with EVs wired in stereo. (the amp is a push-pull type and has to have both outputs connected)
If I crank it past 3, it makes the little nibs on the textured ceiling fall like snow. Louder than a hotrodded Marshall and twice as creamy.
I’m thinking about selling the LP Jr if anyone is interested.
samhill@myrealbox.com
Guitars:
* Gibson Les Paul 1960 Classic Reissue – Sunburst
* 2003 Fender American Standard Stratocaster – Cream
* 2003 Martin HD-28 Acoustic guitar w/ LR Baggs iBeam
Amps:
* Fender Twin Reverb
* Behringer Firebird GX108 Practice Combo
Pedals/Effects:
* Tube Works Real Tube Overdrive designed by B.K Butler (this is the best overdrive pedal of all time)
* Line 6 DM4 Distortion Modeler
* Keeley Compressor
* Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
* BBE Sonic Stomp
* Electro-Harmonix Hum Debugger (necessary for playing single coils)
* LR Baggs Para DI
* Boss FV 500H Volume Pedal
Sean, I imagine you’re using the Para DI for your HD-28. Is that to plug into your Twin?
Correct, I use the Para DI for my Martin, and it sounds fantastic. However, I don’t plug my acoustic into my Twin. I use the DI mainly in buildings with sound systems and what not, just so I can control my EQ and other settings.
Gotcha. Made me wonder when I saw that box in your pedal listing. I’ve yet to hear an acoustic guitar that sounds great through a tube amp. My buddy has a Genz-Benz Shenendoah that’s half-tube/half-FET. He tends to later more FET than tube.
Myself, amp-wise, I play my acoustic through nothing but my Roland Cube 60, and line out to a board if I need to go to a PA. On the other hand, for most gigs where I use an acoustic, I plug into my DigiTech Vocalist Live 4, then use the balanced out to a board.
Suhr Hss strat with a full “C” Neck
American Fat strat Deluxe also Hss
G&L bluesboy “Tele” with F holes
A fender Prosonic (the best Amp I’ve ever played through)
I have 2 seafoam green combo’s and a head that I play through a Marshalll 1960 412 cab (not all together either or)
budda Wah
Od3 boss super overdrive
Hughes and Kettner rotosphere ( through the effects loop)
killer tone!!!
Love the sound you get in the recordings i heard of yours, and i can see why it sounds so good, your set up is awesome! I use a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe too and I love it! I also really want to check out those drive pedals you use. Whats your opinion on the Fulltone Fulldrive 2 MOSFET?
[...] My Rig [...]
Ok, so I’m a GAS addict… so what!
My latest acquisitions:
-All original 1950 Gibson BR6F 12 watt tube amp. Creamy cool!
- 1966 Fender Vibro Champ. LOVE IT!
- 1980′s Marshall JCM 800 head (2203 horizontal inputs)
- Early 1980′s Music Man 212 65 watt combo. Super vintage
tone.
- New Egnater Rebel 20 head. Fun and cool.
- New Peavey Classic 50 2×12 cab.
- 2000? Peavey Steve Cropper Classic – Tele style guitar.
beautiful.
- 1970′s Ovation Viper solid body. LP style in natural finish.
Mint condition with just awesome vintage sound. Great
pickups. Beautiful flame maple neck.
- Early 1980′s Tokai (MIJ) perfect copy of 1957 LP Goldtop.
No wonder they got sued! Beautiful craftsmanship and
tone. STUNNING!!!! Great copies of 57′ PAF pickups too!
- Early 1980′s Tokai Goldstar Strat copy. Cream color with
beautiful birdseye maple neck and fretboard. Perfect copy
as well of 60′s strat… BUT…. the pickups are SUPERB!!
One of the best sounding “strats” I have ever heard, copy
or original. Just amazing glassy sound.
- Another early 80′s Tokai 60′s strat copy in tobacco
sunburst. Again, a perfect replication. Mint condition!
- 2004 Gibson Les Paul Supreme in wine red. Beautiful
guitar and warm chunky sound.
- 2009 Dean Soltero, hand built by the Dean custom shop
on a special order for a friend of the shop manager (with
full Dean authorization – I emailed them to make sure).
Now, they changed a couple of features on the axe so it’s
not a regular Dean production item. Because of this they
couldn’t put Dean and Soltero logos on it. No biggy, it’s
one of the most beautiful guitars I have ever seen. It’s the
only Soltero gold top on the face of the earth at this point.
The pups used were the Nostalgia and one other Dean
pup I can’t remember. Neck pup is warm and slightly
chunky, and the bridge screams! Hot as hell! One of my
players now, along with the Tokai’s and the Moser’s.
I sold or traded my D’Aquisto New Yorker, Jem7VWH (for the LP Supreme), Bassman Head, Parker P-38 and the VF 160.
NOTE: Buy all the 70′s and 80′s Tokai’s you can afford!! The prices are going up as people find out how great these MIJ axes are. I have no reservations at all about saying they are manufactured as well as the best Fenders and Gibson LP’s (sorry… but true) and the playability and sound is as good or in many cases better than the best Strats, Tele;s and LP’s available today. Been a player for over 40 years and I’ve owned my share of the real thing. Tokai’s, and I hear, Greco’s are fantastic, and still way more affordable. 70′s Tokai Strat copies are called Springy Sound and at some point in 80′s they changed to Goldstar. The Springy Sound are exact strat copies including the headstock shape, which got the sued. Goldstar’s are exact 60′s Strat copies with a slightly modified headstock. The early LP copies (into the early 80′s) are exact copies with only a very minimal change to the head stock shape. You need to look really close. All materials used in the ones I own and have inspected are top quality. New Tokai’s are very good as well, more expensive other Fender MIJ builds and current MIJ’s don’t even come close. Don’t hesitate, do it!!!!! SOON!!!!
WTF?!!! Didn’t you just get a VOX Virage last year?!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! I thought I was bad!!!
BTW, you got that right with the Tokai’s! Now that I’ve got my main purchases aside, I’m looking at getting some of these MIJ’s to buy, fix up, and trade/sell. I’ve been looking at Fernades guitars as well. Very well made, and cheap. I’ve got a Chinese one that is surprisingly good-playing, but needs a new set of pickups – they’re really crappy. But who cares? I scored it for $100. It’s a player.
Yep, I do love guitars and guitar “stuff”. I recently traded the Egnater rebel 20 head along with a couple pedals and my peavey cab (which I never use) for a completely mint Genz Benz El Diablo 100 head. Love that sucker! Man, what sound! And the blue lights are cool too!
Al
good article, i will add my feeds.
[...] My Rig [...]
I’m a half stack player myself, I have never managed to drop down to smaller amps. I just read an article on some new tubes just out an EL34BB model which puts out less watts, there are also the new speakers which can be dialed back on the mag structure to drop the level 9db. I dig new tech myself, not so crazy on the old vintageor little 1 speaker amps. I do not play my stack loud I just like the wattage headroom capability and the multi-cab sounds more full and dimensional for me.
I run a huge board compared to most I guess, but it’s about options for me, many times I might have just 1 or 2 boxes on just like the options. I won’t bore you w the line, everyone has their favs. I am always moving towards better pedals. The amp sounds great I just dig the pedals to open up greater possibilites of tone you cannot get naked. A 4th up harmonizer through the OD just kills. Jeff Beck meets Satriani is my tone.
I am a huge fan of Carvin for many years now. I have 3 of their guitars, two strats, a maple fb, all mohogany neck and body w dual rails and a stellar tone control. Also have an EBONY fb strat (too cool and rare!) w Carvin’s AP-11s w booster plates neck & middle, and it has a full size HB in the bridge. The other is a LP type flame maple top beauty.
I run a Carvin V3 modifed head, it has an additional clean boost, biased w 5881 power tubes and 5751s in the preamps. Just a killer amp. I run a Carvin vintage load 4×12 although I think in the future I want more wattage capable speakers or those cool vol reduction new jobs.
am a huge fan of Carvin for many years now. I have 3 of their guitars, two strats, a maple fb, all mohogany neck and body w dual rails and a stellar tone control. Also have an EBONY fb strat (too cool and rare!) w Carvin’s AP-11s w booster plates neck & middle, and it has a full size HB in the bridge. The other is a LP type flame maple top beauty.
Recently added a Music Man JP6 Petrucci signature guitar w/Piezo’s, Vox Night Train, Taylor T3B, Early 1960′s Epiphone Pacemaker, 1960′s Gibson GA5 solid state (really great, warm tone for a solid state), Mesa Boogie IIA, Mesa Boogie Dual Caliber DC3
Sold the Ovation Viper
I need GAS Anonymous!
Wow! Boogie Mk IIA? Nice. That’s a classic amp. Did you do a mod to it to quiet the reverb?
Yeah i know. The reverb is not modded. I know what you mdan though, i can be playing along just fine, then all of a sudden i get this weird sound. If i turn the reverb off the sound goes away. awesome sounding amp though. What kind of mod is done for the reverb? Thanks for the info. I think the amp is from 1979.
From what I understand, it’s the replacement of a couple of resistors, but that’s about the breadth of my understanding. I only knew that those particular units were known for their noisy reverb, and it wasn’t until the IIC that Mesa finally got it fixed. But the II series overall are considered to be very sweet amps.
You’re right about the sound. Very lush sound, not dry, muddy, harsh or brittle in any way. The only prob is the wack reverb. I don’t really need it, i have an electro harmonix holy grail, and it’s reverb is really nice.
My mesa mark III is really a great sounding amp too. It also has no mods. The mesa dc3 seemed cool, but i blew the speaker before i could really do much with it. Now i’m researching a realy god sounding speaker for blues blues rock.
Speakers, eh? Have you checked out the Jensen Jet Falcon? It’s an awesome speaker, and the most inexpensive in Jensen’s Jet line, but it absolutely sings out of the box! I’ve got one in one of my 1 X 12 cabs, and also my 2 X 12 to compliment my Celestion Gold, which is another great speaker. The Celestion Blue works great as a Blues/Blues-rock speaker, but at 15 watts, you need at least a couple of them to handle the load of most amps.
Which one do you think would.have the best blues tone with some breakup at low volume levels? I have a 1966 fender vibro champ that I put a jensen speaker in and it sounds really great.
I’d start with the Falcon. It breaks up nicely at lower volume levels. As I use a lot of attenuation in my church gig, speaker breakup at lower volume levels is important to me, and the Jet Falcon gets it done!
Thanks, i’ll give it a try.
Jeez I wish I had that much gear. Thanks for the post, though! It’s cool to find out about other people’s gear. I don’t have much, but here’s my rig:
Epiphone G-400
Takamine G-series acoustic
Proco Rat Distortion Pedal
It’s kinda funny that I actually have more amps than I do guitars because my neighbor gave me one. Here they are:
Fender Blues Jr.
Line 6 Spider 3
Behringer Acoustic Amp
So it’s not really much, but I am currently looking at Strats to make my rig a bit more versatile in terms of tone. I’m thinking of getting a used American Standard or a Lonestar/Roadhouse MIM Strat. I really just buy what I like at the store though, as long as it’s in my price range. I’m on a budget haha.
My gear collection has changed a lot over the years. One pedal I bought in 2012 that I love is the Mad Professor Golden Cello. Beautiful sounding effect. I sold off the Petrucci JP6 and wish I never did, it was a great sounding and playing guitar. I’m trying to sell the Boss DR-880 right now. I traded my goldtop, custom made Dean Soltero for a 2008 mint Gibson Texas Longhorn in trans blue. I can’t remember whether I posted this or not, but I traded the Vox Virage for a mint 2009 Fender Jazzmaster thin skin, limited edition, in lake placid blue with the painted headstock. Love the sound. The virage was nice but too similar to sound and feel of other guitars I had, and then Vox came out with the Virage 2 line. I miss the Petrucci a lot more that the Virage. Something I’d like to get now would be the new Vox amps in Kelly Green. Real cool looking and awesome sounding. THey run around $600. Will probably sell off one of the other amps to fund it.
Al
It never stops…
nope. Always something new to fall in love with. I just wish I had some of my old stuff back!