Recommendations: gigging rig

[aron]

My friend got ripped off so he needs a good guitar and amp/pedal rig.

First of all, he plays Jazz/R&B and he likes that Paul Jackson Jr. rhythm tone. That's his main tone that he likes. Secondly, he plays top 40 so he needs to cover all styles of music; so he need to switch tones right away. Lastly, he plays Jazz so he needs a setup that will give him a decent Jazz tone. He has an ES-175 for Jazz.

So with the above in mind, I'm assuming:

Strat-like guitar? Barring the unbelievable Suhr guitars, other than Tom Anderson, what type of Strat-like guitars would be cool? He's been playing for over 30 years professionally so I figure he deserves a great guitar.

I'm assuming he will need a digital chorus/delay/programmable pedal since he needs to switch between sounds right away; not do the indiv. pedal dance. He's been using a Digitech rack module w/ foot controller, but any ideas other than that?

For amp-wise, any ideas for an amp with a great clean tone? One that would give him a great clean/rhythm tone and be friendly to pedals? Is there a fantastic amp out there that would give him great overdrive and yet be able to switch to a great clean???

I'm not sure what his budget is, but assume a working musicians budget, not laywer/doctor boutique type budget hehehehe.

The amp is the one that I am stuck on. For him it could be tube or solid state - the important part is the clean/rhythm tone and be friendly to pedals.

[Rory]

Ever since I bought my '65 blackface bassman head, I haven't played anything else live.  Its one of the best amps ever made, in my opinion.  Its got great clean sounds, its tube, you can crank it and get nice slightly overdriven tone, especially with humbuckers.  You can always play with your knob (volume knob that is) and get a cleaner sound thats your game.  It loves pedals too!  Always a plus.  And, if he is into mods, there are a gazillion and one he could do to make it better suit him.
Rory

[Lonestarjohnny]

How bout a Reverra 50 watt 1x12 combo, has good overdrive and a very good clean channel,
A T.C. electronic's would be hard to beat for chorus.
and a roland 1000 rack delay is very easy to program and use.
and a very good good sounding guitar that I got a chance to check out was a Reverend slingshot custom, had 3 p-90's on it and my buddy plays jass on it, had a very good sound.
JD

[Fret Wire]

The Roland JC-120 has always been an excellent, clean tone machine. I used to jam with a guy who was into jazz and Steve Howe. He played an ES-175 and got great tones with it. He didn't use effects, so I don't know how pedal friendly it is.

[aron]

Thanks everyone! He used to have a Rivera 1X12, but for some reason he never liked it. The Bassman is cool, but I bet he'd like a combo amp cause he does lots of gigs (I should have mentioned that).

The JC120 is ok, but there must be more modern stuff around?

[RDV]

You'll probably laugh, but one of the newer Peavey Bandits will cover any gig known to man, real clean to real distorted. all with a nice long spring reverb. Their guitars aren't bad either.

Regards

RDV

[gtrmac]

The Fender Vibro King is one of the best amps available without going into the Boutique hand-made realm. It's expensive due to the hand wired point to point construction but it's worth it in my opinion. A freind uses one and I envy his sound. I've also used one in a recording studio and loved it.

Yhe Vibro King has a nice clean tone and it can get a good overdrive too. Myles Rose recommends the Rivera amps for those who need channel switching and although I haven't tried them he knows what he's talking about.

The Boss GT-6 is my recommendation for a guitar multi-FX unit. I've used a GT-5 and it certainly did what it was supposed to do. I use mostly analog stomp boxes these days but if I was doing a cover band thing I would want one of these. When I did that kind of gig I used a Boss MFX unit for a while and later a Korg A-3 with a controller pedal.

[Marcus Dahl]

If you can find one used, a Marshall JCM 900 1x12 combo sounds great for anything. I've heard very good things about the Fender Highway 1 Strats ared exceptonally good and affordable.

[Alpha579]

Ive got a wee ampeg j-12t, and its a great sounding little amp. Just 15watts, but if you wanted more power you could buy one of the larger amps in the diamond blue lead series. Great, rounded clean sound, and smooth, raunchy overdrive as its cranked. Very nice...

[bwanasonic]

I like the Traynor YCV20 I just got, but I'm not sure it would be flexable enough. But I would certainly say take a look at the Traynor line in general. I've heard some *Jazz Cats* say they liked the new Peavey Bandits as mentioned above. Not sure which Rivera your friend had experience with, but my Quiana gets awesome jazz and R&B tones. The downside is the 212 weighs 80lbs. Guitar wise, it's a whole 'nother ball of wax. A Strat style guitar with a HB in the bridge and coil switching would be a very versatile guitar, but here is only so far you can get with rational decision making when guitar shopping, and then you have to let the force take over and guide you.  Did the Digitech rack get ripped too? If he's still got it, I'd work with that. Also, feel free to post serial #s and descriptions, and let the global diystompbox network help find the scumbags:

Detective 1: "You ever see anything like that Joe?"
Detective 2: " Jeez, looks like he been burned head-to-toe with a soldering iron or something. Those blue LEDS in his eye sockets must be powered by these jumper cables connected to his..."


Kerry M

[petemoore]

First things first I always say last..
 Speakers. Two just sound different than one. 2 of them in a box is what I'd recommend. The only reason I see having open back cab is for country, so the drummer can monitor the guitar for cues. Excellent way to do that. Otherwise the wave tends to get confused less with a closed back enclosure...
 Oh the other reason FOr open back is the natural reverb it may tend to produce alot more of..if there's a room or hall behind the amp.
 Alot of times the amp is sitting away from sound wave directional devices like walls, and the sound can become less defined in the room as a result. Closed back cabs respond differently to the bass.
 Using a separate head has it's advantages. The handles have less stress on them than the handle on a combo would. I'm assuming tube amp...you described what I would prescribe a tube amp for...
 The damping of the air suspension of a complete enclosure may make speaker handle more without barking.
 Enought about speakers...good ones is good ones, A to B, you probably will always desire 'better' speakers if you don't have them.
 The amp proper?...I like the simple approach. Bassman's hard to beat. For a Clubbin' jazz dude, they look cool [I had one in super laquer black gloss], but you have to know your Fenders...when you twist a tone knob and it's hard to tell if something happened you're probably playing a CBS model...Bleahhcchh.
 Anything with a few 12ax7's, and two big output tubes [EL34's and 6L6 come to mind] should work very nicely provided it sounds great. I've heard certain Traynors recommended, there are many great sounding ones, ones that never sound really good. I find KISS principle amps like this, built with quility components to be dependable, easy to work with, and sound superb.
 If you can find an open back [here I go with the self contradiction/exception to the rule] fender with 4x10 Jensens...might take some shoppin' to find the deal on the Concert Amp or Super Reverb...these amps are really great.
 Quad Amp, 4x12'' [Twin Reverb] combo, bohemoth. A bit much for Jazzman I think.
 basically everything in a tube amp matters except the resistors and frame [as long as they're the right size], the more knobs, switches, tubes [well more tubes DO have their advantages and price/maintanence disadvantages], more stuff that's on it, the harder it is to dial in has been my experience. It took me decades to really understand my MkII's inputs, turn the presence way up etc., Tune/Turning it like down DOWn is another dialing procedure.
 Fender or Marshall old style setups, faithfully done are tops in my book of amp experiences.
 A litte Ampeg Rocket...that thing, with only 1x12'' combo, [open back] would sing beautifully. Nice litte 40 wattts. When the Jensen died, I put a Sunn [ I think Herald was makin 'em] in there, the right ohmage, the amp sounded really bad.
 Depending...it doesn't take much at all to get a tube amp to sound superb. Firefly clips attest to that. Even a litte teeny amp can provide voicing that can make a guitar sound very wide, output tube/speaker distorted...
 So say you're at the point where you have nice speakers and 18-60 watt [two output tubes]. Not an easy task. Nobody want to give up the magic tube amp for nothin'. Building one?...not if you need an amp anytime soon, but it's possible I hear. I would recommend a used one. Preferably a broken Fender for cheap, then work with that...have yourself the amp you really want for less...[pipe dream?]...probably not.
  Tube amps mean money, they're risky to work on, I would find it hard to get along without one.
 If all you need is a level, smooth tone, a SS amp can do it. I've played ones that do it comparably. But when it comes to breakup, tube/speaker type distortio/sound, large variances at input producing diverse dynamics/tones at output, you're going to miss not having a tube amp.
 Plus when you want the thing to just melt, you can breath FIRE into the input, and have the thing just doing like it does, when nothing resembles itself. That is like Stadium loud, I've never heard a SS amp do that. The Star Spangled Banner severity just doesn't seem to come from Q doing the output. Whoops..strayed Wayy oFF topic there...was doing the SS Banner with strong eastern influence the other day...Was like ...Whew badass, copped a nice noise hangover from it, felt real good :evil: !
 Guitar? Jazz? Strat's are Always Cool. You see 'em 'doin' all kinds of different music. The best thing [IMO] to happen to guitar technology, [well besides all that] is the hybrid electronics. Just a split coil in the neck is so nice to have. [especially if you like SC and HB type tones, prefer acclimating your playing technique to ONE guitar, and like being able to have the best of both worlds freshly...with ONE new set of strings].
 Other than that, I can work with most guitars. Pickups directly affect tone. I luthier, so I can keep re-working a POS [not quarter sawn maple or other very stable wood] necks that move, they don't seem to move much faster than the frets wear, especially if you use the truss rod [these newer 'cheep' '400-500$ guitars are amazing IMO].
 I get the idea he'd be doing well with a shiney, new guitar. Stock Bridge. HB's with at least an 'extra' switch and Split coil neck, or some other fancy Single Coil and wiring scheme in it.
 Digital Reverb.
 Have him visit Aron's, Aron, and we'll have those fine coils on the shiny guitar that plays straight, driving input tubes softly, agressively, fiercely AND severly [if desired], He Will be finding his Own Jazz Tone and 'Clone yer own' 40 song heaven.
 Starting with a first Jfet. Then two, in a Minibooster. Then a 4558 and four diodes, three knobs  A Germanium booster, Some BC's in a wah wah with Fasel. A modulation device. Then...I think he'd be doing quite well indeed  :wink:

[Lonehdrider]

For jazz/clean tones, the two arguably best amps would be the aforementioned Roland 120 and another GREAT jazz amp and one thats extremely light and easy to slep to a gig, a Polytone.... Guitars, a 335 like guitar is a great mix, bright enough for top 40/rythmn work, but woody sounding enough for mellower stuff. They will do pedals, they will feedback if the level is real high due to the F-holes, not as bad as a full hollowbody. If budget is a problem, look at the epiphone 335 clones, not horrible for the money, or if you can find one you like perhaps even the ibanez artcore line of guitars (they are a decent value although I did find the fretwork to be a bit rough on some of the ones I've picked up.). Just a few suggestions of course, I love my Amer. strat (but then again its used for blues, so the thinner frettier sound is a staple of electric blues in many cases), but in my humble opinion no matter the pickup changes it'll still have that brighter sound, a quack in at least two of the pickup switch positions, it works for me for blues, but if I were looking for something with a bit more versitility I'd go semi hollow (which also works well for blues and yes I'm wanting one again after having to sell my 335 after the divorce.. grrrr..). Just an opinion of course.

Regards,

Lone

[SupaTmu]

I just bought Koch Multitone and it's great. Three channel tube amp with 2x12" speakers. I have the 50w version and you can use either 6v6 or el34 tubes. Works great with pedals and it has two loops. One buffered parallel and one in series that disconnects the spring reverb. It also has triode/penthode so you can drop it to 25w. I use T.C. G-major in the loop and it has worked great so far. There's also an option for channel switching via midi but I haven't tried that yet.

I play all kinds of stuff and this amp has the tone for almost everything. The only bad thing about this amp is that it is pretty heavy. Koch has also the twintone and it sounds great too.

Check it out www.koch-amps.com

[Ge_Whiz]

VOX Valvetronix 120W combo. Every tone he could possibly want, built-in effects (pedal controlled), stereo, and, very usefully, can be switched 60W + 60W, 30W + 30W, 15W + 15W or 1W + 1W for different situations. Fantastic sounds - there is a VOX demonstrator CD available on request, I believe.

[casey]

gerlitz amps are sweet....

http://www.gerlitzamps.com/html/features.html

look at the blend pedal at the bottom,  it's a pedal that you twist
that can blend between a marshall plexi and a fender tone....
they actually have the entire circuits to both a plexi and a blackface....
very nice....very versatile, top knotch construction as well.

[malaphone]

THD Univalve or Bivalve amps. They are incredibly flexible & amazing-sounding.