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The "All-Things-Guitar" Thread

Anyone have any experience with either Vox ac15c1 or Fender blues junior III amps ?. I'm looking to get one of these. I plan on testing them out in the shops tomorrow. Even though they will get cranked at times, I would prefer the one that also sounds good at lower volumes.
I have a small practice amp but I want to get a tube amp and these are in my price range, and also stocked locally :).
 
The_Bullet said:
Anyone have any experience with either Vox ac15c1 or Fender blues junior III amps ?. I'm looking to get one of these. I plan on testing them out in the shops tomorrow. Even though they will get cranked at times, I would prefer the one that also sounds good at lower volumes.
I have a small practice amp but I want to get a tube amp and these are in my price range, and also stocked locally :).
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If you can stretch your budget I would go for the AC15H1TV handwired.

I tested the custom range and in all honesty I'm so glad I forked out the bit extra.

The H1TV has a pentode/triode mode (in effect runs 7.5watts rather than all 15) - it sounds great at all volumes and when pushed is what you'd expect from a Vox.

I found the response of the custom a bit lacking and nearly went down the Fender route - glad I didn't though.

I bought mine 2nd hand as you won't likely find them anywhere new. I would say you should be able to pick one up for £550-600.

I've even loaned it out to a mate that runs lights/sound at a local venue and had one of the guitarists from Jools Holland use it and and he said it was a 'lovely bit of kit'
 
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The hand wired ones are beyond my budget, but my local place also has a Night Train NT15H with a Vox greenback cab to suit, that may just be within my budget (more precisely, within wifey approval range :cool:) And it has the 15w/7.5w power level switch. It lacks the Vox reverb but has a nice overdrive.
 
p0ss3s3d said:
Are you going to gig them?
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No. Purely for my own enjoyment at home. I've been down the solid state amp route, and I also have a line 6 pod, but I want to try my hand with an all tube amp, then build up a pedal collection. Playing at volume is not a problem much of the time, but, as mentioned, I want one that plays at low volumes reasonably well when necessary. I know low volumes is a trade-off though.
 
The_Bullet said:
No. Purely for my own enjoyment at home. I've been down the solid state amp route, and I also have a line 6 pod, but I want to try my hand with an all tube amp, then build up a pedal collection. Playing at volume is not a problem much of the time, but, as mentioned, I want one that plays at low volumes reasonably well when necessary. I know low volumes is a trade-off though.
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Just a suggestion but if you're not going to gig and you want effects and valves for pure enjoyment (and maybe recording) then consider the Line 6 Spider Valve combo.
 
I got a Line 6 Spider & coupled with a G1 multi fx's pedal & my Ibanez it's perfect for messing about at home with as you don't have to have it that loud to get some drive out of it, Mines not even the Valve combo either just the bobby basic, G1 combined with the fx's you get with the 6 makes it sound sweet though.
 
RationalGaze said:
Can't play guitar at work! ;) . Will try using the grip at work for a few weeks and will see if my finger strength and dexterity improve at all. The main culprit (I think) is just my pinky. Hard to get him playing as well as the other fingers.

I can feel I've already improved somewhat in the past few days. I played for 2 hours last night and my grip is far more comfortable, and I can sometimes play notes in different positions from memory without having to look at the frets. It's awesome, time just flies by.
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:) good to see that you've noticed improvement.
I'll put what I was saying in real terms, as I was in a rush this morning.

I work as a mechanical technician, building complex rigs, and I work with some old timers, who are (in the nicest way) brutes.
One of the older chaps was telling me he wanted to get more into playing his guitar, and could I show him some simple techniques other than just strumming chords. Obviously I was happy to help him out.

Now this guys hands are insanely strong, his party trick at work is un-tightening bolts by hand, that some of the young lads have tightened with spanners :D

This being the case, he just couldn't cope with the way he needed to manipulate his fingers on the fret board, he told me he was astounded by how much his left hand was straining, and how weak it felt.

The hands are very complex things, and in my opinion, or as I've been taught, the best ay to get the right finger and hand strength is to simply play the guitar more :)

It's worked for me anyways :D
 
Dimple said:
Just a suggestion but if you're not going to gig and you want effects and valves for pure enjoyment (and maybe recording) then consider the Line 6 Spider Valve combo.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I currently have a Line 6 Pod HD, so I am not keen on buying a spider valve as I already have the modelling part. There is always the option of buying a good pa/monitor for the pod, but I am keen on going down the valve amp route :).
 
I guess my weakness in guitar playing isn't really down to playing ability (without sounding big headed), it's my absolute **** poor lack of musical technical knowledge.

I've a dedicated guitar player since I was 12, started in about 1996.
I've played in various bands over the years, done concerts big and small, and now play in a covers band who do functions, etc.

In all this time I really haven't learnt or taught myself any theory. A lot of the chords I play in songs, well I don't have a clue what they are.
When I solo, I don't really know any scales, or how to manipulate them I just go with what I think sounds good :).
I was taught for about 4 years by a very talented teacher named Nigel Davies, who was taught by a guitarist called Dave Kilminster, and he really taught me how to PLAY the instrument.
I actually got quite into the whole grade 8 thing, but got bored with the theory etc. I'd write a solo for a piece and itd be "you can't play that note"' I'd say "why, sounds good to me?", and the reply would be "well it's just out of the correct mode for this piece"

But I still have absolute respect for people who know all the theory etc :)
 
Jonesiani said:
:) good to see that you've noticed improvement.
I'll put what I was saying in real terms, as I was in a rush this morning.

I work as a mechanical technician, building complex rigs, and I work with some old timers, who are (in the nicest way) brutes.
One of the older chaps was telling me he wanted to get more into playing his guitar, and could I show him some simple techniques other than just strumming chords. Obviously I was happy to help him out.

Now this guys hands are insanely strong, his party trick at work is un-tightening bolts by hand, that some of the young lads have tightened with spanners :D

This being the case, he just couldn't cope with the way he needed to manipulate his fingers on the fret board, he told me he was astounded by how much his left hand was straining, and how weak it felt.

The hands are very complex things, and in my opinion, or as I've been taught, the best ay to get the right finger and hand strength is to simply play the guitar more :)

It's worked for me anyways :D
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I see what you mean about dexterity being required, that's one thing I was worried about with these hand grips. That's why I got the one with individual springs, so you can work each finger independantly. I am hoping this will improve my control over each finger as well as the strength. I can usually only play late at night after work once my other half has gone to bed, so I don't have a lot of time to practice each day, so at least I can do this while I am at work. I will give it a month and let you guys know if I think it has helped at all (though another month of playing should help anyway).
 
Jonesiani said:
I'd write a solo for a piece and itd be "you can't play that note"' I'd say "why, sounds good to me?", and the reply would be "well it's just out of the correct mode for this piece"
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I used to have a 16 track studio in the 80s and I can remember this band coming in and the lead guitarist overdubbed his solo.
To my ears he kept hitting a wrong note so I told him and his answer was 'I can't be, it's in the scale'.
I picked the guitar up and played a bit of what he did with his 'wrong' note and then played one note down which was now in key.
What followed was his band discussing scales and why the proper note wasn't working so 1 hour later I walked back in and said 'This debate has cost you £5, have you decided what note you're going to play?' and got on with it.
They left the wrong note in which stuck out like a sore thumb.
 
Dimple said:
I used to have a 16 track studio in the 80s and I can remember this band coming in and the lead guitarist overdubbed his solo.
To my ears he kept hitting a wrong note so I told him and his answer was 'I can't be, it's in the scale'.
I picked the guitar up and played a bit of what he did with his 'wrong' note and then played one note down which was now in key.
What followed was his band discussing scales and why the proper note wasn't working so 1 hour later I walked back in and said 'This debate has cost you £5, have you decided what note you're going to play?' and got on with it.
They left the wrong note in which stuck out like a sore thumb.
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:D

It actually drives our bassist crazy, as he's always asking what I'm playing and I just say I don't really know.
 
Kerplunk said:
This may seem like a stupid question, but do all guitars go up to 21 frets?
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No. Plenty go beyond that. The most I've see is a 27 fret standard 6 string guitar (although the end of the fretboard was angled so the highest few frets only covered the highest strings). I'm sure you could find one with more if you looked. You'll find a lot of ones with 24 frets though.
 
Ah ok thanks.

I'm looking at buying a guitar, I've seen a Fender Standard Stratocaster - Any good? Seen it in Artic White, I like the colour :)
 
Kerplunk said:
Ah ok thanks.

I'm looking at buying a guitar, I've seen a Fender Standard Stratocaster - Any good? Seen it in Artic White, I like the colour :)
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A Fender Strat is known as the Swiss Army Knife of guitars.
If you are a session man and can only take one guitar to a studio/gig then it would be a Strat.
It is capable of sounding close to a Tele and close to a Les Paul (and other guitars in between) with a bit of tweaking.
 
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