What could i get with £2000? (Guitar Related)

OzZie

OzZie

OzZie

Soldato
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Hi everyone.

I have some insurance money coming through in May 07 of about £2000 :cool:

Anyway, the current situation stands like this. I have three guitars: a squire strat, a Minarik Lotus, and an Epiphone Les Paul Standard that i bought second hand for £200. Now, the only decent sounding guitar is the Epiphone. The other two are very basic and arent phyisically nice to play, so if selling them would be of use to fund towards new hardware then i am willing to do so.

Here's the confusing part. For sound, i am running the guitars through my computer, using Amplitube v2.1 to generate the amp sounds. However, i am using very standard 2.1 speakers that are not of any decent quality, but are ok for the most part. However, i am sick of going digital as i feel left out having no amps/cabs to see or touch and fiddle with, so i want to go the traditional route.

Now, it has been my dream for the past 2 years since i started playing to own a real Gibson Les Paul Standard in Cherry Sunburst flavour. I can imagine i am not the only one who has said that over the years! However, these do produce really great tones for all my needs and styles, but i know that to get the most out of it, i will need a good amp and extras.

So if a Les Paul Standard sets me back £1400, thats £600 left for an amp. I don't gig at all, i only play for personal pleasure, so i dont think ill need a hugely powerful amp. However, as i play classic rock more than any other, i feel like a good Marshall will be the best option, especially as i want to get the "women" tone like slash did so very often. However, i am confused as to what to get. I know nothing about amp models or cab models or tubes, only that they cost quite a bit

So, could anyone recommend me some amps and accessories? Will i need a few effects pedals too, such as reverb and a decend overdrive etc? I can afford to buy those if need be at a later date, as i dont want to go wild and spend a ridiculous amount :o

Many thanks for any recommendations.

Nathan. :)
 
I think you could get a pretty decent combo amp for £600 or less. For overdrive you should use the amp's own...on a Marshall say for example, it'll far outweigh the sound of pretty much all overdrive pedals.
I played on a really nice Vox amp a few weeks ago. They are packed with features and also sound bloomin lovely.
You should be able to get your Gibbo plus one of them and have change from £2k.
 
you could get yourself a marshall 2x12 combo for around that price, easily an old one on ebay that'll get you some really nice tones!

dont knock amplitube 2 though, its awesome :D i use it.

you could always get yourself some £200 Alesis monitors and wire those in, what soundcard are you using?
 
Soundcard is the M-Audio Fastrack USB

Latencies are: 128 Buffer - 5.3ms
256 Buffer - 10.6ms
384 Buffer - 16.0ms

No delay at all using those buffers that i can hear, but it is limited to the amount of recording options available (ie no MIDI IN/OUT). However, im thinking that if i get a decent amp i could always use that to get an output instead of having the standard 2.1 set i have at the moment?
 
nah, be best to use a pair of stereo monitors for your output and have them positioned where your normal PC speakers are or a more optimal position than an amp would be at. if you're planning on recording.

you've got a good enoug sound setup it seems, get yourself a pair of active monitors (i suggest Alesis in the £200 region) and see what you think.

i'm using my sony stereo for sound out at the moment and the speakers are 4" woofers and 1" Tweeters and they give me quite a nice sound in Amplitube2 but nowhere near as good as a set of nice monitors.
 
for the £70ish extra i'd get the TSL-602

it has an extra speaker, and even though you say you only play for personal pleasure, nothing makes me happier than to hear an audience appreaciate me!
if you do end up doing any live shows in pubs or anywhere the extra speaker will do more than any extra wattage.
 
Try not to give in to the urge to buy a Les Paul Standard. In my opinion they are a waste of money compared to what you could get. Try your upmost to find a Burny Les Paul Custom. I bought this one for £400 off ebay last year, and quite frankly it just walks all over any Les Paul Standards that I have played and for a third of the price:

p1010091my3.jpg


A few months ago I took this round to a friend who has just converted his garage into a recording studio with quite a lot of very expensive kit in it. I think he was a bit sceptical when I was telling him about how good it was, he probably thought I didn't have a clue what I was talking about or had been conned seeing as he had never heard of Burny before. Nevertheless he was quite surprised when I took it round and compared it to his 1993 Les Paul Custom. I may be being a bit biased here but I thought it sounded just as good - if not better - although this is the only chance I've had to properly compare it to a Custom (ie playing it through the same amps,same day,time etc)

That ones a 1980s model, and yes it has all the scratches and dents in the body work that 20years of use would bring but that just adds to the appeal of the guitar for me. I strongly recommend you to at least try your hand at one of these. The only problem with these are is ebay seems to be the only place to get one, and thats either a second hand one from a seller in the UK or imported from Japan, so play testing is a bit of a nono, as is any customer support. Each way will set you back around £300-400. I bought mine off a guy in Northern Ireland so it was too far to travel for a pick up and a play test but I made sure I emailed him with all the pictures I wanted and questions I had. By the time I bought it I was confident it was the right choice.

There are some serious, and I mean serious bargains out there from these Japanese makes. The reviews speak for themselves..

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/brand/Burny
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/brand/Tokai
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/brand/Greco
 
Since the early 70's I've had many guitars and a few Les Paul copies including a TOKAI which was excellent.
However, none compare to a real Gibson Les Paul Standard and when you've got one in your hands you know you've got what you always wanted.
And yes, I could possibly fail a blind test but at the end of the day if you want a Gibson then buy a Gibson and you will be COMPLETE.
If you've got the money then do it because you'll always be looking at the head and thinking "It doesn't say Gibson".
 
i agree with both of you here :D


i remember a week ago when i went to see the LA Guns the support band Red Star Rebels the guitarist was using an Epi gold top and it didnt seem right, he was so good and it sounded so great but something was wrong lol.

then Tracii Guns was using behringer pedals, ive never really used them before but after hearing what he did with them i've been tempted to buy them as they're a lot cheaper than their boss counterparts.

the burny guitars that i just found on ebay look sooo nice though, and if it wasnt for having 3 guitars behind me and one in pieces at home that i really need to finish i'd buy the black one i saw right now!
 
Go for it bud :) I'd always recommend especially with Gibsons and Fenders (or any guitar for that matter) to try out as many different guitars of the model you want as quality control is arguably bad from time to time on Gibsons and Fenders (uh-oh touchy subject!).

Try and go around as many guitar shops as you can, I gurantee you'll eventually find one which just fits right in your hands, and that'll be a hell of a lot more pleasing (and reassuring) than ordering one off the internet and you'll feel comfortable that you're spending your hard earned money *cough* ( ;) ) on a guitar that's right for you.

I echo recommendations on the TSL. I used to have a TSL601 and it was a good amp. Don't forget though that it's a valve amp and it does indeed have to be cranked hard to get it sounding like a Marshall should ;)

Try out a DSL aswell (similar to the TSL but with 1 less channel) as the distortion is quite different.

I'm sure you'll be happy pairing a Marshall with an LP though :)
 
If you can justify £1,400 on a guitar then why aren't you out gigging? :D :D

But as mentioned above, a combo is definitely the way to go. I'd recommend the Line6 SpiderIII. Easily one of the best sounding combos I've heard for the money. For £350 odd you can get the 150W 2x12 combo which is bloody awesome. £2,000 on equipment if you're not going to gig out with it (and this is my personal opinion obviously) is just not worth it. But if you want to go all balls out then go for it.
 
Thanks for ther recommendations. It will be a few months yet before i even get the money, so i'm going to do as much research as i can and take a look around before i even comtemplate buying one there and then. :o

Still unsure however whether to go for a 50's or 60's neck. My Epi has a 60's and plays really nice, but it does seem a little wide and as a result a bit slower than my squire strat which has the narrow neck, and i would like to speed up my playing, but all in due time of course. :)

I was also looking at the Marshall TSL-122 Combo as it seems to be the higest combo amp available, and does seem to look better on paper than the 601's and 602's, but again, i will have to try them out if possible to justify the extra £100.

Also, with effects pedals and extras, who are the best manufacurer to go for in terms of value, cost, reliability etc? Boss have a HUGE range with an average price of around £50 per effect, but then there are others that seem to be nearly twice the price and i cant see why.
Also, what effects do people recommend? I do like my reverb a lot, but would the marshall give that effect anyway to a decent degree? Also, are Boss distortion and overdrive pedals worth the money, or are IBZ Tube screamers more renowned for their quality?

Thanks. :)
 
With effects the best on the market is the Line6 PodXT Live. There really isn't anything that can compare. You get loads and loads of virtual amps and can change alter your tone so much it hurts. You have to spend a good few hours just sitting down at the computer with it trying to figure out how it works, but once you've nailed it nothing can compare. You get stomp boxes, a wah/volume/whammy pedal, EQ, and a few more pedals. But that paired with the infinite amount of amps you can simulate and the infinite amount of tones you can create.. It's good put it that way.

But again, if you don't gig out it maybe hard to justify another £300 on an effects board. I know I wouldn't be able to.
 
naffa said:
With effects the best on the market is the Line6 PodXT Live.
Click to expand...

Up to yet I've had a Line 6 Pod v2, Line 6 Guitarport and more recently a Line 6 Floorpod and I can't rate them highly enough.
My lead guitarist has a Pod Pro but to save the carriage of a rack with that and a spare Marshall valve amp he's just bought the PodXT.
However, he won't get the best out of it because all he'll do is have it on Brit Classic with a bit of Noise Gate and he'll have that on three different volume levels with maybe a little echo on the lead channel.
 
i think the TSL-122 will be way to loud for just home playing and if you're not gigging then i would say the extra money is completely wasted. even 60W valve is too loud for home playing really, but its still doable so stick with the 602 :)

as for effects pedals, if you're going to go for multi-effects then go for an expensive one because i got a cheap one once and it just annoyed the hell out of me because after setting and saving one channel on it, if i decided i wanted a little more distortion or chorus it would be a real pain to change it because the knobs would be in completely different positions.

having said that though, once you get the settings you want for the songs you play then its much easier as you can just stomp and away :p


i personally prefer single pedals now because i dont really use many at the moment, and for distortion i completely recommend the Keeley Modded DS-1
 
I'd look for a used Les Paul (though I'd be looking for a Custom, myself, or a 25/50 if I could find one in good shape at a decent price) and then...

For home playing, not the Marshall. I might get burned at the stake for this, but for home use I'd sooner have tranny than valve. I'm using a Vox AD60 at the moment, it's the 1x12 60W modelling amp they do. The 120's a bit better but also too big to fit in the gap where my amps have to live ;) It's more than passable at volume, not as good as the Marshall at Marshall tones as you'd expect, but then it's quite a bit better at Fender, Mesa and AC30 tones ;) But the main selling point is that at lower volumes it sounds just as good, while any Marshall valve amp won't be performing.

I owned a TSL for a while (with a 1922 cab loaded out with Vintage 30s, mmm...) and it was just utterly wasted, at acceptable volumes it wasn't particularily good either. Then I owner a Line 6 Spider, which was OK but broke down. The Vox, well, it's not what I'd choose if I was gigging but right now it suits me brilliantly. I wish I'd been able to make the room for the 120, and that I could've afforded the full floorboard instead of the shorty one, but it's still a keeper.
 
well if you're after the 2x12 version of the vox (the AD120VT) ive got it, and the VC-12 foot pedal to go with it...

email me or add me on msn if you wanna chat about it :D
 
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