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

Not sure of the exact cost but i know its been under £2000. I bought a 2001 Gibson les paul custom with SD JB and SD Distortion humbuckers. I run it through a marshall avt275, which is an excellent midrange amp.

Its a hybrid amp which means its solidstate with a preamp valve so it still sounds nice and warm. The built in effects are useless and only a few are worth using, it also weighs a lot, at 34KG its a pain in the ass to move. But its heavey because its built like a tank, i dropped mine down 2-3 stairs and not even a dent. The accoustic simulator sounds nothing like an accoustic but is an excellent clean channel, which i actually use more often than the clean channel. Overdrive 1 gives a soft rock/blues sound at low distortion, and a 70's punk sound at high distortion. Overdrive 2 is full out heavey rock/metal, great for solo's and techincal riffs.

I've gigged a few times with this amp, and the dual 75watt speakers give plently of power and can even drown out a drum kit, so you won't be dissapointed at home :p

What makes a hybrid amp perfect for you is the fact your not going to gig. If you got a valve amp you would be extremely dissapointed with the quality of the sound. Valve amps only sound good when cranked, and perform badly at low volume. Where as hybrid sound the same at volume 1 as they do at volume 10 (though not as good quality as valve amps when cranked.)

I've focused on giving more information on the amp, as it looks like you have already made up your decision on the guitar. But i would recommend the custom over the standard, even though it is a few hundred £££'s more. The neck is much better on the custom, giving you much more control from the 12th upwards. The customs stock pickups, imo, are much better aswell.

Hope this helps :)
 
If you got a valve amp you could also buy an attenuator to keep the sound quality up but the sound levels down. Get a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe lol.
 
I was talking to my uncle yesturday who recommended going second hand (for the guitar) because of the depreciation in value if i bought new, and because one with a little history behind it will be much more pleasing to play, which i can understand. He said he'd take me down to Andy's Guitar Shop in London to see if they do any second hand LP's. (ie maybe a custom which would be really nice)

I dont mind going second hand for amps either though, so if those Marshall's will be a waste then that's completly fair for the volumes i will play at (however, i will be playing in a new and large extension with a garage below, so i will crack the volume up quite a bit i imagine, but still nothing near gig levels of volume)
 
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OzZie said:
I was talking to my uncle yesturday who recommended going second hand (for the guitar) because of the depreciation in value if i bought new, and because one with a little history behind it will be much more pleasing to play, which i can understand. He said he'd take me down to Andy's Guitar Shop in London to see if they do any second hand LP's. (ie maybe a custom which would be really nice)

I dont mind going second hand for amps either though, so if those Marshall's will be a waste then that's completly fair for the volumes i will play at (however, i will be playing in a new and large extension with a garage below, so i will crack the volume up quite a bit i imagine, but still nothing near gig levels of volume)
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I bought my custom 2nd hand in 2003, and paid about £1650-£1700? I agree with what your uncle says. My guitar was only 2 years old when i bought it, but the difference between the way it played compared to a late 2002/2003 were noticable. I absolutly LOVE the neck on the custom, its my favourite on any guitar i've played. Also the stock humbuckers are so good im still using them and have my £160's worth of seymore duncans sitting in a draw. They have immense sustain and quality of sound.

The amp i bought in 2000 brand new, no idea what the price was then though. This thing can match valve amps volume wise and only starts to show its a solidstate at volume 7-8. But lets be honest your not going to be using those volumes. At volume 5 the amp is very LOUD, and i normally play at 2-3 when practicing at home. Volume 7-8 is gonna make furniture move and pictures come off the walls. The built in reverb is very good, and trust me. If your using a gibson les paul, you won't need a distortion pedal. :D :D

If you want to be able to do the slash sound DO NOT GO FOR A FENDER OR VOX AMP. You will be dissapointed with the distortion levels, even with a extra pedal. Its either going to be marshall or peavey. And with your price range you might be able to afford a 2nd hand peavey 5150 tube head + cab (about £500 if your lucky). The marshall equivilant price range wise is going to be a 2nd hand dsl50 and cab, its a 50watt tube head, and is gonna cost a bit more than the 100watt 5150.

Even though you could probably afford a decent tube amp, i still recommend the avt275 over a tube. Before i bought my avt275, i was offered a JCM dls100 and 1960a cab for just a bit more than what i was paying for the avt (friends rate). I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tempted, but knew all that power would be wasted for bedroom playing.

Some photos... :D

guitaramp1.jpg

guitaramp2.jpg
 
I gotta go with the Gibson and Marshall combo package, I would utterly love one myself - cant agree more with dmpoole; if it doesn't say Gibson I don't want it!

(but I'd still take it :p)
 
Northwind said:
I might get burned at the stake for this, but for home use I'd sooner have tranny than valve.
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I've been an avid reader of GUITARIST for years and I've lost count of the times they say that the differences are negligible now with the technology available.
 
OzZie said:
He said he'd take me down to Andy's Guitar Shop in London to see if they do any second hand LP's. (ie maybe a custom which would be really nice)
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Last time i was in Andy's they had a 25/50 in the window, which apart from being defaced with a pair of super distortions was close to mint. Can't recall if it was £1500 or £2500 though ;) But if I had £2000 to spend, and some sort of Gibson was the target, and it cost £1500 not £2000 I'd get that.

@alexisonfire, do you not find the AVT very noisy on high gain? I had an AVT150H running into my 1922 for a short while and couldn't get on with it. Don't think it holds a candle to the real thing or to the Vox or better Line 6 options... But then, it could have been a bad sample. I really regretted buying it though, it was to replace an MG100CD that went Wrong, and a bit of a rush buy. I never compared back to back, but working from memory its "Slash tone" didn't hold a candle to the Vox's "UK 80s" setting.

Ooh, ooh! Here's a one worth mentioning:

trace.jpg


This is what I got when i had to give the TSL back... I miss it, but it had a dodgy reverb and the parts are gold dust since Trace went bottoms up. Superb amp though, nice sparkly clear channel, excellent crunch channel, superb distortion. Nice range of tones, did the Marshall distortions very nicely but with a lot more bells and whistles. Good power modulation in the 100W version, I had the 50W. I'm too used to the flexibility of the Vox now but if I had to go back to all valve, I'd look for a Speed Twin C100, and bin the orrible stock speakers and fit my favourite vintage 30s. The footswitches are a sod to find though, I paid more for mine than I paid for the amp :( The build quality was slightly shoddy too, since they were a pretty limited run- the metal corners didn't fit and were blatantly hammered into place... Stuff like that.
 
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Northwind said:
@alexisonfire, do you not find the AVT very noisy on high gain? I had an AVT150H running into my 1922 for a short while and couldn't get on with it.
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When i was running my epiphone through the avt, yes i found it pretty noisy at high distortion, similar to the sound of white noise on a TV. Since i've had my gibson, i haven't had any problems. Sound is crisp and clear all the way up to volume 7-8, after that the noise starts to come back.
 
dmpoole said:
I've been an avid reader of GUITARIST for years and I've lost count of the times they say that the differences are negligible now with the technology available.
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It's probably true, as long as don't get a crap tranny. Sounds a bit obvious I know, but my MG250DFX sounded horrible.
 
alexisonfire said:
When i was running my epiphone through the avt, yes i found it pretty noisy at high distortion, similar to the sound of white noise on a TV. Since i've had my gibson, i haven't had any problems. Sound is crisp and clear all the way up to volume 7-8, after that the noise starts to come back.
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Yep, that's what I got- though it was present on the Fender, Gibson and Squier I used at the time, they were all shielded and running noiseless pickups so I always blamed the amp. Not a problem except when the gain was waaaaay up, but that's what the amp did best :( Not a bad amp at all, but I reckon it's been surpassed now. The same preamp stage went into the Mode 4 I think, and that certainly had no problems with high gain :D
 
quick bump for this thread.. and to say Baker... i just bought myself a burny because of you :p

its all your fault that i'm in my overdraft and my mum is going to kill me!

thats 5 guitars i have now, and i only came to uni this term with 2 :p
 
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