The New Gear

I just realized that I have not yet posted about my new gear (that would be musical equipment for those unfamiliar with my vernacular or interests). As I mentioned several months ago, I have had the same electric guitar and amp for nearly 10 years. It had been played in many different places, and had been shoved in all manners of cars, trucks, trailers, closets, and rooms. So it was time for an upgrade. What gave even more motivation to upgrade was the impending birth of our first child. I figured I'd better spend the money on some gear before I had to spend it on diapers.

So I got a brand new amp, a new electric guitar, and I finished off my pedal board with a few more effects.

For my amp, I knew I wanted a Class A amp. I don't really know a lot about that stuff, all I know is that every Class A amp I had heard sounded amazing. Of course, I also knew that they were typically twice the price of other amps, but I also know that you usually get what you pay for. I also knew that I wanted a combo amp. My old rig was a head and a 2X12 cabinet, which was a bit cumbersome to lug around. So I started my search with 6 or 7 brands and models of amps that I knew were in the ballpark of what I was looking for. Way back in early May, I took a day and drove up to Nashville to do a little test driving. The top picks from that day were a Divided By 13 JRT 9/15, Bad Cat Classic Cat, Orange AD30, Vox AC30, Matchless Cheiftan, and a Reinhardt (the 18). Well I came back empty handed that day, but continued my research, calling around, reading reviews, looking online, etc. After much research, I finally decided that Bad Cat was the amp for me. However, instead of the Classic, I went with a Custom amp straight from the Bad Cat shop in California. It's a Bad Cat Cub II Custom 15/30 watt with Tremelo. It was an artist loaner that they put in a 1X12 cabinet complete with my choice of tolex. So the finished product looks just like this I am extremely pleased with the amp. It sounds amazing and despite its weight is pretty easy to move from place to place. One of the coolest features is that it has a switch on the back that allows me to switch from full to half power (thus the 15/30). It's really versatile and suits my needs perfectly!

For my guitar, I was debating between 3 different guitars. I've always wanted a Gibson Les Paul Standard. It is such a classic and can really rock! However, I already have a guitar similar in style and use with the dual humbuckers, so I thought I might look for something different that fits the context in which I play most often a little http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifbetter. So I started looking at the Gibson ES-335 and a Gretsch Tennessee Rose. All the reviews I read raved about the Gretsch, while most of the reviews I read about the ES-335 were pretty bad. I played both and leaned more toward the Gretsch. It was about $1000 cheaper as well, so the Gretsch was the winner. It looks a lot like this .

As for pedals, I got an Ernie Ball Volume Pedal, a Fulltone Fulldrive II overdrive, a Boss RC-20 XL looper pedal, and a VooDoo Lab Pedal Power II which powers those along with my existing Boss Super Overdrive, Boss DD-5 Delay, Jekyll and Hide Distortion, Boss Chorus, Digitech Whammy, Boss Tuner, and Boss Reverb/Delay. Truthfully, my pedal board might be a bit overkill, but I now have all the pedals I would like, and I use all of them at least some!

So there ya have it. That's my new rig that will last me a really long time. If you should like to hear it, you can come to The Church at Lake Guntersville most any Sunday, or you can catch me on a weekend retreat here or there.

3 comments:

Love it, love it, love it!

You have more distortion/overdrive pedals than one could shake a stick at. I'm gonna channel Ryan Boyd here:

You should turn 'em all on at the same time!!

September 9, 2009 at 7:28 PM  

But do any of them go to 11?

September 10, 2009 at 8:55 PM  

I suppose it would be cliche to ask why you didn't get a dang'd ole Peavey?

So I will refrain.

September 11, 2009 at 5:34 AM  

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