Stratocast79's Rig Thread (with reviews)

[stratocast79]

1999 MIM Fender Telecaster- http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...58751831IrsIaG
(Callaham Enhanced Vintage Compensated Saddles, vintage dome knobs, CTS pots, orange drop cap, Lollar Special T pickups, 4way pickup switch, eldoradostraps leather pickguard, Electrosocket jack)
-Great guitar with a nice resonant body, thick dark maple neck, and a kick ass set of pickups. The Compensated saddles make the intonation as near perfect as a Tele can get. The pickups are amazingly clear with a nice Tele spank but slightly more output than 50's style. The bridge can sound P-90ish with the tone knob slightly down and twangy with it up, the fourth position sounds like Keef. Nough said.

Gretsch '58 reissue Anniversary Jr body- http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...58751831rNrJwU
(Filtertrons, Bigsby)
-The junior body is extremely comfortable and light. The Filtertrons have a classic sound, like a fatter Strat but also with some humbucker and almost CCR/Ric tones. The Bigsby is kindof a pain in the ass as it doesn't stay in tune that well. Overall I like it best with a Fender Blackface-type amp and will eventually buy one soley for this guitar to have around the house.

Danelectro U1 90's reissue- http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...58751831IDWIas
Still stock, bought it for $90 6 years ago and have loved it ever since. Kindof sounds like a slightly more acoustic Strat. Needs a better pot and pickup. The neck is too thin for me to use it too much.

Pedalboard- http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...58751831lyCNaU
Analogman SunFace NKT-275, Clark/Barber Gainster, Fulltone Supa-Trem, EHX Deluxe Memory Man, Boss RC-2 Loop Station

The SunFace is awesome. Great early germanium Fuzz Face tones with a very useful bias/sundial knob to go from relatively tight full battery life Fuzz Face on the right to something close to a "Spirit in the Sky" raggedy spitty fuzz to the left. Perfect for early Hendrix too. Fulltone Supa-Trem is the only tremolo pedal I've ever owned since I've never had a reason to look for another. Great Fender Trem sound plus a half/full speed button and a hard/soft button along with bypass. I doubt this one will ever leave my board. I used to have a Deluxe Memory Man way back when but stupidly got rid of it just before they went up in price $100 and never got around to getting a new one till I heard they were really running out of the chips and old-style big boxes. Really glad I picked one up before they're not made anymore (although not imminent, better safe than sorry). It's got a great glazey quality to the repeats that I haven't been able to find with any other delay pedal. The Clark Gainster is fantastic. Plain and simple. It's super-transparent, sounds like my amps do with their volumes up. I can't believe more people don't have this one. RC-2 is a great practice tool and makes playing a lot of fun. And it's pretty easy to use too.

Amps- http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...58751831XYfEiI

Emery Sound Superbaby- http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...58751831aCxcRO
This is the most fun amp I've ever had the pleasure of playing. You can swap any tubes into it without worrying about biasing and so forth. It varies between 5 and 12 watts depending on the tube types used and has only two knobs and a 3-way switch on the front of it. The knobs are for volume and tone- the tone knob can be turned fully counter-clockwise and clicked off to completely bypass the tone circuit so you just have pure tube tone. This is the way I usually set it. There's also a switch that changes the way it reacts (I think with the rectifier) by selecting either a clean setting, a saggy tweed, or a boost. All are awesome. I run it with the volume knob around 2 o'clock, the tone knob off, and the switch at either the clean or saggy setting and it goes into a Bob Burt v-slant 2x10 cab with Webers and an Avatar 2x12 with a Vintage 30 and a G12H30. Great -reasonably- low volume tube tone for days. Love this amp.

Ampeg Super Jet Reverb- http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...58751831tGuPOB
Great little 50watt amp. Awesome reverb and I'm going to use it to run with the Emery Sound to wet down the overall tone. Extremely loud amp.

Silvertone 1300- http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...58751831JOghFa
(Jensen 10", retubed, recapped)
Cool amp, not trashy like Jack White. Smooth 6V6 TONE. Same amp used by Luther Perkins on some of the early Cash recordings.

[RUSHFANnLV]

Nice rig man. I'd really love to play through that JTM45 for a while. I just love the sound of marshall amps. I also love the tele. I've been tele hungy lately and was wondering about the MIM teles.

Nice reviews too.

[stratocast79]

Originally posted by RUSHFANnLV
Nice rig man. I'd really love to play through that JTM45 for a while. I just love the sound of marshall amps. I also love the tele. I've been tele hungy lately and was wondering about the MIM teles.

Nice reviews too.

Thanks, I was trying to keep them from getting too dense.

What kind of tubes are in your Marshall(s)? I have a feeling they'd be pretty similar.

MIM Teles can be great, if you can find a good one, but as I'm sure you know you don't want to buy one online. Most of the necks are real thin, which I don't like, but I found a good one- such is the Fender quality control. If you can find a good one used like I did you can get it for about $250 then after a good set of pickups you never want to put it down I love mine, even with my $1800 Gretsch the Tele is still my favorite.

[teleman]

as usual, you know how I feel about your rig, and I always will.

[stratocast79]

Originally posted by teleman
as usual, you know how I feel about your rig, and I always will.

Yeah, I just need a few more amps, few pedals, and a couple guitars and I'll be set

[edeudlysses_s]

that's an awesome rig i always loved sears silvertone amps

[DAVIDCOUPE]

Sometimes you come across a rig that NEEDS sound clips.

[modernp]

If you like that sound keep your eyes open for a newer peavey classic with el84's. The one I have is almost dead on with all the eq's cranked wide open.

[EricShearer]

That Gretsch is such a rad guitar - excellent choice. What color is that?

[stratocast79]

Well they used to model the colors after the "in" car of the day, so this one is something like 2-tone Smoke green or '58 Cadillac Green.

[MathiasDGauger]

nice! I like just about every version of your pedalboard in that gallery

[stratocast79]

Originally posted by MathiasDGauger
nice! I like just about every version of your pedalboard in that gallery

Thanks! I've gone through a lot, many very different versions, but of course, this is my favorite

[rybread1969]

Wow dude...i like every single piece of your gear. The current stuff & the stuff you sold.

You sold that stratocaster? I love those 70s strats with the big headstocks. Your telecaster looks spectacular too. I need to get a good tele one of these days.

I agree with the JTM45 praise also. A buddy of mine has one that he graciously loans to me occasionally & it's just awesome.

[stratocast79]

Originally posted by rybread1969
Wow dude...i like every single piece of your gear. The current stuff & the stuff you sold.

You sold that stratocaster? I love those 70s strats with the big headstocks. Your telecaster looks spectacular too. I need to get a good tele one of these days.

I agree with the JTM45 praise also. A buddy of mine has one that he graciously loans to me occasionally & it's just awesome.

Hey thanks! I sold the Strat because the market went way up on em and it really wasn't that great of a guitar. It looked cool as hell but the body didn't resonate at all, that finish they put on those things is like a plastic glove wrapped around the body and the pickups were pretty weak too. Once I got the Tele I didn't use the Strat much anymore. I made a lot of money off of it too.

I love the Marshall but I've been thinking lately a Budda 1x12 might be a better fit. It's definately more portable than a Bassman combo but moving a 2x12 cab everywhere sucks, especially since with it behind the seats in the cab of my truck I don't have much room for anything else. But it's definately going to stick around for a while before I do anything drastic

[rybread1969]

Originally posted by stratocast79
Hey thanks! I sold the Strat because the market went way up on em and it really wasn't that great of a guitar. It looked cool as hell but the body didn't resonate at all, that finish they put on those things is like a plastic glove wrapped around the body and the pickups were pretty weak too. Once I got the Tele I didn't use the Strat much anymore. I made a lot of money off of it too.

I love the Marshall but I've been thinking lately a Budda 1x12 might be a better fit. It's definately more portable than a Bassman combo but moving a 2x12 cab everywhere sucks, especially since with it behind the seats in the cab of my truck I don't have much room for anything else. But it's definately going to stick around for a while before I do anything drastic

Ah, i've played some stratocasters like that. I think the quality control got a bit spotty in the 70s. But damn, they sure did look cool.

Budda makes good amps. I've played a few & was quite impressed. Top Hat makes really good cabs too. I'm sure they're speaker cabs are high quality too. The funny thing is, i got a mesa 2x12 cab to save my back from a 4x12 cab. I just posted some pix of that cab here.