yeah you're right - get a good amp.

you know... I am having GAS pains. (G as in Gear, not Guitars)
But not really guitars. I really don't
get much guitar pains for new stuff.
I am happy with what I have and when you
have a nice Tele and 2 Strats - that's enough.
There is already several lifetimes of tones
in these guitars and they feel perfect for me.
So the grass is not any greener except right
here with the guitars I have.

No my friends - I have serious amp/head GAS.
I am lucky in that I do not have financial burdens
like mortgage or utility bills or car payments -
one day I will but not for a little bit.
So I am fortunate enough to use summer job money for
music gear. Once you have guitars you really like and
have enough nice pedals you really like and have cabs
you really like - well - the only thing left is another head.

I have a nice clean to medium gain (very sweet sounding)
[Fender] 5E3 Deluxe. Doesn't get much better than this
for classic fender tones. excellent.

However, for slightly more crunchy rock and some higher
gain stuff I really need another head to put on top of
my mighty mini stack. I almost pulled the trigger on
those little 2 and 4 watters (separate topic) but after
thinking about it - yeah - I confess - those are one trick
ponies and they might not be great tricks at that.
If I had unlimited funds then it would be nice to pick up
one of those little high gain monster 4 watters just as
something to fool around with - but I would rather put the
$200 or so into something a little nicer that I would use
seriously and not such a toy thing.

So I have decided on the Orange Tiny Terror (www.orangeamps.com)
I have played with Orange amps at store (except it was a 30 watt
dual channel amp) and really liked them but the 30 watts was so
loud that I would never really be able to open it up here.
The Tiny Terror seems to get really nice reviews and it is
switchable from 7 or 15 watts. This is perfect for me.
This will let me have a nice clean Fender amp AND a nice
medium to higher gain classic British rock amp. The plan
is that I can use less pedals and just use different amps
for sounds I want to achieve. (I really like playing directly
into amps and only use the pedals on the Fender to get it
up to harder rock territory). So maybe that Orange can have
me go directly into it and I'll be able to drop some pedals
(or all of them) from the signal path with this higher gained amp.
I know the Orange 30 watt did not sound like some buzz saw or
swarm of bees - it had a real nice creamy overdrive sound when
gained up. So I think I will get to the store soon and check
out the Tiny Terror amp and I'll bring one of my cabs and
my guitars to see how it sounds.

Anyways - I think after this (if it all works out and I
can get the new little Orange head) then I should be all
set for a while. Now it is on to getting this little multi-track
recording setup going. Cables are on the way so I should be
able to get recording soon. Hey - I play the best simple 3 chord
stuff you ever heard. I can't do leads worth a damn and I can
hardly play - but who cares - I am having lots of fun with it.

The thing I am learning is that economy and budget gear can
take you a long way to tonesville. But eventually somewhere
along the way you gotta pay the piper and get some good gear
in your arsenal. I always thought that tone was a complete
function of the player. But sadly it is also about the gear
and some really good gear can really make the tones a lot nicer.

Sure - tell me that you have a $150 guitar and $10 pedals
and a $50 practice amp. And I _know_ that can take you far -
but only so far. I am realizing that the good gear is essential.
Not that you have to spend thousands of dollars but at least a
step of from complete budget gear. So go ahead - laugh at me
for wanting to spend $500 on an Orange Tiny Terror - but I am
almost willing to bet the farm that it will be a very nice sounding
little amp and well worth it in the long run.

Ok - my long winded typing is over now.
.

Relevant Pages

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