the slo100 is one of the most overrated amps imo

hmm actually

this might be one of the nicest sounding amps

Not if you're chasing that late 80s/early 90s sound — that was all SLO 100, JCM 800/900, and later Dual Rectifier and Triaxis.

The reality is anyone can get a decent tone these days shredding it up in their bedroom with modeling so it's easy to dismiss the importance of that iconic gear. Back then if you couldn't afford it there's a good chance you sounded like sh`t no matter how good you were. When Vai joined the DLR band his Carvin rig was garbage so they got their hands on modded Marshalls courtesy of Steve Stevens. That's how it worked back then. Unless you had deep pockets or loaned some decent gear you probably played a can of bees Peavey, Carvin, etc.

"However, Stevens still ended up having a big impact on the sound of Roth's debut album, 'Eat 'Em and Smile,' when producer Ted Templeman sent out an S.O.S. from their New York City recording studio. "I think Dave wanted to record in New York 'cause he wanted to get away from the Van Halen thing. But they were having issues getting a good guitar sound with Steve. Ted asked me to meet up with Steve and give him some pointers. He was using Carvin gear or something. So I called Ted and said, 'You're not gonna get a good guitar sound out of that stuff.' I said, 'Let me send over my gear. I'll send over all my Marshall stuff.' So that's all my equipment on that first David Lee Roth record. I mean, that first record is just phenomenal."

used JCM800 just popped up for sale near me… so tempted to snag it

I want to try one of the marshall Origin heads sometime. I see those pop up for sale all the time

Eh I tried a SLO100 when recording for an old band and I just couldn't stand it. Muddy and unimpressive to me.

Cab/speakers + tubes all make a big difference not to mention different mics/IRs when recording. A lot of variables. It has its place. Given the choice I'd still take a JCM800 2203.

Holy grail tone for me is those late 60s 100W Marshalls. I love a dynamic sound that reacts to every nuance in the picking. Cannot be duplicated by modeling.

I'm starting to put together a pedal board

Show me your boards

Never tried it but the axe fx soldano models sound really good

I barely play through the Axefx anymore. I just play through the Engl.

Give me a decent amp and I'd be fine with a tuner, boost/drive, and a delay.

I think you'll find most guitarists are always tweaking their boards. I had an extravagant w/d/w rig with a mixer and some rack gear that remained pretty much the same for 3 years but it wasn't portable so I built something that I could use with just a small cabinet or go stereo into two amps, PA, mixing console, etc. with the press of a button.

Spoiler!

Wow you got some high end stuff. I plan on using some lower end stuff like Joyo and Flamma. I'll try out some things and return them if I don't like

There's nothing wrong with the cheap stuff. With drive pedals they're simple circuits (Bluesbreaker, Klon, TS, etc.) and the pedals are cheap because they're made in China and use surface mount soldering on a machine vs. someone sitting there doing it by hand.

As for the digital (DSP) stuff they're cheap because they're simply ripping off the intellectual property of other companies and not spending years and money on development. New Boss pedals are surface mount and can't be modded like the old ones. I remember TC Electronic (owned by Behringer) using sh*tty foot switches a few years ago that often failed out of warranty. They weren't interested in repairing them either.

Anyway I like the old Boss stuff. SD-1 + DD-2 or DD-3 into a Marshall sounds pretty good to me.

I also prefer making my own cables. Solderless is convenient but a lot of it is junk. A decent cable and plug with proper strain relief will last a long time.

Using strips of velcro is also convenient but quickly attracts a lot of crap. I prefer dual lock. You don't need a lot of it and the end result is a lot more secure and cleaner looking.

Is it normal for the neck to creak when you adjust the truss rod? How would you know if you damaged the guitar?

So are you guys in favour of old school pedals vs going all digital with Axe and Line-6 etc?

I see a lot of pros for the digital route: Sounds great, huge range of effects available in one space, reverbs and delays are in same league as good pedals, routing flexibility and presets are great compared to what a pedalboard can do, really convenient for recording since you can just plug into laptop, hyuuuuuge amount of tweakability and parameters etc.


I see a con in that you'd have to have all your patches dialled in ahead of time for something like a concert, though. You can't exactly stomp on a switch to get that chorus sound you're after, for example.


And if the base sound isn't there, you're out of luck. Like if you want a particular unorthodox pedal, and it isn't there, that tone will be difficult to get.

Some of mine do, some don't. I wouldn't worry about it unless you are using excessive force

If you're only adjusting a quarter turn at a time when checking the relief you won't damage anything.

There are controllers for the Axe FX where you can assign effects to buttons just like stepping on pedals. Look at Vai's board which has a controller for his Axe FX. He's even got color labels on them to remind him of certain pedals.



As for digital for me it comes down to convenience. Preamp tubes last a long time and you can obviously push a preamp at any volume. No 110 vs. 230 voltage issues when the preamp is powered by DC which is typically much quieter anyway. The preamp I use runs internally at 300V so the plate voltage for the preamp is like a real amp and responds accordingly. I then go into a pedal that models a Fender amp to a point where it sounds like the real thing to me at least at the kind of volume I play at. I have IRs disabled into a real Fender cabinet only it's made of pine and not that particle board junk Fender likes to use. I can always switch the ACS1 pedal off and go straight into a Fender amp (Princeton, Deluxe, etc.). Nice to have options.

When it comes to the output section of a tube amp that's where things get complicated. Power tubes are expensive and if you're attenuating them hours a day to get that cranked juiciness then they're going to burn out quickly — probably faster than a touring pro who only uses them for a couple hours a night. They also have to be biased and most builders keep the bias probe points inside the amp so most guitarists would not be comfortable going DIY there. That's an additional cost. If you want to crank it late at night you need some kind of attenuator, load box, or isolation cabinet. Digital allows you to create rigs that would never be affordable.

The reality is most guitarists coming up today wouldn't have a clue how to get a decent sound with an old amp. They've never learned how to mic speakers let alone been inside the control room of a studio. But with digital they can get album quality tones scrolling through presets. I still like the idea of doing it from scratch. Plugging stuff in and tweaking it until it sounds good. Hours of swapping pickups and doing wiring mods to get the desired result.

welll i know what I'm saving up for



sounds absolutely sublime

would love a Hi-Watt amp but too impractical

I just got a Positive Grid Spark Mini and it's a blast as a practice tool!

Decent sounding models, backing track generator, and Bluetooth.

It's mostly on living room duty. I'm still drawn to the tube amp (Mesa Mk IV) regularly, but I run that through a reactive load and IRs into an interface.

I also have an old school Vamp2 running into the interface if I just want to put something down quick.

The FM9 has my interest though!

What kind of tones are you chasing?

There are some great videos from the Suhr Factory Party in 2015 featuring their amps. Pete Thorn mixed it. Sounds incredible.

Ian Thornley at the top of his game here playing through a Suhr Hedgehog 50. That man has some serious pipes to go with the chops.

Any of y'all ever get thrown off by Pete Thorn's eyes?

MGS - I know you are a huge VH fan as am I. I read you got to hang with him ? Can you give us the entire story ?

PT - Maybe someday. Not today, haha. He's a great guy, I really adore him, and he's a private person, so I'll respect that and mum's the word. Well, ok- one story. The first time we met, he had me up to his house, where he's lived since 1980 or so. I'm of course nervous as hell driving up there, winding up into the hills, up this long private road and finally up to the gate. He buzzes me in, and I drive up, by his garage… he comes walking out, with a big grin, and meets me in the driveway, there I am, face to face with one of my heroes, with a part of my childhood, so to speak. He says "come in the house, I'm starving, gotta eat something", and we go inside. We are in the kitchen, and as I said I'm a bit nervous. Now I've had a lazy eye since birth- my right one is just not pulling for the team, as they say. So I'm kind of cross-eyed. Ed looks at me and straight away says, "Ok- so which one do I look at?" Well, I about fell over laughing. He claps me on the shoulder and says "I didn't mean anything by it, I was just trying to get it outta the way!"… I loved that. Talk about an ice breaker. No B.S. People will beat around the bush about things like that, and it'll come up 6 months after you first meet.."so about your eye…" Not Ed. There's alot of fake people in LA, and EVH ain't one of them. He's seriously one of the nicest, most genuine guys I've met in this business of rock and roll, that's my experience. He's gone out of his way to do nice things for me, very kind. And he still positively smokes on guitar. I'll leave it at that.

haha nice

the GOAT van halen solo, short and easy but every ****ing note is perfect..



imo Nuno was always better though, and he still plays like a fuking beast

I agree Nuno had EVH well covered in the chops department and the man has barely aged in 3 decades. However he'd be the first to admit no Eddie, no Nuno. He was a massive influence on him and they were close friends.

Where Ed pulls away is in songwriting and influence. After that first album there was no incentive to evolve because he had everyone swinging from his nuts but he still kept churning out the riffs. The purists won't agree but he was as influential as Hendrix. Everyone in the 80s not named Malmsteen playing some form of rock was trying to copy Eddie and even if they didn't want to producers were forcing them to. Skim the tributes when he died and it's clear how strong his influence was. What stayed with me is the guy was always smiling with a guitar in his hands. The DLR era was his best but Van Hagar had some great moments.

5150 was a great album, possibly my favorite VH album. I'm probably in minority when I say that

On Nuno's nuts but none of you f*ggeetos have even mentioned his recent solo?

Did you hit your head or something breh? Check the Nuno video you quoted

I didn't click on it

Everybody loves Nuno.