jgomez

Awesome, see you there then. Jill's just put my wife, my brother and I on the guest list, so I've got the 3 tickets I've bought going spare too! Should hopefully be able to shift 'em on to some colleagues.

Yeah, it's awesome, Greg's voice together with Jill's makes me think Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds... which is a good thing!

Nick's Basstard is awesome, saw Sparrow when they supported Idlewild at the Warehouse last year, had never heard of them before, they sauntered onto the stage all unassuming, setting up their own equipment then proceeded to belt out some brilliant tunes. In my mind they upstaged Idlewild that day...

Cannot wait for this one! Great band, discovered them when they supported Idlewild in the last gig they played at the Warehouse. They were definitely my musical find of the year last year!

Wife and I tried one of those out in R&B when I was taking a peek around at Tele's, wife loved it, I personally have to admit that I wasn't all that taken with it even though I used to have real bad GAS for an Ibanez SAS (I loved the SAS36 with trans grey and the funky pearlescent binding). I'll be damned if they don't look hot as fuck though, especially when it'd fit perfect with my wife's guitar collection... purpleburst Gibson SG Goddess, purple Ibanez S520ex and purple sparkle Yamaha RBX170 Bass.

Good point! If it were me though, I'd leave it as it is, it's lovely. I'm definitely becoming a fan of the ol' bigsby though!

Would a vibramate work for this? If so it would be relatively easy to install/uninstall then? Would at least give someone else the option without destroying the guitar if they brought up the point of the bigsby again, personally though, I think it's gorgeous the way it is.

Well, I've got two graphics cards that are miles apart, but both will play Morrowind. Need AGP or PCI-E? I've got a 6800GT AGP and an 8800GTS 640mb PCI-E. Let me know what you need and we can sort summat out.

Brilliant band, saw them in December at The Warehouse, was a great night. Not heard the new album yet, will give it a listen for sure, Midnight Organ Fight is great. I love "The Modern Leper", quality tune.

I've done a good 2 weeks worth of research into the 300 valve amp scene, and granted although our needs are slightly different, hopefully some of what I've learned from my research can help you too. If you're looking to purchase new you essentially have 3 choices... Blackstar HT-5 combo, Laney VC15-110 and Bugera V22. If you're buying 2nd hand, this opens up quite a few more options, for example, an Orange Tiny Terror head + seperate cab, Peavey Classic 30, Peavey Valveking 112 (50w), Fender Blues Junior. The latter three are pretty damn loud I believe. So, cleans are most important for you first of all? If that's the case I'd leave the Blackstar as the clean channel is supposedly so-so, but you can go try one for yourself in Bruce Millers, they have 1 left @ 299 (319 RRP) as it's on display and has been used for testing guitars etc. I'll be able to tell you for sure what the Blackstar is like on wednesday when I get mine. So, if you're looking to buy brand new, I'd take a serious look at the Laney VC15-110 along with the Bugera, dv247.com pricematched the Laney for me to 279.99 (they have a four year store warranty policy too). I've seen the Bugera going for 259.99, again I'd ask dv247.com to price match this and take it from them for the warranty. I've heard alot of people say that although they love the sound of their Bugera, they just wouldn't gig with it as it has had alot of historical reliability issues. These have supposedly been sorted out with the most recent batches, but alot of the damage to it's reputation has set in already. I think that although not quite as flexible as the Bugera, the Laney might be a great alternative. Not sure if anyone stocks these in town though... Alternatively, I actually do quite like the 2 amp idea, could get a decent solid state bedroom practice amp for now and save up for a good amp head. Planning on starting to gig any time soon, or is it a speculative idea for the future? I've just read up on the Fender G-Dec 3 (solidstate 15 or 30 watt), and if I hadn't purchased the Blackstar already, I'd be taking a serious look at it as well.

Hey guys, cheers for all the advice. In the end I found a good deal on a Blackstar HT-5s mini-stack (HT-5 head + two HT-110 10" celestion speaker cabs) that was just under 4 months old, so that's what I went with, snagged it for just over 300 with delivery. Cheers for the advice everyone, will post up a piccie of the new setup once it all arrives on wednesday!

I think really at the price point I'm looking at, it's a direct price-competition between these amps (just looking at combo, head+cab just won't work with the lack of funds I feel): Blackstar HT-5 - No Reverb, Cleans aren't amazing (but I think I could live with them), Rockin' drive channel. Bugera V22 - Nice cleans, cheap, quite a vintage tone and drive channel sounds a little thin? Laney VC15-110 - Nice cleans, more of a vintage tone, drive sounds better than the Bugera, but I think overall more suited to light rock? Laney LC15-110 - Pretty nice amp, but put off by it being only one channel... If I went with the V22/VC15 I reckon I'd need a pretty decent overdrive/distortion pedal infront of it to make it howl, but do you guys think this option would give me alot more versatility overall?

Thinking about it more, how loud will that thing be? 22W sounds like an awful lot for an amp that'll never leave the house. I'm definitely liking the price though, didn't realise that Bugera was a Behringer brand either, I quite like their kit, have a Vamp2 which is pretty darn nifty.

Haha you ain't wrong about that guy. Yeah good comparison though, to my highly untrained ears, I couldn't tell a massive amount of difference between the two. That being said, I wasn't massively taken with either of the overdrive channel's sounds... could just be my shitty, tinny laptop speakers though, haha. Will have a listen through better speakers later on. Have checked out a few Blackstar clips on youtube now too, and is it just me or does the clean channel sound pretty damn muddy? Lol, how much were you needing for it anyway?

Looks like a nice amp, some good reviews... any first hand experience?

Anyone ever tried the Laney VC15-110 or a Crate V18-112? I've read good things about them to throw that into the mix. At the moment though all things considered, the Blackstar is looking very tempting, however I'm somewhat concerned about the clean channel on it - think I'd have to try before buy on that. Would it be an non-economically feasible job to swap out a tube on the blackstar with a 6L6 to improve the cleans and somewhat pointless at this pricepoint?

Cheers, yeah, was looking at the Blackstar HT5 and the Tiny Terror, I notice that the HT5 has 1xECC83 and 1x12BH7 valves and is 5W compared to the Orange's 15W - I have no idea what these are like by comparison to the EL84's in the Orange! I'll take a good look at those Fender options. Think at this price point it'd be worthwhile going for a seperate head/cab, I've seen the Orange Tiny Terror @ 235 inc del, then a decent 1x10 or 1x12 cab would cost what, 100-150 on top of that? Think I'd be able to get a good distortion sound and some generally nice tone out of these valves without having to crank the volume to crazy levels?

Hey guys, looking into my options for a new amp at home. I've got around 200 to play with, could squeeze a little more if there's something spectacular priced just over this budget. I'm currently playing through a solidstate Fender Chorus M80 which I've got as a long term loan from a mate who's probably forgotten about it now, which has 2 1x12 speakers and I can barely turn the volume to 2 at a push in my house or the plaster in the walls starts cracking. To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, I play a whole variety of things really, at the moment I'm very much into my Blues and am playing alot of Clapton's works, but I play a whole variety of other things too, Classic Rock - AC/DC, Led Zep, some Alt/Hard Rock along the lines of Foo Fighters/QotSA/Pumpkins, some Metal along the lines of Maiden/Metallica/Opeth etc. etc. I'm really not very good, but this is the sort of stuff I try to play, emphasis on try. So, I'm looking for something that's fairly versatile and valve-equipped. Tone-wise I think the most important are some nice cleans, a nice thick bluesy tone, and then a good distorted/overdriven valve crunch a la QotSA. Tall order? This'll be my first decent amp purchase as the only amp I've ever bought before was with my first guitar a few years ago - a Kustom KGA16dfx practice amp, which I've replaced with the Fender M80 as the practice amp really didn't cut it. I'm a bedroom rocker and have had the odd jam session with mates, but I doubt I'll be getting into bands/gigging any time soon, so really I'm looking for something that'll give me the tone I want at home, but not destroy my house and cause my wife to file for divorce. Lol. Any advice very, very welcome!

Ahh, for some reason I had it in my head that it was the Custom II you were after!

Oh by the way, they have one of these in bruce millers - in the blonde flavour (which in my opinion looks quite horrendous - go with black!). Anyway, just thought I'd mention it incase you fancied trying one.

Haha, in all fairness I had posted in that thread before, just needed a gentle reminder! Thanks though as the guitar's lovely!

Well went round to Al's on Saturday to try out the custom tele, and it rocked. Proceeded to head into town to check out what R&B and Bruce Millers had, but nothing there really excited me. So it was a fight between the JA-90 Jim Adkin's signature and Al's custom tele, being able to try one and not the other made the choice fairly difficult, but finally settled on Al's Tele. And she's a beauty. Cheers Al!

Aye, nice Valentine's day treat to myself!

Heading into town tomorrow and on the way, going to check out Alan Badge's custom tele, then will have a wander round R&B and possibly Brucie's if I have time. Then after a day or so's perspective after trying stuff out on saturday, I'll hopefully be able to figure out which way the GAS is pointing!

I'll be happy with a half a telecaster. Anyone tried out the G&L ASAT's btw? This blueburst one is HOT...