Sold all my gear back in uh...2008? Been years since I touched a guitar. So there's this pawn shop...a really BIG pawn shop near me I go to once in a while just to see if there's anything someone was dumb enough to get rid of. Their guitars are always junky 200 dollar ones you can get for dirt cheap.
Well...one caught my eye and thought it was just a cheap-o rip off. Nope, it's an ESP/LTD. Ok so it's probably one of their cheap models that have crappy humbuckers. No....wait...this is an LTD Viper 300m. EMG 81/85 active pick-ups, set-in neck, Mahogany body and neck <3 So I was thinking they wanted an arm and a leg for it since it retails for 600 bucks. NOPE! Only wanted 300 since one part of the guitar had a small chip in it. Who cares! Those pickups are worth 200 bucks brand new.
I have VT80+ myself and I love it.
It makes some noise when it's working probably because of the tubes, but damn the sound is awesome.
As for learning how to play, I started myself a couple of months back and went with jamplay. It costs money, but not too much, and you get all the tutoring you need no matter what your level is.
Satin ebony. The ultimate Doom/Rocker guitar. But the original brands are always so expensive. Epiphone (Gibsons budget brand) makes very similar ones of high quality that are more affordable.
Hehe, can't help feel it looks Batman'ish now that I look at that picture.
I highly recommend getting a copy of Guitar Aerobics (from the usual places) and doing their workouts every day to get your chops back.
I've never been a big SG body style fan, but then again, I play mostly jazz and metal (jazz for the theory, metal for the speed) so I needed a guitar (and amp) that could do both to my liking. But, that's a good pawn shop find there. And that VOX is a great amp.
Hobo Zombie: TRAAAAAAAIIIINNNNNNSSSSSS
Woman Zombie: COMPLAAAAAAAIIIIIIINNNNNSSSSS
Englishmen Zombie: REFRAAAAAAAAAIIIIIINNNNNSSSSS
Thanks for the idea Lutz!
I have VT80+ myself and I love it.
It makes some noise when it's working probably because of the tubes, but damn the sound is awesome.
As for learning how to play, I started myself a couple of months back and went with jamplay. It costs money, but not too much, and you get all the tutoring you need no matter what your level is.
Ha! What are the chances we got the same amp haha. Ya I'm loving it so far, spent a few days just learning how to use the damn processor on it lol. As for your sound it seems to be a hit or miss with the new VT series. I heard a lot of people got rid of the sound by 1) changing the tube on the preamp or 2) doing a system restore on the processor, but ya, mine doesn't make any noise. I got home yesterday and just played with it all day, my fingers are sore as hell now lol.
I think Gibson and Fender pretty much set the standard for all body types. The only one that doesn't really follow them is B.C. Rich, which their guitars suck. I owned a couple and they're just show guitars. Warlock could be argued to be a hybrid of the SG.
My dream guitar is the Gibson Voodoo series. They're hard to find now unfortunately but if I ever do, I will buy one the moment I see it.
I have VT80+ myself and I love it.
It makes some noise when it's working probably because of the tubes, but damn the sound is awesome.
As for learning how to play, I started myself a couple of months back and went with jamplay. It costs money, but not too much, and you get all the tutoring you need no matter what your level is.
Ha! What are the chances we got the same amp haha. Ya I'm loving it so far, spent a few days just learning how to use the damn processor on it lol. As for your sound it seems to be a hit or miss with the new VT series. I heard a lot of people got rid of the sound by 1) changing the tube on the preamp or 2) doing a system restore on the processor, but ya, mine doesn't make any noise. I got home yesterday and just played with it all day, my fingers are sore as hell now lol.
I think Gibson and Fender pretty much set the standard for all body types. The only one that doesn't really follow them is B.C. Rich, which their guitars suck. I owned a couple and they're just show guitars. Warlock could be argued to be a hybrid of the SG.
My dream guitar is the Gibson Voodoo series. They're hard to find now unfortunately but if I ever do, I will buy one the moment I see it.
Will take a week or two of daily playing to get the callouses needed to get past that soreness. I hate when I've not played for a long time and pick up the guitar (I have heaver strings on ever since I played in a metal band with down-tuned guitars and it feels like I've been pressing down on sharp steel wire (which is pretty much what I've done). When the skin get thicker on all the left fingers (or right if you're a leftie) it's pure relief and you can play without having to stop after an hour because of soreness.
I highly recommend getting a copy of Guitar Aerobics (from the usual places) and doing their workouts every day to get your chops back.
I've never been a big SG body style fan, but then again, I play mostly jazz and metal (jazz for the theory, metal for the speed) so I needed a guitar (and amp) that could do both to my liking. But, that's a good pawn shop find there. And that VOX is a great amp.
I got a Strat at the time because Hendrix was my absolute Idol... Then I got into liking the SG shape and thin body because of Tony Iommi. Meanwhile I played everything from thrash to death metal on my lake placid blue '62 reissue strat. Not quite the right guitar, but dammit, that neck was the very reason I bought it and didn't care about looks. It felt so right in my hands in the music store.
And BC Rich tend to be uncomfortable with necks like slabs instead of delicately shaped for the shape of the hand. Their bases are okay, but their guitars I don't like too much.
Awesome guitar you've got there i dunno about your amp i always used Marshall heads but vox used to sound pretty good.
There's awesome to see we've got some guitarists here
Frant wrote:
Will take a week or two of daily playing to get the callouses needed to get past that soreness. I hate when I've not played for a long time and pick up the guitar (I have heaver strings on ever since I played in a metal band with down-tuned guitars and it feels like I've been pressing down on sharp steel wire (which is pretty much what I've done). When the skin get thicker on all the left fingers (or right if you're a leftie) it's pure relief and you can play without having to stop after an hour because of soreness.
yeah even if you don't play for few weeks when you start to play again your fingers won't be too happy about it
Ha! What are the chances we got the same amp haha. Ya I'm loving it so far, spent a few days just learning how to use the damn processor on it lol. As for your sound it seems to be a hit or miss with the new VT series. I heard a lot of people got rid of the sound by 1) changing the tube on the preamp or 2) doing a system restore on the processor, but ya, mine doesn't make any noise. I got home yesterday and just played with it all day, my fingers are sore as hell now lol.
Well, just did a system restore and it might have got a little bit quieter. It's not bothering me that much, and when I play I can't hear it anyway...it's just sort of a hissing sound when there is no other input.
Ha! What are the chances we got the same amp haha. Ya I'm loving it so far, spent a few days just learning how to use the damn processor on it lol. As for your sound it seems to be a hit or miss with the new VT series. I heard a lot of people got rid of the sound by 1) changing the tube on the preamp or 2) doing a system restore on the processor, but ya, mine doesn't make any noise. I got home yesterday and just played with it all day, my fingers are sore as hell now lol.
Well, just did a system restore and it might have got a little bit quieter. It's not bothering me that much, and when I play I can't hear it anyway...it's just sort of a hissing sound when there is no other input.
Hissing can come from several things: guitar mics aren't wired for hiss-elimination, you're running the amp in a non-grounding socket, there's some electromagnetic field (beyond the one the transformer in the amp creates) affecting things. There are many ways to cancel hum, google around and good luck.
Hissing can come from several things: guitar mics aren't wired for hiss-elimination, you're running the amp in a non-grounding socket, there's some electromagnetic field (beyond the one the transformer in the amp creates) affecting things. There are many ways to cancel hum, google around and good luck.
Yeah, at first I connected it with the power plug that came with the amp and it had no ground. Took me a while to figure out the reason, I was already suspecting the guitar
The power grid at my house is pretty crappy, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that's the reason.
Well after the few days of downtown from having the flu, all I did was play guitar lol, speed for riffing is coming back to me but I was never good with soloing so..that still sucks haha.
So far this guitar sounds god damn sweet. I've had the EMG's before but it was with a cheaper LTD (M100FM) with a crap body and bolt on neck so I dunno if it's because this guitar is a MUCH better build quality or the fact the amp is just miles better than the 2nd generation Peavey Bandit 112 I had. None the less, for the price, this amp is sick, and with the ability to heat up the pre-amp tube to it's sweet spot but control the output volume is just a sick idea.
Or it could just be the amount of different tones you can get with this thing and save them on 10 different banks could be it too haha.
It literally has every effect and stomp pedal I would have needed including a noise suppressor. Only sad face I have with it is no looping station but, that's just adding too much to the onboard circuit. I'll buy a Boss or Digitec for that.
None the less, for the price, this amp is sick, and with the ability to heat up the pre-amp tube to it's sweet spot but control the output volume is just a sick idea.
Explain
Since I just started learning to play a few months ago, I just leave it on manual and bass/treble flat (just in the middle).
None the less, for the price, this amp is sick, and with the ability to heat up the pre-amp tube to it's sweet spot but control the output volume is just a sick idea.
Explain
Since I just started learning to play a few months ago, I just leave it on manual and bass/treble flat (just in the middle).
With a tube amp, the louder you play the amp there's a certain level of volume that gets the tube just hot enough that it sounds it's best at. Well the problem with that is, you aren't always wanting to blow out your ear drums in a small room so you have to play at lower volumes, which in turn doesn't give you as much of that sweet tube sound. What VOX did was include the power level knob which basically lets you tell the tube how loud to play it and find that sweet spot where it sounds it's best but then you can use the master volume to turn the heard sound down.
Some say the sweet spot on the VT80+ is around 3oclock on a 12 hour clock. It varies from amp to amp
None the less, for the price, this amp is sick, and with the ability to heat up the pre-amp tube to it's sweet spot but control the output volume is just a sick idea.
Explain
Since I just started learning to play a few months ago, I just leave it on manual and bass/treble flat (just in the middle).
The more you learn, the more you'll get into finding the "tone". It's the elusive "tone", the perfect "tone" that most guitarists spend their entire lives trying to find. I feel sorry for perfectionists because it's night on impossible to find something like the "Perfect" tone.
Are you learning from books and videos? Don't forget to learn by ear as well, ie. jam/pick out songs by listening to various parts and pick out the chords/notes. That way you not only learn more playing, you also learn to play by ear and listen to what's going on, getting a "feel" for things in a way you don't get from books.
I started out learning only by ear, later I got a tabulature book of Joe Satrianis surfing with the Alien and learnt a lot from there, but I got most from simply playing and learning by ear. Tabs are good to learn chords and chord progressions though or to learn parts that are difficult to pick out by ear alone. Jam along cd's and/or get those programs/cd's where the guitar tracks have been muted/removed or there's only rhythm guitar that you can solo over and experiment, learning to use the full neck.
The progress month by month will be awesomely fun since you'll feel and hear the difference. Pity things go slower after two-three years when you've gotten the basics and then some and have to go more advanced (which can be frustrating). At one point in the 90'ies I could get electrical arms and shred like I was on meth. I definitely can't do that any longer. I used to play every single day from 1990 to 1998, I almost felt guilty if I didn't at least jam for an hour to something like Pink Floyd or some rock/heavy metal. Then I was asked to join a primitive Death Metal band (!!!) and everything was focused on simple power chords being as evil as possible. I wasn't even into Death Metal but I wanted to play in a band. So I wrote the songs, we recorded two albums, then we split very bitterly after I wanted to progress to make more advanced stuff and the vocalist started to work the other members against me.
After that I felt burned out and haven't really gotten back to it, lost the ambition and drive and most of all the lust to play. I no longer enjoy it after that shitty period. I miss it like hell and curse the day we started up (1999). Now all I feel is sadness and guilt when I look at my guitar (which needs to be adjusted, I suck at adjusting intonation, truss rod etc. and the neck has a slight slight bow towards the head due to me putting on .11-.52 strings for a downed D-tuning from using .09 and .10 sets. Every time you change thickness of strings you should get the truss rod adjusted to keep the correct tension to avoid the next being bent.
I wouldn't mind starting a blues rock band, playing some Zeppelin/Sabbath/Floyd/etc. style stuff with a band, but I'd have to practice for a few months to get the mojo back and refresh muscle memory and finger agility.
The first 3-4 years I was obsessed, almost sleeping with the guitar.
With a tube amp, the louder you play the amp there's a certain level of volume that gets the tube just hot enough that it sounds it's best at. Well the problem with that is, you aren't always wanting to blow out your ear drums in a small room so you have to play at lower volumes, which in turn doesn't give you as much of that sweet tube sound. What VOX did was include the power level knob which basically lets you tell the tube how loud to play it and find that sweet spot where it sounds it's best but then you can use the master volume to turn the heard sound down.
Some say the sweet spot on the VT80+ is around 3oclock on a 12 hour clock. It varies from amp to amp
According to the manual, the input to the tube is controlled with the master switch, so wouldn't it make sense to adjust the master switch to try and get to tube's sweet spot and then use the power switch (which is adjusting the amp level after the tube) to tune it down?
@Frant
I'm nowhere close to playing all day long. I try to make sure to play everyday, for 30 - 60 minutes . Since I've only started, I learn using the JamPlay web site. It has video lessons and I practice the exercises. Obviously, at such slow pace I won't become great anytime soon, but I'm having fun. I've read about the importance of improving the musical hearing and distinguishing the notes and accords by ear, so I'll definitely try to practice that as well.
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even if you don't play for few weeks when you start to play again your fingers won't be too happy about it 
