couple years.southern/classic rock,blues,bluegrass<<thats about the only music im interestedin playing
I gotta say dude, you've only been playing for a year and a half, and trust me, by this point, you know shit about tone. I was there once too, and thought I knew what I was talking about. My marshall costs less than a grand, is loud as fuck, small as hell (comparitvely), and has like 4 or 5 built in effects. I love marshall tone... are they the best... or even my favorite? No. But regardless, wehreas it was once cliche to rock out a marshall, it is now cliche to rip on them
i know enough... been playing a year and a half, but been around the block with many other guitars and amps (tests) and i honestly like the crates... marshall had its time, and it still has its qualities, but in my opinion, crate is working its way up there for the marshall of the 21st century... like i said, the blue voodoo... considered one of the best on the market (by some of course... opinions are subjective) i like marshall, i just think there are better rigs out there with more to offer for the same money.... marshalls definately kick ass one thing you have to consider... especially in metal, is you dont see them much anymore... mainly because they have been replaced by other amps with different qualities... marshalls to me are more for classic rock... in my experience, its hard to play with one and get the same sound you want when playing a song from an artist like slipknot... or godsmack... just personal opinion though, maybe i just havent plugged into the right stack.
all I play is Classic Rock. Well mostly, Sometimes some pantera. The halfstack i have is pretty nice to. has a real bassy sound full of tone. It's nice, but the little marshall blows it away lol.
Bottom line: Youll get more for your money coming from Marshall than Crate. Marshall has one of the most shapeable sounds out there. Many bands use Marshalls, bands way heavier than Godsmack or Slipknot use Marshalls. Bands such as Slayer, Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal, Immortal, Mayhem, Entombed, Testament etc. All of them used Marshalls. You have an Crate XT, and a Digitech Death Metal pedal. Thats one of the worst combinations ive ever heard of. The death metal pedal is terrible, plain and simple. So shrill and weak sounding, it has no bottom end at all. The XT is also one of the worst amp Crate has to offer. Im not hating on Crate, cause I infact an MX-65R but my amp was made in the early 90s, back when Crate was good. And to contribute to the thread I own an Ibanez RG320DXQM with a dark gray quilt maple top, sharktooth inlays, floyd rose and maple neck. Its the only guitar thats stayed with me while I went thru a bunch of other guitars. Ill try to post a pic later. I also have the amp mentioned above, I use no effects.
thats one thing i know (or at least have heard) about marshall... GENERALLY their smaller shit is known to kill their competitions next size... even couple of sizes...up... lol so a little 120w will probably kill a 300+w crate... but its all that damn MONEY you gotta spend! i mean the xt120R i have was almst the same as the little 65w 1x12 they had!!!! lol ill tell you tho... the xt120r has some fuckin punch to it!!! i definately need more... but its great for what i do when im by myself... all ill ever need... till i start gigging ;-)
your joking right? cuz im laughing... so i hope that was a joke... to elaborate, that pedal i have, puts out more bass than the amp is prepared to deal with.... lol as for the XT... i never said it was gig worthy, but its a hell of a lot better than the little ones they have, and i didnt really give 2 shits about the DST... not enough to pay the extra $100 anyways, but for what it is, coming with multiple effects built in, having paid under $300 for it... im happy. its loud enough for me... i value my ears, and i live in an apartment so its not like i have an auditorium i have to fill with sound, i usually play at low volumes anyways... as for the built in distortion, it may not be the best... but on clean with my death metal pedal? that shit rocks... i dont know what experience you have had with the death metal... but in my opinion, it out kicked the boss DS1... or even the MD-2.... (yes... even the MD-2) and i dont care what your talkin about if its got something to do with some $300 pedal... my setup is economical, unlike some (and i really dont care if you are one of them or not) i dont have daddy buying my shit... i have an apartment, a kid, a job, a car, real bills, and im still able to do what i can with my shit... i dont need a $4000 head/cab with an authentic les paul and some custom pedal setup that runs $1000 by itself... my entire setup cost me less than $500... and i can still shred along side people with half stacks and line 6 pods and emg pickups and all that extra shit you dont "need" but definately "want"... hell id like to put emgs in my guitar... the strung through body gives me nice enough sustain, but i want more... maybe some locking tuners? maybe a GLX1200H? nothing super fancy... but more... the thing you have yet to come to grips with, is its not how much you own... but what you can do with it... i know of people living in shacks, with a squier strat and a little crap amp that got more skills than the people i know with full stack marshalls and high end jacksons or gibsons... money cant buy skill, and just cuz you dont have the best of everything doesnt make you less of a musician dude.. edited to add: that may have been a little hostile bro, but you have to look at it in my perspective... you basically claimed my entire setup was garbage... and while me MYSELF... i know its a great little setup, i feel i need to impress that upon YOU... cuz obviously you have no faith in the little death metal for a cheap pedal, its outstanding.... and truly savage sounding if you ask me... so many things to do with it! there may be better quality sounding pedals out there, but i got this as a gift from my brother, cuz he wanted me to have something that was insane sounding, something i could jam with that gave my guitar a "from hell" sound to it... and that... it does... lol
Hehe I never said that you need to have thousands worth of Equipment to sound good. For a bedroom set up, im glad youre happy. But in the overall spectrum of things, you have really cheap gear. Nothing wrong with that at all, because ive been there and continue to be there. What im trying to defend is Tone. After extensive use of both the XT and Death Metal I realized that its terrible for anything outside bedroom playing. But you really have the mentality that a 14 year old kid would have coming into guitar. The whole "It has Death Metal on it, so it must be heavy" mentality. Im sure if you looked at some classified ads youll find some great amps that have excellent onboard distortion. Cause fact of the matter is, a pedal will never sound as good as a good amp. I guess what im trying to say is, find some info online and youll see that both the XT and Death Metal are childs play. No disrespect, just trying to be as helpful as possible, guitarist to guitarist.
i have a m8 who's fkin shit hot on anything. Mandolin, acoustic 6 / 12 - he fkin blows me away. Amazing. I've played for years but can only manage buzzes & blisters on a 12. Have u heard jimi play an acoustic? Beautiful. too many people hide their skillz (or lack of) with fx & loudness. Learn to appreciate the tonal quality of ur instrument & u will be a true master
^^That song cherokee mist is amazing. You crack me up Johnny Blunt, i didn't know exactly how to put it. but you nailed it bro, Ever play on a mesa boogie amp?
a 14 year old eh? well... if you had actually read my post, you would have seen where i said it was a gift... i didnt pick it out, but it does have crazy distortion... above all the others ive heard... that real "tin foil" sound... granted there are better fx out there, but this one is definately full of range for what i want... for now anyways... i got that pedal at the same time i got my setup, so its all ive really known, and ive come to love it.. all i care about at this point, is that with the right tuning of both the guitar, and the effects (or lack there-of) i can achieve most of the tones i need for playing the songs i like... as for mastering those tones? i probably wont give a shit about that till im at least 5 years in... and by then i SHOULD have better equipment... hell, i plan on getting a halfstack (which one im still undecided) and slapping some EMG pickups on my guitar... maybe even a new effects processor? but for now, its good enough for practicing... even with other people... and thats all i need.
Oh god, Been playing for 5 years now and had a few guitars handed down from my dad when I first started, big list here. 1960 Gibson Les Paul Classic Fender Strat I learned to play on, made in mexico, not sure on the model i won it in a raffle lol threw in some Seymour Duncans on to it though about 6 months in. 60's Fender Strat Epiphone Flying V Takamine 12 String Acoustic Alvarez Acoustic/Electric Jimmy Page Double Neck Replica i picked up while i was in New Jersey 2 years back. Dont really play it, was only $100 and looked damn close to the gibson so i just have it hanging up, real nice looking guitar. Fender Vibrolux Reverb Tube amp. Little Crate GX-15 practice Amp Cry baby wah Boss DS-1 distortion DoD Grunge Digitech Distortion I like playing guitar...
Halfstack does not equal better tone. Good tone comes from at least a good amp and decent guitar. If you want a good gigging tone you need to have an amp suitable for such occasions. You can have an Ibanez JEM and itll sound mediocre when played thru a Fender Frontman 15. But you can have a cheap korean Schecter and play it thru a JCM or even VS series Marshall, and that will sound incredible.
Yes I have, and I was lucky enough to play thru a Double Rectifier with an ESP Jeff Hanneman signature series guitar. I played it at the Mesa Boogie Shop in Hollywood. It sounded great at the volume I had it, but I really wish I couldve turned it up a tad more. The crunch was there but the overall tone was lacking. I think id rather go for an ENGL Powerball if I had the moner for a Mesa.
i just meant i needed a halfstack for more volume... this amp is decent for how it sounds, but could use more volume at lower stress to the amp... in order to play at good enough volume to jam with friends, its gotta be somewhere between 1/2 - 3/4 of the way turned up... or more (depending on the ppl im playing with) i need something that at 1/2 volume... im shaking the walls... lol i feel a halfstack would do the trick... maybe not as much as desired, but much more than my little combo..
Oh well, mad love anyways... everything you said nailed it... when I was 13 or 14 I got the Digitech metalmaster and I thought it was the best thing ever... but you never realize until much later when you dont know shit, and that was me then... Now my PodXT takes care of me
i totally see what hes saying... but my brother is a lot younger than me, and ill give the pedal one thing... its certainly not for blues lol but im sure a pod will better suit me... but i plan on getting one of those or something similar this tax season.. when (hopefully) i upgrade EVERYTHING... btw... does the line 6 pod work with anything? i heard somewhere that most of the line 6 products only bolt into the line 6 amps... cuz of that little phone plug lookin thing... is the line 6 pod the same way? if so (or even if not) are there any other (better) multi-fx-processors out there? and whats a good half stack besides crate or marshall? i know mick thompson uses rivera... but guitar center doesnt have those, never asked about ordering though... but im sure there are better amp rigs out there for under $1000 that will get me rolling... need a nice head, cab doesnt have to be all that great.. i will add to it later...
I love this thing... works fine with all amps.. never heard otherwise... I use a Marshall 250DFX... it has two speakers in it and is loud as hell... It's much more convenient than a half and is actually almost as loud... not as much but close... I think it cost me like 5-600
hmm... i guess i might just have to say "fuck it" and go with a marshall... ive never OWNED one... but i remember when i was browsing for my first amp, i didnt really like em... they look nice, and they have a reputation.. but all the ones i played had really crappy "drab" sounding distortion... but i figure if i can get a nice enough effects processor, i might be able to make up for the lack of distortion in the lower end marshalls and just use the clean, with a nice sound to it... i know they sound good clean, i just never heard one with good distortion... (never went above the $600 range though lol)