What much-hated piece of gear do you actually love?

ICBM

Also, Rickenbackers .

Sesh

The headstock on my G&L Fallout.
My Vox VT20+. Cheap modelling amps always get a hard time.

Matt_McG

Lace pickups, maybe. I've not had a guitar with the original single coil style pickups, but I had a set of the Drop and Gain / Arena humbucker style pickups in an LP copy.

https://lacemusic.com/collections/7/products/drop-gain-humbucker

Very controllable, slightly hi-fi, but not sterile sounding. Tight bottom end. Worked really well for rock style playing. Higher output and not the sound I'd go for now, but worked well for the guitar I had them in.

bbill335

The vibrato unit on a fender mustang

impmann

Boss Metalzone - great noiz maker, lousy for blues toanz. That appeals.

Shergold - proper ones, not the Eggle ones.

PRS - love my 305 and CE22. 

Classic 57s in my SG - replaced the OE fit 490 things. Others seem to think they are too polite, but then not all of us wear School Uniforms and play sped up Chuck Berry licks. Repeatedly.

Digital modelling - apparently some can tell things that are digital. Not sure if they can hear 0s or Ones but that’s quite a skill...

terada

My R9. It’s wonderful, perfect neck, good weight and sounds superb. 

JezWynd

The stock pickups on Classic 50's Telecaster. So much scorn thrown on those poor pickups; plastic baseplate, the horror. They sound great, especially if you like that thin scratchy blonde on Blonde tele sound or RnR, or country or anything,('cept maybe metal).

PolarityMan

BahHumbug said:

I have a Boss GT-10 which I use all the time for playing with the band.  I never see these mentioned anywhere, so I presume they are not particularly well regarded.  It works for me and I really don’t believe audiences give two hoots about what gear the band is playing.

I only got rid of mine recently upgrading to a helix...its a great piece of kit, I used it for about 9/10 years

Grocer_Jack

ICBM said:

Philtre said:

Danhere and Mickhere did a video on this. It's true it can sound half-decent. But, like them, I find I have to decrease the treble and increase the bass EQs.

Why is that a problem? That’s what the controls are for... and they affect the clean channel less, so if you dial it in for the Drive channel the clean will take care of itself. You need the bright switch on, but that’s why there is one!

I A/B’d a HRD - actually a limited edition one with a Jensen speaker and tweed cab, to be fair - against a well-regarded 5E3 replica, and the HRD could nail the overdrive tone of the 5E3 exactly, at the same volume... the difference being that it could also go louder or quieter as well.

I honestly think a lot of the problem is that just like with the DS-1, people don’t understand how to use the controls and dial them in with their eyes not their ears.

Yeah I liked the drive channel on my HRD2 as well and used the same method of dialing it in. Had to let it go though as it used to switch channels all on its own, as if by magic! 
I had this fixed and the fix lasted for 6 months or so and it started happening again. 

I know now it’s a known problem (due to over- hot components I think?) but I moved it on anyway. 

I actually prefer the Blues Deluxe to the HRD - I don’t hear much praise for them but I think they’re cracking amps. 

Fortheloveofguitar

A Les Paul with a Floyd gets a lot of hate but my CS Axcess model is fantastic 

Paul_C

Miku !

Moominpapa

impmann said:

Boss Metalzone - great noiz maker, lousy for blues toanz. That appeals.

I like the sounds you can get from a Metalzone, too. I'm always a bit surprised at how much people mock it.

FelineGuitars

i like certain EMGs in some of my guitars ....admittedly their EMG58 model

OilCityPickups

impmann said:

Boss Metalzone - great noiz maker, lousy for blues toanz. That appeals.

Shergold - proper ones, not the Eggle ones.

PRS - love my 305 and CE22. 

Classic 57s in my SG - replaced the OE fit 490 things. Others seem to think they are too polite, but then not all of us wear School Uniforms and play sped up Chuck Berry licks. Repeatedly.

Digital modelling - apparently some can tell things that are digital. Not sure if they can hear 0s or Ones but that’s quite a skill...

I'd second old Shergolds ... some of the best necks and fingerboards out there. Sure their looks are an acquired taste ... possibly bordering on the fugly

simonhpieman

The stock bridges on Fender offsets. Never had a problem with them and don't understand why anyone would want to spend upwards of £150 on a replacement.

Though to that end, I've never really understood the whole "I can't wait til my brand new guitar arrives so I can rip out the pickups, completely change the bridge, put new pots in, change the guard and maybe even have it refinned" brigade.

thegummy

impmann said:

Boss Metalzone - great noiz maker, lousy for blues toanz. That appeals.

Shergold - proper ones, not the Eggle ones.

PRS - love my 305 and CE22. 

Classic 57s in my SG - replaced the OE fit 490 things. Others seem to think they are too polite, but then not all of us wear School Uniforms and play sped up Chuck Berry licks. Repeatedly.

Digital modelling - apparently some can tell things that are digital. Not sure if they can hear 0s or Ones but that’s quite a skill...

Anyone who still hates digital modelling is stuck in the past. I think they must just have it in their head that it could never be good and probably haven't even heard any for many years.

In the top recording studios in the world, the engineers sit in front of tens of thousands of pounds worth of analogue gear using the digital recreations of that same gear on the computer.

riffpowers

OilCityPickups said:

My Les Paul :-)

riffpowers said:

The set of bill lawrence "the original" circuit board pickups inb my lp custom. Pretty much everyone has told me to take those pieces of rubbish out. I think they sound fantastic.

I really like the sound of those too ... very underrated ... the sad thing is that they break regularly and are practically impossible to repair.

And as far as I know there there isn't a modern equivalent if I wanted another set like them. 

Mark1960

I had a Peavey Classic 30 for a short while. Great drive channel.

I also have a Blues Delux, and I kinda like the drive channel, it's very subtle but gives a nice  edge to the sound especially if you have the guitar volume set on 9 - 10.

terada

thegummy said:

impmann said:

Boss Metalzone - great noiz maker, lousy for blues toanz. That appeals.

Shergold - proper ones, not the Eggle ones.

PRS - love my 305 and CE22. 

Classic 57s in my SG - replaced the OE fit 490 things. Others seem to think they are too polite, but then not all of us wear School Uniforms and play sped up Chuck Berry licks. Repeatedly.

Digital modelling - apparently some can tell things that are digital. Not sure if they can hear 0s or Ones but that’s quite a skill...

Anyone who still hates digital modelling is stuck in the past. I think they must just have it in their head that it could never be good and probably haven't even heard any for many years.

In the top recording studios in the world, the engineers sit in front of tens of thousands of pounds worth of analogue gear using the digital recreations of that same gear on the computer.

Yeah I don't get the hate for digital gear. If it sounds good it sounds good.

Does bring up one point of intrigue though, which is if the producers are using recreations of actual real analogue equipment, surely it's both a point of ease and that nobody would be able to tell the difference in a mix rather than anything else?

Dave_Vader

Two point fender strat trem

Sounds great, stays in tune, is awesome.