FFS!! Just heard a recording of me playing 20+ years ago...

welshboyo

And the tone I had was bloody wonderful - almost that tone I want in my head is now type of good....

Mesa MK3, an old Oberheim multi-fx thingy and a MK1 Luke...

Why oh why do we spend so much time hunting for that tone when its been there all along (or actually WAS there)...

Feel like selling the whole lot and going back in some way or form to that set-up...

Where's my time machine? 

TimmyO

That's a really long delay - how big was the tape machine? 

hotpickups

Yeah we’re like magpies sometimes it feels like, always looking for the next shiny thing. I’ve definitely stopped that now and going back to standard units. I speak mainly of pedals though rather than amps. I wouldn’t go back to what I was playing through amp wise 20 years ago lol. Some kit really wasn’t that bad even better than the boutique ones today sometimes  

newi123

My rig from that time was jcm 900 dual reverb 100w head and matching cab, played crunchy on the dirty channel. Wah, original guv'nor for boost and zoom 505 (for modulation) in front, all carefully gaffa taped to a plywood sheet. USA hss floyd rose strat. 

Sounded awesome. And I'm almost back to that........

fields5069

I have a tape somewhere, of "band rehearsal" (lots of noise, no one playing the same thing, then maybe one awful song at the end) at Uni, from around 30 years ago. I still basically sound the same. Cheap Marlin strat, straight in to whatever Carlsboro solid state amp was nearest.

robmac5150

Its part of being a guitarist is my conclusion. Don't see bassists or drummers with this mad affliction! Accept and enjoy the curse ;-)

Funkfingers

welshboyo said:

Why, oh, why, do we spend so much time hunting for that tone when its been there all along (or actually WAS there).

Whatever gear we have, it is possible to imagine that something else will be "better", easier to use, more appropriate to the current music project or, in later years, just easier to transport.

welshboyo said:

Feel like selling the whole lot and going back in some way or form to that set-up.

Guess what? In a while, you will be imagining that some other rig will be "better", easier to use, more appropriate to the current music project or easier to transport.

fields5069 said:

I have a tape somewhere, of "band rehearsal" (lots of noise, no one playing the same thing, then maybe one awful song at the end) at Uni, from around 30 years ago. 

I have "rescued" tapes like that of my brother's university band using Roland R-Mix software and severe DAW equalisation. CAUTION: Removing all the hiss and cludge is no guarantee that anything listenable will be revealed.

John_A

20+ years ago I had a Marshall Anniversary head, 2 4x12's with greenbacks and a few Boss pedals and it sounded amazing.  My current rig is a Helix and while in isolation may not quite have the same impact the band sounds better, and my back wouldn't want me to go back to the Marshall set-up

monquixote

I've heard recordings of various rigs I've had over the years that were never quite right and constantly being tweaked.

In reality they all sound both fine and all the bloody same.

MagicBus

I've got rehearsal recordings from thirty years ago when I used a late 70's hard tail Strat into a 135 watt Twin Reverb. Gigged the shit out of it, no cork sniffing back then! Still sounds good. 

guitargeek62

I’m most of the way to reverting to my rig of ~12-14 years ago. Just the amp left to sort out and I’ll essentially be there!

Funnily enough that’s around the time I got involved in guitar forums too, they’re a bloody catalyst for GAS imo, but I can’t blame them entirely.

welshboyo

guitargeek62 said:

I’m most of the way to reverting to my rig of ~12-14 years ago. Just the amp left to sort out and I’ll essentially be there!

Funnily enough that’s around the time I got involved in guitar forums too, they’re a bloody catalyst for GAS imo, but I can’t blame them entirely.

Same here!!! And I certainly blame this place for all of the GAS!!! Back then I didn’t have internet and played the same rig for years and years!!

TTBZ

I sometimes listen to clips I recorded with my old Laney GH and wish I never sold it!

shaunm

I feel fortunate that although I’ve bought and sold an unfeasible amount of gear over the last 10 years, I have kept (or re-bought) the fear I was playing over 10 years ago. 

Simple set up of 

Laney Lionheart 20w
Epiphone Sheraton with BKP MQ’s 
Fulltone OCD (V1.3)
Line 6 DL4

That was my set up for pretty much 7 years and it sounded great. It still does. 

octatonic

robmac5150 said:

Its part of being a guitarist is my conclusion. Don't see bassists or drummers with this mad affliction! Accept and enjoy the curse ;-)

They certainly do, just differently.

Drummers are always changing cymbals and tom configs, oh and snare collections get vast.

Bassists don’t really use pedals as much as guitarists but it is normal to have a P, a J, a fretless, something with 5 or more strings etc.

Bennyboy-UK

I did the same thing recently with amps - I had an old Seymour Duncan 84-40, which I played as my only amp for 15 years solid. These things aren't that well regarded, the build isn't great, and they do have a reputation for breaking down - but I loved that sound it made and the way it reacted - really saggy when you played the guitar hard.

It sadly started to go properly wrong and went away in about 2005ish. Since then I had a couple of different Amps, most recently a 5:25 express, which was a fine thing - very versatile well made, and just very proper.

Last year I saw another 84-40 for sale reduced to £100 from maybe £300 - and bought and paid for it online for nostalgia and because it was cheaaaaaaap. I went and picked it up about 12 months later (!) - maybe June this year - as the shop was miles from me - and I was in no hurry.

I fired up up out of curiosity to see if it sounded and played like I remembered, and brilliantly it did!

I think I probably convinced myself that I loved the 5:25, as it was pretty pricey, and on paper it was the perfect amp for me at the time.

I put the 5:25 up for sale very shortly afterwards - and currently my bargain £100 valve amp is once again my only amp and I'm quite happy about that... (until I buy your Atma @welshboyo !)

welshboyo

Bennyboy-UK said:

I did the same thing recently with amps - I had an old Seymour Duncan 84-40, which I played as my only amp for 15 years solid. These things aren't that well regarded, the build isn't great, and they do have a reputation for breaking down - but I loved that sound it made and the way it reacted - really saggy when you played the guitar hard.

It sadly started to go properly wrong and went away in about 2005ish. Since then I had a couple of different Amps, most recently a 5:25 express, which was a fine thing - very versatile well made, and just very proper.

Last year I saw another 84-40 for sale reduced to £100 from maybe £300 - and bought and paid for it online for nostalgia and because it was cheaaaaaaap. I went and picked it up about 12 months later (!) - maybe June this year - as the shop was miles from me - and I was in no hurry.

I fired up up out of curiosity to see if it sounded and played like I remembered, and brilliantly it did!

I think I probably convinced myself that I loved the 5:25, as it was pretty pricey, and on paper it was the perfect amp for me at the time.

I put the 5:25 up for sale very shortly afterwards - and currently my bargain £100 valve amp is once again my only amp and I'm quite happy about that... (until I buy your Atma @welshboyo !)

@Bennyboy-UK - I had one of those Seymour’s too, good amps when they worked!!!

Atma is still here ;-)

57Deluxe

perhaps we become 'ear blind' like that advert for smelly trainers all over the bedroom floor...

Vaiai

I found a friend who still had the cassette version of our demo from when I was 20 (1991) - she got it onto MP3s and I now have it on my soundcloud It was our first time in a proper studio - it was a friend of my parents and he produced the early Deacon Blue stuff as well as Cocteau Twins.
He gave us an overnighter for £500 and we did 3 songs. Was great fun, and although the demo didn't come out as rocky as we wanted it to, it was great to actually have something to keep from that era!
My sound is way better now...!

YellowLedBetterMan

robmac5150 said:

Its part of being a guitarist is my conclusion. Don't see bassists or drummers with this mad affliction! Accept and enjoy the curse ;-)

As an ex bassist I'd like to disagree. I was after a new bass every week and when I wasn't I was looking at new bass cabs.

digitalscream

I don't get surprised by it any more - I know full well that my tone hasn't noticeably changed since I first got back into playing with my Vox Valvetronix AD100VTX.

What does bug the snot out of me is that I was much better at playing back then, as evidenced by a video I've just gone looking for from my second rehearsal playing with that first band. Bloody annoying, that.