Which mainstream amp/guit brand/type do you just don't 'get'?

Megii

I've never got the use of "Vintage" as a brand name for guitars. For one thing, they are obviously not vintage guitars, and using that name doesn't somehow give them any vintage credibility or status. To me it's just totally naff.

Octahedron

I don't know if you'd class it as "mainstream", but, Dean, BC Rich (Mockingbird excepted), ESP/LTD and anything with Trev Wilkinson's name or handiwork behind it. ESP/LTD... boring! And Rickenbacker? Fugly and expensive - don't get it. 

If we want to pick on amps too, I can't get into Vox. No matter how hard I try. 

Wazmeister

For me...

Martin acoustics - someone on our forum wrote recently that 'he hd never played a bad one'; man, nearly all i have played are very average.

Gibson 335 - v poor varied quality finishing. I owned a CS VOS historic 30th anniversary (the cream of em eh ?). Poor player, rough finish, £2800 new. Meh. Applies to most Gibbos imho.

I have found some exceptions to these 'rules', but rarely ...

timmysoft

Blandstar amps, they're just vile. Hate the voicing, hate the logo and I hate that isf bullshit

Octahedron

timmysoft said:

Blandstar amps, they're just vile. Hate the voicing, hate the logo and I hate that isf bullshit

Ouch. 

I didn't really get it until I played one for myself. Very specific ones, mind. There's some that are indeed voiced horribly. But their 60w all valve combo I love love. Played a few nice Gibsons through one and had a sulk because I can't afford that setup! Lol 

ICBM

Octahedron said:

I didn't really get it until I played one for myself. Very specific ones, mind. There's some that are indeed voiced horribly. But their 60w all valve combo I love love.

Which 60W all-valve amp? They don't do one…

Only the Series One and the Artisans are all-valve, and there isn't a 60W, as far as I know. (S1 - 45, 100, 200; Artisan - 15, 30, 100.)

For what it's worth I was working on an HT-40 recently and just to check the problem wasn't the speaker, I ran it through a cab with a Celestion Classic Lead 80 in it, instead of the combo's Seventy/80… better out of all recognition, it completely opened up the tone and took away that lifeless compressed flat midrange they usually have. They really need to sort out their speaker choices.

aspnet

Telecasters. I have a Classic Vibe that plays well & sounds good but I just don't like it. Never really 'got' them even though I tried

Teetonetal

ICBM said:

Octahedron said:

I didn't really get it until I played one for myself. Very specific ones, mind. There's some that are indeed voiced horribly. But their 60w all valve combo I love love.

Which 60W all-valve amp? They don't do one…

Only the Series One and the Artisans are all-valve, and there isn't a 60W, as far as I know. (S1 - 45, 100, 200; Artisan - 15, 30, 100.)

For what it's worth I was working on an HT-40 recently and just to check the problem wasn't the speaker, I ran it through a cab with a Celestion Classic Lead 80 in it, instead of the combo's Seventy/80… better out of all recognition, it completely opened up the tone and took away that lifeless compressed flat midrange they usually have. They really need to sort out their speaker choices.

Isn't the HT-60 all valve, 60w? OR is a part of it solid-state?

I have the HT-40 and agree it's pretty flat. Was thinking of changing the speaker as that did wonders for my Cub12...

Otherwise it's gonna get px'd Nothing wrong with the amps, but nothing great either. Just a bit boring all round.

HAL9000

Megii said:

I've never got the use of "Vintage" as a brand name for guitars. For one thing, they are obviously not vintage guitars, and using that name doesn't somehow give them any vintage credibility or status. To me it's just totally naff.

^ This. Plus if you Google Vintage guitars you just get pages and pages of droolworthy '62 Strats. Ugh!

Adam_MD

HAL9000;518905" said:

Megii said:

I've never got the use of "Vintage" as a brand name for guitars. For one thing, they are obviously not vintage guitars, and using that name doesn't somehow give them any vintage credibility or status. To me it's just totally naff.










^ This. Plus if you Google Vintage guitars you just get pages and pages of droolworthy '62 Strats. Ugh!

I often get annoyed by this but the other way round. I've googled vintage telecaster and keep getting pics of their terrible relics coming up.

To be fair to the brand I've played a few of their guitsrs and some of them were pretty decent but the relicing was terrible and the guitars often felt cheap.

BigLicks67

I don't like pointy headstock guitars with ironing board necks. Ugly looking and horrible to play.

Most of the traditional guitars I like. I think they got it right in the 50s and 60s and since then electric guitar makers have just been tweaking great designs.

ICBM

Teetonetal said:

Isn't the HT-60 all valve, 60w? OR is a part of it solid-state?

I have the HT-40 and agree it's pretty flat. Was thinking of changing the speaker as that did wonders for my Cub12...

Otherwise it's gonna get px'd Nothing wrong with the amps, but nothing great either. Just a bit boring all round.

The HT series are all hybrids. That's not a/the problem though - in fact the distortion does not come from the solid-state part unless the gain is almost all the way up, or affect the clean sound much at all.

Having tried a few of these now I'm more and more sure the problem is the speaker choice. I don't know whether it's purely cost-driven or an active voicing choice by the company, or both, but the stock speakers in most of the models do definitely sound flat and boring.

I had an HT-5R with the 'Blackbird' speaker for a small repair yesterday and while I was at it, I tried it through the V30s in my Mesa… it sounded really good. The odd thing is that they put V30s in the Artisans, and I think that's wrong too! I love V30s with heavy, loose-sounding amps like Mesa Rectifiers, but with a Vox-style circuit they just make it (again) too stiff and midrangy. Those amps need a more open-sounding speaker like the G12H-30, Greenback or an Alnico.

Dave (ecc83) who used to work for Blackstar is sick of hearing me going on about this .

EricTheWeary

Blackstar have done special editions of the HT's that not only get away from the goth look but also come with V30's, so you feel they know it would be an improvement. http://www.gak.co.uk/en/blackstar-ht-club-40-vintage-special-edition-with-celestion-vintage-30/105385?gclid=CODIrr7V3sMCFcjHtAodtiwACg