Okay, I got to try a bunch of different amps and guitars this week (while in trainer-melting-hot-Spanish-mountains....did I mention that bit yet? lol).
I cam to the following conclusions....
My Spear Tomcat sounds and plays great. More so after being set up perfectly by a good techie, and run through an AER amp. Yup, I know they're acoustic guitar amps, but I've now tried my guitar through two of them plus an AER bass amp, and it sounds awesomely sweet.
Breedlove do a smaller-than-dreadnought guitar that sounds great for single-note playing and pick work (I usually hate using picks on acoustics....sounds grainy, yuck). They're also a lot easier for me to manhandle. Or womandhandle. Or, well, y'know. :roll:
335s truly kick it. But they are ubiquitous in jazz. I'm a little reluctant to use something so well used, but they're really bloody comfortable and you (I) can do lots of fingerpicking stuff with classical right hand position really easily on them. Very comfortable guitars. But they dwarf me even more than my standard solidbodies do. Oh well. I'm now gassing horribly for a 335 or 335-alike (of 8 people during the second week of Andaluz jazz, nearly all had 335s, 336 (the smaller 335), or copies thereof).
I'm still not very keen on Roland Cube amps.
The Orange Tiny Terror is a good amp, but didn't live up to all the hype I'd read/heard about it. Good amp, just not as great as I was expecting.
And I need to practice. Lots.
Still really want a 335 now, though. :oops:
Hot Spanish mountains? Where? LOL!
335 are cool guitars. If I were a guitar player... I was playing an original Gibson some months ago and they are awesome. I tried the classical red finish and also the tobacco one.
Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAXUTElvUbk
He is an awesome player. I was looking for his gear in his posts. He uses a Roland Cube. I though he used Gibson, it is one of the best guitar tones I listened in YouTube. I don't remember the brand name but his guitars are around 200€...
Welcome back (although Spain is not the same without you :P )
Welcome back (although Spain is not the same without you :P )
awwwwww!!!! so, you heard about my trail of destruction, then? lol
yeah, I'm totally in love with the 335 now. that, and Spain. I even cheered them on in the game against Honduras last night while waiting for my plane (but I missed the penalty call and Villa's playacting).
methinks you should have directed threegtrz to this thread when answering his "Multiple guitars? Why?" topic.
Cubes are tonally good, not great. and the 30 is better sounding than the smaller ones. but they are light, economical, reliable and reasonably flexible (tho clean is by far the best).
I've never been that taken with the 335 -- seems to lack tonal distinction (as per the Cube, but for waaaaay more $$$$ :wink: )
tried a Tiny Terror a while back. one good sound. which can be enough, but …
-=tension & release=-
methinks you should have directed threegtrz to this thread when answering his "Multiple guitars? Why?" topic.
Cubes are tonally good, not great. and the 30 is better sounding than the smaller ones. but they are light, economical, reliable and reasonably flexible (tho clean is by far the best).
I've never been that taken with the 335 -- seems to lack tonal distinction (as per the Cube, but for waaaaay more $$$$ :wink: )
tried a Tiny Terror a while back. one good sound. which can be enough, but …
yes on the cube analysis - if using as a practice amp they're trusty great. if choosing an amp for good sounds, not so.
and on the tiny terror - noe good sound, plus one same good sound but with a bit more presence. increasing the treble knob made it superharsh to my ears.
agreed on the sounds of the 335 a little bit - but they're so damn comfy to play, the physicality is the source of my GAS really. I can rock out or fingerpick with ease. that said, I got fair tonal variation coupled with tube amp plus some pedals. the comfyness surprised me tho. for me, it's more that the sound are soooo familiar, but i go a decent range of them.
the breedllove could do fingerpicking but not as good as either my martin d15 or my ibnez walnut lamy electro-acousstic. the surprise tho was how well it took picks and single note playing plus some jazz comping. could get quite django on that, no trouble.
I've been very impressed with Breedloves. Even the "lower end" models like the one I got. Nice tone, nice playability, etc.
Now the 335 is something that I have not done. If I had, my pocketbook would have dictated that I get one of it's cheaper cousins, like an epiphone or something. When I did look and play with them, I was not excited by them. Well, the blacked-out f-hole number was decent. The Lucille model (which I think doesn't even copy the 335 so much as a different gibbo). What I was excited with was the very uncomfortable, but stil easy to play Gretsch Electromatic 5120. Not so muhc a Jazz box though. More a rock-a-billy? I dunno. Not hard to coax what little Jazz sounds I can do out of it.
I've even looked at this one. http://store.guitarfetish.com/xvsehoflmaal.html I never pulled the trigger, though. I'm sure that your having a lifetime of skill ahead of me would need a better instrument anyways.
On cubes: I saw a street performer at a shopping mall playing a Taylor accoustic out of a roland cube amp. Sounded pretty nice for the big area he had to fill. I think he ran vocals through it too. Certainly not a high end sound, though. I lent my 30W edition to a friend and his son a few years ago. It was/is a good amp and all, but just didn't do a whole lot for me. Not one of my better purchases.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
