Guitarist needing advice on equipment

[swiseone]

Hey people im new to this site so apologies if im not in the right place to ask but,

I've just started playing in a band as guitarist/vocalist after not playing guitar for about 2years as just been focused as a vocalist in bands. I know pretty much nothing about all musical instruments and how to play them correctly although being self taught by ear for 8years.

The current guitar i've got has too much of a metal sound and is really chuggy i mean great if i was playing epic metalcore or something which it seems everyone is doing but being someone that purely loves his oldschool punk/hardcore its a bit too heavy for what im playing. basically i just want some advice on what guitars and equipment i can hook myself up with that will have a lot more of a punk/hardcore sound and not such a heavy chug breakdown sound haha.

so guitar choices? foot pedal? basically probably just need a distortion pedal probably. currently rockin a 100wat peavy combo which does the job for prac but we'll be looking to gig real soon as we're just polishing our set and i want to find out what is a decent stack i could hook myself up with.

also im not exatly the richest bloke around so if anyone knows a cheap way of getting some decent sounding and reliable equipment let me know.

thanks heaps.

if it helps influenced sounds that i use would be suicidal tendencies, pennywise, ignite, madball, spazz, raised fist, battletruk, lagwagon, etc...

[SD_John]

If I were you, I would go to google and type in a band that you like and go to their wikipedia page, but none of the bands above seem to have one with a good guitarist's page.


But since you like more of old school punk, you'd want more of a hardcore set up then a modern punk set up. If I were you, I would get a mesa boogie amp. Might be a bit over your price range, but it'll be good in the long run. Maybe a marshall too.

For a guitar I'd get a stratocaster or tele. A Jim Root Telecaster is a nice one, not too pricey either. Has EMG pickups, rock standard.

Hope I helped.

[patrickhowell]

What's your budget ?

And can you be more specific on the gear you have now ?

[swiseone]

budget... im yet to really work that out seeing as im not sure what stuff costs. right now i've got an ESP F-50 but with 2x HZ-H2 pickups. so its got real heavy sound. currently running a Peavey studio pro 112 guitar amp combo. no foot pedals just running straight of the gain from the amp. which is balls for pause's in songs which we have and breaks between songs.

yeah hardcore set up would probably be a bit better because modern punk isnt exactly anything like what sound im going for.

[patrickhowell]

I don't know how well I can help you without having some sort of range for what you're willing to spend...

Also, it says you're from Sydney ... is that Sydney, Australia ?

[swiseone]

yeah sydney australia. sorry about the budget. i dont know purely because i dont know what i should budget for.. i think im mainly worried about a decent stack rather than guitar. because i guess my current guitar will have to do for the time being. but i cant gig with the current combo i've got... just plain embarressing.

[patrickhowell]

It's cool, man. It's looking like for a NEW setup, you'd have to spend about AU$1000 for a guitar, AU$1000 for a cab, and AU$1500 for an amp head if you want to have a low-level pro setup. If you look around and pick up some used gear, you should be able to pull it all together for a lot less... I wouldn't worry about any pedals, except for a tuner. I'm not really familiar with what brands are prevalent in AU versus US, but usually Peavey, Marshall, and Laney are pretty reasonable prices used. You will be a lot better off with a tube amp than a solid state amp. 50w is probably perfect.

[swiseone]

yeah sweet. i was expecting to pay for cab + head up to about 1500-2000 i guess something like 5150 set up or something i guess. either way thanks heaps for the advise.

[ozzysaxman]

I don't know how much they'll run you in Australia, but from what I'm hearing a Bogner or a (all tube) Marshall with an Avatar cab might work well.

I'm a Mesa guy, and don't let the associations with metal acts fool you, they're extremely versatile with the right tubes.

[PawelPotapowicz]

Check out some tube Marshalls. Don't go for that Jim Root Tele, it's garbage. I would never spend $1200 on a mexican made guitar. You'd be much better off buying an american made tele. Also if you want a hardcore sound, I wouldn't go with the EMG's. You'll just complain of chugga-chugga-itis. I have an ESP Eclipse II and it has the EMG's in it and it works for hardcore I guess, but I would not call it my guitar of choice at all. Look into a guitar where you can push the amp more and where your guitar actually provides you with tone. (Those active EMG's just feed off strings anyway, they don't care what kind of body you have on the guitar) Try to steer away from producing a tone with distortion effects pedals, it'll just sound like tin crap. You can use some pedals to push or boost your sound like a Maxon 808 or my new favorite the NOC3 EarthTone boost pedal once you've found an amp you really like.

Cabs are tricky. Lots of different choices, lots opf price ranges. I personally love the Mesa cab. Pat might tell ya otherwise, but I love it because it holds up on the road and that thing is built to last man. (I know, I know the v30's are too harsh)

Find your budget and look around for quality equipment that fits into your budget. In the states we have craigslist and eBay, look around on classified sites or at places where you can get equipment used.

Look for equipment that is at a good price and if you're planning to play out a lot, will hold up and not give you technical problems while you play. Any musician on here can agree that you can pay $10 million dollars for a guitar or amp or whatever, but if it craps out on stage, it is the worst piece of shit and your worst enemy at that point.

Test stuff, do your research, and most importantly have fun!