I recently added to my collection of tube amps and effects. I snatched up one of the Crate V18 112 amps on sale. I’ve done a few monite mods to it like upgrading the reverb tank to a new accutronics. I also played around with some new tubes and it sounds killer now. One day at a local music store I spotted a great deal on a used Hartke bass amp, I snagged it up to. The Hartke sounds incredible, it’s a single 15" combo and the tone is sweet, my Guild bass loves it!

For effects I added a Digitech Bad Monkey Overdrive, an excellent pedal! Sweet bluesy and clasic rock tones and all my tube amps love it. I also picked up a cheap chorus, I don’t use them much so I just grabbed one of the cheap danoelectro pedals. While I was at it I also grabbed one of thier echo pedals, just t play with it. I’ve heard there are real easy mods for these pedals that make them much better, I’ll have to do some research and then I’ll probablly mod them.

Many people playing guitar can’t afford to get all the gear they would like to have. I’ve managed to find great buys and incredible values on guitar equipment just by knowing where to look. For one thing, I’m not a brand name snob, if it plays good and sounds good, it is good. A great example is Squire guitars, they are low priced Fender guitars. If you take the time to look and play a few you’ll find many of them play as good and sometimes even better than the higher priced Fender guitars. On the lower priced Squire guitars they normally skimp on the electronics, cheaper volume and tone controls, cheaper switches and tuners. Even though some of the parts are cheaper, they are still quite functional and easily upgraded for a few bucks.

I also eagerly shop garage sales, pawn shops and used sections of local music stores. Many times music stores have no idea what they really have and mislable guitars with prices that are much lower than what they are really worth. A good example is a vintage Made in Japan Fender Stratocaster I found at a Guitar Center. One glance and I knew it was one of the vintage reissue models and they had it for sale used for $225, I snapped it right up, played it for about a month and then sold it on ebay for more than twice what I paid for it! I would have kept it but I didn’t like the vintage frets. 

Here is just a few of the deals I’ve found:

1964 Gibson Kalamazoo Model Two Guitar amp - I paid $5 for it at a garage sale and it only needed about $5 worth of parts to get it working perfect again. This sweet old tube amp has an 6AQ5 power amp tube and a 12AX7 preamp. This amp screams when plugged into a 4×12’s speaker cabinet. It is easy to work with, simply turn the amp up to full volume and then dial in the amount for overdrive you want with the volume knob on your guitar. This is nice because you can control it right from your guitar without having to go anwywhere near the amp. If you want clean guitar tones simply turn down the volume on the guitar. if you want crunch and overdrive, just turn up the guitar volume. This amp is all hand wired, point to point wiring, no circuit boards. This makes the amp very easy to work on and very reliable. Great for blues and rock music.

1973 Fender Vibro Champ. Another vintage tube amp I picked up cheap, $75 at a flea market. This amp is mint! Incredible tone in a small package. Its another amp that really shines when pushing a 4×12’s speaker cabinet. It has lots of clean headroom, very sweet tone and doesn’t start breaking up until I hit about 7 on the volume. This is another tube amp that I turn up to full volume and adjust it using the volume knob on the guitar. This amp is also great for blues and rock music, but its also good for country and even jazz.

50’s or 60’s SIlvertone Tube Amp. I got this amp out of an old silvertone organ that I got for free from a garage sale. I pulled the tube amp out and modified it slightly for guitar. This amp is an EL84 (6BQ5) based amp with a 12AX7 preamp tube. It has a second 12AX7 that was being used for the vibrato circuit but I’m having it modified to remove the vibrato and add more gain stages. this tube amp is another very sweet sounding amp. Its also another hand wired amp with point to point wiring.

Indiana Scout Acoustic Guitar - Very pretty guitar in a blue burst finish. I got it for $20 at a garage sale with a gigbag. The guitar was mint and appeared to have been played a couple times and kept in the gigbag ever since. They sell new for about $100-$150, so its not a top quality guitar. However the fit and finish was flawless and once I lowered the action a bit it plays incredible. It doesn’t sound like a Martin Acoustic, but it does have a very nice balanced tone and its fun to play. It stays in tune great and the neck feels really nice. I considered selling it but realized I’d probably only get about $50 for it and there was no way I could find a better acoustic for $50 to replace it quickly. So I’m keeping it until I find a better one and even then I may not sell it. $20 for a good playing guitar makes it perfect to take with me camping, to the park or just to pick on the porch on summer evenings.

Early "50’s Oscar Schmidt Parlor Guitar. I picked it up for $2 at a garage sale, It didn’t have strings, a bridge or tuners. But one look and I knew it was worth fixing up. it has a very nice vintage sunburst finish that is very similar to the Gibson Heritage Cherry Sunburst used on some Les Pauls. It looked like it had been played a lot by a previous owner and then left to sit in a closet for probably about 50 years. I put a decent set of open back tuners on it, a floating rosewood bridge and a new set of Martin Acoustic Guitar strings on her and then spent the next day or so making adjustments and cleaning her up. She now plays very well with nice low action and no fret buzz anywhere on the guitar neck. She has a nice "old school" blues sound just like what you hear on vintage blues records. Many of the original bluesmen played on guitars just like this because they were inexpensive and easy to get. Its a great guitar for playing on the front porch or even while watching TV. The smaller body size make it very comfortable to play too.

Fender Squire Butterscotch Blonde Telecaster. I piad $99 for it new because it had a couple chips in the finish.The fit and finish on it was perfect (other than the chips) the neck was nice and tight in the pocket and has realy nice wood grain on the maple fretboard. The neck feels great and the frets were well done right from the factory. I did some minor adjustments on it and replaced the pickups with some real nice AlNiCo magnet pickups from GFS. This guitar is now one of my favorite players and has incredible tone.

Fender Squire ‘51 Moddified Telecaster - Musicians Friend was blowing these out on sale for $99! I got one in a nice vintage sunburst. this guitar comes with a tele style neck on a strat style body. It has one single coil pickup in the neck and a nice hot humbucker in the bridge position. The humbucker was already a great sounding pickup so I only replaced the neck pickup with a vintage AlNiCo strat pickup. This guitar rocks! It is a great playing guitar and It can easily play anything from country to heavy metal and anything in between. I play mostly blues and rock on it and its a real workhorse with great tone and a great feel. A very fun guitar to play!

If you look at everything I have you’ll see I spent about $300 and got three tube amps, two acoustic guitars and two electric guitars! I play all of them almost every day. I’d say it was $300 well spent and the best part is some of the pieces will continue to go up in value! The old fender amps are going up and up in price, so are the old Gibsons and Silvertones - A great investment in guitars and amps!

I am sitting here planning a shopping spree at a few local music stores. I have GAS and I need to cut one loose. I am lucky that there are quite a few guitar stores not far from here. I have 4 decent mom ‘n pop shops and I also have a guitar center and a sam ash that are almost right next door to each other. I can litterally walk from guitar center to sam ash music in under a minute, they are that close. I’m planning on spending about $2,000-$3,000 on my guitar shopping spree. I might even grab another amp or speaker cabinet if I see something that catches my eye. I’ll also take a quick look at keyboards to see if there are any good deals on used synths or quality orgrans.

Another thing I wouldn’t mind finding a deal on is an electronic drum set. I would really rather have a full sized "normal" drumset like an old set of ludwigs or slingerlands, but where I live I can’t  even think about beating on real drums..  I hope I do find something decent in electronic drums, I could use the exersize!

I’lll also be checking out small mixers and recording gear. I can already record into my computer easily but I want to see what other options are out there. While I’m at it, I’ll be keeping an eye open for good small speaker cabnets, more speaker cabnetss are always nice to have on hand. With a little luck I can find a nice small PA system that can easily be recorded. This would give me a mixer and a way to sing for the recordings. The PA wouldn’t need to be powerful, its only for home use is a nice home recordind studio/jam room setup.

I’d like to have enough equipment setup so that I can host small jam sessions and also do recodring sessions in a home studio. I’ll probably end up grabbing extra guitar effects along with a couple dozen sets of strings, a mix of guitar picks, guitar cables and other assorted goodies for a nice jam room/recording studio.

I’m posting my GAS list here to get ideas from others, whats on you GAS list?

My current equipment:

Acoustics
1) inexpensive laminate dread, looks good, plays great sounds better than I do.

2) early ’50’s Oscar Schmidt Stella solid wood, small body, short scale. Plays like a dream with very low action. (pre harmony)

Electrics
1) Fender Showmaster. 24 fret set neck strat style. dual duncan HB’s, incredible player, makes me feel like I play better.

2) Squire ‘51 modified, has GFS AlNiCo strat pickup in neck position, stock HB already sounded great. plays great, my workhorse.

3) Squire BSB Tele with a set of GFS fatbody tele pickups. Another guitar I play daily, love the tone, plays great.

Bass
1) Guild SB-602, very rare bass. Looks something like an early model guild pilot bass, but has EMG pickups and active electroncs. The pickups are one J-bass, one P-bass. I’ve played this bass for 25+ years, its incredible.

Amps
1) ‘73 Fender Vibro Champ, Upgraded with Weber AlNiCo speaker, incredile tone, I love this amp.

2) ‘64 Kalamazoo Model two. Fully recapped and modified to break up early. Lots of crunch. Another amp I love

3) Silvertone EL84 amp pulled from an old organ. Powers a single 15" eminance in an old Polytone cabinet. This amp is so clean it sparkles until you really push it. I use it for playing bass at home and also in a dual rig setup paired with either my fender or the kazoo.

What I’m GAS’n For…

In a couple weeks I’m going shopping, My goal is to get a nice used MIM/MIJ tele and strat. I don’t care about scratches or dings, I only care about how it plays and sounds. I’m thinking I should be able to budget $400 for each and probably have money left over since I can get new ones for $399, but this will leave me open to better models, so we’ll have to see what they have.

Next, I want something with P90’s. I’m trying to decide between two Gibsons, one is the SG classic which is stunning in the heritage cherry: http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Gibson-SG-Classic-Electric-Guitar-with-P90-Pickups?sku=517127 and the Gibson Les Paul Faded Double Cutaway in the worn cherry: http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Gibson-Les-Paul-Faded-Double-Cutaway-Electric-Guitar?sku=517512 I really like them both, its going to be a tough call.

Next on my GAS List is for a really nice overdrive/clean boost for my current amps. This will take a lot of trial and error to pick the best match for my amps and the tone I want from them.

And last, but not least, I want to find a nice solid wood acoustic. I think I’d prefer something with a smaller body size like a parlor guitar. I’ll have to see what my choices are and if anything speaks to me.

Anyhow, this is my GAS list, whats yours?