Grateful Dead Music Forum

Hope someone can shed 'a liitle light' on this for me. I am as low tech as they come. Got to jam at a party last nite and they had a full sound system and someone plugged me in to a Digitech RP50. For a mostly acoustic guy, I thought that was pretty cool and they said they only run about $50. Is this a good place to start for some simple gear or should I be looking at something else? Looked like one chord to guitar and one to the amp. I mostly play acoustic but I also have an early 80's Strat. I run thru an old Fender Bassman. Would this piece work OK for both the Strat. and the acoustic with that amp? Had me into a Carvin AG1000. Guess that is an acoustic amp. Can you get by w/ one amp for both guitars. Is that a good all around amp? Not planning on gigging, just pissing off the neighbors.
I know there's alot of guys who really know they're stuff here so thanx.

In regards to the Amps, I have two, one for my accoustic which is a Fender Accoustasonic JR, I love it. and I have a Fender Blues Delux for my Strat.

I used to play my accoustic through my electric amp and I kept getting terrible feed back hum when playing in a group. One day I asked the local guitar tech and he said that accoustic guitars can work on electric amps at low levels but once you try and boost the vol it will feedback. He suggested I get an accoustic amp for just my accoustic. With that said, I have also plugged in my strat to the accoustic amp and never had any major problems.

If you are playing a lot of accoustic, and you like to have it amp'd, pick up an accoustic amp. Fender makes a good one and I beleive Bobby at one time was playing a Crate.

Switching to an acoustic amp gave me better results as well. And yes, Bobby used a Crate for a while but uses a Fishman Loudbox now. I'm savin for one!

Any info on that Digitech RP50. Thanx for the feedback so far.

Digi RP50 is crap. Sorry to be blunt but it is.

I take it that you are looking to venture into the world of effects as you begin your path with an electric in hand, yes?

And in that quest you find stompboxes to be expensive and confusing and each brand makes the same box, etc, yes?

I'd recommend a POD XT unit.

The FX modelled on that are pretty damn close!

Plus it will give you an idea of tons of effects, modulations, envelopes, delays, etc.

I used one to find what I really wanted and it was the best decision I had made. I didn't really know effects til then.

Strummin', you are a wise man and honesty is a virtue I admire. In other words, that's it exactly. What are the damages on a pod-XT and is there anything else you think I should be aware of or should have as I start this journey? What did you wind up with?

sack the wack wrote:Strummin', you are a wise man and honesty is a virtue I admire. In other words, that's it exactly. What are the damages on a pod-XT and is there anything else you think I should be aware of or should have as I start this journey? What did you wind up with?

Firstly, thank you!

I'd go for a used POD XT which will run ya about $150-200 on Craigslist. Or if you plan on playing out an XT Live which will be about $200-$250 on Craigslist as it is a pedalboard version of the regular.

As a point of reference I own both and still do. Although I don't use them regularly I still find the the XT to be a great backup for gigs and the Live is great when I don't want to lug my 100 pound rack of effects.

Overall the best things I learned:
- what different amps sound like
- what different effects do
- what different effects sound like in combination
- usage of different delays

When I first got my XT I used EVER effect it had in there. Then after a few years I realized I really only relied on a few core effects: phaser, tremolo, delay, envelope, overdrive.

From there I figured out what I liked and didn't like overall on pedals. That was simple: when engaged don't change my volume or tone.

Then I also was reminded of one of the best features on an XT and that is the blend control it puts on many effects to allow you to chose how much or little of the effect to blend with the signal.

With all that knowledge I ended up then buying individual pedals! But it took me YEARS to be happy with my pedal selection.

Thanx Strummin'. Can anybody else add to that?

Can you get by w/ one amp for both guitars.

Generally you can get away with it, especially if you aren't trying to cut through a mix of drums and other band sounds. What kind of Bassman do you have? I guess I'll assume 70's Silverface... is it a 2x12 or a 4x10?

The PodXT (Live or not) is a good suggestion iof you have the extra bread to spend. LOTS of variations. I wouldn't poo-poo Digitech completely, but it is cheaply made in comparison. If you had fun with the RP50, you might look into some of the higher end multi-fx models like the RP250, etc... or look out for used deals on older (and usually simpler to learn and use) multi-units from Ibanez, etc.

My understanding is the Bassman is late 50's. It's 4x10. It was a gift from a business associate along w/ the Strat and a Washburn hollow body. Do you have any model #'s for those Ibanez setups?

sack the wack wrote:My understanding is the Bassman is late 50's. It's 4x10.

Really?! IS this it:
http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/bassman_narrow.html

If so it's worth a truckload of money.

sack the wack wrote:My understanding is the Bassman is late 50's. It's 4x10. It was a gift from a business associate along w/ the Strat and a Washburn hollow body. Do you have any model #'s for those Ibanez setups?

DUDE! a late 50's Bassman!!!?! that's a holy grail amplifier. I have a friend who paid five figures for a 1959 BM.

That my good friends, is it.

If you remember my first post in this thread, I said I am as low tech as it gets. I checked it out and it is the 5F6-A which I guess makes it the '58-60 model. I actually think it is a '59. The dude I mentioned who bequeathed me this here-to-fore unknown about beauty ( which by the way, weighs as much as a boatload ) was going thru the divorce from hell. He was one of the first guitar players in a local band that had some notoriety back in the early 80's. His day job took him around a bit and he was a collector. He had somewhere in the range of 40 guitars when the wicked witch struck. So he started scattering them around the countryside. I told him my place was as safe a haven as any ( hint, hint ), and so offerred shelter from the impending marital storm. As he had reaped mucho $$$$$ from my business over the yrs., it was like 'Voila, here you go'. The Strat. is an American early 80's Carribean Blue ( it's a sparkly meta-flake deal) that came from S.C. and was customized by the dude who had it 1st. The Washburn is your basic hollow body, an HB-30.

You guys are why I love this site and come here for my 'edamucation'. So, any tips for this guitar-moron on what to use for effects now that I know what I have.

Best to you all as Peace always starts at home.

well i sure don't know as much as the strum, tiger, etc. but if you arent too attached i would say you sell the old amp.

5 figures is a nice piece of change. lets say you "only" get 2500. with all that you can easily get yourself a relatively small tube for the electric (im partial to fender blues or hotrod, but theres a lot of good choices here), some kind of acoustic amp (something i know little to nothing about, no suggestions there), and a multi-fx to play around with. like tbey said before, that should help you zero in on which individual effects pedals you want to buy in the future.

gear buying binge!

sack the wack wrote:That my good friends, is it.

If you remember my first post in this thread, I said I am as low tech as it gets. I checked it out and it is the 5F6-A which I guess makes it the '58-60 model. I actually think it is a '59. The dude I mentioned who bequeathed me this here-to-fore unknown about beauty ( which by the way, weighs as much as a boatload ) was going thru the divorce from hell. He was one of the first guitar players in a local band that had some notoriety back in the early 80's. His day job took him around a bit and he was a collector. He had somewhere in the range of 40 guitars when the wicked witch struck. So he started scattering them around the countryside. I told him my place was as safe a haven as any ( hint, hint ), and so offerred shelter from the impending marital storm. As he had reaped mucho $$$$$ from my business over the yrs., it was like 'Voila, here you go'. The Strat. is an American early 80's Carribean Blue ( it's a sparkly meta-flake deal) that came from S.C. and was customized by the dude who had it 1st. The Washburn is your basic hollow body, an HB-30.

You guys are why I love this site and come here for my 'edamucation'. So, any tips for this guitar-moron on what to use for effects now that I know what I have.

Best to you all as Peace always starts at home.

nice flippin' score. You should consider auctioning off that vintage piece and then you could outfit an entire band with really nice gear.