List yer equipment... you know you want to

a crappy epiphone SG (soon i will have a stratocaster)
-=into=-
Crybaby 535Q wahwah
Foxrox octavfuzz
Foxrox fuzz
Hotcake overdrive
Foxrox vibe
Boss DD-6
Foxrox paradox TZF flanger
Digitech Whammy
(and I just ordered a Boss TR-2 )
Laney TF400 (always clean)

sound pretty good now, can't wayt to here it with single coil pickups.

Mmm, those are some good effects, yeah, all you need is a decent strat.

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That's all.
APFFN
Now you can see all the shit I listen to.
And you can fawn over my Myspace.

ESP LTD EC-100 electric guitar
Line 6 Spider II guitar amp
Fostex VF80EX 8-track
Ibanez GSR bass guitar
Samick 14-watt guitar amp (one of those tiny ones. Actually has an amazing clean tone at the right settings)
Old beat up keyboard (haha got it for only $10 from a friend, now I just have to learn to play it heh)

Some stuff I've accumulated the past few years..... the first guitar I had was a little Fernandes with a built-in amp. Nifty little thing. The built-in amp was p.o.s. of course but it served its purpose.

I just ebay'ed the Korg, the Marshall, and this rare collectible toy thingy. Got a new Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (musiciansfriend style; cream with oxblood clothe), and just ordered a Big Muff Pi, MXR DynaComp, and powered pedalboard with carrying bag. As for the Marshall Guv'Nor II, I will NEVER get rid of that thing. It sounded cheap and worthless on my old Marshall solid-state amp. But on my new tubed Fender amp, it sounds nothing short of amazing.

As my guitar playing, ability, and knowledge progress I have started to notice that my Strat is a damn good one for just another American Standard. I've played MANY other american strats that didn't even begin to compare.

That, or I'm blinded by my own bias...

Impossible!

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"Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young, in a world of magnets and miracles..."

I believe you own the same Strat as i do. Because it hasnt changed since 2000 if im not mistaking. Its very goood yes, still i think i want some hotter pickups, but when playing with the band at a high volume it doesnt seem like i do.. I also desperatly need a pedalboard for my pedals. Im looking at pedaltrain.

There are some very cheap powered ones (not pedaltrain), but after reading reviews which said they were terrible...Anyone know some good pedalboards?

Haha, it's funny you should mention that. I ordered a cheapo powered pedal board from Ebay this week. Let me link it.

LINK

I know it can't be very good, but I'm willing to put up with it. It really can't be that bad. It looks like just a laptop carry bag with a velcro board inside. It comes with a 6-port 9V AC power adapter.

I know it can't be very good, the cheapest powered pedalboard on musiciansfriend is around $100. But it really can't be that bad either. I'm just tired of carrying all my pedals in the back of my amp and spending 20 minutes assembing/disassembling. And with 2 new very nice additions coming soon, I'm going to need something to at LEAST carry them in.

Plus, I think the strat was updated in 2k or 2k1. It got an entirely new bridge and saddle assembly, Alnico5 magnets in the pickups (far hotter and..."bluesier" I've read), and 22 total frets as opposed to the same old 21 they made from 1954 and on (I can play the entire solo to Money on my strat!). Angle over the nut and headstock was changed and one string tree was removed. But in 2004 there was one more major upgrade: the S1 Switching system--a pretty big increase in the American strat's tonal abilities and versatility. I'm thinking about upgrading my guitar to S1 just for the simple ability to have both my bridge and neck pickups work simultaneously. But I can just get my toggle re-wired to do that for cheaper.

Have you ever upgraded the volume knob in your guitar? If not, you're almost certainly running a 500k volume potentiometer. Strats used to come with 1meg pots, and thus were hotter and a tad bit louder by their natural wiring. If your guitar came with Alnico pickups, they're just about as hot as single coils can get. It's just your volume knob not cranking them all the way up.

I know my guitar has a 500k and I'm going to upgrade as soon as I can. The new knob costs about $1.50 and can easily be soldered in yourself if you know how. Otherwise a guitar tech would probably do it for $5.

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"Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young, in a world of magnets and miracles..."

Well. First of all. The problem with cheap powered pedalboards is that the power isnt any good. It aint good enough to power you pedals, and the pedals will not get the same amount of power all the time, or enough at all. This can result in terrible tone. You might want to use your own adapters or something. Yeah your right about most of it. Still the S1 switching system isnt in the American Stratocaster, its in the American Deluxe Stratocaster. And you forgot the new Delta Tone no load tone thingie.

This is a quote from Kinman pickups.
"My pickups are designed to work into traditional Strat 250K volume and tone pots. Several pickup makers recommend using higher values such as 500K or even 1Meg to reduce the choked, strangled, compressed and constricted feel in an attempt to bring their pickups to life. They try to increase the Air, presence, bite, output and dynamic range because their pickups lack these crucial elements of Fender tone. As many players have discovered, it's impossible to resurrect a pickup that was born dead in this manner as the extra brightness is artificial and the sound is shrill and empty with no real air and no real dynamic range. However I encourage you to experiment and find what it is you like but don't be surprised if you find that my pickups respond favourably working into 500K pots. If it's built right in the first place it has a degree of flexiblity in choice of Pot loads."

And:
"Some problems with high value pots is that when you turn the volume control down a lot of hum/noise is introduced. This is because the amplifier input is becoming progressively unloaded and is effectively floating (like when the cable is not connected to your guitar) which results in hum/noise. 250K pots also exhibit this characteristic but not nearly to the same extent as 500K or 1Meg pots do. The higher the value the worse the problem becomes, it's part and parcel of high impedance circuitry."

This last one:
"Also be aware that 1Meg ohm pots (and to a lesser degree 500K) have an unpleasant ramp-up characteristic that a lot of high-gain players won't like. When turning up from zero, instead of a smooth transition back to full volume there is an unpleasant turn-on transient or 'crack' as it comes off zero. The 1Meg pot (and to a lesser degree the 500K) just can't deliver a smooth ramp up, only a 250K pot can deliver the performance that many guitar players expect when violining or swelling from Zero."

And i noticed the last thingie on my 500k. It has a MAJOR volumeboost. But it also has a major increase in hotness, and if your able to control it, with a volume pedal for instance, it might come in handy.

All too true, my friend. Right on the head.

I don't really use my volume knob to swell up or control gain/sensitivity as others do. I find that if I'm using a high gain tone, I can turn it down and still keep it sounding fresh and soulful. But when it drops below, say, 5 on the volume knob, it's worthless. It sounds dead and dry.

The bit about the noise on the 500-1000k makes perfect sense. With more power to sense the strings comes more power to sense the noise in the environment. That's the nature of single coils. Way I see it, unleash them and use a noise gate, or keep them choked and look for other ways to get warmth out of them.

I prefer unleashing them and dealing with the consequences
That bite you get, when with even a small amount of gain, when you can do pick squeels on an un-modified strat and wail out those deep, throaty, BLUES tones...is heaven.

I'm not making sense. 13 hour work days, bed time an hour ago...

My Dynacomp and BMP came today. Along with the new powered pedal board. The adapter is 600mA while my Boss single adapter is 200mA. Boss tells me the 200mA adapter (when paired with a NS-2 pedal and a daisy chain) can power up to 8 pedals.

I think the 600mA on my new adapter is enough for the 4 pedals it's pushing.

Besides, I can always inspect the wiring in the powerboard myself to make sure they're all getting enough juice!

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"Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young, in a world of magnets and miracles..."

I recommend you do. I think the most common problem is a change in the power. Like you get 100 % then it falls to 50 % and then up to 100 %, or so ive read.

'92 USA Standard Strat - Kinmans
Les Paul Black Beauty 57 Reissue
Tele Style- Warmoth body, custom neck (not that nice).
PRS SingleCut
Martin D-28 soon (If I can avoid having to pay for some bedroom furniture that the other half is eying up).

Line6 Delay modeller
Rocktron Intellifex LTD (Haven't used for years)
ART Alpha 2SE (Likewise - It's dreadful)

Looking for a Way Huge Foot Pig and probably will get the Line6 Modulation modeller some day. Fuzz face would be nice and ultimately I do want a TC2290 but since they discontinued them the price has gone up considerably.

Various amps. Can't say what brand as I work for them and last time I (foolishly) mentioned it on a forum I got hundreds of tech support /Sales PM's and e-mails. Had to change my e-mail address.

Sounds like you lot are all into your gear on here. Very encouraging to see people still into playing.

What type of Kinman's? How are they?

I'm ashamed (and embarassed) to say that I don't know what model they are. I got them from Chris Kinman a long time ago to try out and they stayed on there since. I just can't remember which ones I went for in the end. They're fabulous though. I've never been a huge fan of Duncans or DiMarzios on any of my guitars, and EMG's always sounded a little too flat for me, but the Kinmans just hit the spot. I find them really quiet and they're just really sweet to my ears. I have a problem with my ears being very sensitive to high end frequencies and the Kinmans have never sounded harsh. I can sit in front of a 21" CRT and play direct into the Mac and there's very little noise at all - I was impressed. Of course, this is all down to personal choice, but Chris' stuff does have an excellent reputation and I know that he worked hard for aeons to get them right - There's a lot of R&D in there. I'd like to try some of those Bare Knuckle pickups on my LP - They are supposed to be very good. A magazine editor friend got some and was really impressed with them, and those guys generally get to try everything out there.

Does anyone have an opinion of Zildjian ZXT rock titanium cymbals? Are they any good?

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Space for the Stuff

Just ordered a TC G System, so I can finally get those 2290 dynamic delays. I had a chance to get a 2290 new, just before TC stopped making them and just didn't have the money. I've got the right hump over it now as even very early 2nd hand ones are going for about £750.00. The G System is a fabulous bit of kit - I'd recommend it to anyone looking for multiple quality effects and it won't ruin your amp\s tone if used correctly. The chorus is really tasty too, and you can integrate your pedals with the system if you've got a big muff or something like that in your rig.