MadAsAHatter
Well-known member
Just thinking back to where it all started and going to friends houses to jam with our pawn shop guitars and "bad ass" practice amps....
Edit: the tl;dr version.
First practice setup = Peavey Blazer then Peavey Studio Chorus 210 with Mexican Squier Strat
First rig = Crate GT3500 Shockwave head and matching 412 cab & '94 Ibanez Iceman IC300.
First real rig = Crate Blue Voodoo 300 head and matching full stack (2-412's) with the Iceman guitar.
I initially started out learning with a Mexican Squier Strat when they were first hitting the market and dirt cheap. I played through a little Peavey Blazer practice amp. In my small circle I was the first to upgrade past a practice amp and bought a Peavey Studio Chorus 210. Which was great for all of a few weeks until my friends upgraded, but all bought half stacks. My 210 combo got me by well enough for a number of years but couldn't really hold a candle to the half stacks when they were cranked (which was most of the time). For the 80's/90's heavy metal we played the Peavey was more of an oversized practice amp than a real setup. I forget what happened to the Blazer. I think I left it at someone's house and it walked off. The 210 I converted to a head and gave it to a drummer friend who was wanting to mess around on guitar.
Sometime around a year after starting to play I bought a '94 Ibanez Iceman and that was my main guitar for a long long time. I upgraded the pickups sometime along the way, but that was about it. In fact this one & the Mexican strat were my only guitars until around 2004 when I starting building my own guitars. I'm a bit overloaded with guitars now having built at least one a year since '04 plus buying a small handful of production guitars.
I think I was about 5 or so years into using the Peavey until I finally saved up enough to get something better. Ended up getting a Crate GT3500 shockwave head & matching cab. It didn't sound horrible like most of the other Crate amps at the time. Tone wise it couldn't compare to the Recto half stacks some friends had and I would get lost in the mix at times, but at least I could finally keep up in volume. The friend I jammed with most of the time had a Peavey Transtube half stack so my setup was mostly comparable to that & I was happy. Played through that for a couple of years. It's in the back of the closet but I still have that amp today.
It had to have been around 06 when Crate was fully starting to crap out as a company and discontinuing a bunch of their lines. People were more than happy to dump anything with the Crate logo for dirt cheap. I ended up with a Blue Voodoo 300 full stack (2-412's not the 215's) and a Blue Voodoo 150 as a backup head. I think I paid all of $600 for everything. The Voodoo 300's & 150's aren't the best sounding amps on the planet but I was able to dial in some convincing plexi tones. And for all the times I was drowned out or buried in the mix I cold finally have my revenge. 300 tube watts can pump out some sound and on a few occasions I let everyone know it. I'd crank the volume to a little over half way and virtually drown out a full 5 piece band including a loud as hell metal drummer.
I've moved on to acquiring much better amps, but played on that setup for at least a decade if not a little longer. Nowadays it's my Naylor, KSR, Peters & ENGLs that get the most play time. I still have the Voodoo 300 & 150 and still play through them on occasion. I actually revamped the 150 with a new blue colored snakeskin covering not too long ago. With the fresh look it's gotten a little more play time than usual. The Peaveys got me through what I needed but I don't think I'd consider them more than starter practice amps. I'd say the GT3500 was my first rig and the Blue Voodoo was my first real rig.
What was your first rig? And what you'd consider your first real Rig?
Edit: the tl;dr version.
First practice setup = Peavey Blazer then Peavey Studio Chorus 210 with Mexican Squier Strat
First rig = Crate GT3500 Shockwave head and matching 412 cab & '94 Ibanez Iceman IC300.
First real rig = Crate Blue Voodoo 300 head and matching full stack (2-412's) with the Iceman guitar.
I initially started out learning with a Mexican Squier Strat when they were first hitting the market and dirt cheap. I played through a little Peavey Blazer practice amp. In my small circle I was the first to upgrade past a practice amp and bought a Peavey Studio Chorus 210. Which was great for all of a few weeks until my friends upgraded, but all bought half stacks. My 210 combo got me by well enough for a number of years but couldn't really hold a candle to the half stacks when they were cranked (which was most of the time). For the 80's/90's heavy metal we played the Peavey was more of an oversized practice amp than a real setup. I forget what happened to the Blazer. I think I left it at someone's house and it walked off. The 210 I converted to a head and gave it to a drummer friend who was wanting to mess around on guitar.
Sometime around a year after starting to play I bought a '94 Ibanez Iceman and that was my main guitar for a long long time. I upgraded the pickups sometime along the way, but that was about it. In fact this one & the Mexican strat were my only guitars until around 2004 when I starting building my own guitars. I'm a bit overloaded with guitars now having built at least one a year since '04 plus buying a small handful of production guitars.
I think I was about 5 or so years into using the Peavey until I finally saved up enough to get something better. Ended up getting a Crate GT3500 shockwave head & matching cab. It didn't sound horrible like most of the other Crate amps at the time. Tone wise it couldn't compare to the Recto half stacks some friends had and I would get lost in the mix at times, but at least I could finally keep up in volume. The friend I jammed with most of the time had a Peavey Transtube half stack so my setup was mostly comparable to that & I was happy. Played through that for a couple of years. It's in the back of the closet but I still have that amp today.
It had to have been around 06 when Crate was fully starting to crap out as a company and discontinuing a bunch of their lines. People were more than happy to dump anything with the Crate logo for dirt cheap. I ended up with a Blue Voodoo 300 full stack (2-412's not the 215's) and a Blue Voodoo 150 as a backup head. I think I paid all of $600 for everything. The Voodoo 300's & 150's aren't the best sounding amps on the planet but I was able to dial in some convincing plexi tones. And for all the times I was drowned out or buried in the mix I cold finally have my revenge. 300 tube watts can pump out some sound and on a few occasions I let everyone know it. I'd crank the volume to a little over half way and virtually drown out a full 5 piece band including a loud as hell metal drummer.
I've moved on to acquiring much better amps, but played on that setup for at least a decade if not a little longer. Nowadays it's my Naylor, KSR, Peters & ENGLs that get the most play time. I still have the Voodoo 300 & 150 and still play through them on occasion. I actually revamped the 150 with a new blue colored snakeskin covering not too long ago. With the fresh look it's gotten a little more play time than usual. The Peaveys got me through what I needed but I don't think I'd consider them more than starter practice amps. I'd say the GT3500 was my first rig and the Blue Voodoo was my first real rig.
What was your first rig? And what you'd consider your first real Rig?
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. Later we bought Tesla combos, which were relatively affordable. That guitar one was quite good, but the bass one was horrible. I played bass that time and I was not able to hear myself at all.
