Anyone done a complete 180 in the gear they play?

[lunchie]

After a decade and a half of being a Strat guy, I have done a complete 180. I seem to be drawn to Mahogany guitars with ebony fretboards and EMG's 81/85s. I'm not ashamed, I'm an active pickup fan.

My last two guitars that I have bought met those criteria and the last 3 I have bought (including my Guild D125) have been Hog.

I was a firm believer in Passives thinking that Actives were just for high gain. I find the complete opposite and they are incredibly versatile. They are in your face yes, but at the same time they clean up beautifully with sparkle, chime and remain very articulate from clean to sludge. Plus, the tone knob seems a lot more usable. It gets dark without being muddy or bright but does not make my ears bleed.

Now I havent done anything foolish like sold off everything that didnt meet those criteria, but I do have a rule that if something doesnt get played regularly, it moves on. Maybe it will turn out to be a flash in the pan but asking the Magic 8 ball it says 'Outcome not so good for your single coils'...

 

[Valtyr]

Not so much, I can't seem to decide whether I want high tech/modern or traditional gear. My favorite guitars are a Parker Fly Classic and a Gibson Les Paul Studio.

However, with amps I have done a 180. I started out with Fenders (princeton, baseman) and used pedals for gain, no loops. Mostly single channel, not a lot of knobs.
Sold them all and have switched to a Mesa Mark III, Peavey 5150 and Marshall JVM1h. No overdrive/distortion pedals needed.

 

[Skrapmetal]

Yes... I was a devout gibson guy for a while... finished necks, tune-o-matics, 24.75" scale, etc etc... On more than one occasion I told people how much Ibanez guitars sucked and made fun of a friend for owning them.

And now they account for more than half of the guitars I own. I only own one Gibson now and don't ever play it (infact I mean to sell it). I like smooth, matte or unfinished necks. I don't go for tune-o-matic bridges much anymore.

 

[Shawn Lutz]

To some extent sure. I have been a Floyded Strat / Super strat guy my whole life (started playing in Christmas of 81). Being a Floyd guy when the LP Axecess with the Floyd came out it made me a bit interested in them. I looked around my music room and saw mid 20's dual hum Floyded strats and figured if I get a Les Paul may as well try for the real thing. I bought a 3 month old 2102 Traditional Plus. After adjusting ans getting used to them that is all Ive been playing (95+% of the time). I since have bought 2 historic reissues (BB7 3 PU Black Beauty Custom and a R7 Gold top) I see some mire historics in my future.

I never like active pickups and that will never change. I'm a mid to low output pickup guy myself. Style wise I haven't changed much, Rhoads/VH/Malsteen/Maiden/Priest/Dio/Sabbath but recently I have made a swing to my earthly non shreddy roots...music I was into before I started playing so Humble Pie, Foghat, REO, Ted Nugent Jeff Beck, Trower, Rush etc

 

[rcm78]

I used to use superstrats with high gain pickups, floyd rose bridges and 24 frets, into a high gain amp with the gain all the way up...

Now I prefer fixed bridge guitars, PAF style pickups, and 22 frets and plug into a Bogner XTC Classic. Hardley a high gain amp. I spend most of the night on the red channel in Plexi mode...

 

[just42dave]

rg550 to strats

 

[1meanplexi]

Great topic. I have gone the Ibanez, ESP now Les Paul route. Now that I use the LP's, the feel, distribution of weight, how the guitar sits, makes it odd to play anything else. I grabbed an N4 off my buddy's guitar stand and I swear that thing almost flew outta my hands.

On the amp side it has been a mix of mesa, marshall, egnater, custom audio electronics, splawn and more that I cannot recall. Since day one I am completely hooked on my VH4. I will admit that I love thick saturated gain and set my guitars up and amp to achieve that. I own seven LP customs all with different PUP configurations. Well....one LP Studio from the 80's that houses Slash's Seymour Duncan PUPs. Low PAF type output but does that guitar smoke .

 

[mbman]

Used channel switching amps for years but have been using a single channel amp for the last two years. I dig the shades of overdrive I can get just by working the volume knob. I also like not having to run back to the pedalboard to change channels. No boost/drive pedals either. I guess I'm getting lazy

Martin

 

[RG955TT]

Wen thru 3 or 4 phases, early phase was some horrible amps for any real gainy sound, a Peavy Musician, and then a Ampeg V4 neither of which you could even get a medium gain good sound out of, then 2 JC120's and lots of pedals. I was playing more jazz and progressive rock and it worked well there, plus I loved King Crimson and after their tour I saw had to have a JC120....Then it morphed into Rack Rigs with either marshall preamp or Triaxis which I also played for many years. Then I bought a Bogner 101b, let it sit for a couple years but then plugged in one day and was like wow, this is it, much better feel and very direct. Now I have a 20th anniversary and it's my number one, although I do also love my VH4, 5153 Stealth and BE 100 too.

 

[glassjaw7]

Grew up on Gibsons and similar for the most part. Moved to strats (standard as well as super) and teles over the past few years and started to branch away from fixed bridges and high output pups. Really liking moderate output pups with great dynamics.

Amp-wise, I've always liked the modded Marshall tone and also the modern rock/metal amplifier tones. (SLO, Cameron, 5150, Mesa) but ive never actually branched out much from Mesa Boogie and Fender stuff, with the exception of a brief Bogner Ecstasy fling. I've played and recorded with plenty of other amps though.

I'm really thinking about changing things up with my amp setup.

 

[redrol]

I only need 2 types of guitar for my style. One Strat and one Mahogany based humbucker guitar. Pretty much the normal type of player I suppose.

 

[lunchie]

So I'm not completely insane then, just a little!

 

[crankyrayhanky]

In the 90s I loved my UV & Jem>rack gear
Around 2001 I switched over completely to fixed bridges & amps
I just recently grabbed a few FR Peaveys, but these sound much better & way more stable than my 90s experience

Prediction : OP does a thread for passive pu change by 2017

 

[Lampshade1973]

Great thread..I feel like we all went in some sort of direction, in the 90s I was playing a les paul and actually after the internet revoulution and speaking to guys all over the country/world about gear I got into your basic superstrat but I I was always vintage tem guy, right now IM playing a few MM guitars and a basic strat, as far as amps Ive alweays been into high gain but I use the volume to control the gain, am I the only one who used a LP into a 5150 in 1996?? lol

 

[Bob Savage]

Not sure it's 180 but after decades of floating trems, super strats and similar playing guitars, I've really come to like LPs and am about to take a dive into HSS Fender American Strats.

 

[UltraGary]

Absolutely..... although quite predictable. For years I avoided what everybody else was playing (ie - Gibson & Fender).... with Hamers, Deans, BC Rich, Schecters, G&L, and others... Now?.... I have a nice Les Paul ('96 Standard) and a nice Strat (also '96)... and those are the only guitars I use all the time!

 

[Dimebag11]

Devout slap guy at first....now, big EBMM and Fender guy! I even prefer most SGs to LPs bc I can't deal with the lack of clarity and string separation in an LP.

 

[5150clone]

I went from Floyd's only to hardtails only. I must have reached for that phantom arm for a year when I first switched.. Lol

 

[blackba]

I seem to be slowing moving from Fender super strats to Gibsons. My Gibson ES-339 is getting alot of playing time, as do my les pauls. Though in the last month I have been parted on my trusty old MIM fat strat.

 

[C1-ocaster]

Like most of the players here I've had my phases.
Early on it was Gibson HB's with a high gain amp. Late 80's I went with clean Fender tones in stereo with a multi effects rack unit.
Early 90's went with no effects no pedals just high gain and Fender Strat with a hot single coil red Lace sensor.
The amp was a hybrid dual tube pre with solid state power. Then went to all tube half stack again with no pedals just a wah and added an
HB Schecter with neck-through design.
Since then it was all high gain tube with a Strat SSS and HB Schecter.

Last year I was on a quest to find an all tube amp with great clean and ripping high gain.
I thought I could have it all in one amp. I settled on an Egnater Vengeance that came very close to being that "all in one" amp.
But I still couldn't get 'range' in tone I wanted. I was set on NO PEDALS.
Over the past couple months I've done a 180. I'm keeping the Vengeance cause it's that good, but added some boost and distortion pedals.

I've stayed away from Fender amps as they were too clean for what I wanted, or what I thought I wanted.
Recently I picked up a new Fender Hot Rod Deluxe 3 and am in LOVE with the wide range of tones I can get from the amp and with the various distortion and boost pedals I have. That clean Fender tone is an awesome canvas on which to build tones with great pedals.
I also added a reverb and delay pedal and now I'm really happy as spend much more time actually playing than amp swapping.

For me 2 amps and pedals have finally given me all the various tones I've been wanting.
Now I have HB and single coil guitars and tones, along with spanking crystal cleans all the way to heavy saturated distortion.
My 180 has been to embrace the wide and cool variety of tones that no one amp or one guitar can give.
So nice.