What are the BEST hyped pieces of gear you have owned?

[Uzi Nein Millimetah]

For me, this is where Fractal really has the advantage. You don't have to tweak to that level, but you can. And you're right, doing that really helps understanding how everything fits together, with the entire guitar rig, with the mix, and with the song. Once you start hearing those things in a bigger context, I think, becomes the bridge between just being a guitarist and being a musician. Any gear that helps you do that is worth its weight in gold, I think.

Not really anything new, but the old Portastudios helped do that for me. Hyped back in their day, and completely worth it.

I'd add pro-level converters to this list, too. Seemed to me that the quality of even mid-grade interfaces greatly increased about 10 years ago. A great interface, a good mic, and just about any modern DAW fills the same purpose and is so far beyond those old 4-track tapes. Recording in general got me focused on the whole band and the song, and not just sitting around wanking out the fastest licks I could. That was life-changing.

Recording in general was a gamechanger, but almost as much for me was teaching myself to play a drum kit for demos, no drum machines and sure as hell no programming or worst of all, pre-made drum tracks. It's good to think like a drummer (but with more brain cells, obviously ).

 

[anomaly]

Awesome.

Yeah I was one of those JB haters until I found the fine print before it was cool, which was the fact that the JB was designed to work with 250K pots in a Fender. Added a restistor from hot to ground that made the dual 500K pots load closer to 125 on the JB, and voila! Humbucking AND single coil tone TO DIE FOR!

It's almost a cruel joke to not have that information displayed CLEARLY on the box. Then again, there's only one Jeff Beck, and if you want to approach his tone, understanding this could be construed to be a real challenge to the initiate of the holy grail of tone: work, not complaint, works.

I dig the JB, and I've only used it with 500k pots. 250k pots seem to make humbuckers a little too dark IMO.

 

[anomaly]

Scumback anything - he does the best modern repros of old celestions, period. I like the BM75LD, but there's a scumback for you if you love old celestions. Yes, if you already own old celestions you don't need to shop around, we know. For those of us mere mortals without access to vintage, it's unbelievable how great his products are.

Larry anything - you guys can make all the jokes you want, but the real joke is your tone compared to his amps LOL

Tonenerd anything - Scott not winding anymore is probably the biggest RT tragedy. The Roxy is the best pickup period i've ever played, and I'm among the most picky pickup guy here.

Griff anything, but especially the Chiron (griff hit it out of the park). His combination crunchlab/lightspeed is even better for me personally, but that's to be expected, it's my pedal lol

Mark II and III - not that the later revs aren't great, but those two are loved for a reason. I've never gotten along with them as much as I should, but I can recognize the greatness.

Gibson Les Paul - there is literally no replacement for a great les paul. If you don't think so, you haven't owned a great les paul. No, an esp or eII eclipse is a great guitar, but it's a different tone, different neck feel, and different thing.

Free the Tone Flight Time - I was skeptical at first, but I came around and many others are as well.

Strymon Volante - truly the best strymon pedal ever made. Yes, it's better sounding than the big sky and the timeline, and not by a small amount.

V30s - what generally seems to happen is people get a cheap chinese one, or a bad mesa one, and write them off. No dude, there's a reason people buy dozens of them trying to find the magic one. Once you find it, it's forever gear.

Classic era heavy metal guitars - 80s BC Rich, Hamer, and Dean. They are all way better than modern production guitars, and anyone who tells you differently is lying out their ass or hasn't played one that has been well kept.

Diezel VH4 - it's not a tone that I would use all the time, but holy shit that channel three is a monster. One of the biggest rhythm sounds ever.

That's just the first handful that come to mind immediately

Those cheap Chinese V30 actually sound pretty damned good sometimes. Just as good as the UK ones, and I've got good examples of both. They seem to have a lower resonant peak in the high end which makes them sound more aggressive to my ears.

 

[DanTravis62]

Those cheap Chinese V30 actually sound pretty damned good sometimes. Just as good as the UK ones, and I've got good examples of both. They seem to have a lower resonant peak in the high end which makes them sound more aggressive to my ears.

Ive heard plenty of great sounding Chinese ones too - they vary quite a bit along all the production runs

I think it's just that they are more consistent with the mesa OEM, marshall OEM, and uk lines

So you're more likely to get one of the really great sounding speakers in those runs

Thats my theory anyways, because they vary both from speaker to speaker and production run to production run

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I dig the JB, and I've only used it with 500k pots. 250k pots seem to make humbuckers a little too dark IMO.

This lines up since 250K pots roll off more top end than 500K. If you ever want a little more brightness out of the JB you can always try a 1M pot.

 

[Nigel]

I dig the JB, and I've only used it with 500k pots. 250k pots seem to make humbuckers a little too dark IMO.

This lines up since 250K pots roll off more top end than 500K. If you ever want a little more brightness out of the JB you can always try a 1M pot.

Keep in mind, to this day, the JB is DESIGNED for 250K pots, not 500K. Folks just use them that way. If you want to know what they are designed to sound like if you're running 500K pots, run a 250-333K resistor from the hot lead to ground and re-eq your amp accordingly. It sounds so bad ass!

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Keep in mind, to this day, the JB is DESIGNED for 250K pots, not 500K. Folks just use them that way. If you want to know what they are designed to sound like if you're running 500K pots, run a 250-333K resistor from the hot lead to ground and re-eq your amp accordingly. It sound so bad ass!

I tried JB's with a 250K pot and it was just too dark/muddy for my taste. Maybe dark/muddy is the wrong term; more like it didn't have the right articulation. I also concede that it may not have been the right pickup-amp-speaker combo, so I'm not discrediting JB's were designed around a 250K pot. Just my personal preference is to let a little more top end come through from the pickup side.

 

[Nigel]

I tried JB's with a 250K pot and it was just too dark/muddy for my taste. Maybe dark/muddy is the wrong term; more like it didn't have the right articulation. I also concede that it may not have been the right pickup-amp-speaker combo, so I'm not discrediting JB's were designed around a 250K pot. Just my personal preference is to let a little more top end come through from the pickup side.

Agreed, overall balance is to individual taste.

That said, I have a JB in a LP type mahogany guitar, and one in a 25.5" scale maple set neck guitar, and both have the 333K resistor. I find I prefer the 125-150K total load in all cases, even with pure nickel strings like Fender 150R's.

 

[Uzi Nein Millimetah]

Do DiMarzio D Activators still have hype from the cool kids of the internet? I don't keep up with it.

Oh well, I'm hyping them NOW. I've got 'em in 4 guitars thus far, and they work. Very powerful, but much better cleans than most powerful pickups. They are on the bright side for DiMarzio, which is a big part of why they work.

Can also mix them with a Super Distortion at the bridge and DA at the neck.