What gear did you buy sight unseen based off of reviews and hype? Were you satisfied?

[anomaly]

Every amp I've owned in the last 20 years was because of this board or harmony central. I had some good recommendations. There weren't many amps that were complete shit IMO.

The one that was mildly disappointing was the Crate gx-130c. It's supposed to be based on the Ampeg vh-140c but it didn't have near the same power and it's tone was a bit weak IMO.

 

[Music&Chaos]

I bought Uncle Waynzo's Gladio clone without ever trying one. Then I bought his Spaceman Equinox clone. Can't really go wrong with his stuff, both of those are great pieces of equipment. After that I bought a Spaceman Meridian and that's a pretty badass pedal that is on my gigging board with the other two.

Good point. Almost every pedal I have bought from GA, I have not tried the original. A couple of exceptions.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Wizard Hell Razor - awesome amp, it’s a lifer. It’s in the top two or three high gain amps I’ve ever played and it’s not number three. Most days it’s not number two either

Yngwie Strat - really great guitar with unique feel, and the pickups are awesome

Suhr Discovery - extremely cool analog delay, I normally go for a digital delay in post set very dark, but if you’re playing clean or with very slight breakup and route the Discovery between the guitar and amp, it’s kind of magic. It does all the trippy old school delay effects but there’s a built-in limiter so it never blows out the signal and overpowers the guitar, unless you go out of your way to dial it like that

 

[PBGas]

X88-IR. Completely exceeded my expectations. A year and a half later, still awesome!

SLO-100R. Same as above. My favorite amp ever.

 

[7704A]

Several things...

Fryette PS-100: Very happy with it. Only gripe was I later found out that solid state amps with bridged output sections can't be run into it, which makes it more of a hassle to run my Orange Micro Dark into it.

EVM 12S Pro-Line: Not sure I'm ever going to find a speaker I like more.

Yamaha MSP-5: Excellent.

Crown PZM-6R: Had a learning curve, but quite satisfied with them.

BYOC Echo-Royal: It's a delay, it works, nice. Only a nitpick or two over the interface, and the soldering skills of the DIY'er who built the kit.

Orange Two-Stroke: Awesome.

MXR Timmy: Not the boost I deserve, but the boost I need.

'82 4104 w/Force 12's: So good.

Yamaha CG172SF: All the rasp at a fraction of the price. Good entry flamenco guitar.

VHT Valvulator I: It seems to do what it says on the tin. Still figuring out if it's the right thing for my purposes.

There's more, but this list is getting long. The only things I remember being let down with right now are the JamMan Express XT, which clipped my guitar signal, and (chinese) Vintage 30's, which did improve things over the stock Sheffield 1290's I was running, but not near as much as hoped. 1290's plus V30's though... That was a good combo.

 

[skoora]

I bought the Royalist III head after a Johan video, mainly to satisfy that want of a more JTM50 kind of tone with the ‘67 setting and have no regrets. Man, the relief you feel, when you turn on an unplayed amp for the first time and it hits you…yup, this is going to work and you play for the next hour.