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Best buy of 2008?

Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 11:26 pm
by Russ Gannicott
OK, with everyone else doing 'retrospectives', I thought I'd throw out the question;- what was the best bit of gear/instrument you bought in 2008 and did we all help in anyway with yor decision to buy?

For what it's worth, here's mine;
Orange Tiny Terror 15 watt valve head for Ash. Well.....I guess he bought it really! Thanks for all the advice on this one - truly a team effort!

Also, a special mention has to go to Ebay which has provided a Torque 4x10 cabinet and an almost new Torque T100 acoustic amp (for £20.00). Finally, also via Ebay, take a look at the Chinese made trapezoidal moulded ABS 12" speaker cabs currently available for about £75.00. They are IDENTICAL to EV SX100's which cost about £300 each. For more details on this one PM me!

So, thanks to you all for your 'anorak' contributions this past year and for the sharing of the geat wealth of knowledge you have out there. A very happy new year to you all!
Russ

Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 5:16 pm
by Mike Stranks
Hi Russ

Festive Felicitations to you too!

What a good question! As a gearaholic that's a hard one to answer. I guess off the top of my head there would be two candidates:

1) The Rode NT4 stereo mic. A really good (and expensive for me!) stereo mic which has helped me see just what a difference really good mics make to the recorded sound. Of course, I now listen to my 'bargain basement' Chinese mics with a super-critical ear and want to upgrade them!

2) A Carlsbro 'Liberty' wireless line distribution system. Effectively it take the L/R from your mixing desk and takes it wirelessly to your L & R powered speakers without having to run lines from the mixer to them. Absolutely brilliant in many situations where it's not practical (or would take forever) to run a line. The icing on the cake was that it was new in its box. Recommended retail: £499 - to me via Ebay: £60!

Sorry there's no guitar stuff here - as you know, I'm a listener and engineer rather than a player.

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 1:23 pm
by Bob Wilson
Hi all

Mine was not an expensive buy, but what a great idea. Hearing that Gordon is using a partial capo on some new songs I got a Universal Partial Capo which is made by 'Third Hand'. This is not like normal partial Capo's as it gives you the option of any string configuration. Its brilliant! Check it out.

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=361130

I have a Kayser for 2 or three strings which is a quick fit so I'm pretty well covered now.

Now, Gordon, your tunings are ????????????? :) :)
A Happy and Prosperous New Year to you all
Be well
Bob

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 4:58 pm
by AndrewD
I had three key areas of musical expenditure:
RC-20XL loop station
ME50 effects unit
Getting my acoustic guitar professionally set up

Of these the last one has to be my best buy. For years I have found my Fender La Brea to be very hard to play at all. I spent £200 on taking it to a luthier to fix lifting frets, significantly reduce an exceptionally high action, add a new compensated saddle with a totally different curvature to the old one, add a new nut (the old one was in the wrong place) and carry out repairs to the machine heads. The instrument is transformed. Now I can enjoy it and am working towards getting some acoustic GG pieces up to speed.

I have re-recorded Dodo with the other new gear and loaded it on YouTube. It sounds significantly better than the original recording. I also plan on putting some classical pieces up. There's just too much really good music out there. I want to play it all... :?

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 1:13 pm
by TimH
My best buy would have to be a Blackstar HT-5 combo for electric guitar. Brilliant little all-valve amp with clean and overdrive channels that runs at only 5 watts. This means you can run the volume at full to get those luscious 'valve at the limit' tones but still stand in the same room. Having said that it kicks out enough volume to play a small gig and has a direct output for a PA for bigger gigs (or you can mic it up of course). And all for £250. Bargain! It sounds lovely.

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 9:30 am
by Trevor Raggatt
I guess that my best buy was rather enforced rather than by choice. In late August my beloved Trace Elliott bass combo went to that big guitar shop in the sky :( (been together 20 years, man and boy, that amp and me). That meant a bit of frantic amp shoppping and I ended up with a rather nice 300W Ashdown MAG300 head and 4x10 speaker cab. Still learning my way around it but it is a rather nifty bit of kit and a really good price at about 400 quid all in.

From the sublime to the ridiculous (or vice versa...) my other best buy was a load of "Cleartone" cables from Award-Session (the guys who make the GG10/AP10 preamp). Really well made cables with kosher Neutrik connectors, custom made to length for literally half the price of most shop-bought alternatives. Really, really good. check them out on...

http://www.award-session.com/cleartone_cables.html

Trevor

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 1:16 pm
by Lu_B
Mine has to be a 1998 K.Yairi Gordon Giltrap signature model.

Its sublime and got me back to loving the acoustic, it definitely keeps me away from those electric things!

A close second is my Matamp Minimat head & cab - after years of searching I'd found my amp holy grail.

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 8:40 am
by Krysalan
It would have to be my Lakewood M1-CP, I decided to treat myself and traded in my Ibanez JS model in as I hardly ever played it (could never get used to that new fangled double-locking trem lol).

I have to say too that the "Take away and play" finance scheme run by the Arts Council is absolutely spot on, I came away from one of the musical instrument shops in Liverpool with a new guitar and a huge grin on my face that day!

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 7:33 pm
by Colin F
I'm not sure this counts, as it was a 50th Birthday gift from my brother. It's a sunburst Fender USA Deluxe Strat. Absolutely beautiful guitar. I've hardly put it down since and yes you can play some of Gordon's tunes on it! it has an S1 switch which sort of mellows it out a bit, great for some clean mellow sounds, or for using with an acoustic effect!. I've been creating my own little licks and tunes with it lately, (OK, ok.. all mostly around the Pentatonic's I admit, but just look/hear at what David Gilmour can do with 'em !!).

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 8:25 pm
by AndrewD
Colin F wrote:... just look/hear at what David Gilmour can do with 'em !!).

Funny, as I read this I am listening to a 2CD and 2DVD set of Dave Gilmour Live in Gdansk (not all of the disks at the same time...) How did you know???? :shock:

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:45 pm
by Colin F
It's just a trick I picked up somewhere Andrew! LOL.
I've had problems trying to buy that DVD, well, I've been trying to buy the 5 Disc version. I've seen it on Amazon for a huge inflated ridiculous price that I'm just not prepared to pay (I hate feeling ripped off!) apparently supplies have been hit with some distribution company going bust or something, not even HMV get can get hold of supplies. so they told me! I did manage to record it of the telly though! Wasn't That the most amazing version of 'Comfortably Numb' you've ever heard???