Your favorite pieces of CHEAP gear

Hemisaurus · January 19, 2011, 10:06:26 AM

I love my SF-300 Hyper Fuzz clone.

Bugera's can be stabilized with a handful of easy mod's, he says knowingly (for my sins), the examples that survive for the next 30+ years will start to become prized collectors items, like Sound City's are just now. People will accept their flaws and there will be web forums devoted to fixing them up and making them better.

Worst case scenario, you end up with a couple of workable tranny's and a chassis and case for a few hundred, it's cheaper than a Weber kit, though I haven't priced out if you use one as a base for something better, whether it's cheaper or you should buy the Weber kit. I hate those tube sockets on a PCB, so I'd chuck them, some people might prefer them, I don't know. Take one Bugera, 4 octal sockets, 3 or 4 nine pin sockets, a nice tagboard and some wire. You could probably salvage the bigger caps from the PSU. Build to suit.

El Zombre · January 19, 2011, 10:31:50 AM

Not sure they count as cheap now, but my first and still go to guitar was a Westbury (Japanese, Matsumoku factory) double cut away that looks like a dieting SG.

Hemisaurus · January 19, 2011, 10:44:45 AM

Like an early SG or what they now call the Les Paul double cutaway.

mawso · January 19, 2011, 11:17:47 AM

DOD 250 or 308, they're both kinda the same - just the perfect overdrive for a marshall style amp. Pretty much a TS style pedal, but without any of the sucky bits. thirty bucks iirc?

Peavey Bandit - nearly every mofo has one of these hanging around taking up space somewhere, and there's a reason dudes with way more serious gear will hang on to these. it lasts forever, clean channel sounds great, takes pedals well, versatile (does the trick nicely for vocals when the PA shits the bed), easy to carry, and considering it's just a cheap SS combo it can get fucking LOUD. you can pick an old second hand one up for a hundred bucks.

1960A - i guess they're not super cheap, but they're not super pricey and they definitely sound great and don't get enough props for what they can do if you only feed them enough mids. but if you're worried about $$$ then what's super cool about em is you can pick one up second hand and then if you need to get rid of it, you can generally sell it for as much as you bought it for and it will probably sell fast. a good buy for the wallet watching muso.

Laney AOR - most of you guys know about this one already

SM57/58 - put it in front of a guitar cab and it just works

www.xvideos.com - cheap as free, and works fine when you don't pick up after a show

Hemisaurus · January 19, 2011, 03:20:28 PM

Quote from: mawso on January 19, 2011, 11:17:47 AM
SM57/58 - put it in front of a guitar cab and it just works

Put a '57 in front of anything pretty much, I prefer singing to a '57 when I'm not wearing the gas mask.

tomz. · January 19, 2011, 08:10:57 PM

I got a Gretsch Electromatic Jet from Jack Crank from the old board for $125.00. I think they were around $300.00 new? It's heavy as fuck (actual weight) and it could easily double as a blunt weapon. I pulled the cheap-o TV Jones looking pup and put in a PAF 57 from a epi LP and it's my main guitar now. Love it.

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zachoff · January 24, 2011, 03:40:44 PM

My Earth head cost me $205 after repairs. Not bad for a 2Ohm stable 220W head that sounds pretty good. Other than that, my old DS-1 sounded good & you can get those all day for $25. It's not awesome or anything, but I liked it more than my Big Muff, ODB-3, and Bass Blowtorch.

justinhedrick · January 25, 2011, 09:16:39 AM

Quote from: zachoff on January 24, 2011, 03:40:44 PM
My Earth head cost me $205 after repairs. Not bad for a 2Ohm stable 220W head that sounds pretty good. Other than that, my old DS-1 sounded good & you can get those all day for $25. It's not awesome or anything, but I liked it more than my Big Muff, ODB-3, and Bass Blowtorch.

i had a peavey version of that earth head. i liked it ok. always sounded too high-mid-y to me. different bass players in my various bands used it for 8 years and i sold it for what i bought it for: $50.

VOLVO))) · January 25, 2011, 10:55:21 AM

I like the mid-rangey bass amps. The cabinet makes the difference in what frequencies come out the most. 12s definitely give you the high-mid-rangey thing you're talkin' about. 15s and 18s... balls to the wall.

Hemisaurus · January 25, 2011, 11:47:46 AM

I've a Hartke HA-1200, swapped a busted powered mixer for it. It's the head they throw in those old kickback combos, 120W max output, you won't believe the noise it puts out hooked to the EV (the one the cat is sitting on in my avatar), bass is all about the speaker design and less so the amp.

blackkrosses · February 08, 2011, 05:37:29 PM

I have a Crate (laugh now) Vintage Cub 50 2x12 combo. 2 channels, all tube. 4 el84's and 4 12ax7's. I'm so impressed with the gain channel and the Crate-labeled speakers sound GOOD. I looked up the codes on the cone but can't find a manufacturer. Downside is everything is mounted on a single circuit board (even tube sockets) kinda noisy under certain lights and I have removed the handle because it was rattling rather loudly. I have seen these go for around $300. Picked mine up for $110 after tax. CHEAP.

Baltar · February 08, 2011, 09:57:32 PM

I had that same Crate amp. It was my first tube amp. Actually not a bad amp for the price.
Here's my current cheap-o crush:
Squire Tele Custom w/Grovers-$300

Leslie West tones all night long...

liquidsmoke · February 10, 2011, 01:58:55 AM

My Epiphone "Les Paul" Junior Special. Was $88 new although I think they are a bit more now. Great guitar for the money, even better with a super distortion in it.

tossom · March 31, 2011, 01:50:12 PM

Got an MXR micro amp today for £40!

Liking the sound of it so far.

Wesogkan · March 31, 2011, 04:31:26 PM

Epiphone SG silverburst I use at practice...the pickups need improvement, but whatever, it's not like I'm using it live.

db3jed · March 31, 2011, 08:41:26 PM

Peavey Transtube Special 212S (black n' chrome 1st Gen).
They were pretty cheap new back in the day and can be found for almost chump change today (I gave $150.00 for mine).
These things are built like a tank and out of the 3 that I've had experience with (mine and 2 other guys) I've never seen one go down other than blown speakers (these things get LOUD).
I've owned a bunch of amps through the years but I keep coming back to this one.
They ain't the best sounding amps on the planet but they are far from the worst.
Let's put it this way; Every time an amp shits the bed locally guess who they call to borrow an amp from and guess which amp they ask for?

Other than that the only other piece of cheap gear that I can crow about is a $50.00 nylon string acoustic (Diamante?) that I picked up when Musicians Friend was blowing them out.
Great little guitar and it gets played more than just about anything else that I own because when I'm just sitting around the house and don't want to make a lot of noise there's nothing else in my stable that can compete.
Cool little tool.