Decisions Decisions... Plz Halp!

So the spouse and I were discussing my possibly getting the Shawn Mendez Musicmaster Fender. No, I'm not a huge fan of Mendez's music, but I am a fan of the Musicmaster, Fender, and that particular style of "floral print" (like it came out of a Victorian era science book--why yes, I am a Steampunk, thank you for noticing).

That said, it's $800. Now, I'm not miserly when it comes to gear spending, buuuuuuuuuuut. That same $800 could get me a Harley-Benton SC-500 WH guitar, a Vox AC10 (used, and used by my current Sire--I mean obsess--I mean Muse Yvette Young--whom I can neither emulate nor imitate), and possibly a Collision Devices Black Hole Symmetry pedal.

I've always been of the opinion MOAR GAER IZ MOAR GUD, and the gods know an AC10 is something I just need. That said, that Musicmaster is dead bang-on-spot sexy. Like, I'm just really vibing on it, ya know? Does that mean it'll inspire me? No, not really. Don't mean it won't. Just don't know that I'll find myself picking it up every day like I do 80% of my other guitars (yes, I have a $%^7load of instruments, and I still play nearly all of them regularly, and do play all of them at least once a month).

And yes, I know this comes on the heels of my acquiring a Firefly FFTH and a Gear4Music double neck (review of both is still in the works, just had some post surgical issues with my hand that's really slowing things down), so getting even more gear may seem... extravagant. But I'm a musician, this is what I do. It's who I am.

Anyroad, right now I'm really leaning towards Harley-Benton SC-500, Vox AC10, and a Collision Device Black Hole Symmetry. But at the same time, I'm just not sure.

ac10, the new one is closest to the old AC10SRT model (not the ac10 2x10 model which is wya different other than the cabinet) and that's a great alla rounder at a reasonable wattage. I was pretty impressed with the current 10 copared to the chinese 15 and 30. At least the AC10 at one time came with top boost controls and no trem/vibrato in one iteration whereas there was never an ac15 with tone controls and it always had all tube vibe/trem like channel 3 of a real ac30, the new one is just a half power chinese 30TB, double bastardized... but I digress.

THe vox isn't a sexy peice of gear, but its going to eat your pathfinder for breakfast and do more for you as a musician. If you don't fall out of love with the little rpactice amp once yo spend time with the AC10 I'll eat the manual to my MOTO 828ES. That vox is a workhorse, studio as well as stage.

pardon my typing, my kid's hanging allover me.

Oh I already know I prefer Vox's valve offerings to the Pathfinder. I've just had one of them in my gear rotation since I was 17, and I plan on keeping one in it until I die, because those lil' monsters can do things I'm yet to be able to do with a valve amp (there's this... it's not bell-like tone, it's more hollow, almost an overtone, that I can get with my Pathfinder and my Vox Bulldog guitar, I can't get it with any other amp and that guitar).

But yeah, the AC10 I'm really liking what I'm hearing, and the Top Boost, well, I've got a Klone around here somewhere now, so I'd likely never use that feature anyway (believe it or not, I don't really use the Top Boost when I use an AC30 anyway, I run straight clean with a little bit more bass than treble (about 1230 and 12, respectively) with my Strat, and let me tell ya, with just a hint of chorus? It's a showstopper with the way I play). Speaking of my Klone, I should probably add that to my gear page. Joyo putting out some decent stuff for cheap, won't lie.

As to the Collision Devices pedal... Dude. I have never wanted a pedal as much as I want that. It's everything I ever wanted in a single stompbox. Hel's Holiest of Bells, mate, sure, my sister thinks it sounds like hot garbage, but she doesn't understand what it can do.

But yeah, you basically hit on what I was thinking mostly, like I said, MOAR GAER == MOAR GOODER.

Still, would like some other opinions as well. Science needs data! Informed decisions! Plus, the more people I have that say one way or the other, the better chance I have of my spouse agreeing with the sudden change of plans. >.>

you don't actually know what the top boost circuit is LOL! Its just tone controls on the brilliant channel and depending on the era an additional bright or 'treble bypass' cap like the fender bright switch or marshall high treble input, the stock AC30 of the 50s and 60s had 1 global tone control in the power amp, phase splitter specifically, the treble and bass tone cotnrols are the top boost circuit as they have the classic FMV tonestack mid scoop unless you turn both down which is close to flat all thigns being equal. See, in this circuit the abss control is also reverse wired for mids so as bass goes down mids go up and the center of the mid band is set by the treble control as well as it setting treble attenuation. This is only on the 'brilliant' channel which has a big bass roll off between V1 and the stage that drives the tone controls via a tiny 500pf cap in the normal/topboost voiced models (there's treble and bass modal too). Anyway, they took this from the ac30 and added it to the ac10 SRT head in the later 60s. Then once korg bought vox they added the top boost channel toe verything. Trust me you will like it. Its more what you're used to. The other channel is very unique but its like it or lump it.

I think you're mistaking my using a Klone as a clean boost for me thinking that's what the Top Boost was for. That is not the case. As I've understood the Top Boost circuit, it's to give a 30db boost to the 10khz range, specifically. So yes, I actually do know what it says it does on the tin (I can read a manual, you know). I also know that with what I tend to play, flipping the top boost switch very rarely improves the sound I go for, particularly if I'm running a Klone in front of said amp.

That said, I've a very specific sound I've cultivated over the years, and know what piece of gear to use to get that extremely specific sound. I also know where Vox plays into that sound, and where the EL84 specifically fits in (I'm also the guy who'll usually take the 12AX7s out and put in 12AU7s for what I consider a better sounding clean).

I may not know the exact technical side of things, but I know what to do to get the sound I want. And I know that the signal chain I run, that 30db boost is too much, so I very rarely use it.

There are instances it's useful, but by and large, for me and my style, it's very situational, and very rarely used. I've played through my da's AC30 enough to know what I like and what I don't like, and I've played through enough AC30s, 15s, and 4s in studio, on the road, on stage, and in stores to know exactly how to set the controls to get exactly the tone I want for whatever one of my songs I'm playing. That's just me.

no, you're thinking of a treble booster or just the treble bypass cap maybe depending on value which varied... there's no top boost switch, its always on tone controls man. There's a treble rise at lwoer volumes with the bright cap but its treble and bass controls, vintage vox amps mostly didn't have them. mid 60s innovation, originally a rear panel dealer add on like my 1962 had before i ditched it. And that 'bright cap' ? its only active with the volume turned down on the channel, its just jumpered across pot lugs to create a high pass that goes past the shunt to ground.... so as you turn up it gets less and elss present, the boost isn't a fixed decibel voltage at all.

try a 12at7, or 12ay7, the au7 is a great tube and I've experimented with it too but electronically despite its lower output impedance and nice linearity it really lacks sufficient gain to drive the next stage in most guitar amps (some were designed for them... if you want lower gain AND a lower output imepdance for sparklier top end? AT7 is a better call electronically. An AU7 is typically making the phase inverter work too ahrd. Is a 12ax7 hotter than it needs to be for most guitars? SURE.... does it have assymetrical clipping characteristics and a garbage output impedance? yes.... the au7 though is too extreme the other way in circuits not optimized for it. That said if its your sound go for it. Now The AU7 makes an awesome phase inveter, aprticularly in smaller amps in a cathodyne configuration with V1a as a driver and V1b inverting ;-) If you want an amp designed for an AU7 and big, clean all the way up to 10 tube tone I'll make you one that's designed for that linear low mu triode and I'll make the gain up elsewhere while maintaining linearity (ef86 in front of a tonestack followed by an au7 as recovery and cathode follower into an ac coupled phase ivnerter come to mind).

With respect you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about here, you've confounded a slew of different features in your mind and that's easy to do when you don't know electronics, there's a million circuits with similar marketing names.

try the AC10 for sure, the enw ones are nice and more versatile than originals the tone controls are a plus, only one very rare ac10 head in the vintage line had treble and bass controls :-)

With respect you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about here, you've confounded a slew of different features in your mind and that's easy to do when you don't know electronics, there's a million circuits with similar marketing names.

You are correct, I was thinking the "Brilliance" switch, apparently.

https://www.rueckkopplunghamburg.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ac30cc2_top.jpg

There's an image of the panel I'm seeing in my head when I think of an AC30, just got the labels mixed up because I'm a fucking idiot with serious memory issues who does often conflate one thing for another, and while I know macro electronics (i.e. how to wire your bloody house), micro electronics outside of building a computer is lost on me. May have mixed the terms up, but the point I'm making remains--the switch next to the volume remains off when I play, because just no. Lucky me, the AC10 has no such things to futz about with.

Never tried an AT7. Will have to look into that. Would that be a straight swap, or would I need to rebias or what have you with it? I know with some of the 12AInsertletter7 swapouts you don't strictly have to, with others you do. Also, any brand suggestions on that front? laughs in Sovtek

I didn't mean to sound like a dick.... so the brilliance switch, here's the dope on that. It was only on the earliest EF86 pentode preamp AC30s. Its a bright switch. It lifts one side of a treble bypass cap from a pot wired between 2 of the lugs. Its a treble bypass cap because it bypasses the resistance of the cap to ground sending all treble frequencies flying past the pot above the cutoff frequency of the cap. A small value adds sparkle etc. Bigger and you get a late superlead or JCM800 that's got a pile of upper mid flying by the pot to the enxt stage at low preamp volume settings. Its the same as a blackface fender bright cap, exactly the same, just a different value cap. Now the louder you set the volume control the lass it does because there's less resistance sending the other frequencies to ground, right? At 10 its effectively out of circuit depending on the quality of the pot. The top boost had this ahrdwired always on like a marshall or tweed fender's bright channel and it added another gain stage, a cathode follower and a treble and bass tonestack with mids reversed wired to lug 3 of the bass as before mentioned. Why they called it top boost I'll never know. THing is the brilliant channel is still brilliant because it has a fixed high apss built in between V1 and the phase inverter as a tiny coupling cap (1000pf to 500pf versus the normal channel's 0.1uf to 0.022uf... there were different voicings)... this takes out a lot of bass and the pwoer section amplifies a brighter sound. This may vary on new ones. I know my 90s korg and HW2X are pretty true to original normal voicing values but I've ehard the Customs and custom classics are revoiced with different values.

Anyway, what iw as saying is you will probably like the toen control channel a lot, that's all thenew ac10 has. No normal channel, no vibe/trem. The original version had pentode driven briloiant, no tone controls and a vibe trem. its to die for but it does one sound, AC10. There was also the head, the AC10 super reverb twin or SRT. That's more like the 'reissue'. If you don't love it I'll be surprised.

preamp tubes are self biasing (cathode biased), assuming you stay in the 127 family with correct pinout dual triodes with shared heaters at 12 volts you're good, and these are the most common preamp tubes.... there are piles of lesser known versions. Go to tube depot.com and look them up. Its worth buying one of each to try in your new amp as V1. Understand that as a 1 channel using an AU7 will take gain down substantially as there are cascading stages that sue both sections of the triode and you're halving gain 2 stages ina row.... A better choice is the lesser known 12DW7 which is half au7 and half ax7, although I forget which half is witch and don't know which hald is which stage in a new AC10 so its a crap shoot as to wether you get the au7 in the first stage or second or wherever (there's even a cathode follower stage in tehre as far as I know that lweors impendance to the tone stack using a whole triode as a unity gain impedance covnerter).... so with those concerns also consider an AT7 or a JAN 7025 or soemthing like that too.

In fact vox amps under 50 watts have always been self biasing even in the pwoer amp. They are cathode biased. Pop new tubes in and keep playing. The cathode bias is the source of the myths that they are also class A. they run clsoer to class A but are still push pull class AB amps. They are very similar in design to say a tweed deluxe.

jump on my gear porn page and look at my old girl.... that 62 has no tone controls, just the cut (labeled tone) that takes high end off globally... It has a hardwired treble bypass on the brilliant channel and bigger caps across the board. Nothing to set. not foreveryone but with me playing it with the right guitar into the right channel it eats other amps.

Anyroad you walk, I got paid today, so the next step is talking the spouse into letting me spend the dosh.

THAT is the insurmountable object. The trick is going to have to be, methinks... Priority of acquisition, and making the argument of why. AC10 can be swung easy peasy argument. Collision Devices Black Hole Symmetry, also fairly easy as to why. Harly-Benton, again, I can explain why.

The trick is, will they let me.

If not, this whole thread is moot.

Do not know when I'll get to talk to them about it, as they work today and I do not. May not be until the wee small hours of the morning...

tell her a crazy engineer you know said YOU NEED A NEW AMP, A VOX TUBE AMP! if that's not strong enough I dunno... and tell the dealer that musicians never get the credit they deserve and they need to float you on the amp at the least.

And the answer is... I can have the pedal, because "It's the cheapest of the lot, and [my] spending is out of control right now. [I] can get the amp when [I'm] back at work regular."

SWMBO has spoken. NGL, kind of... well, not upset, but disappointed that I'd come up with a way to spend less money, and I get truncated further, but eh. At least I'm not sleeping on the couch, aye? And it's only another month until the amp. So that's no big deal.

Argh I was too late.

I was going to suggest disconnecting a wire from the speaker of the pathfinder and then "OH NO... My amp is broken.... What will I play through now???"

Honesty is a staple of our relationship, and one reason they've let me be as reckless with my spending as I have been. Could never lie to them about anything--especially gear related. They may not play or know half a damn about it, but that runs the risk of if it were found out, my days of buying any gear are over.

So, while it'll take a bit longer'n I'd like, I'll still end up with the same stuff, just more spread out.

And they are right, I have been a bit... Well, I've probably spent as much as a good used car in the past 8 months on gear acquisition.

But hey! Collision Devices Black Hole Symmetry. It'll be here by probably Thursday. Super stoked on that! :D

This looks incredible. I may need to look into getting one

But hey! Collision Devices Black Hole Symmetry. It'll be here by probably Thursday. Super stoked on that! :D

At least I'm not sleeping on the couch, aye? And it's only another month until the amp. So that's no big deal.

been there (the couch) by choice... at least she hasn't thrown a big muff at yor head and scored a hit. And then you fnd out she wants extra money to spend on useless decor items and heroin.... I moved to a hotel once

And they are right, I have been a bit... Well, I've probably spent as much as a good used car in the past 8 months on gear acquisition.

But hey! Collision Devices Black Hole Symmetry. It'll be here by probably Thursday. Super stoked on that! :D

1 cngrats on a new effect

2 you can't touch me for excess....I've spent like money was going out of style lately. Tell your wife "my internet buddy's wfe let him buy a vintage propht and juno!" and don't admit my wife is dead

Tel, it's the first pedal I've spent that kind of dosh on willingly. I fell in love with it hearing it. It's just a perfect blend of... well, I mean... Everything. And I tacked a £20 Behringer octave pedal on, so now I can really get some Dopethrone going on up in here! But yeah, you should get one.

Jim, hehe... The spouse can throw a muff at my face any da--OHHHHHHH, you mean the effect. Tracking now. My bad. I thought... nevermind. Anyroad... Yeah, the great thing about the spouse and I, we have very similar tastes, so their version of useless decor is also my version, so it works out. We also blow too much on books, computers, and video games. That said, I'm about to drop £400 on them some lovely video editing software, and then that much again on some storyboarding software and novel layout stuff. So while I do get reckless with my spending, we even out.

Which is only fair, I've been out of work with this bloody nerve damage since January, and they've been bringing home the bread, as it were. Granted, my insurance has been paying me to sit on me arse, so we've not been hurting for dosh, but you know how it goes.

OK, I don't even properly play synth (I bang around on my little Arturia Keylab), but I'd do immoral things for a Juno-6.

Jim, hehe... The spouse can throw a muff at my face any da--OHHHHHHH, you mean the effect. Tracking now. My bad. I thought... nevermind. Anyroad.

Leigh always shaved, haven't seen bush since long before I got married.

Which is only fair, I've been out of work with this bloody nerve damage since January, and they've been bringing home the bread, as it were. Granted, my insurance has been paying me to sit on me arse, so we've not been hurting for dosh, but you know how it goes.

I thought you won bread and brought home bacon?

OK, I don't even properly play synth (I bang around on my little Arturia Keylab), but I'd do immoral things for a Juno-6.

I don't think there's a proper way to play a synth, its such a pliable instrument, even soemthing as simple as the juno...

just don't say which things in case the police get hip to this thread

Eh, I'm an equal opportunity kinda guy. Doesn't much matter one way or the other, I've been with every variation under the sun at some point or another.

I win bread, and eat bacon. Though I really need to cut back. The ol' ticker's been through two MIs already, this plate of BBQ is probably a bad idea as well. But as my mate says, I'm here for a good time, not a long time.

I would argue that the proper way to play a synth is how Yes, ELP, ELO, and Styx did/does it. But that's my take.

I said immoral, not illegal!

total change of subjects:

Now that I'm going back to work, I've got to put together a portable recording studio rig. Something I can use with my smartphone, I've got the Bandlab app, it works pretty good. Probably going to get there interface as well. I'll be using my Steinberger as my travel guitar (the whole reason I bought it). Portable pedalboard... Thinking the Moskey Silver Horse to do my Klonework unless I get ballsy and go for the Tumnus. Then work in that same price range and format of micro-pedals to build a cheap kit (pricerange of the Moskey).

Goal here would be to build a portable micro-pedalboard that covers my tone, into a micro-interface, into my smartphone. Yeah. That's a good plan. Time to eat, and research. Because when you've got the can't-sleeps, there's nothing like researching cheap-ass micro-pedals!

EDIT: BUGGER ALL AND BLAST ME FOR A BAWBAG EYED HUFFY WEE FUCKBUMPER. I forgot I was supposed to get a travel amp this payperiod. Something along the lines of an Orange Crush Mini or suchlike. Blast it all and bugger me backwards with a bent broadsword baked in borax.

if you want to be portable and can deal with 2 in and 2 out the SSL2 is the best affordable usb bus power itnerface hands down. 2+ has extra outs and MIDI if you need it. At that price it beats everything, you have to spend extra for a focusrite clarett or the higher end steinberg with the neve modified preamps with transformers. The budget version of the super analog mic pre sounds great, has 2 modes for classic and modern sound and both make excellent DIs depending on the sound you're going for. I also think the monitoring soudns a bit better than a scarlet or cheap steinberg, presonus etc. I wish they made a bigger one.