I wish I wouldn't have gotten ...

[Herr Squid]

That’s all kinds of WOOHOO! Without sounding critical...’cause I’m not...how does the 2Tek impact the personality? Is the staple top wound darker?

The pickups sound less bright to me than a Fender Custom Shop tele that a good friend of mine owns. Truth be told, I have never owned a traditional tele-style guitar, so I don't have that point of reference. When I was speccing this one out, I told Ron I wanted a rawk tele, not a twang tele, and I think I got that.

Unamplified, this guitar has an unfortunate tendency to sound like a banjo. Plugged in, however, it's a whole different ball game. Somebody or other said once that "a great telecaster sounds like hitting a piano with a sledge hammer", and this guitar gets pretty close to that. More than any other guitar I've owned, it loves being hit hard and begs for more. So yeah, it's very piano-like in that regard, and I think the 2Tek has a lot to do with that.

 

[Black Plaid]

Backstory: Before I got my first PRS I had a Desert Sun Yellow Ibanez RG550. It was perfect for me at the time with the pointy bits and pancake thin neck. When I got the PRS a few years later, I switched out the strap-locks to it. This ended up in a broken off headstock on the RG. =(

Years later, I found the '06 22 Custom, however I thought $2000 was just too much to spend on a new guitar. So I attempted to bait and switch myself and got a new Ibanez RG-1milliondigitsmodelname guitar.

It was terrible, of course the neck twisted. I ended up selling it at a giant loss and getting the PRS anyway.

The moral of this story? Always just get the PRS.

 

[Boogie]

The pickups sound less bright to me than a Fender Custom Shop tele that a good friend of mine owns. Truth be told, I have never owned a traditional tele-style guitar, so I don't have that point of reference. When I was speccing this one out, I told Ron I wanted a rawk tele, not a twang tele, and I think I got that.

Unamplified, this guitar has an unfortunate tendency to sound like a banjo. Plugged in, however, it's a whole different ball game. Somebody or other said once that "a great telecaster sounds like hitting a piano with a sledge hammer", and this guitar gets pretty close to that. More than any other guitar I've owned, it loves being hit hard and begs for more. So yeah, it's very piano-like in that regard, and I think the 2Tek has a lot to do with that.

See, that why you can’t judge a book by its cover with guitars. The acoustic tonality doesn’t necessarily denote amplified character. That’s exactly what I’d imagined as the perfect build for a 2Tek. I’ve not been a fan of that bridge in PRSi. I’d love to put that beauty thru it’s paces at volume!

 

[Herr Squid]

See, that why you can’t judge a book by its cover with guitars. The acoustic tonality doesn’t necessarily denote amplified character. That’s exactly what I’d imagined as the perfect build for a 2Tek. I’ve not been a fan of that bridge in PRSi. I’d love to put that beauty thru it’s paces at volume!

There is a Modern Eagle out there somewhere that Mike Hansen put a 2Tek bridge in, and I saw it up for sale on Reverb not all that long ago. I let it pass at the time, but I had to wonder if it kicked as much ass on a PRS as it does on a tele-style guitar. Make no mistake, it rings and chimes in a way that no Fender-designed bridge does.

 

[11top]

Amps (not all). Too hard to get rid of and ship and awful resell.

 

[Boogie]

There is a Modern Eagle out there somewhere that Mike Hansen put a 2Tek bridge in, and I saw it up for sale on Reverb not all that long ago. I let it pass at the time, but I had to wonder if it kicked as much ass on a PRS as it does on a tele-style guitar. Make no mistake, it rings and chimes in a way that no Fender-designed bridge does.

Markie had one. I don’t remember the details...it’s probably been 8-9 years. It felt completely unique for a PRS (I think it was a CU22) and accentuated the stock pickups’ brittleness. Again, I’m not being critical of the bridge! The original owner didn’t work on the final result, tonally, which I think is common with these kinds of upgrades. It was my first impression, and I completely agree with the ‘rings and chimes’ description.

Amps (not all). Too hard to get rid of and ship and awful resell.

Weenie!

 

[László]

Amps (not all). Too hard to get rid of and ship and awful resell.

I remember that at one time one of Mesa’s slogans was, “We build keepers.” I kinda wish I’d kept more of the great amps I’ve had over the years.

 

[AJB1965]

OK, I admit this is a ripoff thread of the reverse theory, but what U got? What do you own (or owned) that was a waste of time, money or interest, and never reached its full potential in your arsenal of gear?

For me it's a three way tie:

An attenuator - Cause it turned my Recto into sounding like a modeler.

A drum machine - I've owned 2 in the pre-DAW days, and although I got some songs recorded with them, I'm still an old codger that thinks the world would be a better place without them.

PRS 408 - Not that it wasn't a nice guitar, it played well, and I recorded some songs with it, but I've become such a hollow body guy that I really don't even enjoy playing solid bodies anymore.

So ........... any regrets?

Native Instruments Maschine. Why? Why? WHYYYYYY? It sits on my desk and looks pretty and christmasy when I boot up my daw but has NEVER been used in any productive manner.

 

[Boogie]

OK, I admit this is a ripoff thread of the reverse theory, but what U got? What do you own (or owned) that was a waste of time, money or interest, and never reached its full potential in your arsenal of gear?

For me it's a three way tie:

An attenuator - Cause it turned my Recto into sounding like a modeler.

A drum machine - I've owned 2 in the pre-DAW days, and although I got some songs recorded with them, I'm still an old codger that thinks the world would be a better place without them.

PRS 408 - Not that it wasn't a nice guitar, it played well, and I recorded some songs with it, but I've become such a hollow body guy that I really don't even enjoy playing solid bodies anymore.

So ........... any regrets?

To answer your question directly, there are so few items that I still have that were a mistake.

Attenuators...yep. I still have a Marshall PowerBrake, which in many opinions is the best passive model, but it never delivered what my amps needed. On old Marshalls, it may be the bee’s knees, which is why I hold on to it, but I’ve tried to sell it a couple of times with no bites. Worth more to me than the liquidation price I’d have to accept.

Line 6 POD. Version 2, with the pedalboard. It made me first understand what a stereo rig could do, even if the sounds were poor. The high gain stuff was all that worked for me, but it’s been several years since I fired it up...maybe it’s not so horrible after all?

Electro Harmonix pedals. The cool ones, like the Epitome. They could always do some really cool stuff, but finding what worked with which guitar and which pickup became a PITA and I eventually moved it. There are a couple newer pedals - usually the synth ones - that really pique my interest, but I know I’d end up moving it in a month. Getting them to work reliably in a live situation was a losing proposition for me. Otherwise, I freaking love ‘em! Besides, the Kemper has the ability to do much of his stuff if I just spent more time with it to develop the patch.

Any guitar stand other than Hercules. After my Ultimate Support, top-of-the-line model, spontaneously failed and collapsed on stage, damaging my CU24, I swore off of anything but Hercules. Even if you buy what you think is high quality, you can get burned. I’m that poster child. Take my advice...please.

 

[gush]

Prs Torero. I bought one really cheap and planned on swapping all the wiring , pots , switch , Jack and pickups.

Even after all those mods I just could not bond with it.

Sold it but lost my rear end .

 

[László]

Native Instruments Maschine. Why? Why? WHYYYYYY? It sits on my desk and looks pretty and christmasy when I boot up my daw but has NEVER been used in any productive manner.

Native Instruments (and a few others) seem to think that scrolling with a knob and a little screen is somehow faster than just opening up a plugin and using one of the comprehensive menus that we’re seeing on plugins these days, for starters.

Maybe for some folks it is.

But if its interface isn’t needed in your workflow (and everyone’s is different), it’s really no more efficient than a generic set of little square pads.

I have a similar relationship problem with the Slate touch-screen Raven. It’s cool as hell, kinda, but I’m already very capable and fast using a trackpad or mouse, that sit ergonomically “right” on a desk where I don’t have to reach up for a screen.

Sometimes technological ideas that seem fantastic actually are, and sometimes they’re not.

 

[Dave Carroll]

The small collection of low-wattage valve combos I've accumulated over the last few years. Nothing high end, and perfectly serviceable amps, but I've been chasing the sound of a driven amp while living in an area where getting anywhere close to the volume required for that will mean a visit from the local constabulary in no time at all.

Bought a Kemper, amps listed on Craigslist, much happier!

 

[László]

The small collection of low-wattage valve combos I've accumulated over the last few years. Nothing high end, and perfectly serviceable amps, but I've been chasing the sound of a driven amp while living in an area where getting anywhere close to the volume required for that will mean a visit from the local constabulary in no time at all.

Bought a Kemper, amps listed on Craigslist, much happier!

Good solution under the circumstances!

I’ve got a ton of software modelers, mostly bought before companies came out with some decent load boxes, to use at night as scratch pads for recordings where the deadlines were kind of nuts, then I’d re-record the parts with amps during the day. Now I just use my amps with a load box and an impulse response software thing for the same purpose, if it’s really late.

Works well enough as a scratch pad, but I still redo the tracks with an amp, a cab and a microphone in the morning.

As for software models, I’ve taken most of them off my hard drive; the only ones left are an Ampeg Portaflex bass amp, Plexi and Tweed from Universal Audio, the PRS amp models from Waves, and a couple of Mesa and Fender emulations from Brainworx. The rest have been 86’d, and to be honest, I almost never use the ones I still have.

 

[AJB1965]

My "pedal platform". Ended being a complete waste of time and money. After months of buying and stacking OD's and distortion pedals I ended up scrapping it all and going back to a tube amp. It was fun at first, but at the end of the day it just sounded too artificial to me.

Funny, I did the exact same thing. Put the Marshal Origin 20 out to pasture and got a higher gain tube amp last weekend.

 

[AJB1965]

Every Strat I have ever bought. That's got to be at least 10. I love how other people sound playing them, and I hate how I sound playing them.

I feel the same way. I've had 4. I love the sound but I just can't bond with them or play them like I can other guitars. Oddly, as soon as I let one go I miss it and end up with another. Maybe it's my fondness for the Americana Fender represents. Perhaps I'll try a Jaguar next time and see how that goes lol

 

[93studiolite]

Mine’s the Player Strat I bought back in June. Loved it when I got it, but now it’s just a duplicate of my MIA Standard. There’s just something about it that I can’t get along with. Love my MIA, it’s been my #1 for the last two years, but the Player is just ho hum. Once I get it sold I can get me a PRS, so that’s high on my list of things to go.

 

[11top]

CRABS

Hartford 1976.

 

[Malloc]

As much as I hate to admit it: a PRS GG4 bass. It looked fantastic, played fantastic, and sounded fantastic *for a more modern sound*. However, I had to eventually come to grips that I really just needed a P-bass and had talked myself into the GG with “it can sound Fender-ish if I want it to”.

 

[ScottR]

Hartford 1976.

Hmm...that's so random, yet so specific...SPILL! There's GOT to be a great story behind this...go on...we're waiting.

 

[11top]

Hmm...that's so random, yet so specific...SPILL! There's GOT to be a great story behind this...go on...we're waiting.

Over that beer we’re having at the Experience.