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Post by grip on Oct 28, 2009 22:39:58 GMT
Hi All, Reading some of the threads on here I occasionally see names of bits of kit I used to use way back when, just wondered what you all started with. As for me, my brother and I were both players of broomsticks to Shadows records  . and decided we would get a guitar each. He was the eldest and decided he would play bass 'coz it only has 4 strings ;D. My dad was very supportive and helped us out with a bit of finance. I bought a Black Futurama II and my brother a Vox Bass guitar and we both plugged into a Watkins Pick-a-bass amp. We practiced evary night for hours on end, he upgraded first and got a Vox Bass amp head and a Hofner McCartney style guitar (he could afford it he was working ;D) He eventually bought a Precision Bass on the eve of the introduction of V.A.T. for a good price. Sadly my brother died back in 2003, just a couple of months before he was going to move house quite near to me, his widow can't bring herself to part with it, I'm hoping she will pass it on to her grandson (my great nephew) who is learning the guitar. My upgrades were slow in coming, but the gigs we were doing didn't demand high powered equipment. I was still at school at the tender age of 14, but the Watkins copycat Echo Unit turned up for me at Christmas (best present ever ;D pocket money went on tapes galore). Over the years I have been through many guitars, best 2 amps I had was a vox AC30 head and pressurised speaker cabinet, and until quite recently a Traynor 100/60 (very similar in sound to Fender amps). Worst I had was a rather expensive HH transistor anp, it was awful. It isn't until quite recently that I have owned anything other than copys of strats, les pauls gretsch etc. One of the best guitars I had for tone was the second guitar I owned, a Futurama 1 fitted with DeArmond pickups. How I wish I'd never sold that, the Vox AC30, and the Copycat. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Kind regards grip |
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Post by Charlie Hall on Oct 29, 2009 0:01:06 GMT
Hi grip,
My first guitar was a Vox Shadow with 2 pickups, a wooden bridge and a TV aerial socket for the cable. It had wirewound strings and looked discoloured after a while, like acoustic strings would end up. The amp was my brother's, an Elpico 15 watt with elliptical speaker. Then my Dad decided I should have a better guitar so he bought me a secondhand Burns Sonic. It came with flatwound strings which felt much easier to play so I assumed that was an improvement. It took me a few years to realise that wirewound strings were better sounding. Then my dad bought me an old Copicat. That was my main setup for my early gigging career. I later "upgraded" to a Peak 60 amp which was metal covered, no wood, and someone, I forget who, helped me to build a speaker cab with 15" and 12" speakers. It sounded louder, but really not very good. Meanwhile my brother bought an AC30 Supertwin, the separate head and cab version like yours, then I bought an AC30 combo, which sounded completely different, thinner and brighter. My first Strat was £68 which I bought in 1966. So that Strat and AC30 was my first decent setup, but looking back, I wasn't happy with the sound of either.
Regards,
Charlie
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Post by BradC on Oct 29, 2009 13:00:11 GMT
I'm lucky. My father is an old Shads fan from way back, so when I started learning the guitar I got this one. home.fnarfbargle.com:81/strat.jpgI've given it a few siblings, and I flirt with them, but this is still my daily driver. I still keep the photo of me the day I got it in my guitar case. I'm a bit older than that now. home.fnarfbargle.com:81/Me-Guitar.jpgI also started with a Yamaha 410 4x10" 100W quadbox combo. It was awful, but it was a start. |
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Post by solidlg on Oct 29, 2009 13:30:53 GMT
Oh dear, those memories of the first gear.
I saved up and bought a Broadway, the action was so high you could use it to cut chips from potatoes, so I part exchanged that for a Rossetti 3 pickup copy of the Strat, and plugged it into an old 10 watt Selmer amp, pretty basic, and as we all probably did I begged my Dad to sign an HP agreement for a Gibson ES 335 and a Gibson Amp, needless to say he wanted to strike a deal, if I learnt to read music through a local professor I could have the gear with his blessing, if I failed then I would pay him back..... well the professor fired me after just one session when the piece of music I was supposed to learn I played to him having used my memory and ear to define the melody, and I paid Dad back.
I changed the Gibson amp for a Vox AC30 and that stayed with me until the band were offered the first Purple Marshall stacks by Terry and Jim Marshall, and although I used Marshalls for a while I migrated back to Vox as the sound combination between a Gibson or Fender was so much better for R&B in my view.
Have had a few different guitars over the years, even a Danelectro when I was playing with the Eyes, in fact Pete Quaife from the Kinks helped me to fix that beast as the G B E strings all went down a complete tone while playing, needless to say the telecaster returned to the stage.
Now its Strats, a Tele and a Gibson SG, and both Vox and Roland Cube amps plus of course Charlies Q2 patches and Magicstomp and strictly Shads stuff these days.
Steve
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Post by grip on Oct 29, 2009 15:19:23 GMT
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Post by peterbower on Oct 29, 2009 15:51:05 GMT
Hi all
It was dear old Bert Weedon that got me and my mates started in the early 60'S, only because we all used to meet up with him at Joe Macaris music shop in Ealing Road Wembley on a Saturday morning. Bert always found the time to talk and pass on advice.
My first guitar was a Hofner Senator fitted with a single add on pickup that Joe had fitted for me.
After we started following the Shads, 3 of us started making Strat copies, one made the wood work, one the metal work and I got them sprayed in the auto shop where i worked.
Joe Macarie agreed to put one in his shop window, but after a week it had gone, not because Joe had sold it but because the Fender Rep had complained, yes, they were touchy even then about copies.
My amp was a project by Goodmans speakers where one of my mates worked for Goodmans in Wembley. He had suggested to Goodmans to make an amp as a RD project. They only ever made one, it was modelled on an AC-15 and boy did it sound nice, and of course it had a Goodmans speaker.
Happy days
Peter
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Post by grip on Oct 30, 2009 18:00:06 GMT
Hi Peter,
I suppose you got rid of the good sounding goodmans amp, just like we all have got rid of good equipment over the years that we wished we still had.
Kind regards
grip
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Post by olemuso on Oct 30, 2009 18:23:24 GMT
I started in 1960/61 with a battered acoustic which I had to refurbish - it took many weeks of saving pocket money. Then my sister bought me a dreadnought style acoustic. By then I was playing fairly well, thanks to Bert`s "Play In A Day" book, and I began giving lessons - would you believe it! Next, three of us decided to form "a group". I made pickups out of old RAF headphones and sellotaped them to the guitars and we all plugged into a triangular shaped Watkins amp we had borrowed. Dominator? Cambridge? Blowed if I can remember. Then my dad gave me the deposit for a Hofner Colorama2 - my first electric. I took it to bits on day one and spent a week putting it back together - that`s how you learn ;D My dad came home with an amplifier which I now know was a Selmer Truvoice 15 Watt amp with, I think, a 10" speaker in it (could have been 12"). I was given a valve Watkins Copycat which I binned when it went faulty. That setup served me till 1964 when I got a Vox AC30 Supertwin Reverb and a pair of chrome stands - was I the cheese! lol Shortly after due to family problems I packed in and sold all my gear for fifty quid!   In 1969 I bought a Columbus semi-acoustic. That lasted 3 months and I then part-exed it for a new `69 Sunburst Strat and bought a Carlsbro TC 60 amp and Wem Copycat pretty soon after. The amp lasted till 1984 when I bought a Roland JC-120 and the `69 Strat stayed with me till I had to sell it a few years ago to pay the bills - and I still miss it  The copycat was stolen from a club when it was only a few months old and I never replaced it. I now have my CIJ `62 reissue Strat, which I love to bits, the CMI Artist (Strat style) which I got for around £9 in an auction and my trusty Yamaha FG-420A acoustic which I got around 1985-ish. |
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Post by peterbower on Oct 30, 2009 18:35:15 GMT
Grip and Ian
It brings tears to my eyes at times thinking about all the gear i let go years ago not knowing that today, they are very collectible.
Thanks Ian for that wonderful nostalgia. I was born in Liverpool and proud of it, but left at 3 years old, so no accent.
Regards
Peter
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. and decided we would get a guitar each. He was the eldest and decided he would play bass 'coz it only has 4 strings ;D. 
The copycat was stolen from a club when it was only a few months old and I never replaced it.