Always almost happy. It's a curse.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Simon Dorn
  • Start date Start date
There is no perfect amp out there. There may be a better one, but perfection is just a word. I have the best sound I’ve ever had right now, but I’m still looking at a new amp to try to get closer to that moving target in my mind. Haha but, I’m gonna try to keep the current amp too.
 
Simon Dorn said:
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honestly, i think its time for some new demo riffs.. not because its not a good riff or anything, but in my experience the more i record one riff, especially with the same gear, you just start getting tired of what you're hearing no matter what you do and you start having irrational thoughts of wtf.
 
Brother, your riffs and tones sound fantastic. Your ears/brain is just fucking with you for a couple of days.

I get the same shit at times when I go play my gear and then the next day it starts to sound like shit in my head and I hate it all. I've just learned now to not try to chase too hard or have a fixation in 'fixing' it on the day, ESP when it sounded fine the last session.
I'd just end up wasting my time because 99% of the time I just need a ear/brain break for a few days/week and to listen to something different in style or tone to reset my ears. I've got enough amps and gear to cycle through for a change and some days it ALL sounds like shit no matter what I try, which tells me it's my ears/brain fucking with me. My SLO can be like that too, somedays it's the greatest sound ever, then I play some other amps and come back to the SLO and it sounds like shit to me. Somedays it all sounds too bloated, somedays its too pitchy and crispy other days it sounds hollow in the guts...
Fuck you all!... I need a break and take a sabbatical from guitar based music, or all music sometimes.
Come back later and it's magically fixed itself.

Not to sound new age mystical and shit, but I've also learned to try to start each session with a 'take it as it comes on the day and work with what I'm hearing' approach rather than 'I'm gonna nail this specific tone today if it kills me. It HAS to sound like this...'
Usually the later ends up more elusive the more I try to nail it down.

I’d dread to add up how much money I've spent trying to chase and fix things over all these years to finally realise these simple truths first. 😖
 
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Amp sounds great. It’s easy to chase your tail comparing amps. I have owned all the amps you’ve described. All great. All different. And you could make any of them work for what you want (the slo is a great amp but maybe the odd man out here)
 
Simon Dorn said:
When i had multiple Amps, Cabs, Pedals, Guitars i was always comparing them trying to figure out which one i like the best.
And i had days where all of them sounded like shit...
But i maybe should have kept the Rev D and my modded 2203KK....
Isn't there this saying "comparison is the end of joy"?
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Comparing sure can be an overall downer. I've spent hours doing it, until what I liked best didn't sound as good, in a blind comparison. Or my ears were so toasted, that I couldn't tell the difference anymore. Seems absurd now, but it was so important then to know which was the best at whatever.

I've found it's better not to try to find the best out of em all, but play to their strengths.
Sometimes, when sifting thru different guitars and pedals for the best sound on a recording, I'll find that the oddest combos sound better than what I would normally reach for. An Explorer into an od and bf Fender for bluesy classic rock rhythm, or a Tele with p90s for a warm, singing lead tone, or a 335 boosted for the meatiest metal riffing.
I've had days where everything sounds like ass. I often wonder if it's me, or because of the voltage at the wall.
 
im just glad you found an amp within european builders than will work. In a near future from now its done with buying or selling amps to or from US. Good luck getting a LARRY or a hermansson, haha

also the hermansson you linked to has been for sale like forever. i think they are far more desireable "over there"
 
Maybe Simon doesn't have a decent boots and it's affecting his tone. I can easily prove this out through the fact that most 80's rockers had nice boots to go with their amps. I recommend gator head cut square toe low heels for taller men or a nice python but these would work too provided you ain't too tall. Getting your ears at the right height=tone.
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peterc52 said:
im just glad you found an amp within european builders than will work. In a near future from now its done with buying or selling amps to or from US. Good luck getting a LARRY or a hermansson, haha

also the hermansson you linked to has been for sale like forever. i think they are far more desireable "over there"
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Thanks ;) Eddy's about a 1,5 hours drive away from me ;)
Yes, i think so too. It's hard to pull the trigger.
 
TheGreatGreen said:
One of my main solutions that let me jump from "almost happy" to "totally good" with my sound has been to free myself from any conventions of "tonal purity" or what you should do or what a real player would do.

So what do I mean by that? Well, a lot of players just put way too much demand and expectations on individual pieces of gear. The best example I can think of would be when the total brain geniuses over at The Gear Page when they say stuff like "if an amp don't sound good in a simple [ guitar -> amp -> cab ] setup with all the knobs at noon, then it ain't a good amp" and other idiotic nonsense, as if their entire vision of perfect tone must reach them with zero effort or tweaking or any actual understanding of guitar gear or tone, but instead it should just one day magically appear in front of them in the form of exactly one simple and concise amp-and-cab setup with exactly 3 knobs and no scary thinking required that will sound perfect to them in every situation now and forevermore, like they actually think the path to perfect tone should feel like Excalibur falling out of the sky and landing at their feet or something, and suddenly their troubles are over. And you wouldn't plug an OD pedal into Excalibur, would you? Why, that would be cheating! How impure!

Basically, I'm saying once I allowed myself the freedom to just do whatever it takes to get the sound I want, suddenly new paths opened up that really did take me where I wanted to go. Like if I find that a rig sounds best with a boost, three EQ's, two compressors, and 14 blended IR's, then that's what I do. You can bitch and moan as much as you want about it, but sorry I'll be busy over here soaring over mountains with tone of the gods or whatever.


Notions of purity aside, as for the gear itself, it also helps to have a collection of stuff you can rotate through when you get bored and want some variety, as everybody naturally kind of does. Stick with an amp or three for several weeks / months / or even years if you particularly love them, and then if you get bored with something, go to your collection and swap something out for a while. After all, you were happy with it for weeks / months / years! It's not like you hate it now, you just need a palate cleanser for a while is all. What I'm saying here is don't be so quick to sell your stuff. Sometimes you just need to set it aside for a while. If you've ever bought and sold a piece of gear more than twice then I'm looking straight at you.
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Thanks a lot for reply. :) I will let that sink in.
I dialed in a Killer sound with just guitar-Gate-amp this morning.
Next thing to check how well it fits in a recorded mix.
I always try to get it on tape without any EQ.
One more thing to mention: One should never underestimate the playing itself. If ones playing sucks the tone sucks as well, no matter what gear.
Btw. Did you play one of the new handwirded Ibanez TS808 V2?
 
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LPMojoGL said:
Comparing sure can be an overall downer. I've spent hours doing it, until what I liked best didn't sound as good, in a blind comparison. Or my ears were so toasted, that I couldn't tell the difference anymore. Seems absurd now, but it was so important then to know which was the best at whatever.

I've found it's better not to try to find the best out of em all, but play to their strengths.
Sometimes, when sifting thru different guitars and pedals for the best sound on a recording, I'll find that the oddest combos sound better than what I would normally reach for. An Explorer into an od and bf Fender for bluesy classic rock rhythm, or a Tele with p90s for a warm, singing lead tone, or a 335 boosted for the meatiest metal riffing.
I've had days where everything sounds like ass. I often wonder if it's me, or because of the voltage at the wall.
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Same here ;)
I even check the Voltage from time to time :D
 
SpiderWars said:
Thats the joke. There's always "And then I'll be happy."
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That was basically me and gear pretty much my whole life until probably around 18 years ago.

Regardless of amp I was always trying to dial in a specific tone - type of music doesn't matter as again I'm always trying to dial in that tone. I mean I went through tons of amps trying to replace the 5150 for 10 years (Bogner, Soldano etc... ) only to just try dialing in the same tone I was getting with my 5150. I eventually dialed something in I liked as much with my JSX. Then another phase of amp flipping ( Bogner, VHT's, Framus, Engl's etc...) only to end up with the amp I've had since '07.

Same with guitars, I looked around and I had everything I wanted or needed. Les Pauls, PRS's etc...

I only speak for myself but that "And then I'll be happy" is a bitch and thankfully for the most part I've managed to avoid it for many years. I still buy stuff but it's just for fun now as I know I can plug into my main amp and that's everything I'm looking for. It's why I'm going the Synergy route because if I want to have fun, great here's $400 bucks instead of 4K just to end right back on my favorite amp with a smile.
 
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