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Favorite Piece of Gear You Never Use

Geoff Grace

By Geoff Grace
in Sound, Stage, and Studio

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Geoff Grace Newbie

Geoff Grace

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What's your favorite piece of gear you never use? Usually, it's a piece that you thought you'd have a lot more demand for, but it didn't pan out that way. Or maybe you did have a lot of demand for it, but not these days.

 

In my case, it's a Grace Design Model 101 mic pre and an AKG C 414 B-ULS mic. It's been at least a year since I used either of them, and it was at least another year before that since I'd used them before.

 

Even so, I'm very happy with them and have no plans to sell.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

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russrags Newbie

russrags

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Alesis HD-24

 

Never use it, I bought it before Pro Tools I guess, and now Pro Tools has just become the centerpiece. I have a high speed data transfer cable I use a lot importing files into Pro Tools from an HD-24 client of mine, but I never use my own machine. I'm thinking about giving it to a friend along with a board, so they can have a studio too.

 

Russ

Nashville

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Magpel Newbie

Magpel

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Probably my '87 black Strat Plus with the original Lace sensors replaced with the Custom Shop '54s.

 

For 15 years, it was my main guitar, but after I had acquired a few that were more "all night" type guitars for me, I did the pickup change to make it a much more "stratty" Strat. Mission accomplished! It sounds entirely like a real Strat now (Lace sensors do not), and I almost never play it because Strat is a specialty flavor for me that my Reverend Charger 290 w/Lollars happens to cover quite adequately in addition to all the other great things a good P90 axe does.

 

This would be a very tough guitar for me to sell, but it is not unthinkable.

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blue2blue Newbie

blue2blue

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What's your favorite piece of gear you never use? Usually, it's a piece that you thought you'd have a lot more demand for, but it didn't pan out that way. Or maybe you did have a lot of demand for it, but not these days.


In my case, it's a Grace Design Model 101 mic pre and an AKG C 414 B-ULS mic. It's been at least a year since I used either of them, and it was at least another year before that since I'd used them before.


Even so, I'm very happy with them and have no plans to sell.


Best,


Geoff

Finally a gear topic I'm not sure I've seen before...

 

 

I guess mine -- although it's an instrument more than a piece of tech gear -- is my ES-325 (it's like an ES-335, only with one f-hole and mini-HBs). I got it 'cause I wanted a more open, woody sound... but I'm really more a single coil guy... and the narrow Gibson neck is a real culture shift for my Fender-trained hands, which are more comfortable, even, on the wide necks of my classical and parlor guitars.

 

But it's such a cool guitar... it's so very different from my Strat, so... well... exotic (to me). It smells old and wood-y. (They were only made between around '72 and '78, a belated response, I'm thinking, to the blues rock phenomenon that presumably would be less susceptible to feedback because of the single f-hole.)

 

But, while I admire it every time I pull it out... it's usually yet another half hour of tentative exploration, trial and error as I look for the way it can fit into my playing style and tone prefs.

 

 

I keep flirting with selling it but I also keep thinking, man, if I sell this, it'll just go to pay bills -- and there will always be more bills -- but I'll probably never be able to afford another Gibson. ;)

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ggm1960 Newbie

ggm1960

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I bought the Arturia Moog Modular V soft synth thinking it would be a great (cheap) way to gain a better understanding of how to build sounds with a modular synth but I just don't seem willing to take the time to learn it.

 

Aside from that I've got a pile of PA and other live use gear that sits around collecting dust since I folded the cover band.

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Anderton Rookie

Anderton

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I bought the Arturia Moog Modular V soft synth thinking it would be a great (cheap) way to gain a better understanding of how to build sounds with a modular synth but I just don't seem willing to take the time to learn it.


Aside from that I've got a pile of PA and other live use gear that sits around collecting dust since I folded the cover band.

 

 

I love that program. Taking the time to learn the program is actually taking the time to learn how to make sounds...it has a logarithmic learning curve, very steep at first, then it levels out shortly thereafter.

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ggm1960 Newbie

ggm1960

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Not that I was trying to come up with something new, but of course you hope you can at least think of a subject that hasn't been done to death.


Best,


Geoff

 

It's a great thread idea and I didn't have any trouble thinking of something new to add. :)

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ggm1960 Newbie

ggm1960

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I love that program. Taking the time to learn the program is actually taking the time to learn how to make sounds...it has a logarithmic learning curve, very steep at first, then it levels out shortly thereafter.

 

As a guy with an AA electronics degree and 20 years experience as a tech I should probably be ashamed. The electronic principles of sound were something I found fascinating while in tech school but the demands of learning so many other electronic concepts and principles in such a short amount of time kept me from exploring it as deeply as I would have liked.

 

Nowadays I often feel buried under the pile of music hardware and software I've accumulated and often just want to get things going quickly so I can record my songs.

Today, in fact, I'm busy downloading all the extra programs that came with the IK Multimedia group buy.:thu:

 

The Arturia Moog program, however, remains in my dock so it's always just a click away!:)

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Lukenskywalker Newbie

Lukenskywalker

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Actually it seems fairly similar to one I started earlier this year.....

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?t=2577291

 

yes, I remember, I answered...same as now, (I think) my '69 Bandmaster Amp....It rolled out of Fullerton in July of that year.

 

It was a curb find, complete with original cover, It was 'Filthy McNasty' with a mouse nest in the back and it reeked of old beer and nicotine.

I could immediately tell it had some major club hours on it.

 

It was missing a Bright Switch from the clean channel, (Still is, anyone know were I can get one?) and a tremolo/reverb switch, I picked up one on E-Bay, not original Fender, But utilitarian and functional.

I gave it a thorough cleaning and brought most of it's original luster back without compromising the integrity of a vintage piece of gear.

 

This is what I do, restore and repair Antiques of all kinds.

 

I sent it out to my local Amp Guru to have it recapped, the original tubes were not replaced, he said they still had a lot more miles to go on them.

 

The amp sits in a prominent place in my Music Room, when I gig I use my Vox 15 or my vintage Fender Princeton Reverb (flea market find in 1982, complete with cover and original manual, 50 bucks)

 

One of the young guys that comes to my house for Sunday jams/picnics lusts after it and wants to trade his John Lennon Epiphone Casino for it.

 

I am considering it but have a feeling he will ultimately change his mind should I agree....he loves to play it in the backyard at the jams but...

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free.;)

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blue2blue Newbie

blue2blue

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A pair of PZM's. I love them/I never use them.

 

I was really saddened a couple years ago to find my beloved old $40 Rat Shack PZM's no longer responded to new AA batteries. Those and the fabled Minimus 7's are the only Rat Shack products I ever really warmed up to.

 

Even though a Minimus 7 broke my nose.*

 

 

 

*It was painful, but it wasn't the first time this old beak's been broke and this time, because the small but incredibly heavy speaker hit my nose as I lay in bed next to the night stand the speaker was pulled from by an inauspicious tug of its cable just right, the break actually straightened out my nose, which had had a slight sideways curve from previous breaks.

 

I ran into the bathroom to look at the damage, pain shooting through my head and kind of did a double take, because my nose now had a nice Basil Rathbone linearity. But it certainly smarted, I remember that pain and the odd sense of delight quite well.

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Geoff Grace Newbie

Geoff Grace

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Any gear not used is definitely not a favorite. I usually sell it if it sits for more than a year. RIght now, my JV1080 is on its way to the chopping block. Favorite gear is always used. Silly thread.

 

You're of course welcome to your opinion, Ernest. Even so, silly or not, my experience is that favorite gear isn't always used. In the example I started the thread with, my mic and mic pre aren't getting used because I haven't recorded anything that needs a microphone in over a year. Nonetheless, I still need and value a good mic and pre. Next year, I may wind up using them every week.

 

I also value my upright piano. I'm using it a lot more right now because I'm playing for fun every now and then. But during periods when I'm really busy recording piano, I use Ivory instead. I wouldn't be surprised if I've gone a year without playing my upright piano, but I'm enjoying it now and I'm glad I didn't sell it.

 

Last but not least, I don't own a great analog synth because I can't justify its expense considering that the work I do is almost entirely sample based. But if I were to buy one, it would be one of my favorite pieces of gear, regardless of whether or not I had time to use it.

 

YMMV.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

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Beck Newbie

Beck

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I was really saddened a couple years ago to find my beloved old $40
Rat Shack
PZM's no longer responded to new AA batteries.

 

If you still have them you might try replacing the long cabling. I still have two I bought new in the late 80's and the wiring was bad right out of the box. I heavily modded them with new cable and mounted the stock cases on larger cases to accommodate two 9v batteries in each. They rock! I love them on almost anything, especially great for under the lid of a grand piano.

 

Let me know and I'll post some pics and links to mod them. I first saw the battery mod back then I think in Electronic Musician, but I also had my own ideas for the wiring that you won't see anywhere else. So the two I have are quite unique in how I've configured them.

 

:)

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