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Lots of New Gear This Month - a Guitar, an amp, and a pedal


yell03

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It has been a while since I've bought any new gear.

 

My 1st purchase was a Vox Lil' Night Train Mini-stack.

 

Then I decided I wanted a Boss DS-1, it arrived yesterday.

 

The urge for a Strat hit me again so I ordered an Olympic White Fender American Standard Strat with a Maple Board, it arrives tomorrow.

 

Two of my amps don't have reverb, so I am now jonesing for a Holy Grail Pedal.

Most likely I will trade my Boss DD3 for one.

 

I have a Visual Sound V2H2O that handles my Delay needs.

 

February has been fun.

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Some initial thoughts on my New Strat, DS1, and Vox Lil' Night Train

 

I keep buying Strats and then selling them, I am not going to make that mistake with this one.

 

By far, for some reason, this is the best sounding Strat I have ever owned.

 

It is not my 1st 2008 or Newer American Standard, I've had at least two others.

I have also recently had a Custom Shop Strat.

 

This new one gives me a reason to play CLEAN:)

 

Strum a Chord and every single note rings out clean and clear.

 

Single notes have that classic Strat twang or bluesy vibe depending on which pick-ups are selected.

 

I only played it for about an hour, mostly clean, some dirty, some higher gain.

 

No other guitar I have has a clearer, chimier sound. The individual note seperation on chords really blows me away.

 

My only minor beef, the action is a little too low, it makes bending the high E string a bit tough. I must be getting old, I used to dream of action this low with no buzzing.:)

 

The Boss DS1 is a cool little pedal for $40.

 

It is not worth more, but neither is any other distortion or overdrive pedal IMHO.

I've owned many high priced $100+ pedals, I have sold them all.

 

Now a simple $40 DS1 distortion and $40 SD1 overdrive are my pedals, I prefer amp distortion, but there are times, especially with a single channel amp, where a pedal is necessary.

 

The key to the DS1, don't turn the gain all the way up, it gets buzzy and fizzy real fast.

 

Do I love the DS1, no, but for $40 it will get enough use, as much as a higher dollar pedal.

 

Lastly, the Vox Lil' Night Train

 

I bought it after comparing it to the regular Vox Night Train.

I've previously owned the Orange Tiny Terror, Egnater Rebel 20 and 30, and I've tried other mini amps by Jet City and Mesa.

 

I've had a few weeks with it.

 

It is the coolest little amp, little being the key.

It gets the tubes cooking easier than any amp I have ever owned.

 

It is not the best amp I have ever owned, but it certainly sounds very good.

 

It really shines at lower volumes where it can still push the tubes.

 

The amount of Gain on tap on thick mode is amazing, not metal, but all the way up to the hardest of rock and 80s glam.

 

I wish it had an effects loop for my Delay or Reverb pedal.

 

Surprisingly, it doesn't seem to like pedals as much as my Blackstar HT5, but I need to play around with the setting more.

 

The Blackstar clean is so clean that the same settings on the slightly dirty cleans change the pedal characteristics. I am sure with a few minor adjustments it will be amazing.

 

For $329 for a half-stack, I can't see not buying one.

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