I want one dammit!!!!

He's a vintage freak in that department. Plays a 1969 Fender strat in white and ivory like Jimi at Woodstock

There are a lot of great 15 to 22 watt amps, and a lot of great 100 watt amps, but not a lot in between. In most cases if a 20 isn't loud enough you need a 100 to get significantly louder. The exceptions are the Orange AD30 and HiWatt SSH and pretty much anything built by Dr. Z. But all of these are very, very expensive. After searching high and low I came up with the Traynor DH40H... a TREMENDOUS amp for the price. 

The Darkhorse 40 is technically a class AB1, and its tone and response to Gibson Humbuckers is similar to an old 30 watt Marshall (or Orange or Vox (with top boost) ... btw: they weren't really Class A, more like Class A -esque!) As far as I can tell the only "true" Class A big amp is the Laney Lionheart 50 (which uses five El-34s (that's not a typo... I said FIVE)  in parallel single ended configuration - and NOTHING sounds better... but I can't afford it.)

For about 20 years I used a Marshall JCM 601 combo with an additional 1x12" extension cab. It had a nice "clean channel" sound, not so great high gain channel (I rarely used it) and a very good line out, and it was a reasonably portable club gig setup. 

It was also way too loud for what I was doing, so eventually I sold it to a kid in a neo- hard rock band in Brooklyn. I used a Bogner Rebel 20 and still have it. Great for recording, it has both a 6V6 and an EL-84 power stage and you can mix the two. It also has a variable output knob that really works as advertised. But it just wasn't loud enough for the new gig with the new guys. I took my time and found the Traynor and it was just right for club gigs, I can schlep it around with a "magna-cart" mini, folding hand cart and I'm really happy with it. 

Anybody need a yaybahar player?

* Aria Pro II Cardinal Series CS-350 Electric Guitar (the red one, Japan made): this was my first decent guitar (after some crappy ones I dare not to mention) and I still play it sometimes for the cleaner, more jazzy stuff. I replaced the neck pickup by a Seymour Duncan and I installed a Floyd Rose tremolo bridge and it's a pretty nice guitar.

* Carvin DC135T Electric Guitar (the blue one, US made): this is the one I play the most, it's a bit following the Ibanez metal-oriented guitars style, great for the heavier stuff and soloing. 1-piece construction, 24 frets neck, Floyd Rose tremolo bridge, humbucker in the bridge and single coils in middle and neck...

* Fender Gemini II acoustic guitar (made in Korea): this was a present and I have never been fond of its sound or playing feel, I would have never bought it myself. Perhaps one day I will be able to afford a Gibson J-200 .

* Peavey Fury bass (US made): following the Fender Precision style, it's quite OK, I'm not really a bass player anyway so for my needs it's good enough. It needs new strings urgently though.

* Yamaha GW50 multi-FX pedalboard: works as single effects pedals or as a multi-FX combinations with 128 factory presets and 128 user presets, more than enough for an amateur like myself, I'm fine with it.

* Boss GT-10 multi-FX pedalboard: I bought this one recently out of a 'buying rush' and I still don't know what to say, it's extremely powerful but you need to spend a lot of time to master it (which I have not done yet). I don't think it's practical as a single effects pedalboard because it does not have independent knobs for each effect's parameters, everything needs to be programmed one by one by menus and a few buttons and a selection wheel, it seems more meant to program your own multi-fx presets and then play with those, and I'm still far from understanding all what it takes. Of course it has many great factory presets too but I'm still a bit lost with it.

* Yamaha PSR2100 Keyboard: this was also a present, I would have never bought it myself. The built-in sounds are not very exciting for rock playing, it's more the kind of keyboard for programming all the rhythms and backing tracks and then play on top the melody to entertain the old guests at an hotel lounge bar in the evening, but OK, with my Vintage Keys sound module I can use it as controller, and for more orchestral sounds such as brass, winds etc it's OK.

* E-Mu Vintage Keys sound module: I just bought this one 2nd hand and I still need to learn about it, but it has many vintage sounds, Moogs, Mellotron, ARPs, Oberheims, Rhodes, Wurly's, CP70 and so on, so it should be fun.

* Hughes & Kettner Attax Series Tour Reverb Amp: 100W, a nice guitar amp.

* Peavey Audition 30W Amp: just for home practicing, I nearly never use it having the H&K, I use it mainly for the keyboard

I have also a bass amp sitting at some friend's place for a few years, don't even remember the model, it was not from any famous brand but it was pretty good and powerful. I am also co-owner of a Roland U-20 keyboard which sits at a friend's place for years (the other co-owner).

In any case, I can't complain about gear, what I need now is starting to play again!

Fret buzz can be a pain in the ass indeed. In my experience, only a good luthier will fix it right, especially on a guitar with tremolo bridge as yours (even more if it's a 'body-through' bridge, I don't know if that's the case). I have had many tries by myself and other people who thought they would fix it, adjusting the neck thrust rod, the strings bridge height etc, only to poor results (it's easy to avoid fret buzz by lifting the strings up but that's not what you want if you want to play light and nicely). Take it to some good luthier, it will cost some money but it's gonna be worth it.

Thanks! a good guitar set up by a good luthier should not cost you too much I hope. Make sure that the strings height and the tremolo-bridge springs tension are up to your taste, this will define how your guitar will feel afterwards.

This was one of my main headaches, they have to get the sweet spot between 3 different settings, the neck thrust rod, the strings height on the bridge and the tremolo springs tension, which in a floating bridge like a Floyd Rose affect the strings height. Most importantly, make sure that you start by having the string gauge you want, because different gauges put different tension and will require different settings on the neck rod, the bridge and tremolo springs, and then everything changes.  

I won't give up on my GT-10, I'm pretty sure that it's a very good device, but I need to spend time on it. It's quite different from other pedalboards I have played such as my Yamaha GW50, which is a more traditional combination of single effects pedals. The GT-10 seems to be meant to programming presets, independently of what each effect actually does.

Of course by 'luthier' I didn't mean here someone who actually builds guitars, just someone who knows how to set them up, some music stores have such a guy, or otherwise they will send the guitar to someone, but by experience I know that many of the guys in stores who say they can, actually can not.

If you want to try a bit by yourself, the first thing you can do is lift a bit the string(s) which buzz and see it that solves the problem. On the bridge you must have little allen screws to adjust each string height, and you must also have adjustment for each string scale length (the length from the nut to the small piece in the bridge where each string sits). First of all make sure that the length of each string is correct so that when you play on the 12th fret it is exactly one octave up, if you have a tuner you can use it to check this (I guess the GT-8 has one?). As you probably know, the lower strings need to have a bit longer scale and the high strings a bit shorter to play in tune. Sometimes people change the strings to other gauges and forget to adjust this so then the guitar will not play in tune. This is always the first adjustment to check.

Then, if some string has fret buzz, increase its height with the small allen screws until the fret buzz disappears. If you see that in order to avoid the buzz you have to lift up the string too much (so it gets too far from the fretboard) this means that you will need to adjust the neck rod, and this I recommend not to try yourself or you can mess your guitar up, this should be done by someone who knows.

When you have a floating tremolo bridge (as I believe you do by the pic you posted) things can get more complicated but hopefully these simple steps can solve your problem. 

Good luck!

It's an amazing job you did there, both the lightening and the painting, congrats!

BTW if you play in drop D think also about the strings gauge. A normal 6th string, say for example a 0.48 is designed to play an E at its normal tension, when you downtune it to D the string is looser so it will buzz at the frets more easily, especially in a light-play guitar like yours. A thicker string needs more tension to achieve the same pitch, so in this example trying with a 0.52 could help avoiding the fret buzz when tuned at the same D pitch because the string will be tighter.

My every day amp is an '05 Fender Blues Jr. I also have an '05 2 x 12 De Ville but it's too loud for my music room.

I use a Pedaltrain with a Dunlop "Cry Baby" wah wah, Danelectro Daddy O, Cool Cat and DanEcho.

Apart from the woodwork, I put them together myself.

Next to these I use an Ibanez Prestige 3005 and a Gretsch Broadkaster.

I'm not a real musician, just an amateur so I'm afraid I'm not really entitled to make you any recommendations. I guess it all depends on your budget and what kind of 'proggin' do you mean. Do you play mostly chords? or mostly lead? mostly clean or mostly heavy / metal oriented?

Important defining features of a guitar are the action (how far are the strings from the fretboard), the frets profile height, the neck shape (more "U" or "V" depending if you will play mostly chords or lead), the neck radius (depending on how big your hands are), the pickups (humbuckers give a beefier sound, single-coils a thinner but sharper sound, although several guitars nowadays have switches to emulate the opposite wiring configuration), do you want a tremolo bridge... It's a world in it's own.

Your Ibanez didn't look too bad in picture, seemingly a low action guitar suited to modern playing with power chords and leads, and Ibanez is quite a good brand. The fact that a neck truss rod adjustment is necessary and a bit costly should not be a reason to throw it away if you like the way it feels and plays. With whatever guitar you buy it will come the day that a truss rod adjustment will be needed, especially if you experiment with different string gauges and tunings. And the cost of the neck adjustment should never be a match to the cost of the guitar! If you say the cost of adjusting the neck is close to the cost you paid for the guitar, either you must have bought it very cheap or you got a very expensive quotation for the adjustment, ask somewhere else!

If you can afford a Strat, it is surely a very good and versatile guitar . There are so many of them though that I could get lost, just look at this if you are interested

http://thehub.musiciansfriend.com/guitar-buying-guides/stratocaster-buying-guide" rel="nofollow - http://thehub.musiciansfriend.com/guitar-buying-guides/stratocaster-buying-guide

When you're ready to buy I suggest you try to find a place where you can plug in and test play a few different guitars. I have a Sam Ash music store near me and they have a large selection of guitars and have no problem with you plugging in and playing anything they have on display. Right now they are selling standard American Strats for $1299. They also have Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck models for $1599.

Don't take me for granted but I believe that when they talk about guitar neck shapes, C or U are indeed the same.

The Cry Baby is ok but I would like to find a wah wah with a wider range from high to low. I'm looking for a sound similar to "Ain't Superstitious" by the Jeff Beck Group.

I'm not sure what you mean.

On the right side of the pedal base there is the wah range selector knob that has six different positions. 

This adjusts the tonal range but doesn't expand the low to high range.

The variable Q and boost control adjustments on the bottom of the pedal gives me a variety of sounds but still doesn't expand the range.

I normally have the overdrive after the wah wah but the booklet said putting the overdrive before the wah wah will give you more of a quacking sound. I've tried this and it was a step in the right direction but I'm still not getting the wider range I'm looking for.

Maybe I'm being too obsessed with that one song.

Probably only Jeff Beck knows how he got that sound.

Wow, that's an impressive collection of effects , it must be a pain every time you need to clean the floor 

I guess that when you switch half of that gear on it's probably impossible to recognize that what you're hearing comes from a guitar

I will look into this but I'm limited when it comes to technology and like I said earlier, I'm probably too obsessed with that one Jeff Beck song.

A lot of times I won't even use the wah wah effect. I will use the "always on" method by depressing the pedal until I get a sound I like and leaving it there for the entire song.

In the meantime, I have a Jimi Hendrix Experience artist series pedal by DigiTech that I can start playing around with.

Yours wouldn't be the first cat to be actively involved in music making. These ones below are superb; if they started meowing, they'd would sound very similar to some Sigur Ros music 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEAyHkFd6F4

 

And remember, this is just the beginning.

Do you use youtube or are there other sites for storing and sharing your music?

Some people here upload their stuff to Soundcloud, you can find some examples in the 'PA Songwriters and Composers Association" thread. But I have never done it, I don't know how it works precisely.

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=94956&PN=15" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=94956&PN=15

Thanks for the info, I will look into this.

Nice guitars, and that HiWatt and Binson Echorec 2 look terrific!    

I just bought a new camera yesterday and would like to post some pics.

But I'm still having trouble changing my avatar.

It is all instrumental with me playing three or four different guitar tracks.

When I first got the recorder I played around with it and ended up with several songs that I burned onto a CD. 

I gave them away to friends and family members.

They all said they liked it but, they kinda had to say that because they're friends and family.

I have loved my Strat since the day I got it and it has been played many times more

than any of my guitars.

I hope you have years of enjoyment playing that beauty.

need but wanted anyway. I'm like a kid in a candy store, I want one of everything.  

Thanks Siniša! I appreciated your suggestion the other day but I was affraid to regret my purchase, since I couldn't try those guitars 

It is a 15 watt tube amp with one 12" 50 watt speaker but it sounds like a much bigger amp.

With the volume, master volume, and "fat" switch you can get a variety of sounds even without

separate effects.

Of course, any effects you choose will just sound better.

All amps were tube until solid state circuitry came about. Many manufacturers went that route but 

eventually guitarists discovered that they couldn't get that vintage sound no matter what settings and effects

they used. 

Fender and others eventually offered a line of tube amps for just that reason.