Favorite cheap and/or Underrated gear

[James1214]

What is your favorite (and surprisingly awesome) cheap or underrated gear?

First off I'll begin by saying that my everyday bass for the last 6-7 years has been a Rickenbacker 4003, and finding any kind of decent backup has been a losing and exhausting endeavor, I've gone through probably 5 basses trying to find something acceptable and finally... I got one.

The girlfriend gave me an Epiphone Les Paul Special Bass for Valentines day (yeah im late on reporting the procurement of it) and after playing it for a while I have to say.... I fucking love it, it plays a charm and sounds pretty damn good for something that cost $300. I have heard lots of complaints about the quality of Gibson and Epiphone products of late but this bass must break the mold or be a diamond in the rough cuz I'm really happy with it in all respects.

[The Shocker]

Those cheap Fender effects pedals aren't bad. 

[Baltar]

$400 for both! Bogen PA 50 Watts A/B, 4x10 Celestion cab.

[Derelict78]

Peavey T-40 

[kirky]

baltar,

tell me about your bogen....i just bought a 35 watter and haven't done anything with it yet....is yours modded?

[Baltar]

Yeah it's modded.  The guy who sold it to me did it.  I can ask him if it's ok for you to email him, he builds amps all the time I guess.  It was already close to a Bassman circuit, but he changed it around for an earlier break up.  I'm no good for modding amps, I can do some pedals, but not amps. 

[xayk]

I picked up an Epiphone G400 Custom for $150 and two pedals I wasn't using, and I'm having more fun with it than a grown man should. I'll end up replacing the pickups, but it's just... fun.  (Plus I'll end up putting on a Bigsby, swapping the speed knobs for top-hat knobs, and getting a full face pickguard for it so that I can properly emulate Glen Buxton.)

[RAGER]

love my Boss SD-1. $25 all day long

[jibberish]

those <$200 ibanez RG guitars.   amazing players, tho they sound like crap, but effects and stuff works fine.
i'll put the action of one of my RG's up against any PRS or graphite Fly. srsly. retarded close with no buzzes, except i wore out the frets so it is still sitting. frets are super in tune. gibson WISHES. truly amazing for a POS.

now i shopped the GC's in my area hard for months before finding it. i played every one i found, so no, no other one was ever like this black one. none were dogs with major issues, but they weren't perfection.  i did also get a silver one that was runner up, but the black one will be the bar for nice action on any guitar i ever touch. that's why that is my favorite cheap gear.

[Iron Mtn]

I love my Peavey Windsor, when it's working

[omie]

I've been trying to get Hondo to endorse me but they don't return phone calls and their fax number doesn't work or something... weird.

[clockwork green]

The Johnson J-Station.  One of the old digital modelers.  They made a really crappy sounding amp that a roommate of mine had but I got this cheap.  They added a bunch of new amp models about a year after it came out and then they seemed to disappear.  I was fucking around a few years back and plugged it into a Mesa 20/20 rack power amp and it was some of the best high gain metal tone I've ever heard which didn't make sense coming out of a digital modeler into an EL84 loaded power amp but there it was.  The bass models are also quite nice and there are some fucked up sounding settings that do great fuzz tones.  It's pretty great for practicing at home...I can use the headphones (which I normally don't like) or I can run it into my Sunn concert slave for fairly low or high volume jamming. 

[xayk]

The Johnson J-Station. 

Agreed.  I keep my J-Station hooked up to my computer for quickie recording, and while it's not the best-sounding modeller by today's standards, it still sounds great and is easy to use.

[Ranbat]

Old Harmony guitars. They get a bad rep for being unplayable junk, but a lot of them just need to be properly set up. I just picked up this one for a mere $50. Humbucker and 2 singles, 5-way toggle and floating bridge. Sounds and plays nicely. I probably couldn't have touched a Squier set up like this for less than $200.

[blackkrosses]

The Johnson J-Station.  One of the old digital modelers.  They made a really crappy sounding amp that a roommate of mine had but I got this cheap.  They added a bunch of new amp models about a year after it came out and then they seemed to disappear.  I was fucking around a few years back and plugged it into a Mesa 20/20 rack power amp and it was some of the best high gain metal tone I've ever heard which didn't make sense coming out of a digital modeler into an EL84 loaded power amp but there it was.  The bass models are also quite nice and there are some fucked up sounding settings that do great fuzz tones.  It's pretty great for practicing at home...I can use the headphones (which I normally don't like) or I can run it into my Sunn concert slave for fairly low or high volume jamming. 

I have a friend who swears by these. As a matter of fact, we've recorded MANY demos with them. He owns two, runs them stereo for guitar AND bass.

[Pundan]

I payed $300 for my 1984 Tokai Silver Star (and that was including shipping by air mail from Japan, took only two days to get it!).

[hashbrowns]

I've got an old ltd/esp flying v - 100. That thing kills. When I first had it, it slayed almost any guitar I could find under 800 or so. Also it kinda opened my mind to using pointy shredder guitars for fuzzy/doomy stuff. I had always used it for my thrash band and when I started playing doom seriously I bought an epiphone sg. However I soon realized that they both had a pretty similar feel and sound. The sg cuts more and the v has a more full bottom end and heavier tone overall. Also v-100 doesn't really play as well as the sg because I've played the v since I was 14 and the frets are pretty done for. I have pretty heavy hands, especially during guitar solos. But yeah I second the guy talking about his epi sg, they're great.

[moose23]

My Maison Les Paul Custom. Bout 120 dollars. centre of the pic below



The black Gibson SG was free with a badly smashed neck and was only charged about 70 dollars to get it fixed. I had to force the luthier to take teh money as he reckoned because the guitar was free he should do the work for free and I'd end up with a really nice SG all free but I couldn't accept that level of kinda workmanship for free.

[Metal and Beer]

Nice, dig that Ibanez, too; is the tailpiece stable (for being a trem, I mean) ?

[moose23]

Yeah it was great, when I had the arm on and was using it it stayed in tune really well. I've since traded it away though as I couldn't justify two SGs, especially since I'm a bass player by trade. The neck was also a bit too chunky and because it was a bolt-on the fretboard was a good inch in front of the body which just isn't how an SG should be.

[EddieMullet]

Another vote for that Johnson J station, I got mine for 30 bucks when they were on clearance, I've used it for demo recordings and even as a last minute substitute for a broken fuzz pedal.

What does sound awesome is when I run my Realistic MG-1 (Moog synthesizer made for and sold through Radio Shack years ago) through it on the "Brit Stack" setting with the "Rotary" effect and you have the intro to "Tarot Woman" by Rainbow.

That MG-1 is another favorite piece of cheap gear, though they have become collector's items and not so cheap anymore.

[mortlock]

the ibanez sg copy is sweet..

[Lumpy]

DOD 250 overdrive into a tube amp.

[justinhedrick]

DOD 250 overdrive into a tube amp.

works well for chris spencer!

[Derelict78]

DOD 250 overdrive into a tube amp.

works well for chris spencer!

and Al Cisneros