Rain,

I went up to GC at lunch today in hopes of checking out your little amp. No such luck, they didn't have it. In fact, I didn't see any Randall's up at this one. They had a 20w Peavey Valve King that went down to 1w and could be dialed to either A or AB or variances I between. It was OK. I liked the 1W for its volume level when driven; that was really nice for a recording level.

They had a 1w Blackstar combo. It didn't really do anything special for me, probably the speaker size. It was either an 8" or 10", I don't recall. It just overall sounded small to me.

Ol'Pal, I started to play around with a Mustang. I was liking what I heard and starting to get into it, when I noticed I had been in there for an hour an a half. I rushed back to work at that point. I will have to go back, or hit the one in Mesquite again soon. The one in Arlington is only a couple of miles from my work.

The key is to ignore the presets...though some are very good...and just dial up an uber clean tone (the 57 Twin is a good start). And then start adding and tweaking stomps and effects. The series is a gem. Ain't technology great?

MakeShift
Rain,

I went up to GC at lunch today in hopes of checking out your little amp. No such luck, they didn't have it. In fact, I didn't see any Randall's up at this one. They had a 20w Peavey Valve King that went down to 1w and could be dialed to either A or AB or variances I between. It was OK. I liked the 1W for its volume level when driven; that was really nice for a recording level.

They had a 1w Blackstar combo. It didn't really do anything special for me, probably the speaker size. It was either an 8" or 10", I don't recall. It just overall sounded small to me.

Ol'Pal, I started to play around with a Mustang. I was liking what I heard and starting to get into it, when I noticed I had been in there for an hour an a half. I rushed back to work at that point. I will have to go back, or hit the one in Mesquite again soon. The one in Arlington is only a couple of miles from my work.

I guess I was lucky  - they had two in the store and more in the back. Must admit that it's the first time I saw Randall there though. The other GC over in Town Square carried a lot more amps IIRC, but I haven't been there since we moved here.
 
The one closest to here has a few Fender, a couple of Line 6, Marshall (mostly MG), Brugera, Peavey, Acoustic, Orange and Vox. And not half as many used amps. Incidentally, I don't remember seeing a Blackstar. 
 
I've actually considered a Fender Mustang for a while but in the end, I just got to the point where I didn't want anything to do with modelling - I have a POD, a POD HD, a Spider and tons of software I just can't be bothered to use anymore.
 
But I still wanted at least a touch of Fender in case I needed it, and because I'm a sucker for practice amps, I got myself a little Frontman 25R for $90 a few months ago (to the left side of my desk on the above pic). It does the clean Fender thing adequately, the drive channel sucks big time (but I've never found a Fender amp with a drive channel that I liked) but that's what the Boss Super OD is for, and it's actually my favorite thing to record bass through, direct from the headphones out.
 
Plus, it's red and look really cool. :P
 

Rimshot
Rain, I am very happy for you and your new amp purchase.  It is fun reading about what we all own or want or need.  The only amp I purchased in my life was a few years ago and I got a Vox VT30.  It was on sale and I wanted the 10" speaker and tube preamp.  It is not bad.  I used to use a 60's Deluxe Reverb in the studio for decades with my guitar player.  For distortion, we went from his Les Paul into an MXR distortion box and into the Deluxe Reverb.  I miced it with a 57 and the sound was great.  We used it for our albums, studio dates, and all the filmscores we did.  
 
It is great when you can get what you want.  I am happy with my little amp and even used it in church a couple of times.  Can't wait to hear your recordings of all your new toys.  The video you just released with you playing was really nice - just wanted to see your face too!
 
Rimshot
 
 

Thanks Jimmy! By the way - I'd love a Vox amp! I'm such a sucker for little amps that I may try and grab one of those tiny Pathfinder someday. :)
 
Unfortunately, I didn't get much time to play with the amp - my wife's voice started giving her problems during the second show Friday (the day I got the amp) and she's been off since. It's a bit frustrating to have this new gear and not to be able to use it, but, hey, I get to spend time with my wife.
 
But I'm hoping to be able to record a little something soon and maybe share it with you guys. :)
 
 
 

Sounds good.  Hope your wife is OK.  Thanks for the update!