Re: Equipment

[Mark Plancke <soundtch@xxxxxxxx>]

>Well first of all, I would suggest checking your local pawn shops for 
>some really good deals.  You never know, you may find a Les Paul for 
>$400!  But if you're buying new, go with an Epiphone Les Paul.  Epiphone 
>is the little brother to Gibson (who makes most of Jimmy's guitars), so 
>most of the copies are pretty good.  

Yes the Epi's are a great deal. They are very close to Gibson's in tone
and construction. They usually are built with substandard hardware and
finishes but most of this can be upgraded when you have the money. There
are some high quality replacement pickups available from Duncan which
approximates the sound of the original Gibson PAF Humbuckers. You can
also upgrade the tuners and volume/tone controls with some high quality
replacements at a later date.

You must have a tube amp! A 100 Watt Marshall Super Lead non-master volume
amp made in the late 60's and early 70's would be the first choice. These
don't come 
cheap and they are loud as hell. Second choice would be a 70's master volume
head which comes pretty close to the sound of the non-master volume heads. 
You could also look into the JCM800 series amps which were made after the
first series of master volume Marshalls. These can be had for around
$300-$400.

The cabinet should be a Marshall 4x12 equipped with Celestion 25 Watt
"Greenback"
speakers. You'll need two of these to handle the power of the 100 watt head.
You could get away with just about any Marshall type 4x12 cabinet or a 2x12 
combo in a pinch.

These older amps are considered "vintage" which means expensive! I would guess
that an original 100 Watt Non-Master volume head would be going for $1000-1500
depending on condition and the cabinets would be in the $800-$1000 range. 

The nicest thing about a tube amp is that you can control the overdrive with
your guitar volume knob. You don't need any pedals to get the majority of
Jimi's
sounds just good hands and a understanding of tone and dynamics.

Keep your eyes and ears open because you never know when you might run into 
something.

Mark Plancke
SOUNDTECH RECORDING STUDIOS
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
http://www.mnsi.net/~soundtch
mailto:soundtch@xxxxxxxx