Damnit. When I bought my guitar for a pretty penny, I thought I could compliment it with a new cheap amplifier. This isn't the case at all! The amp I got sounds like ass (a Hartke 60c or something), which probably isn't the manufacturer's fault at all. It was reboxed and even cheaper than a new one. But an amp that cheap can't sound good, that's all. It was only $160! That's really cheap for a 12" combo tube amp. It only had one tube, a preamp tube.

Now for the new amp. Fender Blues Deluxe! That's right, baby. 5 tubes. 12 inch speaker. Warm bluesy tone. I've read reviews and watched videos. And from talking with my coworker all the time, Fender tube amps are really the way to go. It's not a Twin Reverb or even a Hot Rod Deluxe, and definitely not a Blues Deville (which I've actually owned in High School), or any of those really expensive amps, but it's tweed, and it has tubes, and I couldn't turn up my 4x10 inch Blues Deville past 2.5 (it went up to 12) to enjoy it. Except for the time I played outdoors at our school concert, or in the auditorium, I turned it up to 4 I think. Ooh. I can't imagine turning it all the way up. Plus something like that is just way too big. I remember having a hell of a time carrying that thing around to gigs. It was like 60 pounds, easily.

And a Blues Deville is probably worth $900, and that was for my $400 Epiphone Casino to sound better. I didn't buy it, it was a Christmas present when I was 17 or so, and of course, my Uncle Butch worked at a guitar store (he is an amazing guitarist too), so he probably got 40% off. I ended up giving that amp to my cousin, Bill, who plays and sings at his church, and writes tons of original music. And that Epiphone Casino is a story in and of itself.

I was at the local guitar shop, Todaro's, on Lansdowne Ave one day, and they had this Casino in there. I looked at it, saw the price tag ($400??!?!), and decided to have them hold it for me, and I could pick it up that Saturday. Turns out, it was only three months old, and the previous owner just decided to quit playing. Came with the case and everything. Somehow, I had over $400 in my bank account, which was amazing since I was 16 or 17 at the time (before Christmas and the amp, obviously), and I've hardly had that much money in the bank since.

Check out the new amp here. I'm also looking to invest in some recording equipment, including a microphone, an interface for my Mac (there's actually quite a few that include inputs for mics and 1/4" standard input jacks, which connect to the Mac through FireWire, and of course, the main reason for getting it, higher quality, 24bit recording), and a "Boom" microphone stand, so I can set it up in front of the amp, or adjust it and have it in front of my face. After that purchase, look for tons of junk songs to show up on this website :)

After some looking, this is probably the audio interface that I'll get. Edirol FA66 24 Bit 96kHz. It does six tracks, but if you use only four, which I will, it records at 24 bit, 192khz. That's getting into iTunes Plus, high quality sound :P I don't know what lossless is considered... probably around 1mhz or at least 512khz. The class called "Science of Sound" in college was one that I wanted to take, but was full when I tried to sign up for it. So, ask one of the jerks who signed up for that class ahead of me, if you're that curious. Or just Wikipedia it :P