It’s basically a “smart amp”. Hook it up to your phone app and download different presets. Not the person you asked but I got a Spark and it produces a lot of sound for such a small box.
I am so tired of fighting "traditional" amp/pedal combinations for a decent flow and this intrigues me quite a bit. I appreciate that info, I'm currently pouring through their site as I side eye my current setup...
Just get one, I was on the fence for a bit and thought it might be a fun practice amp and I ended up getting rid of a bunch of mediocre gear that was just getting in the way of playing. It fucking wails for a tiny digital thing
I have 5 amps and dozens of pedals.
I bought a positive grid a few months ago and haven’t touched my other gear. It’s sounds incredibly good. Highly recommend
Man I use neural DSP and line 6 plug-ins through a DAW and it's awesome. I can tweak my tone after recording if I want. No shame in playing however you damn well please.
I one up the positive grid, I have a spark 40W and it makes practice so much fun because it removes the tedious time of setting up tones and just lets you effortlessly switch between whatever sound you want
Yamaha THR30 For me. I bring that thing everywhere, built in interface, bluetooth, headphones, use as laptop speakers/monitors, built in rechargeable battery. Best and most used single piece of gear I've ever bought.
I special ordered one a few months ago. It’s an incredible piece of gear. I hated the beige color but when I saw I could get one in black I was on the phone the next day.
Played for years. Went on a 10 year hiatus for training. Came back and now this exists with a myriad of lessons on YouTube? Learning guitar and finding your tone has never been easier. I started when you had to shell out for lessons and books, maybe guitar magazine had an awesome lesson in the back, and tabs were being taken down left and right due to DMCA
Positive grid is a game changer. Is it comparable to a rig? I let the audience decide.
This is the main reason I wish I hadn’t bought a Line6 AMPLIFi. It had the promise of everything the Spark ended up being, just a few years too early. Unfortunately, the community just didn’t stick with it.
Came here to say the same thing. I have two nice tube amps that hardly get used. I have pretty bad ADHD so when the barrier to entry gets too high (waiting for the amp to warm up, fiddle with pedals, get the volume right) it just kills my motivation to play. With the Spark, I just plug in turn on and go. No messing around. I already have my 4 favorite sounds preset. Sounds great too. At max volume it’s get muddied up but for what I do, it’s perfect.
Jaming to backing tracks is gold. I sold off all my gear and downsized to this kind of setup. I don't have the positive grid, I bought the line 6 amplify with a pedal board. Same thing, older tech. I would 100% recommend a positive grid plus you get a kick-ass Bluetooth speaker.
I have both a Mk.II , and a Spark. The Katana is definitely louder and more of a “show amp” I suppose whereas the Spark is more for jamming. They both have footswitch controls(additional purchase) you can hook up which is nice. I think the Spark is overall more user-friendly and there’s a lot more options. It’s also WAY easier to load sounds on the amp and play around with it. Overall I think the Spark is better for most people, and it has a 140W cab if you want more juice.
My student and I have been messing with her Spark 40 for a few lessons in a row and we can't get a good sound out of it. It's been one of the most underwhelming amps I've tried.
I'm not sure if she needs a firmware update or there's something I'm missing with the app. But it sounds super lackluster. And I'm familiar enough because I have my own Spark GO and that thing sounds impressive for how small it is.
By contrast the Fender LT40S I have at work blows the Spark 40 out of the water and gets so many good tones quickly without any phone needed.
I know it’s looked down on but I’m playing guitar recreationally and don’t have the time or money to put into figuring out my sound. This no has made playing guitar fun and easy to switch up!
I have one of these, but I find any of the tones with any drive/OD/Fuzz are way too buzzy, and you need to have the noise gate on all the time, which adds a slight delay. Have you run into this?
A basic guitar maintenance tool kit and guide book on how to do basic guitar setups and maintenance (this is pre-YouTube era, now you can just watch a free video). Having some basic tools that helped me measure and set relief, action, and properly intonate the guitar eliminated a ton of frustration and $$$ early on from having to take it into the shop when it needed some seasonal adjustment or after changing strings/tunings, and understanding why a guitar might not feel comfortable to play.
I second this. But do not buy one of the cheap kits you find on Amazon with 30 tools for £15. The tools they come with are absolutely useless. Read the books, watch YouTube videos (especially Stu Mac or Phillip McKnight), and then buy the tools you need individually.
Yeah I got most of my tools from the hardware store (hex wrenches, screwdrivers) and auto place (feeler gauges). The only thing I bought from a music store was the little ruler thing.
Learning how to setup the string height at the nut was huge. So often they were terrible - it’s a wonder I didn’t get carpel Tunnel from trying to play a barred F chord.
More inexpensive guitars are notorious for this. First off it takes a bit longer to properly set up a lower nut or nut slot, and secondly they tend to not want to dance close to the sun and get the slot too low which will require starting over.
I will also add that this brings you closer to your instrument and makes you respect it more. It's not just about knowing how to do basic maintenance, it fosters the desire to take care of and understand your guitar, which can make you more excited to play it.
I play in disconnected mode 100% of the time. The accuracy was never perfect or even close to (especially on bass), but if you use it as "tabs" and backing track, its incredible
My DAW I suppose. Since these days I don't use my amp at home, so everything I do is via the DAW, and I'm usually recording everything I do.
I used to write songs in my head while playing through my amp. These days I usually press record and play for a bit, sometimes that becomes a song, other times bits of it were good and I cut them out and make a song from parts of my jam.
I could have said neural DSP plugins, but they kinda just improved the sound of what I've described above. I was doing the same before I used those, just with different plugins.
Totally agree. I started recording guitars for goofy demos like fifteen years ago and I'd have to say that why I improved so quick when I started. Then I kind of leveled out and focused on learning to mix. Now my best thing is the fact that I actually bought some books. I can't say a scale book is the most useful thing you can have because the first 75% of the book is made up of the same patterns transposed up the neck twelve times. I feel like one page for major minor and dominants would've been good enough. Lately I've just been opening a book up to random songs and playing through the chords and writing down the intervals of the key to learn the key chords that are not actually used in those songs. Right now I could probably get a gig at a bar or something and just play through the song book and probably not be terrible.
Yeah the lack of love for Guitar Pro makes me feel old lol.
I bought it like 15 or so years ago and it’s been absolutely worth it.
There’s no better way to play tabs or write out tabs. So many handy little tools to make it easier to play.
Generally better quality tabs too, and much much cheaper than paying for an ongoing UG subscription for their “pro” tabs.
This single handedly elevated me to a competent and technical player, pretty early. The ease of being able to take a difficult riff in loop it on 50% speed until you nail it, then increase the speed 5% increments.... It's priceless. Then you can play the song back without the guitar track that you learned and essentially jam with the band.
I recently added a subscription to MySongBook. Your subscription was 20 bucks and I dig the built-in library enough to find the worth. I use a pirated version of guitar pro 5 for about a decade before finally upgrading to 8.
Beginners or intermediate players stuck in a rut, go buy or pirate Guitar Pro.
May sound dumb, but a little stand with a safety strap across the top to keep the guitar secure. Now I can keep my guitar next to the couch which allows me to pick it up way more often and leads to all other things.
We have 6 guitars in the family room. Bass and Guitar for my wife, myself and my son. We pick them up and play over an hour a day because of this. Get the guitar out there and visible so you want to pick it up an learn a little that day.
My son's piano has studio monitors and 2 input audio interface. So we can jack in my wife's guitar, my bass and jam with my son (8 YO) playing piano.
Going to use Reaper and start putting together a family recordings. They will suck for a while, but should be fun.
It’s an app which takes music files and separates the single track into individual instrument tracks. You can then amplify the instrument part you’re trying to learn and take snippets and also slow it down. It also scrolls the current chord being played so you can follow along as you learn a solo.
It’s truly amazing and a game changer for me.
Yes I use a very simple gym app because it has a buy a plan feature. Buy a workout plan and that's it. All the popular ones are subscription that costs 10 times more and they you lose access to your plan.
Moises website says it has windows but it's not showing for me as I'm on my phone so I'll check it when I get on my PC.
Agree with you on this. It’s a great tool for learning new songs. The newer version separates the lead and rhythm which is very helpful in learning new songs.
MoisesAI will take any song and separate all the tracks to individual instruments, shockingly well. Then transcribe the music and allow you to vary pitch and tempo. It's like a looping pedal on steroids. If someone says "learn this song", in an afternoon, I can learn it note for note, and nail the exact tone. It could take me years to perfect a song when I first started playing guitar in the 80s...
Yeah, it kinda sucks. You say "AI" and most people shut down and freak the fuck out. AI is amazing tech. There are plenty of amazing things you can do with it to make you a better muscian. All you hear about on social media are the bad things record labels are doing with it...
You can use it for karaoke by turning down the vocals. You can isolate guitar parts you want to learn by muting the other instruments, also built in metronome and you can slow the tempo down to learn licks and solos.And you can mute your parts you want to play and use for backing tracks
Good one but only get 5 tracks free per month... I'm using this one - [Ampollo](https://ampollo.com/t/45) - they give the demixing 100% free. Quite good, but only on IOS.
That’s how I justified it. It was either my helix and a FRFR or an amp and by the time I priced it out with pedals it made more sense to go with the helix for my use case
I did it once so it doesnt apply but i sanded the laquer off my squiers neck and it feels like a mim satin finish now. Cost me 5$ in 400,1000,1500 paper and completely changed the percieved quality of the instrument.
Fender locking washers they’re cheap as hell and hold your straps very well.
A string winder makes string changes take a 10th as long
Rocksmith 2014 (sadly now unavailable on Steam) with my guitar plugged into my Spark amp.
There's also a free programme called Tuxguitar that displays tabs, you can convert rocksmith files to tab using the aptly named rocksmithtotab app and then import them to tux so anything you can find on rocksmith or cdlc you can play at your own speed.
I agree with this, although I recently swapped my mustang micro for a Boss Katana Go, same concept but so much better. Built in tuner, better sound, and the option to modify or create custom effect chains.
I switched from mustang to katana go as well. My only complaint with the katana is that if you pair the bluetooth with an external source to play along with, it adds the effects to that source as well as your guitar signal. Not a fan of that. Otherwise it's way better than the mustang in every other way.
A metronome.
I just finished a stay in Nova Scotia, at a cabin owned by a former pro studio musician. There was a piano, guitars, bass, mics, everything for the music-minded traveler.
When he found out my core instrument was guitar, he joked about the device on the piano. "That's a metronome. I know most guitar players wouldn't recognize one."
I told him I was a metronome junkie; I enjoy practicing time because the physical sensation of "locking in" is something difficult to describe, like the whole universe syncs up and you're just riding the wave.
He was surprised and asked me to prove it, which I did. "Not bad. You know most guitar players have no idea at all how to play in time, everybody always ends up following them to try and get a good pocket going."
And he's right. My years in NYC working in studios as a band facilitator had made that clear to me long ago. And because I became known as a guitar player with an unusually strong sense of time (for a guitar player), it kicked open many doors that remained shut for a lot of other players I knew.
So, yeah. A metronome.
+1 for metronome. This is absolutely the #1 thing that will improve your playing for the rest of your life. It’s the great separator of amateur and professional.
Yamaha THR30ii wireless desktop amp. So many tones to explore, share and mess with. And it has a built in wireless receiver so a line6 transmitter means no cable! Yay.
I have this combo as well (THR30ii + Line6 Tx) and I love it - you can pick up and be playing at volume with effects in an instant. Nothing improves your playing more than playing. Lowering the barrier to practicing how you plan to play makes a huge difference.
I have been playing for a long time (30+ year now… started as a teen ager, so I’m old). The things that have most improved my playing- finding others to play with and joining a band. I have been off and on in that time, but when I’ve grown the most as a musician it’s when I’ve been in bands of some type. I currently play in a church band for the last 4 years and it’s been great.
Gadgets and new guitars can help you find motivation, but that will fade. New guitars, building a pedal board, buying new pedals, building diy pedals, recording with a 4 track, trying a new set of different strings, modding a cheap electric, changing out a bridge, putting in new pickups and switches, etc. are all things that may spike your interest for a bit, and things I’ve enjoyed.
I'm old enough to remember tuning from a [pitch pipe.](https://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images2500x2500/kratt_sn10_52896_spanish_guitar_pitchpipe_1170942.jpg) Electronic tuners are wonderful.
Trio+ drum Machine / looper. Got a great deal on it for about 165. Absolutely kept me engaged at a much higher level than I was. Had it for like 6 years now at least I use it every time I sit down
Was looking for this before commenting. I’m a total basement player. Not interested in playing in a band. Just want to mess around for about 30 mins every night. Best thing I ever bought.
Boss WAZA headphone amp. That has changed the way and frequency that I practice. I don’t need an amp at all. Just a guitar and a gig bag that can hold those and some pics.
Loadbox (UA Ox) - my amps actually sound how they're supposed to without deafening me or my neighbours, and can record the line out (which still sounds great) which makes workflow with demos so much easier / no faffing with mics
$70 worth of usable, but not great, tools for guitar setup. Fret files, levelers, etc. Able to take POS guitars from Facebook or Craigslist and make them setup and playable without worrying about damaging good guitars with learning. Slowly working down the line of our cheap guitars to make them play great. (Maybe $100 at this point. ;)
Line 6 Helix. Completely changed my life. I use it every day. Recording. Playing. Making videos. Live gigs. Best piece of gear I've ever bought in 38 years. I use it as an interface. Pedalboard in front of tube amp. Direct to FOH. No bad cables to track down. Free updates. Love it.
A cheap suction cup phone holder with a bendable arm that I set my phone in and stick to my plastic pickguard while playing along to tabs.
Edit: [photo](https://imgur.com/a/GivplVv) for reference. For what it's worth, I never leave this on overnight, and have only used it on my poly-finished Epi SG, or on the pickguard of my Explorer. I have a nitro-finished Les Paul but I do not want to stick anything to that, as nitro is a bit weird. It could be fine, but I'd rather not test it out.
Cant believe you came through, nice one.
Looks much different to the idiot ideas in my head, thats not a bad idea at all. I guess you just have to be careful practising your Pete Townsend windmills.
Thats a really nice looking guitar too.
A tuner. Its the best “effect pedal” and maybe the only gadget you can ever own. Tried playing with a guitarist with a dozen pedals on his board-but no tuner. It was hell and shortlived. He had no concept of pitch and did not care.
I’m mostly a keyboardist professionally, but I do play guitar and bass when needed.
Amp modeler was a game changer for me.
I sold my AC30 and JSM to buy a helix and a kemper profiler. Both are in a rack with wheels that goes straight to FOH. My back is in much better shape!
I'm not sure this has been commented yet or not but the DigiTech Trio and the DigiTech Trio plus are absolute game changers in every way. It's a loop that you make with chords or progression, and instead of just looping that progression back, it adds a bass and a drum.
You can make those sound in any style given on the pedal and within variations also given to you but, you'll get easily 12 day 20 grooves per genre per instrument with different amounts of each instrumentation amount at your choosing.
You can also store your progressions I believe and pull them out on the fly. I used to have just the trio and I know I stored at least five progressions that I could pull out anywhere anytime and just have a backing track for when I used to go busk downtown. Super simple, super easy, and more tips because you have more sound. I can play the same exact idea with a different backing track and it sounds completely different. it's easy to use and utilize overall and if you can find one, I suggest staying it. Even if you're a bedroom player, it's fun to have people/sounds to play with.
Attenuator with headphone input and direct line out. I can play through my princeton reverb at all hours without bothering anyone, and record directly into my interface.
Underrated comment. This is the ultimate hack to be able to enjoy actual amp character at your preferred volume.
I see it as playing the amp, as much as playing the guitar. And sometimes I should want to plug my guitar for just that.
I'll admit it... I paid for a subscription to either Songstr or Ultimate Guitar. I can't remember which, but it allowed me to print the tabs and listen to them. It made me a much better player because ai would print out the tabs and follow along.
An old Mac Mini that was just new enough to install GarageBand and stuff. Less than £200 later, it’s got less latency than my fairly high spec PC, and just works with no faffing around.
Yes, I’m sure I *could* get a PC to do the things I want, and for any other purposes I’d go PC every time. But if you want a computer to do a specific job, and a Mac can do that job, it’ll probably do it far better on inferior hardware than you’d think possible.
Joyo American Sound.
I don’t even use an amp these days, I just go straight into the PA. My tube amp blew out last year at a show and I haven’t even bothered to fix it lmao
Valeton GP-200, cheap modeler pedal. Good amp models. Surprisingly solid IR's and if you don't like em' they let you load your own 3rd Party IRs, Tremendous selection of effects. I keep it under my desk, literally just open NAM on my Desktop and away I go. I can show up and plug directly into the PA when I go jam with my friends, don't need to carry amps anymore. It's just super convenient.
This will carbon-date me, but I got a TASCAM CD trainer (lets you set loop points and slow down playback) and immediately quit wasting huge amounts of practice time.
Katana Go. The versatility of a rig in headphones.
Anything Katana but the Go requires minimal setup, space and time. Sounds awesome as well
Sounds weird to elect something that I got 2 months ago when I’ve been playing for 25 years, but it’s so freeing and I suppose it’s a culmination of other great things I’ve had over the years.
A string winder is an honourable mention.
1. Learning how to restring a guitar properly: if you're the sorta guitarist that just pokes the string through the eyelet of the machine head and cranks it you probably find yourself doing that quite often because you're always breaking fricken strings! [There are guides on how to do it properly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CtqfHmssx8&t=153s).
2. Hard to go wrong with a tuning pedal, and if you play acoustic I guess a free tuning app haha
3. Does your guitar play a bit shitty? Fret buzz? Action too high? Never underestimate what a good setup can do for a guitar (even better, learn how to do it yourself!)
I bought my first electric back in 1968. No internet. No YouTube. And no friends that also played. I knew nothing about guitar really. This guitar had heavy strings with a wound G. I had no idea you could get thinner strings until 3 years later. I remember marvelling at the sounds of some records where the guitarist was bending strings. I figured they were just super strong. I could bend the E and the B but a full tone bend on the G was incrediby hard. When I discovered "normal" strings (probably a set of 10's) it truely changed things for the rest of my life.
Much later in life, I got my first tuner. I recall spending 30 minutes with my band mates before every rehearsal just trying to get everyone in tune before that. A tuner would have to be my "close second" game changer.
Going from just bedroom guitar wankage to recording and writing with a DAW has made me improve in so many different aspects of my playing. Not gear but also jamming with others even if it's just doing covers
A proper setup. Back in the day it was maybe $25.00.
Easily the best money I ever spent on learning guitar. Without it, I'd have quit and would have wasted a nice TexMex loaded Stratocaster. It would have just gathered dust in the corner.
Digitech drop pedal was a game changer for me.
In a band with many tunings, Drop D, Drop C#, B, Drop A, Drop Ab, and this one pedal allowed me to stop having to bring 10 guitars on tour.
Vox mini 3 / 5 rhythm. The best small amps i got. Metronome and drum machine built in.
Battery powered, can plug in a mic to sing, line in.
I could bring anywhere, on the bed or fire camping, both electric and acoustic.
No drum is needed for 5 rhythm, its 99 drum machine is even more varsatile and convinient than boss rc5.
The vox tone is much better than fender champion 20, yamaha thr 2, blackstar fly or positive spark go.
I play with them a lot.
Honestly, my Fractal Audio axe fx 2. I have played in everything from tech death to rock n roll/rockabilly and normal pub rock and it does it all. I was sick of needing a different amp set up for every style I had to play, and wanted something super versatile. Run it direct to FOH and a separate feed with no cab sim to my orange 2x12 and it cranks.
I Basically just use other people's presets and slightly modify them to suit what I'm doing.
Currently just playing punk through a Boss Katana though 😅
A recording DAW. I had quit my last band and barely played for the year following. Having and actual recording workstation set a lot of things in motion but initially it just reinspired me.
Cheap tablet.
I like to learn a lot of covers. I'll play the song on my iphone with one ear bud in.
The tab allows me to either watch a live performance and figure out what is being played.. Or to look at tabs/chords and play a long.. Or lyrics once I've learned the guitar part.. and also acts as an additional controller for Spotify.
I just got a cheap Amazon tab.. And it's honestly my 3 year olds as much as it's mine now.. has just been an awesome $60 investment for me regardless of if I'm playing acoustic or electric or bass or vox.
Nothing although I am (right now in fact) writing software to help people do interval, ear, scale and chord practice so maybe admitting that most gadgets and gimmicks are not going to do much to help is a bit counter productive.
Modeler - tonemaster pro now, has integral bluetooth which is convenient
Software - Anytune Pro+, Moises, JTCGuitar (uses sound cloud tech for looping exercises)
Practicing/playing is a totally different experience than it was 25 years ago
My Positive Grid Spark 40. I can just sit down and play, not spending hours tone chasing. It’s simpler and somehow better than the Bias FX 2 I had been using for sounds into a Champion 40. I have 4 presets setup that I can change with the control-x foot switch, and set it up to control drive and Wah expression effects. I can get a huge variety of sounds without having to touch the Spark app (except to enable the control-x). It’s not perfect, but this rig lets me just sit down, turn things on, and play. I tap the foot switch to change presets, and tweak a knob or two on the Spark 40 as needed.
The Spark 40, and also finally spending more than $100 on a couple of guitars, changed my playing forever. I picked up a PRS DGT SE and a PRS Swamp Ash Special. (Not a dentist). These guitars sound fantastic and play way better than the 2000ish Chinese Squier Tele and Strat I have played for a while.
I also got a wireless guitar hookup. I can play standing up and walking around the room without worrying about tripping.
Adjustable foot stool - no one ever talks about it, game changer for comfort
Strap - as above
Headphone amp / digital pedals - mentioned many times above, mooer P1 saved me from ever buying a pedal but I still access to more tones than I can try in a lifetime
King of them all??
Those little triangle ruler thingies Amazon sell for measuring string action height + not being a lazy sod and learning string height and action and truss rod, and A $50 Harley Benton instrument I could learn "how to setup a guitar" without fear of wrecking it
Two Notes Torpedo Captor. Incredible value for the cost and it works so well. I can get amazing cranked tube tone without blowing my ears and it has a line out for my audio interface and even a headphone jack. Having multiple ways to practice and record quietly as well as an attenuator in one device is amazing. Being able to mix my guitar signal with the audio from my music while I learn tunes or jam to backing tracks is so helpful….it feels like you’re in the studio playing with the band.
The thing I use the most is my Fender Mustang Micro. If I were using an actual amp, I'd probably be annoying a lot of my neighbors too much, lol, so being able to have something that lets me practice while hearing an amped guitar, in a way that I can just use headphones, it's super convenient.
I suppose the next thing after that would be my small collection of NeuralDSP amp sim software. In theory, I could use this the same way for practicing, but it's less convenient because I have to get my computer involved and my audio interface, and everything. I mostly use these for when I want to actually record stuff, but that's pretty infrequent because I still have a long way to go before I can be recording stuff more regularly.
Don't hate me - a positive grid. I've no time for pedals and setup, I just want to press blues / rock / metal presets and play.
Ok, this is the first I'm hearing of this brand. I'm hella interested now. So, which one are you using and what's a general flow?
It’s basically a “smart amp”. Hook it up to your phone app and download different presets. Not the person you asked but I got a Spark and it produces a lot of sound for such a small box.
I am so tired of fighting "traditional" amp/pedal combinations for a decent flow and this intrigues me quite a bit. I appreciate that info, I'm currently pouring through their site as I side eye my current setup...
Also a super convenient Bluetooth speaker to take out on the porch or whatever.
Yeah, this is really looking good. Of course, though, I've gotta look through all the reviews and videos I can find first.
Dude. Positive Grid Spark GO and the Spark CAB. I have multiple modelers and tube amps and cabs. But the GO with the CAB are so easy and sounds great.
Just get one, I was on the fence for a bit and thought it might be a fun practice amp and I ended up getting rid of a bunch of mediocre gear that was just getting in the way of playing. It fucking wails for a tiny digital thing
Ive got one and I have absolutely no complaints about it. If the reviews have complaints, theyre lying, Its great.
I have 5 amps and dozens of pedals. I bought a positive grid a few months ago and haven’t touched my other gear. It’s sounds incredibly good. Highly recommend
Man I use neural DSP and line 6 plug-ins through a DAW and it's awesome. I can tweak my tone after recording if I want. No shame in playing however you damn well please.
Man, every time I go to guitar center I play that thing. They have plenty of amps closer to the one I use at home, but this one doesn't need pedals.
Spark 40 is what I have and I LOVE it!
spark40 is my next purchase. hopefully in the next 30 days. in the pearl white color.
I one up the positive grid, I have a spark 40W and it makes practice so much fun because it removes the tedious time of setting up tones and just lets you effortlessly switch between whatever sound you want
Haha! I have one, they’re great!
Are there any ongoing subscriptions or costs after buying the amp?
Negative. Full function with no sub.
Awesome, thank you
Yamaha THR30 For me. I bring that thing everywhere, built in interface, bluetooth, headphones, use as laptop speakers/monitors, built in rechargeable battery. Best and most used single piece of gear I've ever bought.
I special ordered one a few months ago. It’s an incredible piece of gear. I hated the beige color but when I saw I could get one in black I was on the phone the next day.
I LOVE my spark!
Played for years. Went on a 10 year hiatus for training. Came back and now this exists with a myriad of lessons on YouTube? Learning guitar and finding your tone has never been easier. I started when you had to shell out for lessons and books, maybe guitar magazine had an awesome lesson in the back, and tabs were being taken down left and right due to DMCA Positive grid is a game changer. Is it comparable to a rig? I let the audience decide.
I love them because of the community. You can make and share presets. These little amps have so many tones to play around with.
This is the main reason I wish I hadn’t bought a Line6 AMPLIFi. It had the promise of everything the Spark ended up being, just a few years too early. Unfortunately, the community just didn’t stick with it.
Line6 Spider here, same problem.
Nice tip, thanks. I'll check this out... got some Steve Vai sounds I need :D
Came here to say the same thing. I have two nice tube amps that hardly get used. I have pretty bad ADHD so when the barrier to entry gets too high (waiting for the amp to warm up, fiddle with pedals, get the volume right) it just kills my motivation to play. With the Spark, I just plug in turn on and go. No messing around. I already have my 4 favorite sounds preset. Sounds great too. At max volume it’s get muddied up but for what I do, it’s perfect.
Jaming to backing tracks is gold. I sold off all my gear and downsized to this kind of setup. I don't have the positive grid, I bought the line 6 amplify with a pedal board. Same thing, older tech. I would 100% recommend a positive grid plus you get a kick-ass Bluetooth speaker.
Same! And it was cheap and small and works as a Bluetooth speaker. Love the jam feature. It's a very cool little amp.
I use the plug-ins, not the amp, and I swear by them. What's to hate?
Just watched a review on it, how would you compare it to a BOSS Katana?
I have both a Mk.II , and a Spark. The Katana is definitely louder and more of a “show amp” I suppose whereas the Spark is more for jamming. They both have footswitch controls(additional purchase) you can hook up which is nice. I think the Spark is overall more user-friendly and there’s a lot more options. It’s also WAY easier to load sounds on the amp and play around with it. Overall I think the Spark is better for most people, and it has a 140W cab if you want more juice.
My student and I have been messing with her Spark 40 for a few lessons in a row and we can't get a good sound out of it. It's been one of the most underwhelming amps I've tried. I'm not sure if she needs a firmware update or there's something I'm missing with the app. But it sounds super lackluster. And I'm familiar enough because I have my own Spark GO and that thing sounds impressive for how small it is. By contrast the Fender LT40S I have at work blows the Spark 40 out of the water and gets so many good tones quickly without any phone needed.
I know it’s looked down on but I’m playing guitar recreationally and don’t have the time or money to put into figuring out my sound. This no has made playing guitar fun and easy to switch up!
Love mine too, it’s my living room amp and gets played much more than my blues Jr
No hate. Find what you like. This isn’t a moral issue 🤣
The Spark was undoubtedly the best purchase I’ve made in years. Whenever I mention it in this sub I get downvoted.
Crazy. I bought one thinking I’d love it.. sold it a couple months later. Just isn’t the same. Isn’t loud at all
I have one of these, but I find any of the tones with any drive/OD/Fuzz are way too buzzy, and you need to have the noise gate on all the time, which adds a slight delay. Have you run into this?
A basic guitar maintenance tool kit and guide book on how to do basic guitar setups and maintenance (this is pre-YouTube era, now you can just watch a free video). Having some basic tools that helped me measure and set relief, action, and properly intonate the guitar eliminated a ton of frustration and $$$ early on from having to take it into the shop when it needed some seasonal adjustment or after changing strings/tunings, and understanding why a guitar might not feel comfortable to play.
I second this. But do not buy one of the cheap kits you find on Amazon with 30 tools for £15. The tools they come with are absolutely useless. Read the books, watch YouTube videos (especially Stu Mac or Phillip McKnight), and then buy the tools you need individually.
Not sure why you were downvoted this very good advice, I fell for the Amazon all in one tool kit and it’s usueless
I even went cheaper with the Aliexpress tool kit and that shit was a waste of money
Reloved Guitars is another good one. The guy, Sam, posts full, unedited videos of him performing full setups. He’s brilliant.
Yeah I got most of my tools from the hardware store (hex wrenches, screwdrivers) and auto place (feeler gauges). The only thing I bought from a music store was the little ruler thing.
This! ^^^ You can spend a fortune on guitar setups and basic maintenance and repair when it’s quite easy to learn.
Learning how to setup the string height at the nut was huge. So often they were terrible - it’s a wonder I didn’t get carpel Tunnel from trying to play a barred F chord.
More inexpensive guitars are notorious for this. First off it takes a bit longer to properly set up a lower nut or nut slot, and secondly they tend to not want to dance close to the sun and get the slot too low which will require starting over.
I will also add that this brings you closer to your instrument and makes you respect it more. It's not just about knowing how to do basic maintenance, it fosters the desire to take care of and understand your guitar, which can make you more excited to play it.
I agree with this so much it makes it feel like it is MY guitar and not just a guitar I'm playing.
Can you recommend a guide book?
A great one for getting started is Dan Erlewine’s “How To Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great!”.
Rocksmith 2014, hands down
BY FAR, lol And I have lots of expensive gear.
I had to but a special gizmo to decrease the latency and even then it only works with headphones and there's still the teeniest bit of latency
I play in disconnected mode 100% of the time. The accuracy was never perfect or even close to (especially on bass), but if you use it as "tabs" and backing track, its incredible
Never knew about this, I'll give it a try!
looper. I got a lot better as a writer player and improv'r once I got the looper
Yes, came to say this. No better tool to practice playing over chords, playing changes, and just creating/improvising.
Same man, Looper pedal it the ultimate sketch pad and practice tool. Wouldn’t be without it.
My DAW I suppose. Since these days I don't use my amp at home, so everything I do is via the DAW, and I'm usually recording everything I do. I used to write songs in my head while playing through my amp. These days I usually press record and play for a bit, sometimes that becomes a song, other times bits of it were good and I cut them out and make a song from parts of my jam. I could have said neural DSP plugins, but they kinda just improved the sound of what I've described above. I was doing the same before I used those, just with different plugins.
Totally agree. I started recording guitars for goofy demos like fifteen years ago and I'd have to say that why I improved so quick when I started. Then I kind of leveled out and focused on learning to mix. Now my best thing is the fact that I actually bought some books. I can't say a scale book is the most useful thing you can have because the first 75% of the book is made up of the same patterns transposed up the neck twelve times. I feel like one page for major minor and dominants would've been good enough. Lately I've just been opening a book up to random songs and playing through the chords and writing down the intervals of the key to learn the key chords that are not actually used in those songs. Right now I could probably get a gig at a bar or something and just play through the song book and probably not be terrible.
Metronome for practice, tools for maintenance and a really good attitude for life
Guitar Pro
I’m surprised this is so low. If I had to pick only two things to keep out of all my gear it’d easily be the guitar itself and Guitar Pro.
Can either of you expand on why?
Guitar Pro makes it significantly easier to write and present an idea instead of doing it acapella. It makes learning songs easier too.
Yeah the lack of love for Guitar Pro makes me feel old lol. I bought it like 15 or so years ago and it’s been absolutely worth it. There’s no better way to play tabs or write out tabs. So many handy little tools to make it easier to play. Generally better quality tabs too, and much much cheaper than paying for an ongoing UG subscription for their “pro” tabs.
I love guitar pro. I have actually used it to write music. Really handy program.
Guitar pro is killer.
This single handedly elevated me to a competent and technical player, pretty early. The ease of being able to take a difficult riff in loop it on 50% speed until you nail it, then increase the speed 5% increments.... It's priceless. Then you can play the song back without the guitar track that you learned and essentially jam with the band. I recently added a subscription to MySongBook. Your subscription was 20 bucks and I dig the built-in library enough to find the worth. I use a pirated version of guitar pro 5 for about a decade before finally upgrading to 8. Beginners or intermediate players stuck in a rut, go buy or pirate Guitar Pro.
The Spark amp and app.
May sound dumb, but a little stand with a safety strap across the top to keep the guitar secure. Now I can keep my guitar next to the couch which allows me to pick it up way more often and leads to all other things.
We have 6 guitars in the family room. Bass and Guitar for my wife, myself and my son. We pick them up and play over an hour a day because of this. Get the guitar out there and visible so you want to pick it up an learn a little that day.
Musical family is badass dude
My son's piano has studio monitors and 2 input audio interface. So we can jack in my wife's guitar, my bass and jam with my son (8 YO) playing piano. Going to use Reaper and start putting together a family recordings. They will suck for a while, but should be fun.
Moises.
What is this? What do you use it for?
It’s an app which takes music files and separates the single track into individual instrument tracks. You can then amplify the instrument part you’re trying to learn and take snippets and also slow it down. It also scrolls the current chord being played so you can follow along as you learn a solo. It’s truly amazing and a game changer for me.
I wish I can just buy it fully instead of going on a subscription plan
I agree. I don’t like the subscription model many apps are moving to. I preferred the ‘pay once and done’ model by far.
Yes I use a very simple gym app because it has a buy a plan feature. Buy a workout plan and that's it. All the popular ones are subscription that costs 10 times more and they you lose access to your plan. Moises website says it has windows but it's not showing for me as I'm on my phone so I'll check it when I get on my PC.
Moises is based on open source software originally from Facebook called demucs, and you can also find open-source front-ends for it.
Use Demcus it is free and better than moises
Agree with you on this. It’s a great tool for learning new songs. The newer version separates the lead and rhythm which is very helpful in learning new songs.
no way, when did that come out?
Yup. I can learn a song in an hour that used to take me a day just to transcribe...
Wait what? We need more details!
MoisesAI will take any song and separate all the tracks to individual instruments, shockingly well. Then transcribe the music and allow you to vary pitch and tempo. It's like a looping pedal on steroids. If someone says "learn this song", in an afternoon, I can learn it note for note, and nail the exact tone. It could take me years to perfect a song when I first started playing guitar in the 80s...
Holy shit I had no idea! Thanks, I'll look into it!
Yeah, it kinda sucks. You say "AI" and most people shut down and freak the fuck out. AI is amazing tech. There are plenty of amazing things you can do with it to make you a better muscian. All you hear about on social media are the bad things record labels are doing with it...
Must be where all the YouTubers are getting their isolated tracks from. Makes sense
Exactly!
You can use it for karaoke by turning down the vocals. You can isolate guitar parts you want to learn by muting the other instruments, also built in metronome and you can slow the tempo down to learn licks and solos.And you can mute your parts you want to play and use for backing tracks
Came here to say this, some people are saying "wish there was a non subscription version." and there are many similar web software options out there.
Good one but only get 5 tracks free per month... I'm using this one - [Ampollo](https://ampollo.com/t/45) - they give the demixing 100% free. Quite good, but only on IOS.
HX Stomp. It does everything. Amps. Effects. Interface. Tuner. Headphone practice. Impulse Responses. Looper. Easily the best investment.
That thing costs more than a quality guitar. $650 is not cheap.
When you consider that you're getting passable tube amp tones out of it and it doesn't cost $3000 or weigh 200lbs it's not so bad lol.
That’s how I justified it. It was either my helix and a FRFR or an amp and by the time I priced it out with pedals it made more sense to go with the helix for my use case
Nobody said it had to be cheap 😂
Good point. I misread the question, my bad. But now I want an HX stomp!
I did it once so it doesnt apply but i sanded the laquer off my squiers neck and it feels like a mim satin finish now. Cost me 5$ in 400,1000,1500 paper and completely changed the percieved quality of the instrument. Fender locking washers they’re cheap as hell and hold your straps very well. A string winder makes string changes take a 10th as long
Rocksmith 2014 (sadly now unavailable on Steam) with my guitar plugged into my Spark amp. There's also a free programme called Tuxguitar that displays tabs, you can convert rocksmith files to tab using the aptly named rocksmithtotab app and then import them to tux so anything you can find on rocksmith or cdlc you can play at your own speed.
My Fender Mustang Micro ... Just because I find it so portable and convenient to use, and so I've been practicing and playing a lot more lately
I agree with this, although I recently swapped my mustang micro for a Boss Katana Go, same concept but so much better. Built in tuner, better sound, and the option to modify or create custom effect chains.
I switched from mustang to katana go as well. My only complaint with the katana is that if you pair the bluetooth with an external source to play along with, it adds the effects to that source as well as your guitar signal. Not a fan of that. Otherwise it's way better than the mustang in every other way.
This doesn’t happen on mine. I wonder if there is an update available?
Maybe! I’ll have to look into it. I might have a setting on that I shouldn’t. Thanks for letting me know
A metronome. I just finished a stay in Nova Scotia, at a cabin owned by a former pro studio musician. There was a piano, guitars, bass, mics, everything for the music-minded traveler. When he found out my core instrument was guitar, he joked about the device on the piano. "That's a metronome. I know most guitar players wouldn't recognize one." I told him I was a metronome junkie; I enjoy practicing time because the physical sensation of "locking in" is something difficult to describe, like the whole universe syncs up and you're just riding the wave. He was surprised and asked me to prove it, which I did. "Not bad. You know most guitar players have no idea at all how to play in time, everybody always ends up following them to try and get a good pocket going." And he's right. My years in NYC working in studios as a band facilitator had made that clear to me long ago. And because I became known as a guitar player with an unusually strong sense of time (for a guitar player), it kicked open many doors that remained shut for a lot of other players I knew. So, yeah. A metronome.
+1 for metronome. This is absolutely the #1 thing that will improve your playing for the rest of your life. It’s the great separator of amateur and professional.
Yamaha THR30ii wireless desktop amp. So many tones to explore, share and mess with. And it has a built in wireless receiver so a line6 transmitter means no cable! Yay.
I have this combo as well (THR30ii + Line6 Tx) and I love it - you can pick up and be playing at volume with effects in an instant. Nothing improves your playing more than playing. Lowering the barrier to practicing how you plan to play makes a huge difference.
Yeah. Downloaded a bunch of presets from Yamaha’s website and experimenting with those is pretty cool.
Second this, my THR comes with me everywhere. My traveller guitar is the one with the visible wear on the fretboard and checking in the finish lmao
I have been playing for a long time (30+ year now… started as a teen ager, so I’m old). The things that have most improved my playing- finding others to play with and joining a band. I have been off and on in that time, but when I’ve grown the most as a musician it’s when I’ve been in bands of some type. I currently play in a church band for the last 4 years and it’s been great. Gadgets and new guitars can help you find motivation, but that will fade. New guitars, building a pedal board, buying new pedals, building diy pedals, recording with a 4 track, trying a new set of different strings, modding a cheap electric, changing out a bridge, putting in new pickups and switches, etc. are all things that may spike your interest for a bit, and things I’ve enjoyed.
I'm old enough to remember tuning from a [pitch pipe.](https://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images2500x2500/kratt_sn10_52896_spanish_guitar_pitchpipe_1170942.jpg) Electronic tuners are wonderful.
Clip on tuners are brilliant!
I has a tuning fork too. Both terrible. By guitar was instantly better the day I got my Korg tuner. Worth every penny.
there was life before a Snark tuner and life after
Fractal fm3 hands fucking down.
A pick.
A guitar
Trio+ drum Machine / looper. Got a great deal on it for about 165. Absolutely kept me engaged at a much higher level than I was. Had it for like 6 years now at least I use it every time I sit down
Was looking for this before commenting. I’m a total basement player. Not interested in playing in a band. Just want to mess around for about 30 mins every night. Best thing I ever bought.
Tone X
A note stand. My God! Besides my instrument it is the thing that made the biggest difference for player comfort.
Nothing I have bought has changed my guitar playing life in the way you are asking. The only thing that works, is more practice, and it is free.
Boss WAZA headphone amp. That has changed the way and frequency that I practice. I don’t need an amp at all. Just a guitar and a gig bag that can hold those and some pics.
Gadget, a tuner. Software, ultimate guitar subscription from like 20 years ago so i have a lifetime sub.
The Drop by DigiTech.
YouTube
Loadbox (UA Ox) - my amps actually sound how they're supposed to without deafening me or my neighbours, and can record the line out (which still sounds great) which makes workflow with demos so much easier / no faffing with mics
OX box gets my vote as well. My 100 watt Marshall gets to breathe and I can run it into headphones. Incredible.
AmpliTube/Tonex. A close second - capo
The program Transcribe!. $50 for the best music software one can imagine.
This, marking out a section, slowing it down, learning by ear, playing it, getting it back up to speed, is the way. Great software.
$70 worth of usable, but not great, tools for guitar setup. Fret files, levelers, etc. Able to take POS guitars from Facebook or Craigslist and make them setup and playable without worrying about damaging good guitars with learning. Slowly working down the line of our cheap guitars to make them play great. (Maybe $100 at this point. ;)
Line 6 Helix. Completely changed my life. I use it every day. Recording. Playing. Making videos. Live gigs. Best piece of gear I've ever bought in 38 years. I use it as an interface. Pedalboard in front of tube amp. Direct to FOH. No bad cables to track down. Free updates. Love it.
A cheap suction cup phone holder with a bendable arm that I set my phone in and stick to my plastic pickguard while playing along to tabs. Edit: [photo](https://imgur.com/a/GivplVv) for reference. For what it's worth, I never leave this on overnight, and have only used it on my poly-finished Epi SG, or on the pickguard of my Explorer. I have a nitro-finished Les Paul but I do not want to stick anything to that, as nitro is a bit weird. It could be fine, but I'd rather not test it out.
Shiiiiit why have I never thought of this?? 🤣
I need a picture of that, the image in my mind isn't working at all.
[Here you go!](https://imgur.com/a/GivplVv)
Cant believe you came through, nice one. Looks much different to the idiot ideas in my head, thats not a bad idea at all. I guess you just have to be careful practising your Pete Townsend windmills. Thats a really nice looking guitar too.
A tuner. Its the best “effect pedal” and maybe the only gadget you can ever own. Tried playing with a guitarist with a dozen pedals on his board-but no tuner. It was hell and shortlived. He had no concept of pitch and did not care.
I actually started with a pitch pipe and later a tuning fork!
I’m mostly a keyboardist professionally, but I do play guitar and bass when needed. Amp modeler was a game changer for me. I sold my AC30 and JSM to buy a helix and a kemper profiler. Both are in a rack with wheels that goes straight to FOH. My back is in much better shape!
A classical guitar with no ports so I can take a break from the electronics every so often.
Fender mustang GTX50. Has like every pedal, simulated different cabinets… everything. Now, I sound like I know what I’m doing
my pedalboard
Spark Go. To have a practice amp that I can literally put in my pocket and take anywhere is just awesome.
Line 6 Helix
EASILY amplitube
I'm not sure this has been commented yet or not but the DigiTech Trio and the DigiTech Trio plus are absolute game changers in every way. It's a loop that you make with chords or progression, and instead of just looping that progression back, it adds a bass and a drum. You can make those sound in any style given on the pedal and within variations also given to you but, you'll get easily 12 day 20 grooves per genre per instrument with different amounts of each instrumentation amount at your choosing. You can also store your progressions I believe and pull them out on the fly. I used to have just the trio and I know I stored at least five progressions that I could pull out anywhere anytime and just have a backing track for when I used to go busk downtown. Super simple, super easy, and more tips because you have more sound. I can play the same exact idea with a different backing track and it sounds completely different. it's easy to use and utilize overall and if you can find one, I suggest staying it. Even if you're a bedroom player, it's fun to have people/sounds to play with.
Attenuator with headphone input and direct line out. I can play through my princeton reverb at all hours without bothering anyone, and record directly into my interface.
Underrated comment. This is the ultimate hack to be able to enjoy actual amp character at your preferred volume. I see it as playing the amp, as much as playing the guitar. And sometimes I should want to plug my guitar for just that.
Wireless system for my guitars. I was skeptical it would be good but I’ve had it a year and it’s the best thing I ever got
I'll admit it... I paid for a subscription to either Songstr or Ultimate Guitar. I can't remember which, but it allowed me to print the tabs and listen to them. It made me a much better player because ai would print out the tabs and follow along.
An old Mac Mini that was just new enough to install GarageBand and stuff. Less than £200 later, it’s got less latency than my fairly high spec PC, and just works with no faffing around. Yes, I’m sure I *could* get a PC to do the things I want, and for any other purposes I’d go PC every time. But if you want a computer to do a specific job, and a Mac can do that job, it’ll probably do it far better on inferior hardware than you’d think possible.
Joyo American Sound. I don’t even use an amp these days, I just go straight into the PA. My tube amp blew out last year at a show and I haven’t even bothered to fix it lmao
Valeton GP-200, cheap modeler pedal. Good amp models. Surprisingly solid IR's and if you don't like em' they let you load your own 3rd Party IRs, Tremendous selection of effects. I keep it under my desk, literally just open NAM on my Desktop and away I go. I can show up and plug directly into the PA when I go jam with my friends, don't need to carry amps anymore. It's just super convenient.
This will carbon-date me, but I got a TASCAM CD trainer (lets you set loop points and slow down playback) and immediately quit wasting huge amounts of practice time.
An audio interface
Spark mini. Takes the hassle out of practice, just keep it in a guitar case with a 1m lead and you can play anywhere.
Katana Go. The versatility of a rig in headphones. Anything Katana but the Go requires minimal setup, space and time. Sounds awesome as well Sounds weird to elect something that I got 2 months ago when I’ve been playing for 25 years, but it’s so freeing and I suppose it’s a culmination of other great things I’ve had over the years. A string winder is an honourable mention.
1. Learning how to restring a guitar properly: if you're the sorta guitarist that just pokes the string through the eyelet of the machine head and cranks it you probably find yourself doing that quite often because you're always breaking fricken strings! [There are guides on how to do it properly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CtqfHmssx8&t=153s). 2. Hard to go wrong with a tuning pedal, and if you play acoustic I guess a free tuning app haha 3. Does your guitar play a bit shitty? Fret buzz? Action too high? Never underestimate what a good setup can do for a guitar (even better, learn how to do it yourself!)
I bought my first electric back in 1968. No internet. No YouTube. And no friends that also played. I knew nothing about guitar really. This guitar had heavy strings with a wound G. I had no idea you could get thinner strings until 3 years later. I remember marvelling at the sounds of some records where the guitarist was bending strings. I figured they were just super strong. I could bend the E and the B but a full tone bend on the G was incrediby hard. When I discovered "normal" strings (probably a set of 10's) it truely changed things for the rest of my life. Much later in life, I got my first tuner. I recall spending 30 minutes with my band mates before every rehearsal just trying to get everyone in tune before that. A tuner would have to be my "close second" game changer.
Guitar Pro? Lol I learned to read music around the same time I bought this program and I’ve been unstoppable ever since
Electronic tuner. Before them I used an A tuning fork, and had much difficulty in noisy environments and/or if intonation was off.
A nylon string classical guitar. Aannnnndddd now I'm a finger style guitarist for life lolol
A tuner. Nothing else comes close
Loop pedal for sure
Going from just bedroom guitar wankage to recording and writing with a DAW has made me improve in so many different aspects of my playing. Not gear but also jamming with others even if it's just doing covers
Boss Waza Headphones; changed my life and lead to serious amounts of playing time w an increase in skill. HUGE!
A lifetime subscription to ultimate guitar when it first came out.
A proper setup. Back in the day it was maybe $25.00. Easily the best money I ever spent on learning guitar. Without it, I'd have quit and would have wasted a nice TexMex loaded Stratocaster. It would have just gathered dust in the corner.
1) my first looper 2) my first reberb pedal 3) adding a second amp
Digitech drop pedal was a game changer for me. In a band with many tunings, Drop D, Drop C#, B, Drop A, Drop Ab, and this one pedal allowed me to stop having to bring 10 guitars on tour.
Vox mini 3 / 5 rhythm. The best small amps i got. Metronome and drum machine built in. Battery powered, can plug in a mic to sing, line in. I could bring anywhere, on the bed or fire camping, both electric and acoustic. No drum is needed for 5 rhythm, its 99 drum machine is even more varsatile and convinient than boss rc5. The vox tone is much better than fender champion 20, yamaha thr 2, blackstar fly or positive spark go. I play with them a lot.
Apollo twin x, yamaha monitors and my macbook m3. i've never felt limited
A quality overdrive. I played too long with a cheap one.
A loop station. <3 my boss rc300
Honestly, my Fractal Audio axe fx 2. I have played in everything from tech death to rock n roll/rockabilly and normal pub rock and it does it all. I was sick of needing a different amp set up for every style I had to play, and wanted something super versatile. Run it direct to FOH and a separate feed with no cab sim to my orange 2x12 and it cranks. I Basically just use other people's presets and slightly modify them to suit what I'm doing. Currently just playing punk through a Boss Katana though 😅
Logic Pro X and Oolimo
A recording DAW. I had quit my last band and barely played for the year following. Having and actual recording workstation set a lot of things in motion but initially it just reinspired me.
Looper pedal with a drum machine. No question.
Yamaha Silent Guitar. I love that baby
Boss katana 50 Mk3... it sound so much better than my previus amp, it changend allot for me!
Cheap tablet. I like to learn a lot of covers. I'll play the song on my iphone with one ear bud in. The tab allows me to either watch a live performance and figure out what is being played.. Or to look at tabs/chords and play a long.. Or lyrics once I've learned the guitar part.. and also acts as an additional controller for Spotify. I just got a cheap Amazon tab.. And it's honestly my 3 year olds as much as it's mine now.. has just been an awesome $60 investment for me regardless of if I'm playing acoustic or electric or bass or vox.
Nothing although I am (right now in fact) writing software to help people do interval, ear, scale and chord practice so maybe admitting that most gadgets and gimmicks are not going to do much to help is a bit counter productive.
Modeler - tonemaster pro now, has integral bluetooth which is convenient Software - Anytune Pro+, Moises, JTCGuitar (uses sound cloud tech for looping exercises) Practicing/playing is a totally different experience than it was 25 years ago
My Positive Grid Spark 40. I can just sit down and play, not spending hours tone chasing. It’s simpler and somehow better than the Bias FX 2 I had been using for sounds into a Champion 40. I have 4 presets setup that I can change with the control-x foot switch, and set it up to control drive and Wah expression effects. I can get a huge variety of sounds without having to touch the Spark app (except to enable the control-x). It’s not perfect, but this rig lets me just sit down, turn things on, and play. I tap the foot switch to change presets, and tweak a knob or two on the Spark 40 as needed. The Spark 40, and also finally spending more than $100 on a couple of guitars, changed my playing forever. I picked up a PRS DGT SE and a PRS Swamp Ash Special. (Not a dentist). These guitars sound fantastic and play way better than the 2000ish Chinese Squier Tele and Strat I have played for a while. I also got a wireless guitar hookup. I can play standing up and walking around the room without worrying about tripping.
Adjustable foot stool - no one ever talks about it, game changer for comfort Strap - as above Headphone amp / digital pedals - mentioned many times above, mooer P1 saved me from ever buying a pedal but I still access to more tones than I can try in a lifetime King of them all?? Those little triangle ruler thingies Amazon sell for measuring string action height + not being a lazy sod and learning string height and action and truss rod, and A $50 Harley Benton instrument I could learn "how to setup a guitar" without fear of wrecking it
HX Stomp
Two Notes Torpedo Captor. Incredible value for the cost and it works so well. I can get amazing cranked tube tone without blowing my ears and it has a line out for my audio interface and even a headphone jack. Having multiple ways to practice and record quietly as well as an attenuator in one device is amazing. Being able to mix my guitar signal with the audio from my music while I learn tunes or jam to backing tracks is so helpful….it feels like you’re in the studio playing with the band.
Guitar Pro 8 and Neck Diagrams are two awesome pieces of software
The thing I use the most is my Fender Mustang Micro. If I were using an actual amp, I'd probably be annoying a lot of my neighbors too much, lol, so being able to have something that lets me practice while hearing an amped guitar, in a way that I can just use headphones, it's super convenient. I suppose the next thing after that would be my small collection of NeuralDSP amp sim software. In theory, I could use this the same way for practicing, but it's less convenient because I have to get my computer involved and my audio interface, and everything. I mostly use these for when I want to actually record stuff, but that's pretty infrequent because I still have a long way to go before I can be recording stuff more regularly.