If you had 400 dollars to burn, which thing would you buy next if you had these things:

This is more of a guitar tone question but I figured I'd ask in here cuz pretty much my sole purpose it is for is recording.

So... I'm not new to guitars but when you read what I have you will think I am. It's cuz I played heavily in the 90's and sold all my stuff when I "grew up". I've played mostly drums and bass in church but a bit of guitar. I did keep an acoustic guitar from the 90's and that was the only thing. So I've played over the years. But this year I started to play 6 strings a LOT more and start recordings.

Some of you already know all this so I thank you for being patient but I figured I'd give a bit of background to help answer the question.

So I'm at a point where I want to up my tone a bit and looking for the next piece of gear. Here's what I'm currently using:

a.Main guitar (which I like very much): Squier Affinity Telecaster BSB. More like butterscotch with no blonde. LOL.
b.Bullet Strat that plays nice but I don't love the sound much
c.Fender Starcaster (chinese made strat copy) that is in pieces cuz it's just not that good and I'm trying to decide what to do with it, one of tuners is loose and the sound is really thin. But it has some emotional attachment... LOL
d.Amp is a Vox Cambridge 15, Solid State korean made V9159 (has an 8" celestion speaker)
e.Fender Rumble 40 Gen III and a rumble 100 Gen II
f. laney pro tube 100 with 4x12 speaker cab that is miswired and I don't really love the sound of the amp yet.
g. Ibanez AE100 acoustic electric from the 90s.
h. Mexican P bass but I'm happy with that and this thread is for 6 strings.....

That's what I got and this is where my mind has been going to what I want next, but am stymied:

1. If by some miracle I could find a Mexican Tele for around this kind of money. (It's what I played in the 90's and loved it) I think what I had was a 90's standard model. It had the modern bridge and it was a mexican.
2. A mexican strat with 2 humbuckers. (i'm not in love with the single coil sound of a strat, but I do feel like I need a humbucking guitar, and I love the way a strat feels to play)
3. An eipiphone LP, SG, or 335 / casino.....
4. Gretsch of some sort.
5. Yamaha pacifica or Revstar. Not sure if you can get a revstar for that kind of money....
6. Danelectro 59 or another model dano
7. Fender Bassbreaker 007 amp, there is one used near me for 350....
8. Some other amp....
9. Benson Preamp and pie.
10. good pickups for my Bullet strat... probably 2 humbuckers. Although I do have one dimarzio hot rail right now. But from what I've heard on da youtube they don't sound overly humbuckery to me. More like a hot single coil.

My style of music is basically guitar centric pop/ rock. I mean... if you want to label stuff.. LOL.

Right now I'm good with my mics and interface set up and have been really happy with the sounds so I don't feel like spending money on any of that stuff.

I actually don't have this exact amount of money yet, but I have some of it and if I get what I normally do for my birthday and Christmas I will probably have around this. I do have to see how the budget is going to shake out before I feel comfy to blow it on guitar stuff, cuz really what I'm using works. It's just now I'm into trying to up my tone.... LOL. The game of inches???


Thanks for taking the time to read this if you have. Just thought I'd get some thoughts from people to see where I might go....

recorded music is coming. I've just been busy with a lot of stuff.....

 

I'm not against the one guitar one amp focus. In fact that's kind of what I was getting at. If I found a mexican tele I doubt I'd need the Squier. But I'm not going to let go of the squier first. It's my go to electric right now.

Both the bullet and Starcaster aren't. FWIW, the bullet isn't the one I have an emotional attachment to. The starcaster is. I think I've had that guitar longer than any other electric, my Mom gave it to me during a rough period in my life fighting lyme disease and I wrote several songs on it. The problem is it's the worst squared away one out of all of them. LOL. One tuner is loose and it just doesn't stay in tune well. Adn I don't even really like most strat sounds to begin with. It was just there.... I've even used it at church and luckily those days it stayed in tune well enough. LOL.

The bullet plays nice. I like to play my strats unplugged and relaxed on the couch. So comfy. But as soon as I plug the in I'm like cringing most of the time. I typically can stomach the neck pup but it's really not may favorite sound. LOL.

My squier Tele sounds like a Tele, just maybe a bit more subdued or mundane... A little less warm in the bridge. But even that I'm comparing to my 90's standard. Teles are kind of frustrating cuz they have a big range in sound. I feel like both strats and teles I prefer the mexican pups because I don't chicken pick. I like em clean and smooth or when playing distorted, more of a pop sound than a blues sound.

Part of me thinks the rumble 40 has the potential to be a solid performer for a go to amp for guitar. But it needs something... which is why I thought the benson pre amp might be a good idea with whatever amp I have. I far prefer the gain on the vox though and it has a bit more crispy high end that the rumble 40 lacks.

The Laney technically isn't mine. My drummer brought it over and said he never used it and have at it. but I don't really feel like I can just get rid of it. I suppose I could talk with him about it sometime but.... the thing is a mess anyways.. The cabinet was wired wrong and I don't think the speakers are original. I've emailed eminance to see if the speakers in the cabinet now were original equipment to that amp.


I like the interface I'm using. To me it's got a decent clean and warm sound. There are probably better out there but I'm not jumping ship on this one til it breaks or something. It's an old M-Audio.

I prefer using amps. I'm old school. Maybe that's dumb but I don't really want a modeler. I want to mic and amp or go direct from the amp. Both of my rumbles I can do that.

And yeah, I play bass in a country band and I do the bass in my recordings. I did play bass at church but I just changed churches a few months ago and am not currently playing at church. The pbass isn't going anywhere or the rumble 40. I would think about gettting rid of the rumble 100. But it has a good sound and the xlr out and I'm not sure I could what it's worth. That's the downside to consolidating. You never get what stuff is worth. I might be able to get what I paid for the two squiers though if I got a better guitar. I paid 150 for the affinity tele and 80 for the bullet strat. I could probably get at least that out of those. The only thing I've done to either of them is I bought a pickguard for the Strat for 10 dollars and some strat knobs for the Tele. I like seeing the numbers.


I'm probably going to start another thread in the amp section here but I stumbled on a combo the other night that I kind of like. I ran the Vox into the rumble 40 using the line out so both were in use. So whatever the vox sounded like it was coming through the rumbles speaker so it gave it a bit more low end and I can eq how I want that. More than the Vox itself. But the two together make a good sound. And so does the laney cabinet speaker with the vox 8".

Is it OK for an amp to be run into another amp like that? I don't know if the ohms will be affected if it's going through the amp part first.... I don't get how that works. The vox is an 8 ohm speaker and the rumble is a, I'm not sure.. doesn't say on the back... specs say 8ohms online.