My modest rig

[viperman99]

I don't have a whole lot, but now that I've started playing with other people I'm looking to improve my setup. If you could tell me where my weakest link is or a no-brainer mistake I'm making I'd appreciate it.

Guitar: Ibanez Artcore As73 semi-hollow

Pedals: Crybaby wah > Joyo Vintage Overdrive > Joyo Vintage Overdrive > Joyo Jf-10 Dynamic Compressor

Amp: Fender Roc Pro 700

Considering how little I spent on pedals and that the amp was a gift I'm actually pretty happy with the sound I've gotten so far. I'm looking at getting a new compressor as the Joyo seems to be a little too subtle and not very versatile so if you can recommend a good step up in the compressor department I'd appreciate your advice. I'm about to trade some other pedals I didn't mention for credit towards a used Barber Tone Press that came in at my local GC, but I'm not sure if that's worth it or not.

[Heady Jam Fan]

I don't have a whole lot, but now that I've started playing with other people I'm looking to improve my setup. If you could tell me where my weakest link is or a no-brainer mistake I'm making I'd appreciate it.

Guitar: Ibanez Artcore As73 semi-hollow

Pedals: Crybaby wah > Joyo Vintage Overdrive > Joyo Vintage Overdrive > Joyo Jf-10 Dynamic Compressor

Amp: Fender Roc Pro 700

Considering how little I spent on pedals and that the amp was a gift I'm actually pretty happy with the sound I've gotten so far. I'm looking at getting a new compressor as the Joyo seems to be a little too subtle and not very versatile so if you can recommend a good step up in the compressor department I'd appreciate your advice. I'm about to trade some other pedals I didn't mention for credit towards a used Barber Tone Press that came in at my local GC, but I'm not sure if that's worth it or not.

The Tone Press is good. I've owned a lot of compressors, in particular, Dyna-Ross compressors and I liked the Barber. However, my favorites were:
- Ross (still have - its a black one and as cheap as any other option)
- Analogman Comprossor
- Retro-Sonic

[Arafel]

I don't have a whole lot, but now that I've started playing with other people I'm looking to improve my setup. If you could tell me where my weakest link is or a no-brainer mistake I'm making I'd appreciate it.

Guitar: Ibanez Artcore As73 semi-hollow

Pedals: Crybaby wah > Joyo Vintage Overdrive > Joyo Vintage Overdrive > Joyo Jf-10 Dynamic Compressor

Amp: Fender Roc Pro 700

Considering how little I spent on pedals and that the amp was a gift I'm actually pretty happy with the sound I've gotten so far. I'm looking at getting a new compressor as the Joyo seems to be a little too subtle and not very versatile so if you can recommend a good step up in the compressor department I'd appreciate your advice. I'm about to trade some other pedals I didn't mention for credit towards a used Barber Tone Press that came in at my local GC, but I'm not sure if that's worth it or not.

I second the recommendation for an Analogman pedal. All of my pedals are by Analogman; Mike builds great stuff. I have a  Bi-Comprossor. It is two compressors in one. The left side is a Ross circuit clone, while the right is an Orange Juicer clone. Think Mark Knopfler on "Sultans of Swing" for that sound. It's a great pedal.

Truthfully though, in looking at your rig, your best bang for buck upgrade would be to ditch your solid state amp and get something like a Deluxe Reverb Reissue, a Princeton Reverb Reissue, or a Hot Rod Devile 2x12 or 4xx10. The 65 Reissue amps are a great sounding series, and good bang for the buck.

[Buffered]

I'd second the amp upgrade suggestion. I look at tube amps from a perspective of tones I like, headroom (clean volume) and reliability. For jamming with others, the reissue Fenders would be great affordable options. What's your budget? Also, there are great handwired options in your range - PCB amps can be extremely reliable and robust (Mesa Boogie) so don't get caught up in the handwired/PTP crap. If you like your pedals a lot, then getting a nice clean canvas for them is a great 1st step in upgrading the rig. I liked using compressors but after years of using them I started using an Ego (similar to the Tone Press is terms of blend-able) then just started plugging right in and finding great channel switchers - I hate carrying a lot of gear so that helped too.

Let your ears decide what works best for you! Tone has always been kind of a journey for me anyways

[viperman99]

Thanks for the suggestions! I think I will end up getting the Tone Press since I can get a pretty good deal on it. I can always stay on the lookout for a black ross or another clone. As for the amp, I'd probably have to sell my pinball machine so I'm not sure that I'll be getting one soon, but at least now I have some food for thought in that respect. I'll be sure to share my thoughts on the Tone Press. Also what would be the pros and cons of the Deluxe Reverb route vs the Mesa Boogie route? Watching videos usually doesn't tell me much about the amps so if anyone has experience with both I'd be curious to hear what you have to say.

Oh, and thanks for not yelling at a newbie 

[Heady Jam Fan]

Thanks for the suggestions! I think I will end up getting the Tone Press since I can get a pretty good deal on it. I can always stay on the lookout for a black ross or another clone. As for the amp, I'd probably have to sell my pinball machine so I'm not sure that I'll be getting one soon, but at least now I have some food for thought in that respect. I'll be sure to share my thoughts on the Tone Press. Also what would be the pros and cons of the Deluxe Reverb route vs the Mesa Boogie route? Watching videos usually doesn't tell me much about the amps so if anyone has experience with both I'd be curious to hear what you have to say.

Oh, and thanks for not yelling at a newbie 

Welcome to the forum!

I addressed the compressor since your thinking about swapping one out, but I also agree that the amp and speaker are the most important.

I'll tell ya this. I love Fenders - owned many! I've got a Silverface Deluxe Reverb that I put into Blackface specs, and my bandmates said it was the one of the best sounding amps. Then I started bringing my Mesa and they preferred that amp.

I love both amps, but I'd go with the Mesa, hands down, if I had to pick one. The combo is super heavy, so the head and cabinet format is ideal.

[Arafel]

Thanks for the suggestions! I think I will end up getting the Tone Press since I can get a pretty good deal on it. I can always stay on the lookout for a black ross or another clone. As for the amp, I'd probably have to sell my pinball machine so I'm not sure that I'll be getting one soon, but at least now I have some food for thought in that respect. I'll be sure to share my thoughts on the Tone Press. Also what would be the pros and cons of the Deluxe Reverb route vs the Mesa Boogie route? Watching videos usually doesn't tell me much about the amps so if anyone has experience with both I'd be curious to hear what you have to say.

Oh, and thanks for not yelling at a newbie 

You can't go wrong with either, but they have different tone signatures. Fenders, for the most part, are best for being clean machines. The Princeton can actually distort at moderate volumes. The Deluxe is one of the most recorded amps in history. It's light-ish (42 pounds), and has a great sound. It starts to break up right around volume 4, so you get just a tinge of distortion. It's honestly one of the best sounding amps out there. Trey played a DRRI for a couple of tours. Then you can go to the Super Reverb or the Twin Reverb. The Twin is the ultimate clean tone amp. You'd have to turn it up to stadium volumes to get it to distort. However, that can be an advantage. In my last band, we had a very loud drummer, and some of our songs alternated between shimmery clean tones on the verse and then distortion on the chorus. The Twin, with a couple of good pedals (TS-9 silver mod) was perfect for that.

Anyway, I've always been a Fender girl. I like the sparkle those amps have. Jerry Garcia played through the preamp section of a Twin Reverb for almost his entire career with the Dead.

Trey uses a Mesa (Mark III). Mesa was one of the first boutique amp companies. The Mesa sound sort of straddles a line between the Marshall midrange crunch and the Fender sparkle. I don't have personal experience with Mesa, but I know they make great amps. Their combos tend to be very heavy, so if you go Mesa, it's probably best to go head/cabinet rather than combo.

There are a lot of sample videos on YouTube that demonstrate Fender, Mesa, and Marshall.

Another amp company out there making really good stuff is Bogner. I have a New Yorker that I love. The Shiva is also a great amp, and I've heard good things about the Goldfinger. Dr. Z has a bunch of great amps, and his stuff is really affordable; the Maz 18 and Max 38 both are outstanding, and the EZG 50 is supposed to be very Fender-y. Another plus on Z is that his amps are hand-wired instead of printed circuit boards.

If you have lots of $$$, you could check out Two-Rock, Fuchs, or Soldano. Warren Haynes uses a Soldano SLO-100.

Hope that helps. For me, in the affordable and good category, Fender rules. I think the DRRI retails for about $1k. It also holds its resale value really well. Twins on the other hand, because they are so heavy, pop up on Craig's List all the time for less than half their retail price. The reissues are very good; you can also sometimes find good deals on Silverface amps that are hand-wired and then have an amp tech turn them into blackface specs.