Who's cheap gear do you trust the most?

Who's Cheap Gear do you trust the most?

  • Peavey

    Votes: 244 36.7%
  • Carvin

    Votes: 98 14.7%
  • Behringer

    Votes: 276 41.5%
  • Alto

    Votes: 14 2.1%
  • Phonic

    Votes: 10 1.5%
  • Nady

    Votes: 23 3.5%

  • Total voters
    665
I personally like the Peavey equipment because ive seen it put together and toured the plant in Meridian ,MS several times so ive seen the QC first hand and know how much care they put into there equipment....
 
From the list, I'll have to vote Behringer - I have several of their products*, owned 'em for years, and I've had no problems with any of them.

I'm not a big fan of Peavey - never was, and probably never will be. Just a personal preference, and no offense meant to any fans here.

I've owned and love Carvin stuff**, but I really can't consider them "cheap gear."

If I may be permitted a write-in or two, I'd nominate Danelectro*** and ZOOM****. I have several pieces of gear from both companies, and they've never failed me yet.


*Tube Ultra Gain Mic100 preamp, Autocom Pro compressor and a little 8-channel mixer.

**FET450 power amp and 2 guitar straps.

***Honeytone amp and Fish&Chips 7 band eq.

****RhythmTrak 234 drum machine, 2 GAM200 amp modellers and an MRS-802CD digital multitrack recorder. (would the ZOOM stuff fall under Nady's umbrella?)
 
usually when an amp bursts into flames is due to some idiot not knowing how to hook the other components up to the amp properly causing an overload
 
Over the years I've owned lot's of Behringer gear. NONE of it has died on me yet and some pieces are still used fairly regularly.
Yes, yes, Behringer this, Behringer that... A lot of people bag their stuff... Many have never actually owned any of it but jump on the populist bandwagon to discredit their stuff as some sort of credibility badge... It's no worse than anything else in the price range and plenty of expensive stuff has died on me in less than 12 months of use... If most studio's were honest they'd admit to owning some Behringer gear...
ART gear is ok too. Reasonably priced and decent quality...

It's always easy to say "Save your cash and buy expensive" but for many people that's not a realistic and viable option... Even as a studio owner I have to be carefull to JUSTIFY the price of anything against it's ability to pay for itself and do the job required of it.
 
Behringer

(Open the floodgates)
winning by 4 votes now! I really like all the behringer gear i own (duck flying object), although i'll say that i have made sure to not buy anything that could seriously backfire. Their headphone amps are great, and in Australia where nady aren't a viable option, their really low end small diaphragm condensers are worth the dirt you pay for them. Their bass amps aren't ridiculously shocking either.
 
We're all creatures of expensive equipment - even if it's only when we hear someone else using it.

Behringer line of equipment will get you out of most situations, not well, but they will.

I noticed Carvin on the list... what of theirs is cheap?
 
Behringer (When you have to make your dollars stretch) stuff can be great but quality control can be an issue. I used an AX1000 acoustic amp at church for about two years with no problems. That changed my mind about Behringer products. When I switched to electric guitar duties I needed something small that I could mic up and use as my stage monitor. I picked up a 10" practice combo and combined with my awesome pedal board it did the job just fine.

Peavey (When your stuff has to take a beating and keep working) is heavy duty and will withstand the rigors of pro use at a workingman's price. Made to play loud and take being handled rough, the fidelity and mojo are often lacking in Peavey gear. But that is not always the case. I've got a Classic 50 2x12 and it sounds fantastic. (It's the tubes, stupid!). Those EL84s kick butt. I've also got one of their bass amps. There is plenty of power and low-end thump in my Combo 300. The higher frequencies don't have a lot of warmth, but hey, it's a bass amp and solid state to boot. No complaints.

Carvin (boutique tastes on a budget) I've had a couple of Carvin guitars and I'm hanging on to my Stagemaster 2x12 with clenched fists. Great amp, awesome clean channel chime and very nice marshal-esque mid-boost on the lead channel. That said, I don't think this would handle the rigors of the road...THAT said, how many of us are doing world tours? The guitars are solid and beautiful. Pro quality, no doubt. Only problem is that like some Peavey gear, they just didn't have that mojo of the Gibsons or Fenders.

The bottom line is that all three make great gear (at certain price points) that can fill your needs and most of your wants very well.
 
I really trust the stuff I've made and it's dirt cheap.

myrack.jpg


Tube amp made from kit (on top of rack) cost under $200 total. An added plus is there's always warm socks (tube socks of course!) on top of it ready to throw on.

Under that is a speaker selector switch I made for maybe $15. It's ugly and the case was meant as a mock up... I'm just thinking of making it built into something bigger - maybe the base of the tube amp. It works very well. It's an A/B comparison design based on a Proco.

Under the thing with all the knobs (tube eq) there's the passive selector summing volume control whatever you want to call it. That was maybe $15 to put together.
All this stuff is "forever" stuff, none of it was that hard to do.
 
I really trust the stuff I've made and it's dirt cheap.

myrack.jpg


Tube amp made from kit (on top of rack) cost under $200 total. An added plus is there's always warm socks (tube socks of course!) on top of it ready to throw on.

lol@tube socks! hahaha...

My favorite component is the "Mojo Meter" on the left. The harder you rock, the higher it goes. :D
 
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