Why do I have so much gear? I'm a gear whore. Plain and simple. I buy
everything, try it, and keep whatever seems to works for those different courses. I have real vintage gear (but who cares?) that stays at home (whose going to pay to move my Leslie?), and those Tokai Les Pauls see the stage, if I was in a Les Paul mood that night. I have four pedal boards of all sizes, depending on the gig. I have enough pedals to fill four more boards, but that's not the point. The point is I try
everything, and see if it suits me for one of three bands I bounce back and forth between. Some 25-year-old Stevie Ray Vannabe who plays with one band and just one style of music ain't going to care about a Klon. Now the older blues guy who is serious about his tone (yet still one band/one music) might. Or he may have a Victoria amp and not need any pedal. That's age and experience with gear. The kid wants to be Stevie Ray, and some shredder should tell him what the 'best' overdrive is? Or what if I wanted to be Mick Thomson? Do I care what Stevie Ray used? Do I care about a black label MIJ SD-1 on eBay? Or would I go more for.... oh, shit, that's a bad example. He uses Boss stuff. Hang on..... think, man, think.....say I wanted to be Terrance Hobbs. I couldn't care less about vintage Les Pauls or Strats. Yngwie used a Strat into a Marshall because he wanted to be Richie Blackmore.
Kids play Ibanez because they want to be like their guitar hero, not because they can't afford a Strat. Do you honestly believe that? Give your head a shake. A MIM Strat can be had for what, $399? $499? Now I can't afford that, so I buy a $2,500 JEM Signature.
If I'm a shredder, I prefer the flatter radius, Floyd Rose, and I want to be Joe or Steve. That's all I was saying. Older people haven't bought new gear 'lately', and hang onto that blast from the past. They can't give advice to the kids who don't have a care for the tone Eric got on the Beano album.
That's what I was saying. To ridicule digital is just wrong. It's getting better all the time, and in some cases sound as good as what they're emulating.
I don't know keyboards at all, other than what keyboard player I play with use, or when I hear them gush about the good old days, so I just pulled model numbers from my butt. Not smart, but that hasn't stopped me from putting my foot in my mouth before.
I played with a singer who bought one of 'those' PA's, with A7's back in the 80's. Not a wise investment. I regret buying mixers today. I never buy PA stuff. It'll go down, become obsolete, and not hold its value. Hmmmmm, maybe that's what you mean with the ME-50.
But it's small, takes up so little room on stage, and actually has usable sounds. I don't have one, but I'd never ridicule someone for wanting one. Use it if it works for your music and playing situation. I'd never record one, but if you want to, go ahead.
I also blame my OCD (not the pedal; the disorder) for collecting computers. Actually, it was to teach myself about them, and give experimental castoffs to my kids. I go back with them, and I still haven't found the 'best' for recording. I only moved from analog tape (try finding it these days) to digital recording in the last few years, and through seven desktops and five laptops still in my house I don't have one that isn't glitchy when I go bananas with track counts and plug ins. So I figured keeping it simple meant less crashes, and so far (knock wood) it's true. That means recording effects live, and no software. I ain't smart enough to figure it out, and until I do, it's software-lite for me. That's all. Not because it isn't good (I wish I could use some of it), but I'm too dumb to make it work. But I won't give up, and be sure I'll put the pedals away when I make ReValver work. I know others have, so it's just me. And I would never say to anyone else not to use ReValver because I couldn't make it work. I've heard it work great with other people, so again; it's me.
How the Hell did I get to this point? Skip it. You meant what I know.
