Toys-R-Us

[Homeless Nutter]

Hey Nutter, I've got an old Art effects rack and foot controller from the mid 90's. An Art SGE Mach II and X-15 foot controller. I bought it new at the time but soon gave up playing the guitar even though I had been playing for many years previously since the age of 13. I was wondering whether it's completely obsolete now or whether I could still use it for home recording. I used it at the time with a Fostex 4 track.

I wouldn't say it's exactly obsolete, but - depending on your recording setup and software - you may find it to be more trouble than it's worth. You could probably use some of the effects on it - especially for jamming, or playing live, but many will sound very dated, especially distortions, because simulation of analog gear has come a long way since the 90's. Something like Line6 Pod, which you can pick up second-hand for ~£60 will give you much better sounds - and it has MIDI so you could probably get your foot controller to work with it (or any other MIDI enabled effect processor), because MIDI has been the same good old MIDI since the 80's.

For computer-based recording purposes, I'd say it's generally best to keep guitars as dry and clean as possible and add effects during mixing, because there's multitude of plugins available, that offer more flexibility, variety and better quality than 90's digital gear.

I can't really bring myself to part with my guitar equipment. I have a Marshall JCM900, and two Fender Jap strats (HM and 62 reissue). If I had loads of time and money I'd buy a Fender amp. Although last time I went into a shop to buy an all-valve Fender amp I came away with a really crappy looking and ancient hand-wired all valve bedroom amp that was the perfect sound that I had been looking for all these years and yet another pink strat. The amp was a precursor to a Vox AC30 although not made by Vox.

A couple of years later I met a man who is now my husband and he has a couple of Jap Strats as well. Between us we have three pink strats (and three 62 re-issues).

I'm more of a Gibson-man myself, although my main guitar for the past 15 years has been Ibanez SDGR 5-string bass. I also have an acoustic Ovation 5-string bass guitar and a tiny DeAshbory fretless bass with silicone strings. I also have a cheap, old and battered Chinese Fender acoustic guitar and an Epiphone SG electric.