If you are a musician, then you either have G.A.S. or you know someone who does.  For those who don’t know, G.A.S. is a chronic disease that has plagued the music world for decades.  It targets the wallet specifically.  G.A.S., or Gear Acquisition Syndrome, can only be cured by, you guessed it, acquiring more gear.

I have been able to keep my G.A.S. under control for the past couple of years, but once I started playing more at church and now playing gigs with Tyler Bender, I needed a change.  Previously I was playing through a Carvin R1000 powering a Carvin RL410 and a Carvin RL115.  The head provided a lot of power, but lacked any distinctiveness in its tone.  I wanted something with some character.  The 4X10 and 15 did basically the same thing, high power handling but no personality.  They could be any ol’ cabinet.  

I sold the rig to my brother-in-law and set out to find some new gear.  I am not at a point where I can start going after some of “dream” quality gear, such as a 70’s Ampeg SVT head or an Orange head, because I just don’t have that kind of money.  I wanted to find something that would add something to the sound but be somewhat affordable (i.e. Used) and also be lighter than my previous setup, which I couldn’t even fit into my car.

I ended up with a GK 700 RB II powering an Avatar B210 Neo.  Even though it was a small rig, it had a lot to offer.  It sounded fantastic but was still light and easy to move around.  It worked really well for playing at church giving me a much better reference to go off of compared to the monitoring from the Avioms we use.  However, as soon as I got asked to play a show with Tyler Bender, I knew it wouldn’t be enough to cut through the drums and a Vox AC30 on stage.  I ended up borrowing the previously sold 4X10 from my brother-in-law and it served it’s purpose but still wasn’t what I was looking for.

It took several months for me to finally find the cabinet I wanted to complete the rig.  I picked up an Avatar Delta 212.  Ideally, I wanted a Neo 212 but the price on the cabinet made it worth it and the option to go the Neo route later is still there.  The cabinet provides some incredible bottom end that really fills out my sound.  Where the 210 and 410 provided a lot of punch, there was nothing to really support the E and B string.  The 212 is fantastic in the low range.  During the first outing with the cabinet, I could finally feel my sound through my feet as it resonated throughout the stage.  It was fantastic and really helped improve my playing during the show.  

I now am very happy with the head and cabinet combination I have.  Sadly, G.A.S. has no permanent cure and I can already feel a bout of it coming on.  I have no effects, not even a good tuner, so might be time to pick up a rack and some nice effects to compliment the current rig.

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