Downsizing Advice?

[t-rey]

The long and short of it is that my wife and I have sold our house so that she can stay home with our kiddo (huzzah!). We will be renting for at least a few months while we find a new home to buy, and space will be pretty short at the rental...and whatever we end up buying probably won't have large enough for me to have a dedicated space for my gear either (no basements near the beach, I'm afraid).

I currently have two amps, two 2x12 cabs, and two pedalboards. I have been thinking about selling one cab and maybe one of the boards and amps to free up space (and maybe buy a Jazzmaster...). But that got me thinking about selling both amps and cabs to fund a smaller, pedal friendly combo (the bonus of which is that I could probably have it out somewhere instead of stashed in a closet). I generally play stoner/doom/heavies, and even though I play at stupidly low volumes and with low wattage amps, the idea of going to a combo amp seems potentially terrible.

Any advice on downsizing effectively? What kind of combos might meet my needs - in the short time I've thought about this, I've considered the Peavey Classic 30, Laney Lionheart, Fender Princeton and Excelsior, Mesa combos, and even stuff like a Vox AC15 since I really dig Vox cleans. Is this worth the work of selling off my gear or am I being silly?

[comesect2.0]

if it was an apt sure,... id hang on to my shit unless I was for sure goin to the ''poor house''...or just tired of the stuff you have....your wife dig your jammin out?

[t-rey]

Kind of in between. I like my rig, but it's been essentially unchanged for several years. So part of me feels like this is an opportunity to shake things up a bit.

Wife doesn't mind the riffs...just would be substantially less of a a fan if I moved all my shit out into the living room and put the kid's toys in a closet lol.

[D.o.S.]

I downsized to just one head and just one cab, but I think Vids is right on the money here.

[sergiomunoz74]

You're probably like me and I have to play stupidly low volumes too because I live in an apartment. One day I will be able to play a little louder but until then it's the barely on 1 volume club. I say ditch one cab and amp and go to just a head. Or ditch both cabs, and a head and get a nice 1x12. That will probably take you a long way and I'm sure there are a lot of companies that make nice 1x12s.

As far as two pedalboards, I would condense the pedalboard into one slightly larger one and put the rest of the pedals in a drawer. Unless you need two have two pedals boards or whatever! Otherwise just stack everything infinitely high and skip selling anything.

[01010111]

I think vidret's right. It's easy to downsize, not so easy to get back the stuff you've sold.

On the other hand, how small is your rental space going to be, and how small is your new place going to be? Two full cab+head combos and two pedalboards can take up a lot of space if you're living in a shoebox like I am. So, if you really do need to downsize, I'd suggest doing the following:

Advice on downsizing pedals:
Step one: plug straight into your amp for a while and see what you miss first
Step two: add the bare minimum to your signal chain for the music you like to make
Step three: Wait a week and repeat step two
step four: sell everything you haven't added back to your signal chain

Advice on downsizing amps:
Combos are cool, but where you already have some good cabs why not just pair one with a "low" watt head? There are lots available in all kinds of configurations. So, if you decide to downsize your amp, I'd pick the amp I like best and keep it. Or, I'd pick the amp I like best and find a low-watt version of it. Some low-watt amps even come with headphone outputs and speaker emulation.

Whatever money you get back from buying gear I'd suggest using it to invest in higher quality gear with good resale value (that is, if you don't need the money for life-expenses). One thing all my downsizing has taught me is to always make sure you can resell whatever you bought at a good price. If times are hard it's really shitty trying to sell that custom-made, custom-etched, one-off fuzz you commissioned from your favorite builder. You can't get more than a fraction of what you paid for it, and it really hurts trying to sell stuff like that. So, buy generic, take care of it, and it'll be easier to sell it if you really need to when times get tough.

[comesect2.0]

wts^wisdom.

[hbombgraphics]

I am pro-downsizing, I don't get too attached to amps in general (guitars is another story)

the idea of taking any money you make and putting it into gear with good resale value is smart, then you can upsize later if needed.

play an AC15 regularly and it is a great amp takes pedals well Loves RATS!!!!!

[Disarm D'arcy]

Downsizing is doable but requires finding the right way out of your current rig. I did when I flipped all my amps for a small 15 watts Verellen with a 1*12" cab. It was a step up because it was really really really well tailored to my tastes. Don't downsize just to downsize. Take it as an occasion to step back and rethink your gear.

[PeteeBee]

Yeah downsizing is a good opportunity to switch from big gear that gets the job done to really rad smaller amps. Unless you already have rad big amps, then this doesn't apply.

[frigid midget]

Just did a similar thing, though I ket my big boy rig

I settled on a tiny terror combo for my bedroom. It can stil do okay-ish heavy shit without pissing of the neighbours, it doesn't sound boxy or anything, not even with the power switch set to 7 watt. Classic '30s have so-so build quality, and the Vox'es I had didn't like my fuzz pedals. Did fine with a rat or a hotcake (topboost, preamp gain maxed + rat/hotcake = bliss), but fuzz...meh Ymmv and all that ofcourse.

My A15C2 couldn't do anything remotely brutal, no matter what pedal I trew at all. Really underwhelming in that regard, or at least when you're used to rocking a gnarly stupid loud half stack. Nice chimey cleans and all that, but really really lacking good oomphy low end imo. Maybe a tube and/or speaker upgrade could've made a difference, but imo you're better off going with *any* orange tube amp. Great value for yer money usually, there's so many of em on the used market it's to hard to find a good deal. I have yet to hear Orange cleans I like though. Not counting my old OR120 that is, I'm talking new Orange here. The thunderverbs are supposedly in another league too, besides my tt I only messed with a rocker 30 and AD30.

[tremolo3]

Advice on downsizing pedals:
Step one: plug straight into your amp for a while and see what you miss first
Step two: add the bare minimum to your signal chain for the music you like to make
Step three: Wait a week and repeat step two
step four: sell everything you haven't added back to your signal chain

Fucking genius!

Problem for me is, I can spend months playing my acoustic exclusively, and then suddenly will want to use all my midi synced shit for senseless noise.

The joy of not gigging.

[01010111]

Advice on downsizing pedals:
Step one: plug straight into your amp for a while and see what you miss first
Step two: add the bare minimum to your signal chain for the music you like to make
Step three: Wait a week and repeat step two
step four: sell everything you haven't added back to your signal chain

Fucking genius!

Problem for me is, I can spend months playing my acoustic exclusively, and then suddenly will want to use all my midi synced shit for senseless noise.

The joy of not gigging.

I do the same sort of thing. But this way when you go back you don't necessarily go down the same path as before, you're more likely to try something new if you aren't tied down by what you already have.

[codetocontra]

Everyone is giving reasonable advice. Dare I suggest something different? Get rid of it all and start over. New home, new rig.

[goroth]

Get rid of nothing.

Get longer legs for your bed, like 20-30 cm legs depending on your gear. Put felt on the legs of your pedalboards or put them on a towel. Push them under the bed. Slide them out when you want to rock out. You can store a lot of gear under a bed. I've also got an electric guitar under the bed.

#compactliving.