Tuner: Boss TU2 $90 –
This is an awesome tuner! It sports a bright display that’s easy to see in the sunlight or in the dark. This tuner has a bunch of different modes including mute so the audience doesn’t hear you tune. The best thing about this tuner is that it has the ability to power up to 8 other pedals via a $12 daisy chain. Thus there’s no need to buy a pedalboard with built-in power. You can just use your TU-2 to power the other pedals on your board. This is a pro-level tuner for a good price.
Tube-like Overdrive Pedal: Digitech Bad Monkey $40 –
My favorite OD pedal is the Bad Monkey. This thing has major bang-for-the-buck potential. Believe it or not I prefer the Bad Monkey over the coveted TS9 tubescreamer. The Bad Monkey has more gain available and no midrange hump, thanks to its very useable 2 band EQ section. I usually don’t like Digitech pedals but they definitely struck gold with this one.
Delay Pedal: Boss GigaDelay DD20 $220 –
The DD20 is a little expensive but extremely versatile. Imagine having 5 different delay settings available at your beck and call. There are 4 slots to save your favorite settings and then there is a manual slot. You scroll through presets with one foot pedal and turn it on or off with the other pedal. You can also use a pedal as tap tempo. Of course there are all the popular types of delays as well as a couple of really weird ones that Boss came up with. The DD20 beats out the Line 6 Delay Modeler because the Line 6 is prone to break down and it doesn’t have a digital display of the time. If you can’t afford a DD20 or don’t need multiple types of delay then you will do fine if you grab a DD3, DD5, or DD6
Two-Stage Overdrive: Fulltone Fulldrive FD2 or Seymour Duncan Twin Tube SFX-03
Small Synth: Korg MicroKorg $300 –
The MicroKorg is destined to be a classic! This small synth looks like a toy but has some serious power inside. It contains some great vintage sounds as well as great filters for live tweaking. The appregiator is really fun, as is the vocoder. The MicroKorg beats the Alesis Micron because of the ease of use factor.
Guitar Tube Amp: Fender Blues Jr $450 –
If you want to buy a tube amp then I recommend you get one that is less than 30 watts. Any louder than that and you will never push the tubes to point of breakup which is when tube amps sound the best. At 15 watts, the Blues Jr is the perfect amp for gigging at bars and small clubs. If you play a bigger venue then you can always mic it and send a signal through the house PA system. I have played gigs where the sound man was totally surprised that my big sound was coming from such a small amp. Oh and did I mention that the Blues Jr is lightweight so it won’t break your back. It’s a pretty warm amp tone-wise and if you pump the volume and keep the master down then you can get a sweet overdrive sound. I think the Blues Jr is a better choice than the Hot Rod Deluxe which is big, heavy, and too loud at 45 watts. My friends who have that amp never turn it up past 2 or 3 and they never push the tubes like they should.
Battery-Operated Portable Guitar Amp: Vox DA5 $140 –
The Roland Microcube gets all the attention but I think the Vox DA5 is much better. The Vox has an output knob that allows your to change the output from 5watts to 1.5watts or .5 watts. The effect section includes a tap tempo button and lets you adjust several parameters. There’s also a mic input with a volume knob! The DA5 does a good job modeling different types of amps and runs on 6 “C” batteries or an AC adapter.
Small Bass Amp: Roland Bass Cube 30 $295 –
The Roland 30 beats the Line 6 110 Lowdown. Tonewise they don’t compare.
Big Bass Amp: Ampeg BA112 or Fender Bassman 150 –
Vocal Mic: Shure sm58 $100 –
The sm58 is the industry standard vocal microphone. It does a great job handling both male and female vocals speaking or singing.
Recording Mic: Shure sm57 $100 –
The sm57 is the industry standard recording microphone. It does a great job recording almost any instrument but especially: guitar amps, snare drums, and woodwinds.
Powered Mixer:
Samson XM910
Peavey XR600
Small Recorder:
Boss Micro BR
Zoom H2
Medium Size Recorder:
Boss BR600
Large Recorder:
Zoom HD16CD
Boss BR1600CD
Digital Pianos:
Casio Privia PX110 or PX310
Yamaha NP30 $300 12lbs
Keyboard:
Yamaha MM6
Alesis Fusion
Yamaha S90
M-Audio Black Box
Behringer X-V-Amp
Line 6 Spider I or II Guitar Amps
Presonus Firepod
Presonus Inspire
Line 6 Lowdown Bass Amps
Any Minidisc Recorder
Alesis Multimix USB – only 2 inputs to computer and stability issues!
Zoom PS04 – Not much recording time!
Alesis io46 Firewire – Major problems with intel Macs!
M-Audio Microtrack1 – battery dies quickly!