best gear for morons

[lancebug]

I read an interview with brian eno a long time ago in wired magazine(I think), that basically said that the genius of the stratocaster was, that as a musician, it gave you a limited set of sounds to work with and that they were all good.

So heres the point and maybe its been done already (and even if it has its still a fun time killer): what bits of kit do you think are impossibly easy to get consistently good (or at least acceptable) results out of even if you really dont know what you're doing. Price is not reallly the point, but if you can afford a fairchild 670 you probably aren't worrying about such things.

I'll go first with 2 obvious ones:

dbx 163x - 1 control, no problems
art VLA - set attack and release to auto and it rarely sounds "bad"

[brian beattie]

The drawmer 1960. a stereo compressor/ mic pre. It's an easy to use, extremely flexible pair of inputs. It saved me when I needed simplicity and extreme varieties of sound, and I didn't know shit. I still use it all the time, and I stil don't know shit..
brian

[Mix413]

LA2a, LA3a

[stereopathetic_banjo]

my sytek pre's. i suppose you could say that any pre is case for moron usage, but the longer i own the syteks, the more i dig 'em. one knob and you're almost guaranteed some useable sounds, source pending of course. i've had and used "higher end" pre's, and while they were and are amazing, the sytek still holds it's own and often shines through. anyways, thats my vote!
-travis

[space_ryerson]

Juno-106 or 60. It's just laid out in a clear cut manner.

[waxboy]

Guess it really depends on the entirety of the signal chain - and ill probably get some slack from SOMEbody from this

but ya cant go wrong with the RNC in "really nice" mode

*thumbs up*

[electric sound of jim]

it's not recording gear, but to my ears my fender deluxe reverb sounds fantastic no matter where the knobs are. i can't even remotely say that about any other amp i've used (such as an AC30 i had that only sounded good with the eq knobs in one very specific position)

[jamoo]

I can make a Stratocaster sound like ass, and the range of sounds I can get out of it are far from limited. Who is this Eno guy, anyway?

[cgarges]

Lexicon PCM 60
API 560
Effectron
LA3

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[;ivlunsdystf]

I know, this is heresy: the multieffects on Roland VS boxes are pretty close to idiotproof. Now if there were any way to get decent pres on those boxes and that would really be the one box that (sort of) does it all.

[thearnicasync]

This thing is totally idiotproof. The 'tape simulation' doesn't even have a knob. It's always on, like it or not. And like it, I do.

The compressors have like 3 basic presets with a tweak each, and an input/output. Totally me-proof.

kb

[mjau]

Fender Pro Jr. is dummy-proof.

[A-Barr]

Obligatory SM57 endorsement.

[chovie d]

I thought this said best gear for Mormons. I think the Osmonds used Kustom amps.

Anyway being a moron myself, I'll be waiting to see what gear y'all suggest for me.

I know, this is heresy: the multieffects on Roland VS boxes are pretty close to idiotproof. Now if there were any way to get decent pres on those boxes and that would really be the one box that (sort of) does it all.

-when you say roland VS boxes, do you mean like the VS-840GFX hard disc recorder, cause I own that thing and i cant even get it to turn on without consulting the manual and taking three aspirins.

bone simple shit thats hard to fuck up:
mxr phase 90
the P-Bass (well, I guess you could fuck it up ina million different ways by combining it with shitty effects or amps, but the basic implement here is simplistic perfection

[A-Barr]

Yeah, funny that he used the strat as an exapmle when it has more tonal combinations than a telecaster or any Gibson.