Hi all! Very recently got my Stage. Though I can't imagine there's too many people who would be interested, here's a bit about me and the story of my great find.
Got my first guitar at 14, played in a band for a couple of gigs at 24, have been mostly off for several decades but recently have found a group of like minded folks. For about the last year a group of coworkers and I have been meeting in a conference room after work once a week and banging out some metal covers. From a core of 3 -- me, another guitarist, and a drummer -- in the beginning, we now have added a bassist and vocalist and our list of songs has expanded to about 12. Largely Metallica with a sprinkling of Megadeth, Pantera, Mastodon, and Sepultura. We dubbed ourselves Dark Hours (a little in joke from our company) and it's become my favorite part of the week.
This year we're considering jumping in at a local open mic night. As such I've been thinking about my performance rig a whole lot -- besides, who doesn't lust over gear? -- and was, of course, unsatisfied with my Boss Katana 50. I could make noise with it but tone matching for our cover songs was challenging to say the least, and only having 4 live selectable "sounds" was really limiting when trying to cover multiple bands (and even multiple eras of the same band). I've had my eye on a Kemper Profiling amp for a long time, like prior to Dark Hours even. I really dug the tone and flexibility. But man is it pricy. Plus, I'd want a foot controller to make a good live rig which put the price even higher. Last year when they released the Stage I knew that was my solution. It went on my Christmas wish list (along with a Schecter 7 string... it's good to give people choices of gifts! :D) but was and has remained out of stock everywhere. The Schecter showed up under the Christmas tree (which was awesome, btw).
I'd resigned myself to waiting until my birthday in May (it's a "big number" birthday, so I figure a big gift wouldn't be out of line). Yesterday I came into work and one of my coworkers who knew I was interested forwarded me a Craigslist ad. Roughly 4 hours later and with the blessing of my long-suffering missus...
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I'm over the moon. Not just the Stage but a beautiful case/pedalboard, expression pedal, all the connections plus a whole load of paid profiles. I have my dream rig! I sold the Katana and a Digitech Drop pedal on Craigslist and picked up an 8" Headrush FRFR and now I'm super excited about my rig. I'm still learning and experimenting, but man this thing can generate some tones.
I'm not a great guitarist or even particularly good, but I have fun and am trying to get better. Had my first lesson with a Skype instructor Sunday and will keep working.
Anyway, that's enough. Glad to be here.