That something sounds good (or GREAT), but you KNOW you're not supposed to like it because it's

(a) by Peavey, Alesis, Mackie, etc.
(b) made this year in large quantities.
(c) solid-state, digital, analog, 12-bit, etc.
(d) Chinese
(e) cheap

What is yours ????

My Seagull C6 cedar-top acoustic. I traded a computer motherboard for it (about $180 - It was a pretty high-end board). My brother, whom I traded with, bought it for $300 or so.

Now, everyone tells you that acoustic guitars aren't supposed to sound good until you pay $1500 for a Martin or Taylor. This Seagull just sounds really good, though.

It does need new strings badly, however. And a new set-up by a good guitar tech. It's been through the ringer lately.

It still sounds good, though.

My wife has full authorization to pick up musical finds at garage sales. She really doesn't know much about instruments but after she called one time and said "I'm at a garage sale and there's a Martin here for 10 Bucks.... should I buy it?, I gave her a few guidelines.

Well, the most recent find was a Pan brand guitar. She bought it for 5 bucks. I did a bit of checking on the web and they were a Korean company trying to knock off old Gibsons in the 70's. The guitar needed a few tuners and the finish was wholly unremarkable but it had a GREAT top that was braced just like a Gibson and made of a beautiful piece of cedar.

I hade a luthier friend of mine remake the adjustable saddle, add tuners and glue one section. A straight trade for 1 hour of studio time at my place.

Well, this thing sounds FANTASTIC. I have a 1960 Gibson B-25 that is mint and this 5 dollar guitar sounds just like it.

Ya gotta listen with your ears not your wallet.

BTW...... the Martin was a piece of crap. Completely busted up and worth nothing to me but worth parts to my luthier buddy.

I love my Chinese made VTL (Manley) mics. I've been using them on everything for ten years.

I've been using a crappy Fender solid state practice amp for the bulk of the guitar tracks on this glam record I'm doing, so that we can have it in the control room when the guitarist plays. I don't 'love' it, but it's working great for all the lead stuff.

My 1985 Carvin LB20 bass. I've come close to trading it in a couple of times on a more expensive "brand name" bass, but when A-B'd side by side I actually preferred the Carvin's tone and action.

It still plays as well or better than when it was new, and its sound translates well on recorded tracks.

Oh, there's a Yamaha bass that my friend Wag plays that kicks ass, too.

I have a really nice sounding Squier p bass special. I also will see a KEL (maybe 2) microphones hit the door next week. They are getting good feedback from owners and seem what I need for a certain performace coming up.

I also used an MX802 Behringer mixer once and had no problem making it sound decent enough to do what I needed.

I guess I'll keep going on this one. I have a bunch of cheap crap I use and 2500 dollar monitors.

A go to unit for me is still the 8 zillion pound Peavey CS800 power amps. You know..... the GIANT ones you can't set down right without busting off the banana post on back. I use them for sound reinforcement all the time.

I bought a Rode NT1000 to use on female vocals a few months ago, and that mic has won it's share of shoot-outs over expensive old german tube mics.

Who knew?

The Sansamp RBI.

It's totally against my nature to insult the SVT with a "modeler" but it certainly totes the mail.

All this without beaching neighboring whales and rattling the neighborhood.

My ADK mic's....I purchased my first 51 about 7 years ago and was blown away with the quality. Since then have purchased other models, using 'em on orchestra location work and really happy. The company owner Larry is a very nice guy that was kind enough to send me a free shockmount when my Jecklin disc mic's in the audience area took a 15 foot fall (saved the mic but the shockmount was in six pieces). Was one of those 'some stupid with a flare gun, burnt the place to the ground' moments (almost), as I turned from the gasping of the crowd to see it fall in slow-mo! Don't knock 'em til you actual work with 'em!
blas

I bought a Galen Kruger 1001RB mk2 bass head. I generally don't like the GK stuff, but this thing sounds good and is low noise. I tried out many other 'name' amps that didn't have as low noise and solid bottom...

Also, I love my Audio Technica 40 series mics. Not terribly expensive, but they can get the job done quite nicely.

Studio projects C1 - deffinitely not a U87 clone like so many had said, but I like to use it on the out side of the kick drum and on some floor toms.

Last week I was mixing a few songs that I did not track, and the rhthym guitars had ... (gulp) ... AmpFarm. And you know what? It suited the song and sounded good, so I left it.