Best? Gotta be the Mesa Quad. Got it very cheap through a friend who deals guitars and gear almost for a living. Unbelievable how little these go for, considering how versatile they are. Shimmering cleans, and the smoothest gain I've yet to hear coming straight from the amp. I run it through a Scarlett 2i2, Tom Quayle recommended it as a cheap but reliable recording interface, and I use the cab simulator in Logic Pro. Yeah, it doesn't
feel anything like the real thing, and I often crave the tonal benefits of a cranked amp pushing those speakers hard, but in an apartment building? I care way too much about my neighbours to subject them to me doing melodic minor drills at every waking moment...
Worst, that's easy. I got Ruokangas to build me a custom pickup config for my main guitar, thinking I needed something a lot more versatile if I wanted to "cover all bases," so to speak. Best p'ups they could offer, too, and those don't come cheap. I put it together solely through what I assumed would work out, and I was even advised against it by fellow guitarists who suggested getting Dimarzios instead. But no, Yngtchie had his mind made up, and shelled out the big bucks for what should in theory be the ultimate setup. Boy, did I fuck up big time.
I got the pickguard with everything ready to go, had a friend install it, and gave it a test run. Now, there was nothing
wrong with it on a purely technical level, but it turns out that this was in no way 'my' sound. Too hot, and the pickups just didn't work well together, to my ears. It bummed me out so much that I stopped playing for several months, and eventually had the whole thing removed and put the old one back on.
The original pickups were just dandy, totally my sound, and looking back, I realize how wrong I were. Very expensive mistake, and I still haven't sold the thing. Dunno what I can get for the pickguard with everything on it, or whether I have to sell everything piece-by-piece. Here's what it looked like: