I'm also convinced that more bass players should use tube amps! I have this little early seventies Fender Musicmaster bass amp and the thing sounds great.
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 1 October 2005 17:38 (eighteen years ago) link
it makes everything i play sound ace which is saying something because i'm not a very good player - a bit limited really.
if you want Metal you might wanna get a distortion pedal up front but i'm no great expert on those
yeah tube amps!!
― john clarkson, Saturday, 1 October 2005 18:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 1 October 2005 18:16 (eighteen years ago) link
the knob that says 'overdrive' on an amp doesn't do it for me usually either.
― john clarkson, Saturday, 1 October 2005 18:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― AaronK (AaronK), Sunday, 2 October 2005 00:30 (eighteen years ago) link
*notes address*
― john clarkson, Sunday, 2 October 2005 09:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 01:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― jdchurchill (jdchurchill), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 17:27 (eighteen years ago) link
the fender blues jr is pretty sweet and would for *me* be the best bang for buck tube amp. although smaller tube amps can be had for less - epiphone and others make smaller amps for under $200. in my opinion tube amps work best when you can crank em, so for most uses, smaller would be better.
i cant agree with you Hurting, i used to have one of those and i just couldnt make it sound good. clean wasnt rich enough for me and the distortion sucked. but they're insanely popular, so who knows.
anyway, i couldnt really tell you about best bang for *your* buck, just depends what you want.
building your own amp isnt *necessarily* cheaper. that said, you can buy a kit for $450-600 that will have everything you need to build your own Fender Tweed deluxe or bassman or twin or bandmaster, etc.
one good place is missionamps.com and webervst.com
most of the kits are for old amps. 50's fenders and 60's marshalls. keep in mind that Tweed era fenders are not at all like latter day fenders - ie, their clean is not crystal clear. think neil young.
you could also build one not from a kit, but these two guys prices and technical help are so good, it's just worth your while.
― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 02:11 (eighteen years ago) link
The first will give you enough headroom to play clean, but also some nice dirt if you decide to push it. the second would give you super clean as well as reverb and tremolo.
if you go this route, I'd learn a bit more about how tube amps, building tips, dangers, etc. it'll take some time to build and probably wont work right away. :) but you want to make sure that mistakes you make wont cost you your life or home. that said, these kits are NOT terrible difficult and the amps are classic, great sounding designs.
― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 02:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― superultramega (superultramarinated), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 22:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 23:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― Earl Nash (earlnash), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 01:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 02:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― George the Animal Steele, Wednesday, 19 October 2005 14:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 14:47 (eighteen years ago) link
Old Tube PA systems like the ones Traynor, Sunn and some other companies are also kind of cool for guitarists who want something vintage but cannot aford the green for the big name stuff. I've got a friend that has a Bogen 50 watt tube PA that he uses as a guitar amp that sounds pretty sweet.
I got a cool old amp this summer, picking up an early 80s Marshall JCM800 4104 2x12 combo for $250 bucks. The only thing wrong was that the tubes were shot and it was filthy. I got it retubed and the bias set and it sounds pretty sweet, although the prescence has to be rolled off or it makes the speakers get staticky. It has two volumes, loud and off. Push it a bit past one and it gets really loud and doesn't seem to get much louder past three and half.
― Earl Nash (earlnash), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 16:17 (eighteen years ago) link
I'd buy it...
― John Justen (johnjusten), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 17:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 18:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― superultramega (superultramarinated), Tuesday, 1 November 2005 17:04 (eighteen years ago) link
I want a small foot switchable twin channel tube driven amp both chans tube non master volume with reverb and vibrato channels small enough to busk with use in the studio and take to a gig it would be nice if this could also be hooked to battery power for those times when power cant be found while busking rms power between 20 and 30 watts rms
considered amps so far have been fender deluxe reverb,if only this amp was 30 watts fender blues junior, cool but would love it if this were non master volume hot rod deluxe, very nice but its a master volume job yet again watts a lil higher then i wanted love a 65 twin reverb but those 85 clean watts are only nice for my surf sounds too much clean power for everything else i like.bassman,45watts too much wattage no reverb nice with 2x12 or 1x15 but i guess it would not be a bassman then
i think something which either runs a 1x12 2x12 or a 1x15 combo and i realise 2x12 is rather big for a small combo something like a twin at lower watts but yet higher then a deluxe reverb but lower then a hot rod deluxe i must be confusing hell out of you all now ;-)
i guess a deluxe reverb on steroids is what i want ;-) maybe a vibrolux the last choice is an amp ive been very very tempted by its a chris seigmund midnight special a little smaller maybe but man this baby has the goods http://www.siegmundguitars.com/MS.html
can anyone assist me with my mindfield of choices keeping in mind what i originally wanted to get hold off
thanks in advance to anyone who leaves usefull non critical feedback
regards wayne ;-)
― wayne, Wednesday, 9 November 2005 00:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 15:06 (eighteen years ago) link
Peavey is putting out a head version of the Classic 30 in the next few months, which is one I have my eye upon.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 9 November 2005 18:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 19:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 20:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 20:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 10 November 2005 04:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― superultramega (superultramarinated), Thursday, 24 November 2005 22:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Thursday, 8 December 2005 04:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 8 December 2005 04:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Thursday, 8 December 2005 04:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― John Justen (johnjusten), Thursday, 8 December 2005 05:03 (eighteen years ago) link
that would be a long xpost...
― John Justen (johnjusten), Thursday, 8 December 2005 05:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Thursday, 8 December 2005 05:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Thursday, 8 December 2005 05:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― John Justen (johnjusten), Thursday, 8 December 2005 05:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Thursday, 8 December 2005 05:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 8 December 2005 13:38 (eighteen years ago) link
If you buy a newer Deluxe, try to get one from the 90s that has the Jensen in it instead of the Fender branded speaker if you can.
John, what's your third favorite Fender amp? I'd put the Deluxe and Vibrolux as 2 out of 3 as well. I wonder if we're in agreement about the third... I am really partial to blackface Vibrochamps.
― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 8 December 2005 16:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 8 December 2005 16:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Thursday, 8 December 2005 22:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 8 December 2005 22:32 (eighteen years ago) link
but man, you could do so much worse than a deluxe reverb and vibrolux....
― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 8 December 2005 23:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Friday, 9 December 2005 00:13 (eighteen years ago) link
I traded in the Mk. 1 Boogie in about a year for a Reeves-era Hiwatt, the main amp I still have. That Hiwatt smoked most anything the blackface Fender could do, was better built, was more versatile and easily tuned to everything from blues to raging hard rock. A caveat -- the Hiwatt was easy to alienate an audience with, something the blackface Fender very rarely ever did. Both were classic amp designs.
― George the Animal Steele, Friday, 9 December 2005 05:12 (eighteen years ago) link
I play in a cover band with some older guys that run a guitar shop and they are dealers for some of the new hand wired Hiwatt amps. They sound fantastic, but they cost as much as a used car.
I always loved the sound Duane Denison got in the Jesus Lizard using his Hiwatt half stack. It had a real edge, but was still pretty clean. The Hiwatt reall worked for Denison's guitar style, as he could voice all of these inverted jazzy chords and it would still cut through like he was playing a power chord.
― earlnash, Friday, 9 December 2005 13:18 (eighteen years ago) link
Yeah, they've become radically overpriced. Strange, since the name "Hiwatt" doesn't mean anything anymore. Anyone can use it for awhile to put out their own repros or whatever their conception is of a Hiwatt knockoff. What has their been in the past few years? Audio Bros. did them for awhile. Then it was Fernandes. Then Harry Joyce made them under his own name until he died. Then there was Reeves. Then Maxwatt. I don't even bother to keep track anymore it's so sad and pathetic.
― George the Animal Steele, Friday, 9 December 2005 16:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Sunday, 11 December 2005 04:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― George the Animal Steele, Sunday, 11 December 2005 18:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 12 December 2005 01:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 12 December 2005 13:50 (eighteen years ago) link
If you really do "believe in" (even if it means just preferring for esoteric reasons of your own) the mojo of older equipment, there are a lot of amps out there which do not have a Fender nameplate on them which are affordable and totally rockin. Many of them are complete Fender circuit ripoffs anyway...
I'm not knocking said mojo either. I'm just saying it will cost you if it's name brand mojo, and I personally don't think the difference in cost is worth any [perceived] difference in quality between reissues or newer amps and rock and roll icons of yore spilling forth from time capsules in varying condition.
Also note, if you're gonna pay an amp tech to give an old amp a cap job (and most of them need them sooner rather than later), why not just upgrade the caps in a newer amp and get the slight sound improvement of, say, orange drops out of an amp that will likely be more reliable because it hasn't been used for as long?
― martin m. (mushrush), Monday, 12 December 2005 15:59 (eighteen years ago) link
a problem only arises when the reissue circuit has been changed from the original.
― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 12 December 2005 17:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― b'angelo, Monday, 12 December 2005 18:23 (eighteen years ago) link
Sometimes a circuit change doesn't really make much of a difference tonally. I mean not $$$$ worth of difference, if you ask me. Generally I'd agree w/ you though. I mean if the circuit is different, it's not the same amp now is it?
Does anyone know if it is possible to have it modified so there would be, say, a toggle that would 1/2 the wattage or something?
You should be able to yank two of the power tubes to get it to run at half power. Don't quote me on that until you do some searching online, but I'm pretty sure it's safe. (Anybody know if the reissue Twin is cathode or fixed bias? That'll answer the question.) You'll likely have to yank every other tube or something like just the outside ones, depending how they are wired. I specialize in small amps, so I'm not super familiar with the Twin, reissue or original.
Hope this helps.
― martin m. (mushrush), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:39 (eighteen years ago) link
also, best bet is to use a power attenuator of some sort, because even at 50W it's still going to be a loud mofo. attenuators are many and varied, but the Weber Mass actually simulated the frequency response of an actual speaker, so it is fairly transparent tone-wise. www.webervst.com
― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 12 December 2005 19:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Monday, 12 December 2005 21:06 (eighteen years ago) link
thanks for the advice!
― b'angelo, Monday, 12 December 2005 21:16 (eighteen years ago) link
and yes, you're right - it has to be matched in terms of power and impedence. Weber sells all sizes, and generally the impedence is selectable on the unit. as you can see on http://www.tedweber.com/atten.htm there are several to choose from, including links to other popular ones made by other folks.
also, weber makes great stuff - especially speakers.
― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 01:44 (eighteen years ago) link
A year or two ago, one of the power tubes in my SF Twin took a crap. I couldn't afford to retube so I just pulled one of the other tubes to get to 50 watts. It does take the wattage down but not so much that you'd really notice (3db from what I've read). It also creates an impedance mismatch with the speakers resulting in a more saturated sound. I believe you should pull either the outer two or the inner two.
If that doesn't get you to where you want to be, you might be better off with an attenuator (as Aaron suggested), or a lower-powered amp.
― righteousmaelstrom (righteousmaelstrom), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:29 (eighteen years ago) link
The relationship between wattage and volume is not linear. Often you hear people saying shit like "the Deluxe is surprisingly loud for a 22 Watt amp," which is ridiculous because, well, the Deluxe is exactly as loud as a 22W amp should be because that's what it is.
But yes, 50W is not that much less powerful than 100W when you are just talking about sheer volume of sound. As wattage goes up, max volume changes less and less. What can change a lot is clean volume. For example, not only is a 6W Champ a lot less loud than 22W Deluxe, but it overdrives waaaay faster if you compare relative volumes before the circuit runs out of headroom. And we all know how hard it is to overdrive a 80W or 100W Twin...
I'm oversimplifying to make a point, but still...
― martin m. (mushrush), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:59 (eighteen years ago) link
I've been investigating the Yellow Jackets primarily to knock down the power in my Marshall JCM800 50 watt combo. I was thinking about getting some to put in my 5150 combo, but I got a good offer and sold it last Sunday. The Yellow Jackets will definitely fit in my Marshall, so I am considering on picking a set in the next few weeks.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 13 December 2005 20:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 14:01 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.tugboatonline.com/ilxstuff/amp.jpg
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Saturday, 24 December 2005 07:59 (eighteen years ago) link
you will not be sorry.
― martin m. (mushrush), Sunday, 25 December 2005 09:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― Earl Nash (earlnash), Monday, 26 December 2005 14:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 13:55 (eighteen years ago) link
By the way, my other favorite Fender amp I alluded to above is the blackface Concert. '64, if we're going ultrageek today.
― John Justen (johnjusten), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 02:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― earlnash, Wednesday, 28 December 2005 12:28 (eighteen years ago) link
Following up on a couple of things from a few months back. I did some swapping around and got a Mesa Boogie F50 combo and a Weber Mass attenuator.
The Weber Mass works freakin' GREAT. I have gotten my best recorded guitar tone by using the Mass and recording via the DI output. I almost can't believe how well it works. You can play and have the room volume be comfortable and yet get sustain/feel like you are melting the paint off the wall. I'm not even using the 'tone circuit' feature on the Mass, as it sounds real flubby to me, just direct and tweak on the amp to set the sound.
― Earl Nash (earlnash), Monday, 24 April 2006 02:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 24 April 2006 12:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 24 April 2006 13:00 (eighteen years ago) link
Just picked up an Ampeg Super Rocket yesterday... There was no reason AT ALL to bring in a 2x12 100w amp into the house, but I still maintain that these guys are undervalued. Great amp although I'm going to be saying "can't hear. what did you say?" for the rest of my life.
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 14 June 2013 01:31 (eleven years ago) link
the deluxe reverb i got upthread is probably one of the best bits of gear i've ever bought
― multi-purpose food (electricsound), Friday, 14 June 2013 03:42 (eleven years ago) link
The shop has been blessed with craptons of magnatone amps for some bizarre reason over the last year and man, I am obsessed with that fm vibrato.
― Hi i am your great fan suces (jjjusten), Friday, 14 June 2013 05:10 (eleven years ago) link
I just wanna spam this thread with crazy tube amp shots from the shop now. You guys have to see the crazy titano rebranded magnatone we got in recently.
― Hi i am your great fan suces (jjjusten), Friday, 14 June 2013 05:15 (eleven years ago) link
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m134/johnjusten/null-2.jpghttp://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m134/johnjusten/null-3.jpg
― Hi i am your great fan suces (jjjusten), Friday, 14 June 2013 05:20 (eleven years ago) link
Why don't we have an imm crazy vintage weirdo picture thread? Maybe I should start one.
― Hi i am your great fan suces (jjjusten), Friday, 14 June 2013 05:24 (eleven years ago) link
zero to galleries of weird Soviet synthesizers in 10 posts.
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 14 June 2013 06:28 (eleven years ago) link
All guitars should be shaped like America.
― how's life, Friday, 14 June 2013 11:32 (eleven years ago) link
Oh wow...it's kind of weird seeing posts from 7 years ago. I still got the F50, but my haul of stuff has changed quite a bit (and expanded). I got a few cool vintage instruments but mostly stuff from the 70s and 80s.
― earlnash, Saturday, 15 June 2013 07:53 (eleven years ago) link
Tell me about (new) Magnatones! I kind of want one of these, but it's super expensive. Are the cheaper ones good?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pJcjVzIPZQ
I've also been thinking about a Fender Deluxe or Princeton, but their sound is so ubiquitous and this seems to have a different sonic character that I like.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, 10 December 2020 18:41 (three years ago) link
I would like one of thesehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZGK2fzAxVM
― Joe Biden Stan Account (milo z), Wednesday, 30 December 2020 22:21 (three years ago) link
I got excited and thought this was a home stereo tube amp thread. Sweet amp, though!
― Jimi Buffett (PBKR), Wednesday, 30 December 2020 22:52 (three years ago) link
so my vox ac15 is being weird. the master knob doesn't do anything. i can still get some volume out of it by using the normal or top boost level controls, but the master seems broken.
any ideas?
― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Friday, 15 January 2021 23:27 (three years ago) link
Anyone out there familiar with / have any opinions on Tyler Amps?
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, 13 April 2021 19:39 (three years ago) link
Welp, anyway, I wound up buying a gently used Fender 68 Custom Princeton Reverb and it's fantastic
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, 15 April 2021 22:09 (three years ago) link