Amongst the abundancy of band and guitar threads, I don't recall seeing (at least recently) a thread dedicated to amplifiers. Just to get the ball rolling I'll give a brief rundown of some of the amps I have owned and my impressions. My first amp was a large MontgomeryWards tube amp (probably 50 watts or less). This amp looked very much like an Ampeg with the oversized 4 speaker cab and seperate brain. I remember being embarassed to use this amp, but would give my left nut to have it back now. Like I said, it was a tad underpowered for it's size but provided a very warm tube sound. The next amp was a real learning experience. My Dad had agreed to cosign a loan for the amp of my choice (under$750 or so) at Evans Music City. What I really wanted was a double stack Marshall, but all my budget would allow was a 50 watt combo. Well, size was much more important in the late 70's than now, so instead of getting a perfectly suitable Marshall combo I let the Evans salesman talk me into a beheamoth Acoustic (remember those) amplifier with a blistering 130 watts of the harshest sounding transister power you ever heard in your life. My band mates took to calling it the 'GURNT machine'. As I recall, the amp even had a horn (sheees) and a graphic equalizer which came relete with tips on various settings to get that classic british tube sound, etc. It did not matter how you set the equalizer up because all the speakers ever emitted was GURNT! My bass player took pitty on me realizing the Acoustic would make a pretty damn good bass amp and traded me his Ampeg V-60? (I think it was called v-60, it did have 60 watts). Well, this was much better but still not really what I was looking for (again, in hindsight I'd love to have this amp back). Just think the Rolling Stones and you will have a very apt idea for how the Ampeg sounded. I was really into heavy crunchy stuff then, so kind of struggled with the Ampegs cleaner tone; though with a mxr distortion plus got very close to what I wanted. The thing I remeber most about the Ampeg was the distortion switch. It was more a raspy rattle layered on top of a clean sound and damned if I could make it sound good. Listening back to many Stones and Faces albums I can hear that didtinctive distortion and can but marvel at how they could make it sound so cool, If you've ever heard Angel on Rod Stewarts Never a Dull Moment you can witness Ronnie Wood making that Ampeg sound like a piece of heaven. Next up was the 80's and like many others I became a fan of Roland Jazz 120/60's. Though I love the chorus on those amps I quickly discovered this was not the amp for me. Guess what I did. I traded it to a buddy of mine for the very same Ampeg I had sold him a year before. Not long after I bought a Vox amp (Scorpion) head from a friend and teamed it up with a 4 speaker (Fain) Hiwatt. While the Vox was a transistor model, thru the Hiwatt it sounded really smooth and provided lot's of crunch. The other guitar player in my band at the time played a Vox Buckingham (with the original Bulldog speakers) and while it also was a transistor model, it to sounmded remarklably smooth and tube like. He used to always say the Vox transistor amps were smoother than others because of the modular design. Well, I knew that was a load of BS then just like I do now, but whatever. After years and countless gigs with the Vox/Hiwatt setup I finally tired of lugging that monster around and decided to get the best combo I could find. I held out untill I found a Vox AC30 (also Fain speakers) and have used that amp ever since. AC30 actually stands for 30 watts, but the British seem to have a different standard for rating wattage and that AC 30 will fill up any mid to large size club, unmiked. Of course, the important thing is the sound and the AC30 is SWEET and highly versatile. It sounds GREAT just turned up at mid level with no effects for all that cool Beatles/Bad Finger/Big Star kind of sound or just plug in the overdrive of your choice and you can fight it out with the Marshalls of this world. Guess that's about it, but a few other amps that I like or that interest me are the old Sears tube amps, Orange amplifiers (always wanted one) and Sound City. I have been hearing good things about the Line 6 amps as well. Oh yeah, almost forgot Fender. While not my amp of choice there is no denying their fine heritage. I saw SRV back in the day (b4 he hit it big) at Rockefellers and he had two Fender twins tilted up and backwards. The sound was incredible with beautifull overtones and controlled but screaming feedback. Guess I've rambled along enough by now; afterall, I was wondering is what is your favorite amp?
Favorite Amp I Use: Fender Blues Jr. (I put in Tesla tubes and a Celestion Greenback speaker) Favorite Amp I Can Never Afford: Dr. Z (hands down the best sounding custom built amps, ever)
For guitar: - Head: Peavey 5150 or a Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier - Cab: Orange 4x12 For bass: Ampeg SVT head and cab or some choice mesa boogie gear. Oh to have disposable income.....
see if you can snag one of these for around that price.. http://search.ebay.com/fender-blues-junior_W0QQfkrZ1QQfromZR8 you will love it unless you're into alternative/metal
Here is my main one... 1963 Fender Vibroverb Reissue. I believe mine was made in 1991. I bought it at Fullers about 4 years ago, and had vintage ceramic Jensen 10" speakers put in it. It gets great blues tone, and breaks up nicely at louder volumes (anything above 4). My other amp is a 1971 Fender Twin with 2 12" Fane speakers and Russian military tubes in it. Jim Demeter modded it when I lived in Los Angeles....he removed the vibrato and put a master volume in it (they didn't come with master volumes back then). The result is an amp that combines Fender twang and Marshall crunch without the use of any stomp boxes. I've rented it out for recording sessions several times. It gets a very unique tone.
Had a Vox AC30... sold it. Looking for an AC15 as my main small amp, but I'd love to save up for a Matamp V28 head and 2x12 cab. http://www.matamp.com/guitarist-magazine.html I played my Ric through one up in Portland about 6 months ago... it sounded amazing.
i have a 72 fender bassman 50 with 2 X 12 celestion speakers. the tone cannot be beat (tubes). i get offers to sell it for more than i paid, but i cant find another amp that sounds as good. i cannot go back to solid state amps. the tube has spoiled me.
I've loved all of my guitar amps First guitar amp was a 1979 100 watt Marshall Super Lead. It had been poorly modded with an extra pre-amp tube that did nothing and had 6550 tubes in it (instead of the usual EL-34s). Because of the latter, it was a ridiculously loud and clean amp until you turned up to about 8, at which point you'd get a really great Marshall roar. However, at that volume, anything that walked directly in front of the amp would die. I was able to record it about 10 years ago using a 4 track and a little Zoom effects box for some compression and it sounded huge with my Strat. I eventually paired it with a JCM 800 412 cab. Eventually, I realized that the amp was too loud for me and traded it for a 1968 Deluxe Reverb. I still have that amp, and it has a great, snarling Fender tone. No matter how loud the band, it cuts through easily. I have a Sound City L120 that has been called a poor man's Hiwatt. At 120 watts, it does have that bright, clean tube sound, but it has the ugliest midrange response I've ever heard. It doesn't distort really - it just starts sounding like a fart when you get it really loud. It's great for a 60s style bass sound - think Jack Bruce - but pretty useless for guitar. However, my current favorite is my 1966 Vox AC50. Unlike an AC30, this amp uses EL-34s and runs Class AB. The sound has been compared to a mix of a Vox AC-30 and an old Marshall JTM-45. I've had it modded so that it runs a little quieter than normal, and I get an awesome crunch with the volume on 6. I use it through a 20th Anniversary Marshall 412 with 30 watt Celestions. Everyone who plays through this amp loves it, but I will never sell it.
My bass gear when I was younger... ADA MB1 Preamp 2 Carver PM300 power amps 2 Trace Elliot cabinets (4x10, 1x15) My current bass rig... Behringer BX3000 head Ampeg SVP BSP preamp (on order) Aphex Punch Factory compressor 2 SWR 4x10 Cabinets When the preamp arrives, I may replace the head with a straight power amp.
My first amp was a Frankenstein'd up solid state Rickenbacker amp I found dirt cheap at a pawn shop. Combo amp with 4 10s in it. In bad shape. I replaced a couple of speakers, put in a new fuse, jiggled some wires and viola, runs like a dream. It's still my bedroom amp. Solid state is ideal for the bedroom (as far as I'm concerned) 'cause you get a real consistent sound out of it regardless of volume. Next I knew I needed a tube amp. And I thought I needed something just as big as my current amp. So I scored a BF Fender Bandmaster (post-CBS). Also a player's amp vs. a collector's amp, this thing has been through the ringer. I played it through a Fender 4x12 speaker cab. Too much amp. If I turned it to 2, no one could really hear it. 2.5 would make people's ears bleed. I got sick of carrying all that amp around and decided to go WAY smallers. That brings me to my SF Fender Princeton. 12 watts. 1 10 inch speaker. I modded the inside pretty well. Not just replacing caps and tubes, but also increased the plate voltage (read: cleaner at loud volumes) my moving a wire. Also I added a trim pot in there so I could rebias it myself whenever I replaced tubes. Which was often, 'cause I went through quite a few pairs of 6V6GTs before I found the ones I liked. I absolutely LOVE that amp. So lightweight. So easy to bring to gigs. The biggest problem was I was unhappy with the bass response of pushing air out of only one 10 inch speaker. So just recently I acquired a TopHat Club Deluxe 2x12. 20 unadulturated watts of class A cathode biased tubey goodness. Oh man, class A is so rich, chimey, sustainy and absolutely delicious. This amp simply SINGS. I think it's a TAD bit more noisy than my Princeton, but give me some time and I'll solve that issue. This is my first amp with a master volume, and I really enjoy that feature 'cause I can crank the master and then just add a little volume so I can get a nice clean sound. I'll pepsi challenge the clean with a Fender or Vox any day. The thing I don't like about it is it isn't as light and portable as my Princeton. But it's much more musical. So I dunno how often I'll drag it to gigs, 'cause sometimes I like the small, portable factor of the Princeton. Who am I kidding, though? It's all about the tone and it's worth lugging around an extra 50 pounds or so of amp for the right tone, right? Right?!?
