Amp Heads for Post-Bop, Fusion - Page 2

VitalSigns · #31 01-30-2012, 05:35 AM

One last thought before I start auditioning amps. Thinking of the car analogy, buying a used imported tube amp might be similar to a seconhand foreign motor - maybe sexier than a home made new one, but it's always taking a chance. With an amp, you might get lucky with one that has had light use and been well treated (light mileage) but there's no milometer. Solder and components like capacitors tend to degrade with time. This is not a problem is you're going for a rebuild, or are prepared for the quick revalve and biasing bill. I think I'll look at new ones to begin with. Even with those, it may not sound the same a couple of years down the road after changing the tubes. That Clarus sounds inviting again..

jorgemg1984 · #32 01-30-2012, 08:14 AM

Solid state amps require less maintenance but they can give problemas as tube amps do....

VitalSigns · #33 01-30-2012, 10:50 AM

Yeah. Maybe it's not like cars - more like women. Things feel great with woman A, even tho' you know she'll be a lot more trouble than woman B. What can you do? First find the right woman, er, amp, for you.

jorgemg1984 · #34 01-30-2012, 11:30 AM

Ha Ha maybe it's like that... just find something you like and pray it last forever and it's trouble-free

VitalSigns · #35 02-03-2012, 07:23 PM

After my thread last week, I went and tried the following amps:

Hughes and Kettner Tubemeister 18 - Not a bad head, you wouldn't mind being lent it for a gig. Fairly smooth all round, but voiced quite bright (I took my Godin with heavyish flat wounds). There's a wattage control on the back, but that didn't seem to do too much at loud room volumes - not sure how loud the amp really is vis-a-vis clean headroom - you can't tell in a booth.

Cornford Hurricane. I geddit - it's a blues amp, does that well. Not sure I can be bothered to tinker with the controls when I'm playing, there being only one channel, and no FX loop (I think). They tell me that Cornford are
overstretched and only making one amp a week at the moment. That's really sad.

Clarus Head series 2. I get that too. A Pat Martino type sound, and that's about it. That would be fine if that was my sound! A little hard and honking for me.

Blackstar HT Studio 20. I like this a lot better. A good clean and O/Drive.
I took my Gibson HRF which is brighter that the Godin, and it wasn't too
bright. Not sure whether there'd be enough volume at a gig. Limited EQ on Clean and Reverb.

After quite liking the Blackstar, I read up on the Egnater Rebel 30 Head. On paper it seems to have all the attributes that would work for me. In
practice, it was something else - I hated it! The clean channel was really
hard and bright; I actually preferred the clean on the dirty channel; the wattage control didn't seem to affect the sound or volume at loud room levels; with the tube mix control, I didn't get anything beyond harshness.
They told me that the Egnater Rebels are made in China to cut the cost.
On their website it says they have Groove Tubes valves. I have no way of checking, but I can't believe these imported amps don't have cheap
tubes in them, to produce such a harsh sound.

My plan is to wait 'til there's a new Blackstar Club 50 amp released in a couple of weeks and try that - it has the features missing on the HT 20 - and retry the HT 20 again. Also I haven't tried the Mesa Boogie TA-30, which sounded interesting (the TA-15 has no reverb or FX loop) but is £1500 - I feel that's a lot of a premium to pay just because it's imported.

Any further ideas appreciated - something with a softer clean channel. I guess the truth is that Jazz sensibilities are not top on the manufacturers wish list - "hey, let's make an amp for that music our Grandfathers used to play.." sigh..

Jamie

jorgemg1984 · #36 02-03-2012, 08:53 PM

Yeah most amps are voiced for blues / rock / country and with single-coils guitars with lights strings. Most of the times they end up sounding harsh for jazz - in some cases some circuit adjustments can cure that. (In my personal case all I care about an amp is good clean sound and usable reverb - ODs and great reverb can come from pedals). I thought you would lke the Clarus - it's the Pat Martino sound right? (some people swear by the Clarus with a Para DI and I think it should also sound better with your EV than AI cabs and speakers)

oldane · #37 02-03-2012, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jorgemg1984

....some people swear by the Clarus with a Para DI and I think it should also sound better with your EV than AI cabs and speakers)

I think I must be one of those who swear by an AI head and a Sansamp Para DI - or rather I found the AI head worked well for me with the Para DI I already had, so I stopped my search there. I wouldn't have liked the AI head alone without the Para DI. It's that little black tone shaping box which is the secret weapon in that setup. The AI head is just set neutral, and other neutral amp heads would likely have worked just as well. Pat Martino seems to like the sound af the AI head alone, but his tone is not mine - I want a little more sparkle and clarity.

As for AIs speaker cabinets, they have a somewhat ideosyncratic design. They work well as a (very) small mono PA system and when used with acoustic instruments, but IMHO less well for magnetic PUs. But then they were also primarily designed for acoustic instruments (that goes for the AI heads too). I bought my AI head as a part of a Corus+ amp because I was offered a good deal on it, but I don't use the speaker for electric guitars - I took out the head and use it with a Redstone cabinet.

VitalSigns · #38 02-11-2012, 11:17 AM

It's taken a while to come to grips with tube amps - but I think I now understand things a bit better. My first tube amp was Fender Champ - I really loved the tone, but I sold it for something bigger (a Twin). Scroll forward - ahem - a few years. Yesterday I tried a Fender Supersonic 22 and also the 60 watt one. With the 22 on clean, with the fat switch on, I heard the same tone I got all those years ago. I've also read good things on this forum about the Deluxe Reverb and Princeton, which share the same power valves - 6V6s. I realise now why I hate that chimey Fender clean sound, like on the Supersonic 60 - 6L6 tubes.

I'm not prepared to pay nearly a thousand pounds for an amp (the 22) which only has one sound that I like - the dirty channel sounded harsh to me. The other Fenders with 6V6s don't have effects loops, which seem to me an important feature, plus I'm really looking for a head.

There are other manufacturers who use 6V6s, like Matamp or Cornell, but don't think a loop is important either. The two possibilities I can think of
at the moment are a) The Two-Rock Exo-15 or Studio Pro 22 - very expensive and none available as far as I can see; or b) to get an Tweed style amp made by someone like Barry Vyse, who's taken over Torres.
I've given up with the idea of a two channel amp now - one that gets a rich warm clean and a smooth overdrive in the same amp - now that would be a lot of glass in one box..
Jamie

VitalSigns · #39 02-11-2012, 07:09 PM

Just to say following my previous post on the 6V6 front, there seems to be some interest in these vintage sounds. I saw a demo of the Two Rock Studio Pro 22 combo on YouTube: Max Guitar Store - Two Rock - YouTube which suggests it may be one hard to resist, if you could actually find one, and brought along a credit card. I also came across this - there seem to be a lot of new products from the NAMM music fairs recently: VOX | TB35C1 & TB35C2 Guitar Amplifiers Sounds interesting, but look at the weight of these Vox amps in the specs - ouch!