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I have a Quilter Aviator Cub, which I chose over the Tonemaster Deluxe, but that was a very close call. For me, the smaller footprint and lower weight and the additions tones (especially the tweed sound) tipped the scales. But if all you want is the sound of a Deluxe and don’t mind the bigger footprint I think the TMDR sounds really good.
Originally Posted by tomems
For my purposes (clean jazz tones and moderate crunch for blues, with an OD pedal for more dirt) it’s perfect. I can see why some people prefer the Mach 3’s extra features, but I prefer simpler amps. For the OP’s purposes, I doubt the extra bells and whistles of the Aviator Mach 3 are worth the extra cost and complexity.
I’m not a fan of Roland JC amps, so I’d cross that off my list. If the OP wants overdrive from the amp, I don’t think “jazz” amps (Henriksen, AER,
DV LJ, etc.) are going to satisfy.
I’d also throw a Fender Champion 20 or 40 onto the list of possibilities. They sound really good, and are light (and stupid cheap). Haven’t tried one myself, but I’ve heard other people sound really good with the newer Boss Katana.
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10-27-2024 09:30 AM
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Allow me some terminological nitpicking. "Amp" is an abbreviation of amplifier but usually refers to a combo, which integrates the amplifier and the speaker cabinet into a single unit. A stand-alone amplifier is called a head, while speaker cabinets are called not only cabs but speakers or even amps. The speaker is the loudspeaker or transducer inside the cab in our parlance, whereas in the HiFi world speakers often refer to the cabinets housing several transducers of different roles.
I understand that OP is looking for a combo. A plethora to choose from. I can't name a bad one; they're just different to suit different needs and tastes. The OP doesn't specify which effects should be on board. The current trend is to get the rock flavors from a pedalboard, leaving the amp's own menu more or less useless. If we allow separate heads and cabs into the discussion, the number of options increases dramatically. Again, I agree with those who say there's no single "best" choice. What I really want to point out is that the speaker is the most overlooked, yet crucial link in the signal chain.
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+1 to the Henriksen, milkman, quilter recommendations. I also love the mambo amp but I know I won’t be able to get it serviced easily if I should need to.
As for the milkman, I would advise to get a separate head and cab rather than the combo.
For rock any of these will get you a great sound. I use pedals for dirt anyway.
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Zooming in on that a little bit, when you say “for jazz” do you mean that literally (i.e. the genre) or do you mean when amplifying a certain kind of guitar (i.e. an all-solid wood archtop like an L5)? Originally Posted by Stringswinger
I’m asking this because I personally play jazz on thinline guitars like a PRS 594 Hollowbody II and an Eastman Romeo. I also use an Ibanez GB10 which is a laminate archtop designed by/for a player who predominantly uses Fender amps. With guitars like this, I’m curious if the Henriksen comes out on top. For a big, predominantly acoustic archtop that happens to have a pickup it’s a different matter.
I use low-wattage tube amps and am partial to tubes, but I’m considering the Quilter Mach3. Never tried one though. I did try several Henriksen amps but with the kind of guitars I play the sounded sterile to me.
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That's the part that concerns me about the Mach3 combo. I see some things in the frequency response chart for the stock speaker that I think I might not like. I do have a spare BN12-300S that I'm prepared to swap in and I like that one a lot for the TB202 + archtop. (I'm a combo guy) Originally Posted by Gitterbug
Clearly this is way more amp than I need these days, but hey... I haven't bought any new gear in a couple of years!
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I am talking about genre. For jazz, I prefer a "Polytone" sound, which to me is warm and round. For Rock and blues, I prefer a "Fender" sound which is sparkly and more angular. The Mach 3 delivers the classic Fender sound up to a point. A purist might still want to go with tubes chasing that sound. Originally Posted by Oscar67
Regarding guitars, I have never bonded with thinlines or semi-hollows (and not for want of trying). I do play solidbodies, laminated hollowbodies and fully carved hollowbodies. All three of those types of guitars get used on jazz gigs and do well with my Henriksens. If I played a guitar that I had a Fender amp preference for, I would choose a Quilter, a Milkman or a Fender tube amp (I am not ready to sign on to the fully digital thing just yet).
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+1 Originally Posted by omphalopsychos
The Milkman combo is based on their 50 watt version which will overdrive a bit too much for a jazz gig, IMO. I have the Milkman The Amp 100 Head which I pair with a Raezer's Edge Stealth 12ER Cabinet. This combo is more weight than I care to carry to most gigs, but the sound is as good as any amp that I have ever played.
Here is a video of a guy who used the Milkman 50 watt head with a Raezer's Edge Stealth 12 for rock and blues:
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Clean guitar tones tend to have a twangy, distinct attacks, and short decays. The guitar has a staccato bias. In jazz, we want to emulate the flowing legato lines of horn players. The cliche of turning down the tone knob and using amps that have round, fat cleans (like Polytone) is to make it easier to produce these "horn like" lines, in my opinion. Hollowbody electrics also help with rounding the attack. Another way to get there is to use overdrive a la Scofield or use your thumb, lol.
That's not to say one can't get good jazz tones in almost any setting but but for clean jazz tones, I wouldn't want to have a base tone that's twangy.Last edited by Tal_175; 10-28-2024 at 06:44 AM.
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I have a MicroPro Mach 2 for sale right now. Perfect condition. Never left my home studio. Super versatile and loud! Originally Posted by Woody Sound
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Curious as to why solid state
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Look into Benedetto amps. Henriksen (I believe) made the Benedetto amps. I have a Benedetto Carina, and it is the best ss amp I've had. Over the years, I've more than I can count, including Polytone, Fender, Peavey, and more. The Carina is terrific, may be worth checking out if you can find one.
At the low end, I recently picked up a ss Fender Princeton Chorus from Hammertone, and man, the clean sounds are great! Very, very surprising. It is made in the USA.
The Polytone MBII was also wonderful and versatile. I used it on hollowbody jazz gigs and solid body blues gigs.
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+1 on Evans.
I saw Ron Eschete last friday, he plays an Evans with a 7 string, sounds divine!
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I wrote to PQ about just that issue, and he replied with an explanation. Damned if I can't find the message now. Originally Posted by ccroft
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Those look very tempting. But, I saw an MVX150C1 (Nutube 1x12 combo) at a large discount as they have been discontinued, and got that instead. I'm very pleased with the tone on the clean channel and there's plenty of volume for the sort of amateur jams in which I play. The only disadvantage is that it weighs 20kg. Originally Posted by Rolf Field
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I suspect he said that the cabinet design smooths out the frequency response. The distance between parallel walls of a cabinet (even if one is only a 3” wide rear slat) will produce resonances at frequencies whose wavelength (or fraction or multiple) is equal to the distance between them. The same happens to even harmonics of that frequency, and there’s a peak for each one with frequencies above and below also boosted by resonance. The width of those peaks (their Q) is determined by dimensions, cavity shape, cabinet material etc. Even an open back cab has a significant effect on the frequency response of the speaker in it. Baffle design adds another set of variables. Originally Posted by Woody Sound
A 1000 Hz signal has a wavelength of about a foot, 2000 Hz signal is about 6” and 4000 Hz about 3” So most open back combo amp cabinets have a significant spectrum of resonances affecting response from low mids to the upper limit of most of the speakers we use. Look at the response curve of any raw speaker we use - none is completely flat and most drop like a rock above 4.5 to 5 kHz.
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That technical explanation is way above my pay grade. As a Mach 3 owner, I can say that a fine jazz tone can be had with the tone controls set mostly flat. I copied Rich Severson's settings and have been quite pleased. Those seeking a Polytone/Clarus-RE sound will be disappointed, it delivers a decidedly Fender tone (along with a few other tube like sounds) and it is a bit on the bright side (Every Quilter amp that I have tried is this way). I would not change the speaker. If a slightly bright, sparkly amp is not to your liking, look elsewhere. Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
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Another Mambo vote here.
Plenty of power, very low noise, Fender, Polytone and flat preamp voicing switches, digital reverb that is as good as Flint or UA Golden for my purposes, 10" combo is lighter than a Champ, head configuration available. FX loop to plug your favourite tube preamps or digital sims. Good looks.
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[actually they're not building the head-only any more, unfortunately!] Originally Posted by burchyk
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Some of my favorite solid state amps:
DV Mark Jazz 60 head thru a JBL D130 - same amp as the Little Jazz, which is many on the forum are familiar with, but with a D130 it sounds amazing. Cons are reverb is a bit strange at higher settings and they don't have overdrive.
Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb - extremely light, and sounds so close to the real thing in a gig setting. Lush sounding reverb. The wattage switch on the back of the amp is incredibly useful, I can get some nice slightly overdriven sounds at sensible gigging volumes on the 5 watt setting. I have the firmware update on that 'bypasses' the emulated bright cap.
Quilter Aviator Twin Ten - small footprint, lots of headroom and huge spread of sound from the 2x10" configuration. It is voiced 'kind of' like a blackface Fender... but there's a bit more midrange and the bass is slightly tighter. I have Jensen Tornados in mine, and they are a improvement over the stock Celestions. There is a 'high treble' control that is really useful for taming brighter sounding guitars.
Roland JC-80, 1977 - unapologetically solid state sounding, but my favourite of the JC series. The 15'' speaker makes all the difference. A lot less icy sounding than most JCs. There is a distinct analogue grittiness from this amp that I enjoy.
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Thanks everyone for your thoughtful comments. Here's where I'm at...
Quilter Mach 3 combo
It seems like it's hard to beat this one. It has loads of different tones. It has tremolo, which I love. And it can be really quiet or really loud. It's almost like a grown up Boss Katana - better sounds, fewer effects. It's the current front runner.
Roland Jazz Chorus 40
My interest in this amp sparked my recent solid state curiousity in the first place. It's unlike anything I have - very intriguing. It's not too pricey. I even think the distortion sounds half decent. Main turn off at this point - it seems like you need to get it to "loud TV" volume for it to open up. That makes sense - it's an amp - but I rarely play that loud.
Fender Tone Master (Deluxe Reverb et al)
These seem pretty cool. I like that you can get quiet with it. It has trem. Holdups - Quilter has several voices so hopefully more likely to find a few I like. I think I would like the Fender TM voice but I'm unsure. Also, it's cool there are so many TMs now - I wish I could line them and try them all.
Henriksen Bud and Blu
I've actually played through a Bud and I liked it. I admire the company. If I had (1) amazing chops, (2) a $6,000 Collings, and (3) a weekly hotel restaurant gig, I would totally buy a Blu. But I have none of those things. Awesome for what it is but not really what I'm going for. Maybe one day? I like the 6" speaker - easier to hide from my family
Milkman The Amp Combo
This seems cool but some people get it in the mail and don't like it. I would hate to spend four figures and have that happen.
Misc... Evans, Fuchs, DV, AER, Mambo
In the Fender vs. Polytone world, these all seem like the latter - right? Very cool but not really what I'm going for. Open to a good YouTube link if I'm wrong...
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I have no experience with Evans or Fuchs, but own both an AER Compact 60 (which I don't use much) and a Mambo Originally Posted by tomems
The AER Compact 60 is a 2-channel flat response amp that works well for electro-acoustic guitar and singer/songwriter performers needing a mic as well as the guitar.
The Mambo is more versatile and offers both Fender and Polytone settings (info below from the Mambo user guide explaining the controls):
• bright / normal / deep ; 3 way switch the normal setting is the classic mambo amp sound deep setting has slightly more bass and less treble, more like a Polytone bright setting swaps the standard mambo tone control to a Fender AB763 circuit
• clean / harmonic ; 2 way switchthe clean setting is pure and clean, very high headroomthe harmonic setting is similar to a valve preamp, turning the guitar up and playingharder will produce more dynamic overtones. Use the gain control and guitar volumeto get the best of this to suit your taste. High gain settings will produce mild overdriveon loud notes.
https://www.mambo-amp.co.uk/images/M...%20web%201.pdf
Following are a few video links allowing you to sample Mambo sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=I_NMN6DCHQY
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Forgot to include the following comparison video between Fender Princeton '65, Mambo and a Henriksen Jazzamp 110.
Mambo is said to be 100% stock, whereas the others have been modified to some extent
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Thank you. Can you buy mambo in the US? I have looked at the past and not been able to find it.
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There's no US dealer, but Mambo can certainly ship to you! Originally Posted by tomems
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Warranty issues can get expensive with international shipping being part of the equation. Originally Posted by marcwhy
There's no US dealer, but Mambo can certainly ship to you!
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