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Wow any clips of that?
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10-19-2011 07:23 PM
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Do the mini brain heads have spring reverb or digital?? Seems like a small package to have a spring reverb tank in there...
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spring reverb. I love the sound of those heads but they don't have a lot of headroom. I found that even in a trio, it would distort and not in a pleasing way.
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IMO having owned 5? polytones, the only ones I would advise are the classic diamond tolex models with no mid control. These are the best sounding (poly's with the mid control don't sound right to my ears, but I had a guy trade me because he liked the ones with mid control, so what do I know...), most reliable models. They seem to last forever, and since there is nothing inside, any competent tech can completely rebuild if for next to nothing.
I remember seeing inside those mini brain, it is certainly not the same as the power section in the classic models, it doesn't surprise me Jack found it underpowered. The crammed a power amp inside the preamp. Remember those weren't the days of miniature 1000w power amps. The power amp/supply in the classic models is bigger than the entire mini brain.
If you want something small and great sounding, find the classic baby-brute. It is one hell of an amp.
For everyone who complains about polytone "reliability", please reply to this thread in 35 years and let us know if your evans/quilter/etc is still running strong, because there are truckloads of Polytones running 35 years later that have never visited a tech. Not only are they reliable, they are proven.Last edited by vintagelove; 02-25-2016 at 03:15 PM.
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I've been stuck using my mini-brain for my whole life... wait... you mean amplifiers...
Originally Posted by krusty
(rim-shot)
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As a middling amateur "hobby" player I think tone is super important. I don't have the chops of a Joe Pass, can't turn a cigar-box guitar in a beautiful thing through "the touch of the master's hand." Music includes a range of features, and if you have amazing melodic sense, maybe you can get away with average tone. But I've found that my more or less lame lines get smiles from people when I play with good tone. I need a guitar and amp that "have my back" so when I actually play something right, it will sound great. And when I just play unremarkable stuff, it at least will have a beautiful sound. Originally Posted by cjm
Tone. Tone. Tone this. Tone that. To hell with tone.
Some of the recognized great jazz guitarists obsessed over tone. Johnny Smith, for one.
Some didn't. Barney Kessel for one. And if you look at some of the gear a lot of these guys used, it becomes apparent that most of them weren't very obsessive about their gear and their tone.
They were obsessed mostly with playing jazz guitar.
But whether they obsessed (or if alive, still obsess) over tone or not, the recognized great jazz guitarists were recognized as great because of the musical content of what they played. Not for the tone their gear was capable of producing. Not for sound altering electronic gimmicks.
I doubt there are any "A-List" guitar players posting here under a pseudonym. Most of us are working in the minor leagues and some of us are pretty much hacks, and that last bit applies to me in spades. And that's okay, as long as we're doing what it takes to be the best we can be. There can only be one Wes Montgomery and only one Tal Farlow and one...
As a hack guitar player myself, I used to obsess over tone and spent some pretty good back pocket money on carved spruce and the "must have" amps of the day.
The irony of me "needing" a better guitar and amp than the famous "A-List" player I was trying to emulate played, always somehow managed to escape me.
As long as it works reliably, the Mini Brain will do just fine.
Some of you guys can neglect tone because you are virtuoso creators of music. But many of us need beautiful tone to make up for some other things where we don't shine as brightly, and because of jobs, family, etc. will never be able to shine.
Just my little bit...
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Interesting to see this thread revived. I own a mini-brain reissue. I bought it brand new in 2008. It was the last Polytone I bought (Over the years I owned 6 Minibrutes). I like this amp quite a bit. I use it through one of my 4 Raezer's Edge cabs. It does best with a 4 ohm load, but works great through an 8 ohm cab. It does break up at very loud volumes, and not in a good way, be forewarned. The spring reverb sounds great.
As a Joe Pass devotee, I remain a fan of the Polytone sound. That said, I have had problems with the 6 Polytone combos that I owned over the years. I do not think that the Henriksen amps sound like Polytones. I totally get the love guys have for Polytone amps, especially the older ones.
I have mostly moved on to the Clarus/RE sound popularized by Pat Martino and Jimmy Bruno about 15 years ago. And I still have a couple of vintage Fender Tube amps. For portability, my AER Compact 60 is awesome. But sometimes I want to hear the classic jazz guitar tone that only comes from a Polytone Amp. So I think my last Polytone will remain in my toolbox as long as I remain a performing jazz guitarist.
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I tried to like both a Mini Brute II, and a Mega Brute Head, and finally gave up. Just couldn't get a consistent sound that I liked, and I found them to be a bit underpowered....I think...
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Originally Posted by hallpass
How are the Polytone Mini Brain heads for guitar? I'm specifically tlaking about the older, 75 watt version. Someone is selling one locally and I'm curious. Seems they are designed for 4 ohm speaker load, but would 8 ohms also work? They look like this:
I have an 80's minibrute II (no mid control) and a head. I forget if it's the Mega or mini-brain. I believe it's the higher power one. The head sounded great with my 335. It produced a warm yet articulate tone but if you're looking for a darker character in your jazz tone, you may not be happy with it. Guys like Pass and Bruno used Polytones for years and their preferred tones were brighter than what some may consider a classic jazz guitar tone. Overall, I like both my Taurus II combo and the head with my Raezer twin 8. I'm still deciding on my Raezer 12 which came stock with an Eminence Gamma Pro. I bought it new in 2000. I never really bonded with that cab. It sounded a bit 2-dimensional and flat with the original speaker. I currently have an Eminence Beta 12A (I believe that's the model used in Henriksens) and feel the sound is much better in terms of depth in tone.
I also have an Henriksen head. This amp does not work well with my Raezer 12 cab. It's too bright when compared to my friend's Henriksen combo 10 which has a much darker tone. I concluded it must be a mismatch with my Raezer cabs. Yet, my Clarus IIR sounds very respectable with my Raezer 12. Recently I've rediscovered how great my Evans GH200 head can sound. It can do the traditional jazz vibe and other genres very nicely. I was floored rediscovering how great a Tele can sound with an OD pedal through my Evans.
Sorry to have digressed. My suggestion is to audition the Poytone head and be aware at louder volumes, the sound gets brighter. I think this is true with most amps in general. If you're looking for a dark classic jazz tone, this may not be your best bet and the Clarus will get you more of that vibe. I find in general, a mid control adds a lot of upper highs and I usually turn the mid frequencies down to warm up the tone more.
Good luck and happy auditioning the amp!
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Hooray for Polytone Baby Brutes!
Still using mine.
And loving it.
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The Baby Brute is the best amp Polytone ever made. The fuzzy and diamond Tolex models of Mini Brute II are good too. If you double on bass, a fuzzy or diamond MiniBrute III or IV is a great amp.
it is possible to overpower a Polytone. If the gig needs an old Super Reverb, don't show up with a Polytone. Yeah, the Fender has less than half the power...but it is a louder amp.
it's all about projection and acoustics. I played a show tonight. Solo guitar/vocal. I was on stage in a theater seating 250. I used a 12 watt amp and sang w/o a mic. Everyone could hear everything fine. Polytone would have worked fine.
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Originally Posted by Greentone
Thats funny, I have a 64 super reverb that has to be the holy grail of clean amps. It just sounds amazing and every guitar player to ever set foot in my home fell in love with it. It's also the holy grail of PIT@ to move...
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I doubt I've ever heard a better amp than an early blackface Super Reverb. Some about as good? Sure. Better? Nope.
I suspect that if they were collapsible to laptop size when it came time to carry them off stage, we'd all be using them faithfully.
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I love the Baby Brue, but my latest "portable" set-up is an old Budda Verbmaster built by Jef Bober, in a custom Krueger mini-headshell, matched to a little Krueger 1x12" cab loaded with an old Marsland speaker that hasn't blown up yet. Class A/B, 18 watts:
Last edited by Hammertone; 02-26-2016 at 11:30 AM.
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I use a polytone head, I bought around 25 years ago - not sure about the model, no reverb, no distortion
the label says 75W and baby brute as well as baby taurus , and it looks like the one pictured above
it's got an efx loop with send and return controls, I connect an accutronics reverb can with 2 rca on phone plug cables directly to - works.
reverb can is mounted in my cab
be happy
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Has anyone tried the JHS Clover preamp pedal?
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