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+1 For good exercise, and also with no offense meant to those for whom the hurdle is just too high. I don't know anything about the programs that yebdox mentioned, but like probably several others here, I am old enough to have seen both my own life turn around in a big way from diet and exercise (Planet Fitness for me - $10.00 per month), and also to have seen friends of mine sadly decline for a variety of reasons, some more controllable (sedentariness, obesity, smoking), some not (cancer, arthritis, etc).
Originally Posted by yebdox
... And, if you are not particularly disabled by back pain, wheelchair bound or female, you might be able to lift a 50 to 60 pound amp on a regular basis without hurting yourself by exercising more - P90X by Tony Horton is a great overall program, and the new Foundation Exercise series by Dr. Goodman is a safe way to effectively strengthen your back. No offense to those who are unable to lift safely or are disabled, but many of us here are not. Developing strength to be able to do what we enjoy in life safely can free up some options, including having access to tube tone.
...Last edited by HighSpeedSpoon; 03-16-2013 at 01:13 PM.
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03-16-2013 11:19 AM
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The mid 60's Ampeg,Reverberockets and Geminis sound great for clean Jazz tones. They can be had at very reasonable prices for good vintage amps.
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I can lift. I also know about the wheel and lever arms. Just don't want to.
Agree that fitness is good at any age and that sometimes people don't want to hear it.
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well as mentioned on this site numerous times re guitars ... versatility is over rated.... rather have 2 rigs... the great warm /clean /fat jazz rig and the crunchy loud rock rig
not so long ago i was a huge tube amp fan.... but no more.... and of course i love old hand wired amps.... but if they light enough to carry easily they overdrive and if they stay clean they normally way too heavy
so solid state is my new best friend...and no i don't need a rock rig so i stick with a solid atate amp ...and i have a few different speakers i use 6.5"/ 8" / 1x12" /2x12" /15" that i use with the same amp and the key to me to great tone is an EQ pedal... i have a simple one but without it my rig sounds harsher ...with it i can dial in whatever tone i like with any of the speaker choices ..... what volume i play at lets me decide how much air i want to push and that determines the speaker choice....
so yeah big fat speakers like 15's or 2x12's sound big and fat regardless of the guitar and amp... and then add an EQ pedal and you dial in what you want.... just spend time playing with the EQ enough to learn what frequencies change what .... it's a long frustrating process but worth the effort
EQ pedals are essential ... as every room you play in is defferent even the amount of people in the room makes a difference so being able to tweak an EQ pedal i find invaluable to good sound.... AND despite different guitars and various speakers i can still get "my sound" outa any rig if the EQ pedal is there ... i guess the hardest part is deciding what jazz tone you personally want ...and thats very personal ...
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For me the best approach is an eclectic one. Who knows what is going to sound best in any given situation or venue. I've used my Twin for Jazz - sometimes great other times not so great. My new Mesa Express seems to have tons of potential - even more than the Twin. And, believe it or not with a good Jazz box or semi hollow even this old Fishman acoustic amp when doing the right material in a user friendly environment can knock out some sweet Jazz tones. Go figure.
Last edited by BEACHBUM; 03-19-2013 at 07:17 PM.
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With your new 6L6 powered Express plus, you should be capable of any tone from Bletchley England, to Fullerton Ca! Originally Posted by BEACHBUM
How are you liking it now that you've had some time with it?Last edited by helios; 03-20-2013 at 03:22 AM.
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There is very interesting configuration of the speakers is this Fishman. Originally Posted by BEACHBUM
For me the best approach is an eclectic one. Who knows what is going to sound best in any given situation or venue. I've used my Twin for Jazz - sometimes great other times not so great. My new Mesa Express seems to have tons of potential - even more than the Twin. And, believe it or not with a good Jazz box or semi hollow even this old Fishman acoustic amp when doing the right material in a user friendly environment can knock out some sweet Jazz tones. Go figure.
is it Loudbox model?
Best
Kris
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Originally Posted by helios
I'm an old guy and I've got to admit that I've been a hard core Black Face Fender devotee for a very long time. Maybe a little to long. This Mesa has got me feeling like I'm cheating on my wife cause I haven't played the Twin since it arrived. I can't get out of the 5W mode. My goodness it's Jazz and Blues Heaven. This is definitely turning out to be a case of an old dog learning a whole lot of new tricks. To much fun.
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Originally Posted by kris
Yep, it's a Loudbox. It's a discontinued model. My understanding is that it's the first one they came out with. Solid State, 250 watts total, split between 3 separate amps each of which is dedicated individually to the bass, mid range and tweeter speakers. I've never seen that design in a guitar amp. It reminds me more of my home stereo speakers than a guitar set up. I don't know a whole lot about that stuff but from reading Fishmans literature the idea was to make a totally transparent amp that would rely solely on their Aura system for it's tonal coloration. I sold my Martin that had that on board system but with a couple of pedals to add some character it still has it's uses. The downside is that with the three separate amps in there it weighs like a ton of bricks.Last edited by BEACHBUM; 03-20-2013 at 04:41 AM.
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Thanks. Originally Posted by BEACHBUM
I think it sounds great w nylon strings also...
Best
kris
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I'm not sure that's exactly what's going on inside my Wholetone combo, but there is some 'limiting' going on (according to the Ibanez site). My treble strings have seemed noticeably fatter with this amp. Dialing in your tone with the Wholetone is 'interesting' overall, but once you're there... nice. Originally Posted by silentcityrob
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My tech knowledge is limited but I don't think that's what happening on the Wholetone. Rob is talking about compression to eliminate spikes; the WT has a limiter that prevents distortion / clipping;
"Jazz amps" - this flat frequency preamps, ported closed back cabs, hi-fi bass speakers - tend to have much fatter treble strings than regular guitar amps.
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Agreed, Jorge, and I'm certainly no techie either. I was mostly responding to Rob's comment on having "fat sounding treble strings". That made me think of the Wholetone. Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
Meanwhile, this thread has me thinking of trying out some small bass amps for jazz. The Wholetone's 15" closed-back ported cab, coupled with all that clean headroom, has me realizing how close to a small bass amp design it really is.
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They are usually close but the main difference is the preamp's eq - something like an acoustic guitar or a bass needs completely different eq freqs than an electric guitar with a magnetic pickup.. that's why I usually don't like the Henriksen's or the AI's eq, they are shaped to acoustic instruments. The WT I tried had a good eq for electric guitar although I did not like the sound much to tell you the truth. The mambo or polytones usually have a good eq for guitar.
Most bass amps these days would be easily modded to fit a guitar better, just changing the eq's center frequencies (basically different components). Lack of demand by guitar players is the reason they don't it I suppose. I mean apart from the EV it's even hard to get a 200w guitar speaker!!
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My Tone King Meteor 40 combo (1x12", 20/40 watts, two channel open-back combo) beautifully covers both jazz and rock with full authority—maybe even ideally so in either case (which I somehow find very surprising, but it does!). Case in point: I often plug into a DR at my local store to check out jazz guitars, and I really do like the sound, maybe as close to a Fender clean as I'd like to be hearing for a fairly balanced tube clean tone. Then I get home to my Tone King, plug into the clean channel (set at 40 watts)… and it's in the very same direction only it's almost startling in it's 3-D clarity and warmth and sustain all rolled up into one.
Then, on the grittier side of things (when I like to set it to 20 watts), the other channel can get as authentically snarly as you like for fusion, blues, rock, etc. LOUD as anything, too. No master volume here, so I actually went out and bought an Air Brake attenuator (I'd been wanting an excuse to anyway), and now this thing goes from snarl to tweed to even Marshall-esque with ease without killing my ears. There's also a superb-sounding reverb and vintage-vibe trem on board, too, both utterly analog. Oh, MY. (Oh, yeah, there's also an onboard VU voltage meter on the back panel with four access points for tweaking the bias of all four 6V6 power tubes. How cool is that?!)
About the size of a HRD but the Meteor is rather lighter due to the fact that Mark Bartel (founder and designer of the company), purportedly "tunes" his cabinets right from square one as part of his overall design process, specifically utilizing thinner wood as he tunes his enclosures. The result is surprisingly light (although this is not at all in the category of, say, an AI Corus, etc.). (IIRC, Bartel no longer actually builds the amps himself, but mine was, AFAIK, hand-built by the guy back when he was literally a one-man operation. Now he designs for the Premier Builders Guild, although the quality is all still allegedly there.) Finally, the Meteor is now out-of-production, but I was really happy to be able to get any Tone King at the very nice price I found it for on eBay a couple of years ago. However, their current line has a few other impressive-looking models (Imperial, Metropolitan) which I would have been just as happy to have owned.
Check out their site (and much better demos at YouTube) at Tone King Amplifier Company Website—especially some great rock-blues demos (notably Lance Keltner's stuff). Keep in mind that the retro-styled rootsier sound of their line seems to be the main marketing plan at work here, but believe me, the clear, clean jazzier sounds (to the best of my knowledge, not sufficiently documented online) are definitely in there, too.
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Yeah, I bought my AI after hearing people over at another forum drooling over it (for years) for use as an archtop amp. To be honest, I was immediately rather disappointed in it for jazz applications, but I was very happy to hear how my Taylors (514C and nylon-string) sound thru it. Oh, MY. Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
If I could find some Polytones or Mambos to try out sometime, I'd love to. The Polytones are rare in these parts (and then they're pretty beat) and the Mambos are non-existant.
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Yeah, AI's are just very expensive acoustic amps to my ears... And it's a mystery to me why they don't add a switch in the amp to change between acoustic eq and electric eq. Anyway... Originally Posted by ooglybong
Old Polys are great if they don't break up. Try one of the pre sonic circuit ones, just bass bass and treble, they are very cheap and good usually. I am going to NY next summer, I don't think I will bring the mambo but if I do you're free to play mine
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The power choices (single tube class A, two tube class A push/pull, two tube class AB) combined with the EQ sliders provide a lot of variety. I use the switch position on "slider mode", not preset mode for the EQ. Great amp series! Originally Posted by BEACHBUM
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I was just thinking about this last night, looking at the TC RH450 bass head. It has a four knob tone control, and the knobs are semi-parametric -- you can shift their centre frequencies. Combine that with their lightweight 2x10 cab and I could use that rig for bass, too. Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
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Yes. It's pretty cool stuff. Almost like having three amps in one box. I've got some friends coming over for a jam session Sunday. Can't wait to get it up to volume in the 25 and 50 watt modes. Originally Posted by helios
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Yeah I have just checked the manual, I would still like to know the Q... but still seems like a great eq, no reason not to work for guitar. I wish they had put a toneprint with reverb options there, it would be brilliant! Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
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What a simple solution, and, of course, they should! Hmm. I wonder if one can be retrofitted by a qualified tech. Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
Ha! You're on! Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
...I am going to NY next summer, I don't think I will bring the mambo but if I do you're free to play mine
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I fall in a similar boat! I have a Princeton Reverb and an AI Clarus too. These days (for straight jazz) I prefer the darker, crystal clean of the Clarus through a Raezer's Edge 1x10 cab. But it's nice to have both options. Originally Posted by rpguitar
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I use pure tube head MV3/no reverb/ with different cabs/prefer 12"speakers but sometimes like the sound of 10" also/ and AER Compact XL for my nylon string guitar. Originally Posted by hallpass
Mv3 works great with all my electric guitars/semi,tele,hollow/.I can play all kind of music on it.
I 've played AI Clarus with my electric guitar before.
It was great amp for arch-top jazz box.
I like tube sound so now I use tube MV3 head.
Best
Kris
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Indeed, SCX2 (head) is great! Also Ibanez TSA5 I mainly use at home or for very small places. Both of them with Eminence Ragin' Cajun, in spite that mellow sound inside Ibanez (Celestion Tube 10). Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
Keira is also right. Having a 15' Eminence Delta speaker, I discovered that sounds very smooth, clear and mellow with a small H&B CG10X, that has a parametric EQ, (like those in acoustic-guitar amps). Cutting the highs, I can get a very interesting sound through this last option of mine, that I play mostly in the last weeks. Clean CH, of course. Still the HB is only 10W and the Eminence Delta is 200W or something, so, not quite a match, not enough for bigger gigs. But I like the sound of them together!
Guitars: Takamine Santa Fe, Laguna thinbody(classical), Squier Affinity Tele - stock pups.
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