Solid state amps that are lightweight and can do fusion as well as jazz tones?

[Greaser]

Found and bought a used Yamaha THR100H. I'll post a review when I get it.

I saw that you said you won't be keeping it, but did you get a chance to demo it enough to give impressions/a review? Thanks!

[jzucker]

I saw that you said you won't be keeping it, but did you get a chance to demo it enough to give impressions/a review? Thanks!

big thumbs down

[jzucker]

You could get an active PA speaker and use that.

I already have that. Was trying to get a one-hander. For now, the kemper and the powered pa-cab are where I'm at.

[Greaser]

big thumbs down

What did you not like about it?

[jzucker]

What did you not like about it?

very little clean headroom and poor output in clean or solid state mode through the line out. Might have been defective but I'm guessing designed for rockers

[christianm77]

I already have that. Was trying to get a one-hander. For now, the kemper and the powered pa-cab are where I'm at.

Hmmm... Super lightweight then... I'm kind of thinking that one of these new TwoNote le Clean pedals and a lightweight class D head into a light cab might do it, but I'm struggling to think of a SS amp that really handles fenderish clean well. It's either Henricksen uber jazz vibes or gainy Amp Modelling... But both?

From what I've seen the new DV Mark is a bit underwhelming as well. And BluGuitar was very lacklustre clean.

In the end I bought a Fender Princeton anyway. Changed the speaker. Not tooooo heavy :-)

So I would think (for myslef) - get a good approximation of a Fender Clean and build from there with pedal board or multi effects. In this case, perhaps something like the Two Note le Clean into a lightweight Class D power amp and into a light 10" - 12" cab might do it, perhaps with a small pedal board. You could stuff all the gubbins in a small backpack and have the cab in one hand and the guitar in the other.

Anyone tried this?

[christianm77]

very little clean headroom and poor output in clean or solid state mode through the line out. Might have been defective but I'm guessing designed for rockers

Most things are sadly.

[jzucker]

Hmmm... Super lightweight then... I'm kind of thinking that one of these new TwoNote le Clean pedals and a lightweight class D head into a light cab might do it, but I'm struggling to think of a SS amp that really handles fenderish clean well. It's either Henricksen uber jazz vibes or gainy Amp Modelling... But both?

From what I've seen the new DV Mark is a bit underwhelming as well. And BluGuitar was very lacklustre clean.

In the end I bought a Fender Princeton anyway. Changed the speaker. Not tooooo heavy :-)

So I would think (for myslef) - get a good approximation of a Fender Clean and build from there with pedal board or multi effects. In this case, perhaps something like the Two Note le Clean into a lightweight Class D power amp and into a light 10" - 12" cab might do it, perhaps with a small pedal board. You could stuff all the gubbins in a small backpack and have the cab in one hand and the guitar in the other.

Anyone tried this?

twonote doesn't have reverb does it? A better option might be the atomic amplifire

[jbernstein91]

Originally Posted by jads57
A Peavey Bandit? You have to be kidding me right? They have no bass response whatso ever. The Quilter products seemed to be Fender type of tone albeit more versatile. I'd politely suggest you try either the Steelaire or the MP200 HD newer version in the closed back 1x12 combo again, and see what conclusion you come to then.
I'm not trying to be adverserial here, I have owned just about almost every amp imaginable. Including 2 older Dumbles, and many SS as well as tube classics.

-----------------------------------

I've mentioned this in other posts, but I'll say it again:

I have a Blues Junior, a Henriksen 110 and a Peavey Bandit. Over a year ago, I put an Eminence Cannabis Rex in the Blues Junior, and then, a few months ago, as a kind of afterthought, took the crappy stock Blue Marvel speaker out of the Bandit and replaced it with the stock Fender Special Design that was originally in the Blues Junior.

The upshot is that the Bandit now gets far and away the best jazz tone of the three amps -- using the "clean" channel with its "high gain" input and either the "warm" or "classic" options, and dialing the low, mid and high knobs each all the way to the left -- that is, to 0 (zero).

The "lead" channel can then be set up for a very nice fusion tone (I use the Bandit's on-board boosting options combined with a Fulltone Fulldrive 2) that is completely separate and switchable.

True, the amp is heavier than either the Blues Junior or the Henriksen, but not by a lot.

Just sayin'.

[jbernstein91]

Although I do have to say that the size of the Bandit - not so much the weight, but the dimensions - does make it qualitatively less convenient if you're playing in a small set-up space, have to maneuver between tables when you're bringing in equipment -- that kind of thing. It is distinctly less "portable" than, say, the Henriksen 110.

So while you could haul the Henriksen, a guitar in a gig bag and a bag of effects without a dolly of some kind, that's less feasible with the Bandit.

[s1track3d]

Don't like the jazz tones of the quilter, don't like the fusion tones of the evans or mambo although the mambo does sound good through an open back cab.

Anything else out there?

What about the classic Yamaha G50?

[christianm77]

twonote doesn't have reverb does it? A better option might be the atomic amplifire

Hmmm, just checked it out, sounds great. A bit more wedge though.

I think if I was doing loads of pop/fusion stuff, one of those would be great. ATM if I need to play a more 'electric' gig, I just drive my Princeton Reverb and my pedals to the gig.

But I can see that something like that would be uber practical - especially if you were doing loads of recording and travelling by air. In the latter case, just stick it into the power amp stage of whatever they see fit to give you at the venue, and you are good to go.

At home you can get a pretty transparent amp - maybe even a AER or something, and use that depending on the gig.

I wonder if anyone has gone 100% down the amp simulator route and purely done a gig with one of these boxes and PA?

[sgcim]

Originally Posted by jads57
A Peavey Bandit? You have to be kidding me right? They have no bass response whatso ever. The Quilter products seemed to be Fender type of tone albeit more versatile. I'd politely suggest you try either the Steelaire or the MP200 HD newer version in the closed back 1x12 combo again, and see what conclusion you come to then.
I'm not trying to be adverserial here, I have owned just about almost every amp imaginable. Including 2 older Dumbles, and many SS as well as tube classics.

-----------------------------------

I've mentioned this in other posts, but I'll say it again:

I have a Blues Junior, a Henriksen 110 and a Peavey Bandit. Over a year ago, I put an Eminence Cannabis Rex in the Blues Junior, and then, a few months ago, as a kind of afterthought, took the crappy stock Blue Marvel speaker out of the Bandit and replaced it with the stock Fender Special Design that was originally in the Blues Junior.

The upshot is that the Bandit now gets far and away the best jazz tone of the three amps -- using the "clean" channel with its "high gain" input and either the "warm" or "classic" options, and dialing the low, mid and high knobs each all the way to the left -- that is, to 0 (zero).

The "lead" channel can then be set up for a very nice fusion tone (I use the Bandit's on-board boosting options combined with a Fulltone Fulldrive 2) that is completely separate and switchable.

True, the amp is heavier than either the Blues Junior or the Henriksen, but not by a lot.

Just sayin'.

Thanks for the info on the Bandit settings.
A band I play in rehearses at a college where they have a Bandit they let us use. If it works out, I won't have to lug my little JazzKat down a flight of stairs anymore.

A funny note on jads57's claim that it doesn't have any bass response; the upright bass player in the band refused to bring in an amp for rehearsals (he's got a bad back), so the leader was complaining that the bass wasn't loud enough.
The bass player looked for an amp in the college, and all he could find was the Bandit, so he hooked his upright up to it, and it sounded like crap. I guess jads57 is right. The leader fired the bass player, and got another upright bass player with an AI combo amp.

[jbernstein91]

Thanks for the info on the Bandit settings.
A band I play in rehearses at a college where they have a Bandit they let us use. If it works out, I won't have to lug my little JazzKat down a flight of stairs anymore.

A funny note on jads57's claim that it doesn't have any bass response; the upright bass player in the band refused to bring in an amp for rehearsals (he's got a bad back), so the leader was complaining that the bass wasn't loud enough.
The bass player looked for an amp in the college, and all he could find was the Bandit, so he hooked his upright up to it, and it sounded like crap. I guess jads57 is right. The leader fired the bass player, and got another upright bass player with an AI combo amp.

Yeah: I find that if you turn up any of the tone controls at all on the Bandit, it sounds bad for jazz. The tone controls are useful for getting rock/fusion type sounds, including those using distortion/overdrive, on the lead channel. But it gets a really nice, dark and punchy jazz sound through the clean channel with all the tone controls all the way down.

However, replacing the speaker made a huge difference: I found that the stock Blue Marvel sounded bad in general. It wasn't totally horrible set eq'd as described above, but the jazz sound improved immeasurably when I put the Fender Special Design speaker in it.

[jorgemg1984]

Hmmm, just checked it out, sounds great. A bit more wedge though.

I think if I was doing loads of pop/fusion stuff, one of those would be great. ATM if I need to play a more 'electric' gig, I just drive my Princeton Reverb and my pedals to the gig.

But I can see that something like that would be uber practical - especially if you were doing loads of recording and travelling by air. In the latter case, just stick it into the power amp stage of whatever they see fit to give you at the venue, and you are good to go.

At home you can get a pretty transparent amp - maybe even a AER or something, and use that depending on the gig.

I wonder if anyone has gone 100% down the amp simulator route and purely done a gig with one of these boxes and PA?

I play only digital... some analog preamps, zoom pedals for fx, epsi for cabs and a di. At home I have two Mambo PA cabs, at gigs I use the PA. I wish I had gone this route years ago honestly, beats any amp!

[Silentwiz]

Did you check out all the new DV Mark offerings? Lots of funky stuff out there.

Amplifire is pretty cool.

[jzucker]

What about the classic Yamaha G50?

last one I had weighed 50lbs!

[s1track3d]

last one I had weighed 50lbs!

Haha, yeah, I guess that's not lightweight...

Have you tried a Tech 21 Trademark 60? (36lbs)
Here's some of their suggested settings, which include "George Benson Jazz, Larry Carlton Jazz, Santana-Lead...", among others

[Cavalier]

last one I had weighed 50lbs!

My G50 210 weighs 45. These are really nicely put together component wise with a big heat sink and clean sound up the dial. They take pedals well which makes up for the retro distortion, which actually does a nice 70s fusion sound. The weight of these things is in the thick particle board cabinets. A cab out of ply or pine would bring the weight under 40 pounds.

The 112 version is lighter as it has a narrower head without the vibrato.

[jzucker]

My G50 210 weighs 45. These are really nicely put together component wise with a big heat sink and clean sound up the dial. They take pedals well which makes up for the retro distortion, which actually does a nice 70s fusion sound. The weight of these things is in the thick particle board cabinets. A cab out of ply or pine would bring the weight under 40 pounds.

The 112 version is lighter as it has a narrower head without the vibrato.

too hard to repair. A friend of mine had one that needed a new transistor and the part was no longer manufactured and the repairman couldn't find a replacement part.

I think a peavey bandit with a better speaker would be a better bet. It too would be 35-40lbs with a pine cab.

[Cavalier]

You might be right but my formative years were scarred by a Peavey Deuce II hybrid 212 that belonged to my school. The only good thing about was its durability. It cartwheeled down a 30 foot flight of concrete stairs and still worked..... and still sounded awful, I know they improved but I can't get past my first impression..

The Yamahas have never caused me a problem and always sound great. They are so cheap that it makes sense to get a rough one for the parts if you want spares. My 210 cost $80 and is perfect for a practice work horse.

[Fidelcaster]

very little clean headroom and poor output in clean or solid state mode through the line out. Might have been defective but I'm guessing designed for rockers

Too bad. Haven't you noticed a difference in headroom when using different power settings?

[DanielleOM]

This is an interesting thread, however, I have to admit, I have no idea as to what a good fusion tone is.

Any good You Tube examples? Any way of specifying the tone or associated characteristics?

[s1track3d]

This is an interesting thread, however, I have to admit, I have no idea as to what a good fusion tone is.

Any good You Tube examples? Any way of specifying the tone or associated characteristics?

Yes, 'Fusion', like Jazz, is a big umbrella. For me 'fusion tone' implies at least some 'dirt' in the sound, like overdrive or distortion, either from the amp or pedals/effects. Often solid state amps are valued for their clean tones but not overdriven tones, so it can be hard to strike a balance for both styles. For example the Roland JC series had great clean/chorus sound but do not sound good with distortion, same with Polytone amps.


Some notable fusion players, Mike Stern, Allan Holdsworth, Scott Herderson (Tribal Tech), Larry Carlton, Robben Ford (YellowJackets), Al Di Meola (Chick Corea)...

[jads57]

Jack Z I just tried the new Quilter MP200 HD 1x12" Combo again! At least try one, I think you'll see a big difference from your previous Aviator 1x12" The Boost function along w/ the Celestion Neo 300 watt speaker plus a smaller even lighter package are nothing short of stunning!