Best Solid State Amp For CC Pickup?

**Iced Tea** · 07-24-2019, 07:44 AM

Hey,

I've recently acuquired a very nice 1937 Gibson L50 converted to an ES-150 with Charlie Christian pickup. I also have a Vintage 47 EH-185 style amp and the tone is wonderful. However it's not always practical to bring the amp to jams and gigs with me so I will bring my AER Compact 60 or use whatever amp is available at the venue.

I can sort of dial in an ok tone with the AER but obviously it's nothing like the Vintage 47. The other day I played through a guitarist's Henriksen Blu amp which had some kind of preamp on top. He was playing a Gibson L5 with humbuckers so the amp settings were adjusted for that but the tone with my guitar sounded thin and lacking in presence.

Just wondering if anyone had any advice on what would be a good solid state amp to use with the CC pickup? It seems to me that the unique characteristics of the CC pickup are better suited to valve amps and less so with solid state amps.

**ronjazz** · 07-24-2019, 08:02 AM

You might try an ART or dbx tube preamp, they are light, small and inexpensive, makes SS amps sound warm and full (or more so).

**Jabberwocky** · 07-24-2019, 08:08 AM

You should try a Nocturne Brain Jr Barnyard pedal or the Sarno Octal V8 tube preamp feeding your AER. The EH-150 and EH-185 are amps with an octal preamp stage.

The JR BARNYARD™ Hot Preamp (octal tube amp character pedal) – The Nocturne Brain

V8 Octal Preamp, Supreme tone machine, circuit minimalism l Sarno Music Solutions .

**Fred Archtop** · 07-24-2019, 09:15 AM

I have a few archtops equipped with a CC unit. They go very well on my Polytone Baby Brute. Actually, the combination prewar ES-150/Polytone is a divine association. Certainly far from a classical Charlie Christian sound on an EH-180 but a superb bebop sound with a lot of dynamics. Polytone amps can be found at a cheap price, and the baby brute is a feather to carry to jams.

**Woody Sound** · 07-24-2019, 09:25 AM

Maybe Quilter? Tubey sound, light-weight ss.

**Skip Ellis** · 07-24-2019, 10:29 AM

I've had most of them at one time or another but my Evans RE200 is the best I've ever owned. They're pricey but I've used mine for electric, acoustic, and even pedal steel. They're built like a tank, take pedals well, and Scot is a great guy to deal with. Oh, and it only weighs something like 28 pounds. Check the website for details on the 'traveling amp' that lets you try one for a week and then send it on to the next person - won't find that kind of thing with other brands. I am an equal opportunity kinda guy, though - I do have a DV Mark Micro Jazz head that I leave set up in the bedroom with the Evans 10" aux cabinet that I built. I like either one but the Evans has the edge and goes on most gigs. Worth checking out, for sure. Not a Quilter fan (sent two back) but to each his own - a lot of folks like 'em.

You can take the above with a grain of salt, however, because I'm not into the "separate amp for separate guitar" school of thought - to me, any amp that makes my guitar louder is a 'good' amp. Hard to beat a Fender Twin if you can lift it - I can't any more - wish I could!

**sgosnell** · 07-24-2019, 10:30 AM

I have three solid state amps that I use regularly. None of them sound like Charlie Christian by themselves, but putting a JR Barnyard in front comes very close, for most of them. My Clarus Series I is the least affected by the JR, it tends to stay clean no matter what you put in front of it. The Gallien-Krueger MB200 sounds more transparent, with good clean sound and the JR gives it the slightly dirty tone when properly dialed in. Both these go through a Raezer's Edge Stealth 10ER. Probably the closest to vintage tone is my DV Mark Little Jazz. It's completely clean by itself, but the JR gives it a tone that sounds very close to Christian recordings, at least to my ear. I don't have a real CC pickup, but I have Vintage Vibe CCRider and HBCC pickups, as well as a DeArmond Rhythm Chief, which is what I usually use. The Little Jazz sounds to me as if it was designed for this type pickup, and I like the combo better than with any humbucker I've tried. TBH, I've become a little disillusioned with humbuckers. Once upon a time I didn't like single-coils, only humbuckers, but my taste has changed over time. I think most solid-state amps with a JR Barnyard will give acceptable results if you're looking for a vintage tone, but there are lots of them that I haven't heard, and I can only recommend what I've tried and liked. For vintage tone, the Little Jazz is my current favorite, and it's the most portable.

**Greentone** · 07-24-2019, 04:12 PM

I have to echo what Fred Archtop says: Polytone Baby Brute. I have gigged with a '37 ES-150 and with a '79 ES-175/CC using the Baby Brute. TERRIFIC!

**coolvinny** · 07-24-2019, 05:42 PM

I find that the Lollar CC pickups go very well with both my Henriksen Blu and Henriksen Alfresco. Like "match made in heaven" well. But this is with my full size jazz box; when I had a CC pickup in a thinner archtop I was not as pleased with the result so I swapped it out for a humbucker to excellent results.

**Cunamara** · 07-24-2019, 08:56 PM

I have a Polytone Baby Taurus that sounds really good with my Vintage Vibe HCC floater on my Cushman archtop. That guitar also also sounds really good through my 5E3 with that pickup. My Clarus 2r also sounds good- the trick there is to run the master volume at about 2:00 and use the channel volume knob to set the volume where you want it. The PTBT is so simple to take somewhere, though, that it gets the most use.

**vintagelove** · 07-25-2019, 04:11 AM

Never underestimate what an eq pedal can do to a polytone.

**Iced Tea** · 07-25-2019, 09:08 AM

Originally Posted by Greentone

I have to echo what Fred Archtop says: Polytone Baby Brute. I have gigged with a '37 ES-150 and with a '79 ES-175/CC using the Baby Brute. TERRIFIC!

Nice one Greentone and Fred Archtop, that's definitely the thing I'm after. They're pretty hard to get hold of though here in the UK. You can find the 15" and 12" Polytones fairly easily but the small 8" models don't come up very often I think.

Would this be the same model?

Polytone Baby Brute | eBay