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I’m nearly sold on a Henriksen Bud or Blu 10. But I’ve been listening to a bunch of older recordings lately from Kenny Burrell, Barney Kessel, and Tal Farlow, and I wonder: can a Henriksen accomplish any of those “old” sounds, or is it just for painstakingly, clinically accurate acoustic sounds?
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06-30-2021 10:29 PM
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I have a Bud, not the first version, but not the newest. It's a very, very clean amp. It sounds great, but it doesn't sound like Barney Kessel in the 50s. However, if I put something like a Joyo American Sound in front of it (I imagine the Tech 21 Blonde would have a similar result), I can get Fendery sounds out of it.
If you want an amp that can have some "hair" on its sound without signal processing support, like the old tube amps run clean, the Henriksen is probably not the amp best suited to your purpose. Something like one of the Quilters or the Fender Tonemaster amps might work better for you.
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Im afraid of this answer. I love the idea of a 1x10 combo with tons of power and lots of EQ control. And I don’t really need or want distortion or overdrive. Lots of the old recordings I’m hearing are very clean, but they have a lot of character, and I’ve heard some people say that the Bud sounds just like a PA or acoustic amp. I really wish I could just try a Henriksen in person, but if I don’t like it, I’d be on the hook for $200 shipping.
Originally Posted by dconeill
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Depending on your clean headroom needs, I’d be looking at various amps based on tube amp circuits for the kinds of sounds you’re hearing in the classic recordings of those dudes you mention—1960s Ampegs, tweed or blackface Fenders, etc. The Henriksen sound is not cold and sterile, but neither does it have, in my experience, the tonal complexity of a suitable tube amp. I’m talking real subtle stuff here that may take some level of obsession (or even delusion!!) to pay attention to—how different intervals begin to distort and mash together at increasing levels of gain, how notes bloom and/or compress, etc. I’ve gone down the solid state rabbit hole, and a bit of the modeling rabbit hole, and while each had its virtues, in the end I am still plugging into my tube amps because they get me the sound and feel I am after—sometimes with just a single tone knob rather than 5 EQ bands. Also, some of this subtlety is lost with a mic hanging in front of the amp. My recorded tones tend to sound more similar than different, regardless of guitar and amp—a lot of what you hear playing live guitar in the room comes from the sound waves interacting with the room. Of course if you need portability and loud volume and clean headroom for the stage, Henriksen may better fit your priorities.
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A friend has the Bud 10 and he gets a beautiful warm classic jazz tone. Definitely not “painstakingly, clinical accurate acoustic sounds” in my opinion. He loves it and I do too. So much so that I am going to get one. Originally Posted by markesquire
AKA
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That's a reasonably accurate description. Even though we hear the old jazz guitar recordings as "clean", they weren't all that clean. I don't mean to say they sounded like Metallica at some stadium, but even without being driven into harmonic distortion the old amps had frequency response peculiarities, compression artifacts, and some distortion (in the hi-fi sense) even when "clean". Originally Posted by markesquire
If you can't find an example on YouTube of a particular amp sounding the way you have in mind, it's likely that the amp doesn't do that sound or someone would have shown it off.
What contemporary players have sounds that you like, that mimic to greater or lesser degree the sounds of the 50s and 60s? Find out what amps they use and look at those. Quilter, Fender ToneMaster, Peavey Nashville 112, Evans, and a few others might be places to start. But I don't think Henriksen would work for you - based only on what you said.
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I have a Henrickson Jazz... it will not get a that tube sound or a 3d type of spread. However it has a great sound. Clean but it is a bit dark.
The on board eq works well. I have used the verb (not too good but ok in a fix) on the amp but I prefer to use a pedal over it. I have also used an detox eq with it, and that worked really well. At the same time, the on board eq has always worked good enough, so I do not bother with a pedal eq anymore.
I have used it with a bunch of OD, dirt, and fuzz. Not sure how I feel about that. I have to give it try in different situations to see how well that works.
So far it does not like more od/dirt/fuzz pedal then it likes. Ones that have worked (I could get the names wrong), Earthquaker design Plumes, Catilinbread RAH (I think that one works the best), and Big Sound Small Sound Team Awesome (Fuzz). OMG, I almost forgot, it really like the vox-ish pedal from the same maker that produces the red snapper. I am blanking on the name. Matter of fact, ever since I pulled it of my board, I have missed it with the Jazz amp. I am now using a Boss Angry Drive (set in parallel) as an always on thing. It is a little too fat but I like what I am getting.
I will give you a small list of the pedals that I have tried, that it does not like and I was suprised by it: Death by Audio Apocalypse (fuzz), Rockett Pedals Allan Holdsworth, Pigtronix Philosopher Tone Germanium, Wampler Rat. However I have a VFE Alpha Dog, that works with it. I am using it right now as fuzz (rat=square wave=fuzz), so I have set pretty fuzzy. I think it also works well set more as an ODish type of sound but I would have to check,
The reason why I can get the Bigsound Smallsound and the VFE to work is due to the ability to mix back in some of the clean signal. The Wampler does not have that option. (I have lots of pedals). You might have figured out that I cover a lot of ground in playing situations.
I just yesterday bought a Robert Kelley pedal: Cavernous. I bought to use with my ZT lunch box. I tried it out that way but am not sure if it will work. So far, I have just run it straight in or with a Juicer( that works well) no OD or dirt. (Also so far I hate the modulation on the Cavernous). To really find out how things are gelling, I need to take that out to rehearsal or jam and find out. The funny thing is that so far, it seems to be working super well with the Henrickson. However for me one day and one sitting with a pedal, does not mean much.
The other thing about the Henrickson is that it does not really need any compression. However, I did not like the Wampler comp with it too much. I do like the Analog Man juicer, and I have to try an MXR.
I have not played a gig with it but I have used it a bunch for a rehearsals and jams with friends.
Right now I am running a wet/dry setup with all my time based fx through a ProJr, and the Henrickson as the dry amp. It is working really well. There is a little phasing going on (that I manage through settings in my pedals) but I get the juicy sparkly and depth (ProJr) and a solid note definition (Jazz Amp). And it is much easier to move then other wet/dry setups I have used.
I do prefer Jazz Amp over the Tonemaster series but it was really close. For me the fun of a Fender amp is also when you are able to hit it with distortion and/or Fuzz. The TM gets fizzy (in a really bad way) in the high end when you do that. Outside of that it sounds incredible. A moveable Twin will always be a dream for me.Last edited by st.bede; 07-01-2021 at 12:31 AM.
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I’m the OP - to be clear, I do want a clean amp, and I don’t expect it to be a Fender. I just want it to sound “electric,” not acoustic. I’d be very happy if it sounded like a Polytone, but I’ve heard mixed demos of the Henriksen; some sound like a Polytone or classic jazz amp, but others (more recent Bud recordings) sound more like PAs than anything that would historically be recognized as an electric guitar amp.
Can the new Bud achieve Polytone tones, or was that just the old Jazzamps, and now the new amps are trying to cover both acoustic and electric bases?
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Imho it sounds a bunch better then a polytone but I have not played a polytone since 1992ish. Sorry my bad: Idk about the blue or the bud.
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I attended the Rocky Mountain Archtop Festival in 2019 that was sponsored by Henriksen. Lots of world-class players—Bruce Foreman, Jimmy Bruno, Bobby Broom, etc.—playing lots of different guitars through nothing but Henriksen amps. I think you’ll be fine if you choose a Henriksen. Originally Posted by markesquire
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I can get a really good 'old' sound if I use my Nocturne Junior Barnyard pedal into the amp. It's designed to give the character and feel of an old octal Gibson amp. I think it does it quite convincingly. I would think something like this would sound very good with the Henriksen.
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I've bought my BUD ca. 4 years ago and played all sorts of gigs with it, maybe 60 or 70 in total and IMHO it's still the best deal when you're looking for a small, lightweight, powerful and versatile amp. As others have already suggested : the choice of pedals that will alter/bend the basic tone of your guitar/amp combo towards a vintage tube amp is growing by the week and for me it is a no-brainer to pack an extra pedal (+wall-plug) in the BUD's gigbag to be prepared. Another thing : do you plan to gig with your new amp and what will the volume level be like ? A nice thing about the BUD is the fact that when you hook up a second speaker cab the volume jumps up considerably !
Last but not least : the BUD mos def is NOT a clinically clean sounding amp like many other units designed as acoustic amps. Crank the pre-amp volume and the tone fattens up, sounds more "electric", dim the pre-amp and ride the master and you get more detail/air.
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The Henriksens are not really acoustic style, but more of an electric style solid state amp. They have been amongst the warmest (meaning closer to tube amps) solid state amps I've played. They are probably the best solid state amps for jazz guitar out there at the moment, but they are expensive, so facing serious competition from other, much cheaper brands, like quilter, dv mark, boss, zt lunchbox, etc..
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I have a Blu 10, and this is my experience as well. You can get a lot of variation in tone by using the preamp volume in combination with your guitar’s volume control. Originally Posted by gitman
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This. Originally Posted by entresz
Part of the tone of those classic Barney Kessel / Tal Farlow / Jimmy Raney performances is the use of various Gibson amp designs of the '40s and '50s. The Nocturne Brain Junior Barnyard will get you that flavour. I use one through my Henriksen Bud 6 for that reason.
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There is no circuitry inside a Bud or Blu to make soft distortion. The preamp has straight forward op amp circuitry with no extraneous diode clippers or suchlike and the power amp is a HiFi class D Icepower module. The tone controls have a good range but are not very progressive. Most of the variation takes place towards the extremes of rotation.
That said, the overall sound is far from clinical even with the controls centred, presumably due to the speaker - especially with the tweeter turned off.
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Depending on the era of the albums the OP is thinking about, the amps were likely a Fender tweed Deluxe for Burrell, and Gibson amps for Kessel and Farlow...on the 50s/early-60s albums. By the 70s, these guys were using Polytone amps for the most part.
You can take a good, modern, solid-state guitar amp and get Fenderish and Gibsonish sounds fairly easily. Quilter amps really nail this. The Bud/Blu amps, however, are the modern successors to the old Polytone MiniBrute amps, IMO.
If you want to go for the "Midnight Blue" sound, probably the Quilter is the way to go. If you are after Kessel/Pass/Ellis/Farlow, etc., the Henriksen is an excellent choice.
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I think of the Henriksen sound as an updated, more flexible Polytone. Its not clinical, like an Acoustic Image or AER. BUT it is clean. Clean clean.
Something like a Joyo American or a Tech 21 Blonde is a perfect way to get even more versatility out of such an amp.
This is a video I did years ago with a Polytone. I should update and do a Henriksen...I can get very similar sounds from both.
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Dang. It's a really appealing idea to have a very powerful yet portable 1x10 that could not only cover Polytone-ish sounds, but also BF and Tweed Fender sounds, plus it would allow total control over gain and EQ in a way that many Fender amps wouldn't allow. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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I haven't tried the Bud, but both my Alfresco (custom open back Henriksen which used to be available through Sound Island Music / Michael Biller) and my Blu are electric sounding. Especially the Blu. It's just as electric as my Mambo (different...not better or worse). Originally Posted by markesquire
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Reviving this thread because I’ve been spending a lot of time with both a Polytone brute 12” and a 2nd gen Henriksen JazzAmp from 2006 (with reverb). While the Polytone is still my favorite, especially playing fingerstyle in a live setting, accompanying a horn player on my 7-string, I think the Henriksen gives me more of a darker vintage jazz tone, especially when playing solo plectrum-style.
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Beautiful, John! What’s the guitar?
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Thank you. The guitar was made for me by Mr Wu in 2022-23. Here are all the details.
Wu Lefty 7-String Archtop - John P. Piazza, M.A.
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If it helps, here's my henriksen bud 6 with a Benson germanium preamp in front of it. Sounds old to me.
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You might look at the Evans RE200 (now RE300, I think). Not cheap by any means but a great sounding amp - mine is 200 watts into a 10" and weighs 27lbs. Hand made in North Carolina. I believe I remember Tim Lerch doing a demo on You Tube. Originally Posted by markesquire
I've been lusting after a Bud 6 for awhile because I REALLY want one, but can't make myself give up my Evans.
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