The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    This is an amazing little amplifier for sure! It seems to bring out the best in my archtops and my solids, and it truly does have brass spheroids. Next to the Little Jazz, it's clearly much more powerful. It does justice to the 7th string, which is clearly there and similar in character to the other 6. Even on the Li'l Jazz, which does fill the lowest few notes out a bit more, the 7th string sounds a bit tubby in comparison. the Blu makes it sound like what it is - a 7 string guitar, not a 6 string guitar with one bass string added on. I'm going to take it to the club tonight and use it for our show, which I'll record.

    The Blu 6 has arrived-with_liljazz_800-jpg

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  3. #2

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    Congrats! My Blu 6 has been my go to amp for the last few years. I also have a Blu 10 which is pretty damn awesome as well. And unlike the Asian made amps, the Henriksen will be worth repairing up the road.

  4. #3

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    Best SS jazz amp on the market. 6, 10, 12, they are all great.

  5. #4

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    So.....?

  6. #5

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    Congrats!, great amps....i have a Bud 6 a Bud 10 and Forte..lol...all great. I usually grab my Bud 6. but today i grabbed the 10..damn i forgot how good that thing sounds..last week used the Forte with a trio, was thinking i should never sell this amp...plus i got it during the sale he had a couple years ago when it was like 40 or 50% off.

  7. #6

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    sorry nevershould, thought you debuted it a day earlier. I'm sure a review will be forthcoming.
    longtime diehard vintage blackface Fender player here, Twins and Vibrolux's especially. yeah they're boat anchors, but that sound!
    personally I've yet to hear anything that tops them, but curious what you guys have to say about these modern amps.

  8. #7

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    My Bud 6 has been my main amp for theater jobs. When it's not sitting in the theater for a few weeks I bring it to my (loud) big band and the folks are amazed.

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by Stringswinger
    And unlike the Asian made amps, the Henriksen will be worth repairing up the road.
    And the Henriksen people are easily accessible and very communicative.

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by wintermoon
    sorry nevershould, thought you debuted it a day earlier. I'm sure a review will be forthcoming.
    longtime diehard vintage blackface Fender player here, Twins and Vibrolux's especially. yeah they're boat anchors, but that sound!
    personally I've yet to hear anything that tops them, but curious what you guys have to say about these modern amps.
    This can very well be your fav. sound and performance etc. but have you ever done a blind hearing test, comparing your amps with
    something similar in a SS version ? The amount of air that's moved by a Twin or a Vibrolux alone makes it impossible to compare any Henriksen amp plus the open back Fender amps spread the sound
    in a whole different manner.
    Besides the subjective sound impression one gets from this gear the aspect of portability, size, variability (channels, FX loop, EQ, line out, etc.) and PRICE plays a BIG role
    in my equation - if I had the room, the financial means and the availability of a working vintage Fender Blackface amp (Vibrolux would be the No.1 choice) such a thing would have it's
    permanent place of honor in my studio/den. Not as my holy grail (which either doesn't exist or changes ever so often) but as one more color on my tonal palette.
    So I put in the hours and know how to make my Bud 6 or my Evans RE200 behave the way I want them to, in all the different situations where I need these amps.

  11. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by wintermoon
    sorry nevershould, thought you debuted it a day earlier. I'm sure a review will be forthcoming.
    longtime diehard vintage blackface Fender player here, Twins and Vibrolux's especially. yeah they're boat anchors, but that sound!
    personally I've yet to hear anything that tops them, but curious what you guys have to say about these modern amps.
    I've gradually gone with smaller and lighter amps over the decades. My first good amp as a young man in the 70s was a silver face Twin. I don't think I could lift one of them off the ground now. I am very happy to substitute the convenience and portability for the extremely tiny miniscule tone difference, if even noticeable at all, certainly not by anyone listening but myself.

  12. #11

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    wintermoon - Fender Twin killer right here and half the weight.

    The Blu 6 has arrived-cc09929b-1a1a-4db8-bfb8-96d176768040-jpeg

  13. #12

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    Gig report.......

    Amazing!! I put it down on top of the Jazz 12 I usually use, plugged it in, and fell in love. My initial thoughts after unpacking it and making sure it worked fine at home were strongly reinforced on stage. Tone is simply great. The 7th string is so well balanced with the rest of the strings thru the Blu 6 that it's kinda piano-like. This must be what Van Eps meant when he referred to his 7 as a "lap piano" - it's the perfect combination of acoustic and electric tone, balanced from top to bottom. I had the tweeter on, the bass at 3 o'clock, the other EQ knobs at 12 o'clock, and the reverb (which is a lot more pleasant and usable than the DV's) at 9 o'clock with the guitar's volume and tone pots both at about 70%.

    To those who question whether it could possibly be loud enough for real gigs, it's seriously strong! Even before I mic'ed it for our show, it was so powerful that it brought the club owner up from the back of the house to find out what I'd done to the backline. And it was buried behind me between the drums and the Leslie. I was also amazed at the resistance to feedback. For whatever reason (maybe the small drivers and/or seriously good damping), I had absolutely none of the feedback issues I've had with the Vibrolux, the PRRI, and the Jazz 12 on the same stage at the same volume with full body archtops. And the tone is both cleaner and sweeter at the same time than the other 3. It's also clean at much higher volumes than the others and puts out a fine blues tone and seems to love my Tele through the Tumnus. I'll explore this more another time - I'll continue to use the backline for our Sunday blues shows.

    Here's a clip with snippets of 3 tunes. I couldn't figure out why I was seeing a significant input signal level when I turned on my little recorder, so I assumed it was the HVAC and turned the input gain down a lot before starting the recording. I realized when I got back on stage that there was a huge floor fan set up for last Saturday night's show (which I did not attend) blowing right on it! So I ran these through a 25 Hz high pass filter, and the sound is decent. This was captured from about 8 feet in front of us, sitting between the house speakers just behind our floor monitors - so there's almost no house sound in the recording.


  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by Woody Sound
    I've gradually gone with smaller and lighter amps over the decades. My first good amp as a young man in the 70s was a silver face Twin. I don't think I could lift one of them off the ground now. I am very happy to substitute the convenience and portability for the extremely tiny miniscule tone difference, if even noticeable at all, certainly not by anyone listening but myself.
    My first good amp (in 1973) was a 1970 Silverface Twin with JBL speakers. I sold that amp in 1975 and bought a Polytone (after witnessing Joe Pass play a gig at an upstairs NYC Nightclub and leave the gig with his amp in one hand and guitar in the other hand). I have moved on from Polytone to Henriksen (and I also still have a Clarus head and some Raezer's edge cabinets), but I also have always kept a Fender Tube amp around for that tube sound. Age has made tube amps too heavy for me to want to carry and my present (and probably last) Fender tube amp is a 1964 Blackface Princeton with a JBL (some guys think of the Princeton as half a Twin, but the truth is that a Princeton is only good for the living room/studio/small venue.

    My Henriksen amps combined with one of my 175's or L-5's does the job and keeps me away from the Chiropractor. My tone inspires my playing. Kudos to Peter Henriksen for making amps that keep things running smoothly for us older jazz guitarists!

  15. #14

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    Yes nice amp. But really nice playing!

  16. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by Stringswinger
    Kudos to Peter Henriksen for making amps that keep things running smoothly for us older jazz guitarists!
    My wife refers to it all as "geezer gear". And we're both truly grateful to have it, especially when she has to be carrying something to get past gig security with "I'm with the band"

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
    My wife refers to it all as "geezer gear". And we're both truly grateful to have it, especially when she has to be carrying something to get past gig security with "I'm with the band"
    My wife keeps buggin' me to replace my Evans RE 300 with something lighter. I tell her, "I'm old; I'm not decrepit!"

    Nice playing on the clip, btw.

  18. #17

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    Anyone open up a Blu? Curious if they are using the ICEpower class D OEM amp board, especially since there’s a 120wt model? It’s used by a lot of popular amp builders.

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonathan0996
    My wife keeps buggin' me to replace my Evans RE 300 with something lighter. I tell her, "I'm old; I'm not decrepit!"

    Nice playing on the clip, btw.
    Thanks!

    Several years ago, I played the annual Drexel University Board of Trustees dinner dance with an outstanding band. I usually used my Boogie Mk 1 (a featherweight 65 pounds with its EVM), but for some reason I decided to take the Twin to that. I parked my car, reached into the trunk for the amp, and suddenly had a very scary thought: "If I hurt my back with this thing, I won't be able to play the gig, I won't be able to get home by myself, and I won't be able to go to work tomorrow". Although I dismissed it and had a great night, I found myself thinking about it again on the way home. After bringing my stuff in from the garage, I told my wife about it, and she said "Well it's about time you came to your senses. You're not 35 any more."

    That's when I started selling off my big stuff. Retiring from my day gig and downsizing to an apartment 6 years ago was a catalyst. I had a Bassman 50 head with a 2x12 Bassman cab, the Twin, the Boogie, a SF VIbrolux (heavier than the original ones with pine cabs), a GenzBenz bass amp, etc. Shortly after entering that phase, I bought an SWR Baby Baby Blue that was fine but not spectacular, and the search for better smaller lighter gear began in earnest. The last of that batch was the EVM Thiele Boogie cab I sold a few months ago, and I'm now down to the Li'l Jazz, the Blu 6, my RevSound 8" cab (neo, of course), and my Rich-built RE Bass 10 cab (now with a Jensen Tornado Neo). I have a DV Raw Dawg 250 head for blues gigs and a Quilter Microblock 45 for backup.

    I love the new generation of gear and I love the 21st century!!!

  20. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
    My wife refers to it all as "geezer gear". And we're both truly grateful to have it, especially when she has to be carrying something to get past gig security with "I'm with the band"
    Since my wife and I often work together, we end up arguing over which one gets to use the Bud 6, or the Genzler Mini, or the Quilter 8. All very lightweight and all great. She got the Bud for this show run, and I took the Quilter because I need some serious rock tones. As they say, happy wife...

  21. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by Woody Sound
    As they say, happy wife...
    Don’t forget the corollary - you’re only as happy as your least happy child.

  22. #21

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    sounds good, this little amp is cool, a friend of mine is using the same with an archtop made by the luthier Franck Cheval or an ES 175 and it sound really good with both guitars.

  23. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
    Don’t forget the corollary - you’re only as happy as your least happy child.
    Yeah, but since mine is ~40, I don't worry about that anymore, she has her own fam. For me now it's just the wife part.

  24. #23

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    so the bigger the # the more powerful the amp?

  25. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by wintermoon
    so the bigger the # the more powerful the amp?
    Nope - speaker size: 6" and 10".

  26. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by Woody Sound
    Yeah, but since mine is ~40, I don't worry about that anymore, she has her own fam. For me now it's just the wife part.
    Ours are both in their 40s with their own lives. Neither has anything about which to complain - but their disappointments and discontents (which are fortunately few and minor in the overall scheme of things) are still contagious.