Recommend me a replacement amp...under £800

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colourofsoundcolourofsound Frets: 393
So I really really love my '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb.

I use the Custom channel (bassman tonestack) almost exclusively and it really nails that Fender clean but with more warmth.

...but!

As you know, its quite noisy. Doesn't bother me day to day, but there are a few scenarios that concern me: recording multiple, stacked guitar tracks with it, and a particular gig I have coming up where I am playing electric alongside an acoustic and a cello in a quiet environment.

In addition to this, the tremolo is really noisy and so I don't use it.

I must stress that these are minor niggles and I'm only interested in replacing it with the 'right' amp.

So, what would I like? Well, a '68 CDR with none of these issues, of course!

  1. Bassman tonestack
  2. Tube-bias tremolo
  3. Spring reverb
  4. Low noise!
  5. ...and a Master Volume/attenuator would be dead, dead handy.
Does anyone know of an amp that will do these things? And bearing in mind I have no cash to spend, it could do with being around the £800 mark (the resale value of the CDR, AFAIK)

I would probably sacrifice the tremolo if that widened my options. Plenty of nice trem pedals about.

This might be an impossible task. If so: never mind. Thanks in advance!

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Comments

  • I wonder if you could have these issues fixed somehow? 
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  • BGGBGG Frets: 688
    My tremelo/vibrato has that tick but even mic'd live it's fine, doesn't come through the PA. Wouldn't say it's a noisy amp at all.
    Mines been a great gigging amp for two years and fancy a change (as you do lol ) been thinking of a Victory V40 Deluxe or maybe a Sheriff 44.
    #thebatesmotelband
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  • MtBMtB Frets: 921
    Get yerself a Helix / LT.

    Ok, so it only has a Deluxe Reverb, but you can dial in as much preamp drive as you like, and it has trem and it has reverb and it has master volume - none of which hiss!

    Welcome to digital modelling.     
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  • MtB said:
    Get yerself a Helix / LT.

    Ok, so it only has a Deluxe Reverb, but you can dial in as much preamp drive as you like, and it has trem and it has reverb and it has master volume - none of which hiss!

    Welcome to digital modelling.     
    Nope! Not a fan I'm afraid. Amps for me thanks :)
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  • I wonder if you could have these issues fixed somehow? 
    A conversation with @RiftAmps revealed that without a complete hand-wired conversion (£400) there's no easy fix.
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  • I wonder if you could have these issues fixed somehow? 
    A conversation with @RiftAmps revealed that without a complete hand-wired conversion (£400) there's no easy fix.

    Blarg, that's a shame. 
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  • BGG said:
    My tremelo/vibrato has that tick but even mic'd live it's fine, doesn't come through the PA. Wouldn't say it's a noisy amp at all.
    Mines been a great gigging amp for two years and fancy a change (as you do lol ) been thinking of a Victory V40 Deluxe or maybe a Sheriff 44.
    Yeah in band situations its not going to be a problem; but when layering guitars in recordings and particularly quiet performance environments I'm concerned. 
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  • jpfampsjpfamps Frets: 2723

    BGG said:
    My tremelo/vibrato has that tick but even mic'd live it's fine, doesn't come through the PA. Wouldn't say it's a noisy amp at all.
    Mines been a great gigging amp for two years and fancy a change (as you do lol ) been thinking of a Victory V40 Deluxe or maybe a Sheriff 44.
    Yeah in band situations its not going to be a problem; but when layering guitars in recordings and particularly quiet performance environments I'm concerned. 

    You can eliminate the ticking in these amps by adjusting the lead dress.
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  • jpfamps said:

    BGG said:
    My tremelo/vibrato has that tick but even mic'd live it's fine, doesn't come through the PA. Wouldn't say it's a noisy amp at all.
    Mines been a great gigging amp for two years and fancy a change (as you do lol ) been thinking of a Victory V40 Deluxe or maybe a Sheriff 44.
    Yeah in band situations its not going to be a problem; but when layering guitars in recordings and particularly quiet performance environments I'm concerned. 

    You can eliminate the ticking in these amps by adjusting the lead dress.
    How does one go about doing this?
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  • jpfampsjpfamps Frets: 2723
    jpfamps said:

    BGG said:
    My tremelo/vibrato has that tick but even mic'd live it's fine, doesn't come through the PA. Wouldn't say it's a noisy amp at all.
    Mines been a great gigging amp for two years and fancy a change (as you do lol ) been thinking of a Victory V40 Deluxe or maybe a Sheriff 44.
    Yeah in band situations its not going to be a problem; but when layering guitars in recordings and particularly quiet performance environments I'm concerned. 

    You can eliminate the ticking in these amps by adjusting the lead dress.
    How does one go about doing this?

    I usually do this with the chassis open and the amp on, which obviously exposes one to hazardous voltages.

    Usually it's simply a case of moving the wires to the tremolo oscillator valve away from the input to the phase inverter. The phase invert input is VERY high impedance so it doesn't take much to couple distortion on the oscillator wave form into the PI.

    I have worked on a Princeton Reverb that required a more extensive lead dress rearrangement than this, but that was very much the exception.

    The PCB replacement for the non-ROHS optocoupler can also generate noise (sounds like white noise), and this can be cured by installing an optocoupler.
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  • darthed1981darthed1981 Frets: 11673
    So I really really love my '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb.

    I use the Custom channel (bassman tonestack) almost exclusively and it really nails that Fender clean but with more warmth.

    ...but!

    As you know, its quite noisy. Doesn't bother me day to day, but there are a few scenarios that concern me: recording multiple, stacked guitar tracks with it, and a particular gig I have coming up where I am playing electric alongside an acoustic and a cello in a quiet environment.

    In addition to this, the tremolo is really noisy and so I don't use it.

    I must stress that these are minor niggles and I'm only interested in replacing it with the 'right' amp.

    So, what would I like? Well, a '68 CDR with none of these issues, of course!

    1. Bassman tonestack
    2. Tube-bias tremolo
    3. Spring reverb
    4. Low noise!
    5. ...and a Master Volume/attenuator would be dead, dead handy.
    Does anyone know of an amp that will do these things? And bearing in mind I have no cash to spend, it could do with being around the £800 mark (the resale value of the CDR, AFAIK)

    I would probably sacrifice the tremolo if that widened my options. Plenty of nice trem pedals about.

    This might be an impossible task. If so: never mind. Thanks in advance!

    Perhaps you could just supplement it with something like a Boss Katana?

    I officially win the "mention Boss Katana in a which amp to buy thread first" trophy :)
    We have to be so very careful, what we believe in...
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  • Musicman20Musicman20 Frets: 2296
    IMO, the issue is buying one now has increased SIGNIFICANTLY. They are still worth the money, but I would hold onto it. In fact, I have done exactly as DarthEd suggested and bought a Katana 100 1x12 for home use and rehearsals etc as it is is SO light and great at what it does. I would not sell my 68 though.
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  • Yeah I'm probably going to just hold on to it and replace all the valves as a first port of call. I've only swapped out a few with ones I had in 'stock'. And buy an attenuator! The Two Notes Captor looks good (when it's released)
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