Boutique Amp Question

ThePrettyDamned

ToneControl said:

asimmd said:

ToneControl

If you read my post just above i think i have explained it quite well.

Not familiar with Robert Cray,but cleans like Knopfler maybe.

Alan

I'd recommend trying a DC30, a Tweed Twin, a JTM45 clone, a clean-Dumble clone, e.g. Two Rock Studio Pro 50. Fuchs, Ceriatone HRM, and some good blackface/brownface Fenders, like a bias-tremolo Tremolux, into jensens

Anything Fender (Hot Rod Deluxe will easily ballpark it) or a Roland JC (might be a bit too big...)

I vaguely recall he was a big user of a Vibrolux, Fender Twin and JC120 early in his career, and Mesa's later on.  I'd start there rather than jumping straight to Dumble clones for a nice ballpark sound.  The Hot Rod Deluxe had a beautiful clean sound that's very much a silverface fender tone, which is what I associate most with Mark.  He was also big into Musicman amps, but that's a bit of an oddball...

Edit: Looky here http://ds.mk-guitar.com/amps.htm hard to say how accurate the site is, but I certainly always associate him with a Twin Reverb (which is a bit massive for the house, though sounds great at low volume anyway.  Bit of a bloater though...).

Misty

If you're seriously looking into great quality handwired amps, do check out Dr. Z. After years of owning Boogie and Fender amps or similar, I switched a few years ago and haven't looked back. Their range really does seem to include something for everyone, and the tone and build quality are excellent. Great forum too...http://ztalk.proboards.com/

hotpickups

Yes I agree try the lazy j if you can. And if you can't afford it yet save up. I did and I've never looked back. Trouble is I want the J40 now too. Better start saving all over again

Pyroman

  Speaking of boutique amps, I watched a shootout demo a while back that was a real eye opener for me.  It was between a ToneKing Falcon and a small Two Rock.  I believe it was from Anderton's or Chapper's channel on youtube.

  I was blown away by the tone coming from these small amps!   The Falcon is just 7.5 watts!  I've been gassing for one since, but it's way too pricey for me at the moment...

  Now I'm going to have to go look that up.

bertie

asimmd said:

Hi guys Wife,bless her says paying £2000+ for my Strat and nearly that much for my Gibson then buying a cheap amp doesn't make sense. 

 no it doesnt, (and neither does paying over a grand for a strat)      You dont have to buy a boutique amp but putting any guitar through a cheap amp is just plain ridiculous.

getting a decent amp is always a good thing to do, regardless of what guitar you're putting through it.

 one guitar and one amp,  Id always budget at least 33% for the amp

[Deleted User]

apologies if this comes across as rude, but if you're buying £2000+ guitars (multiple), why are you asking questions like "do more expensive amps sound better" - if you're paying that sort of money for guitars you should have a basic awareness of what's worth money and what's just badly priced,

why do you even care what your wife/anyone else says, if you buy a £10,0000 guitar and play it through a £100 peavey bandit but love the sound of it, what does it matter ?

If you have budget for an amp, surly a basic bit of research other than "what's good cleans" there are various clean sounds/voicing I'd expect a better question than "are expensive amps better" for someone pushing out multiple £2000 guitars

noisepolluter

asimmd said:

Power- Playing at home so low power, say 5/15watt Price - No price in mind,open to suggestion but I'm getting there. […] A larger Wattage,up to 25 would be fine as I have an Attenuator which would allow recording,though playing at low volume would be difficult,as running a larger amp at barely minimum volume would not give a realistic tone.  

Devil's avocado - I'm not convinced that a valve amp attenuated down low enough to drive the power valves at non-ASBO volumes is going to sound noticeably better than one with a good clean sound paired with a choice handful of nicely dialled-in pedals, especially if the speaker's barely moving anyway. You'll have a lot more control over the sound with a pedal, and you'll probably have much less background noise than just using a cranked-but-attenuated amp, which might be a factor to bear in mind if you're playing at home with the guitar close to the amp.  

 

matone

Look up Big Bob`s Marshall Warehouse on Youtube,he nails the booteek amp business !!!!!

ThePrettyDamned

matone said:

Look up Big Bob`s Marshall Warehouse on Youtube,he nails the booteek amp business !!!!!

"A boutique is a place women go to buy underwear"

Priceless.

matone

Always makes me laugh anyway ..

ToneControl

asimmd said:

Excellent answers,thank you.Now for some info. Power- Playing at home so low power, say 5/15watt Price - No price in mind,open to suggestion but I'm getting there. It will live under the desk in my music room,spare bedroom. No going out or upstairs,I live in a bungalow. When I was gigging years ago,I had Fender Twin Reverb and Vox AC 30. After the conversation here I am leaning towards a Blackstar,I record everything via DI,so the Blackstar would fit in perfectly,I can't wait to hear my new Gibson ES-339 through a real amp and not through Waves GTR3 Amp Sim. A larger Wattage,up to 25 would be fine as I have an Attenuator which would allow recording,though playing at low volume would be difficult,as running a larger amp at barely minimum volume would not give a realistic tone. All there is to decide now,is which one. Thanks Alan

Ah, I missed this post:

I'd consider getting an AxeFx or Kemper if I were you, I've never been satisfied with clean tones from valve amps at low volumes. Your modeller GT3 is quite old now, at least 4-5 years I think, I used to like it, but it's old now really. Last I tried, the Amplitube 3 plugins were the best pc ones, especially the Fender set

All attenuators will destroy the tone, you dissipate different frequencies unevenly, and the speaker will not act the same at ultra-low volumes. At quieter volumes, the AxeFx2 has been the best I've tried, but I haven't tried a Kemper

25 watts will be very loud. I got complaints from a neighbour at 8pm using a 7 watt Carr Mercury

1 watt amps are probably quiet enough, but cannot really do clean

amps under 10w are usually single ended. Very few single ended amps sound great, most sound good at best. I had a Blackstar 5 watt, and I hated it after 2-3 weeks, if you want to DI, just DI, don't get a guitar amp at all, buy a top-whack modeller

Not sure what style you like, but other options are a 70s push/pull princeton, with the phase inverter tweaked preferably, or what about the warm early-60s Westminster and dominator type amps??

for very non-crispy sounds (i.e not ultra clean), a Victoria Regal (double single-ended) will take valves down to 6G6s, and can do some lovely early 60s tones quietly, but they are not clean as I would describe it. 

asimmd

Hi ToneControl Your comments makes a lot of sense,thanks. I know GTR 3 is getting on a bit now,and I have just bought Recabinet to spice it up a bit,still learning how to use it.I also have the Rewirez Vox AC 30 and Fender Impulses which are OK. I was so close to buying Amplitube Fender a couple of day's ago but something said no,don't know why but I didn't get it. After all that has gone before,I don't want to blow £2000+ on an Axe-fx,and I don't know anything about the Kemper,though the price is near enough. Maybe a trip to youtube will yield results,other than that I am stuck,though pleasantly. Alan

Nerine

Let's cut to the chase.

There's nothing more annoying than how it gets pronounced in the good ol' USA Har-dee-haaaarr

BO-TEEK

Where's the :facepalm: emoticon when you need it...

Fucking HELL.

What's PARMESCHJAAAN?

SODDER? CARMELIZATION?

Jesus.

bertie

asimmd said:

 A larger Wattage,up to 25 would be fine as I have an Attenuator which would allow recording,though playing at low volume would be difficult,as running a larger amp at barely minimum volume would not give a realistic tone. All there is to decide now,is which one. Thanks Alan

some things, from experience.  

1)  a bigger amp comes in a bigger cab, which is always a benefit to filling out tone (especially clean-er)  in small areas. Smaller wattage amps "tend" to have smaller cabs (yes I know there are exceptions) and far less features/flexibility and can sound very boxy

2)  if cranking is your thing, or you are of the misconception school that valves can only sound good cranked to within an inch of their life (which is odd considering your cleans requirements)  you'll be struggling  even to use a 1 watt valve amp without attenuation. in a 10x12 room - been there got the t-shirt

3)in experience of "home playing" a larger amp (30 watt +), with some attenuation that allows the power section to warm (not cook) seems to make the amp more responsive both to 'pre-amp'  and/or pedal driven   OD   

I much prefer that 'config' than any of the lower wattage combos Ive had

4) Id even go so far as to say................. get a THR,   hugely better/more fun/controllable  than any small/low wattage practice type amp................ 

as someone said,  if you're happy with the sound a £75 amp makes, then thats fine  but perhaps you just want something with a better label ?

asimmd

Hi bertie

Thank you for the comments,I have not heard of THR before.

May I say that my Attenuator is a Weber Mini Mass,and it has a Line Out socket

which enables me to use an amp of up to 25 Watts,and run it silently without a speaker connected,the Line Out

would go to the Line In of my Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 Interface.

It can of course be used as a regular Attenuator.

After all the comments i think i am left with 2 options,use a small amp such as a Blackstar ?that has an emulated out,

or use an amp with my attenuator.

Using an Amp with the Attenuator means i can still use my Redwirez Impulses and Recabinet.

Are Attenuators only for use with Valve Amps?

Your thoughts on this solution would be appreciated.

Thanks

Alan

bertie

asimmd said:

Are Attenuators only for use with Valve Amps?

yep,   pushing a s/s power section hard........ isnt really a good idea

asimmd

Thanks bertie

bertie

I used to have a mini-mass.    TBH,  for me anyway ts hard to tell the difference between a "good" emulator and a line out from an attenuator/DI.    The whole 'vib' of the valve amp thing, is capturaing how it works/interacts with the speaker as well. So that means mic-ing the whole capboodle..............

asimmd

bertie,

What would you call a good emulator,i don't think i want to go down the

AxeFx route,it would be wasted for what i would use it for.

Same with the Kemper

Alan

jonnyburgo

Nerine said:

Let's cut to the chase.

There's nothing more annoying than how it gets pronounced in the good ol' USA Har-dee-haaaarr

BO-TEEK

Where's the :facepalm: emoticon when you need it...

Fucking HELL.

What's PARMESCHJAAAN?

SODDER? CARMELIZATION?

Jesus.

Gotta love the good ol' Fender Jagwire too