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Amps / Live

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Given I may well be gigging (hopefully!!!) prior to the end of the year, I wonder what the take on amping up is these days... I really don't want to spend a fortune on a mega amp I'll only play sporadically. Just mic up my little Roland? What do you do?
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71951
    If your Roland is loud enough to use as a monitor on stage you can either mic it or DI it. Sound engineers will like you.

    These days I take a pedal and plug it into the PA, but I'm only doing open-mic stuff, and rarely at that.

    Before that I took a monster amp which did really sound good even at lower volume, but I know most people may question the sanity of carrying an amp which weighs that much to play as loud as one which weighs less than a quarter of it…

    If you're playing a lot of the usual band venues nowadays, they have supplied backline - although not usually anything great, but if you can get a decent clean sound from it you can just take pedals.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • Mic/DI the amp sounds the best option for me, I think!
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  • digitalscreamdigitalscream Frets: 26450
    edited September 2014
    Yep - the question is, what kind of venue are you playing? Is it a pub where you're taking your own PA (and if so can the PA cope with more than just vocals and kick?), or are you playing a venue with a decent dedicated PA? If it's a dedicated PA, what are the monitors like?

    Personally, for a cheap option with pedals generating the dirt, I quite like the Laney LX120H as a purely make-me-louder amp with a 2x12". You can pick them up for £100-ish second hand, same for the cab (they're not particularly picky about speakers). That way you can easily manage without PA backup, and if you have a good PA then you don't have to rely on good monitors and a good monitor mix to hear yourself.
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  • Nice!
    I've a Roland CUbe (I think 20 or 30W) and a bunch of pedals. For distortion I've a Suhr Riot Reloaded which is great, but to be honest if I hadt he money I'd be a sweet amp with a footswitch (i.e. no distortion pedal required)!
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  • Well, there's always the Jet City option. £229 for the two-channel 50 watter and £114 for the 2x12". Believe me, you'll have absolutely no need for additional dirt; a clean boost for that bit of extra oomph every now and then, but no distortion required.
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  • When I was gigging regularlyish I would use my own amp unmic'd, mic'd, supplied backline and then rehearsals were into what ever was in a rehearsal studio. Very little opportunity to rely on my own amp for a signature sound. What I tried to work towards was a small pedalboard that would work with any amp, my own amp just had to be loud enough to balance against an unmic'd drum kit. I didn't do any gigs straight into the PA but I had something in my gig back if need be.
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71951
    When I was gigging regularlyish I would use my own amp unmic'd, mic'd, supplied backline and then rehearsals were into what ever was in a rehearsal studio. Very little opportunity to rely on my own amp for a signature sound. What I tried to work towards was a small pedalboard that would work with any amp, my own amp just had to be loud enough to balance against an unmic'd drum kit. I didn't do any gigs straight into the PA but I had something in my gig back if need be.
    That's exactly what I did - although I loved the sound of my own amp and it was definitely better than anything else, I didn't 'rely' on it. Flexibility and the ability to get your own sound through anything while taking the least gear for a given situation (even if 'least' is one very heavy amp) is a good thing, it means that you can cope with anything going wrong or not being as you expect. I never minded sharing backline with other bands as long as I knew they were either trustable (if it was my amp) or had half-decent gear (if it was theirs). I never took my amp to a rehearsal except for the last one before an important gig.

    It also makes you more popular among sound engineers if you can set up quickly and get a decent sound without having to be fussy about setting a specific amp to the exact tone and volume you need to get 'your' sound. Only guitarists seem to get so hung up on amps, most bass players are happy using whatever they don't have to carry :).

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • Quite a lot of pros gig with supplied backline. Off the top of my head in interviews with Richard Thompson, Gregg Koch, Matt Schofield they all do some gigs with supplied backline. Now they usually get more say than I would do about what is likely to turn up but they all talk about being able to dial in an amp as a basic clean platform and then use the pedals they travel with. There are some delightful pictures somewhere of Richard Thompson's flightcase with guitar, pedals, strap, etc all carefully positioned so it all fits in one case. All he then needs is the amp supplied by the venue.
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • Got to find the "Gigging Amps" thread I started.
    Getting into this now I have my guitars. Trade off between valve (annual maintenance due to valves blowing, heavier) vs solid state, combo vs head & cab, how many channels (I tried the distortion channel of a particular Marshall once which was AMAZING but I also have my own distortion pedal etc so wondering if single channel will do), size, weight, cost etc.
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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    Some people seem to talk like owning a valve amp is a continual battle with bits blowing up and needing to be replaced left right and centre, but provided you get a good one they are pretty reliable. 

    If you do want a compact SS solution the AMT Stonehead looks pretty cool.
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  • Some people seem to talk like owning a valve amp is a continual battle with bits blowing up and needing to be replaced left right and centre, but provided you get a good one they are pretty reliable. 
    Exactly. They don't have to be expensive, either - my main Jet City has been with me for a good 4 years or so now, and it's only had one blowout caused by me using valves outside its spec (which cost a whole £30 to fix). As long as they're built fairly well and you look after them, there's no reason they shouldn't last a bloody long time. Generally, they're simpler and easier to fix than most SS amps with a million features, too.
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  • Good input, thanks!
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  • What sort of sounds do you want?  What genres do you play?


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  • Not metal. Not jazz. Middle of the road - I love chiming cleans... but then I have to be able to play 80s rock like G N' R, Journey etc. I do have a Riot Reloaded pedal which I'm sure I'd use rather than a distorted channel, though..
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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    My standard recommendations for low cost gigging:

    If you aren't bothered about loads of filth and you want a good clean channel then get a Classic 50 or an HRD. 

    If you need dirt as well get a Laney LC50

    If you want solid state get a Bandit, a TM60, or a Stonehead.
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  • Stonehead.. that name keeps popping up...
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  • The Bandit looks VERY cheap...!
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  • John_PJohn_P Frets: 2744
    Not metal. Not jazz. Middle of the road - I love chiming cleans... but then I have to be able to play 80s rock like G N' R, Journey etc. I do have a Riot Reloaded pedal which I'm sure I'd use rather than a distorted channel, though..
    When I downsized from big stacks and started gigging with a fender twin and pedals I was happy with the high gain sounds coming from a riot and a pinnacle  but then I bought an evh 5153.  The pedals are good but not quite as grin inducing as the amp gain. 
    That said I still use the pedals once in a while and a decent clean amp can be a very practical set up.

    I like the sounds from the jet city amps but hate tap dancing though so if I was looking now I'd go for a loop switcher like the new joyo one with a few pedals and a jet city.  A lot of quality sounds without spending a fortune.
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  • Some people seem to talk like owning a valve amp is a continual battle with bits blowing up and needing to be replaced left right and centre, but provided you get a good one they are pretty reliable. 

    If you do want a compact SS solution the AMT Stonehead looks pretty cool.
    amen!

    I used my knackered old evil twin for ten years with no back up.

    Funnily enough before tube ownership my SS amp went pop on me live :-S
    The Bigsby was the first successful design of what is now called a whammy bar or tremolo arm, although vibrato is the technically correct term for the musical effect it produces. In standard usage, tremolo is a rapid fluctuation of the volume of a note, while vibrato is a fluctuation in pitch. The origin of this nonstandard usage of the term by electric guitarists is attributed to Leo Fender, who also used the term “vibrato” to refer to what is really a tremolo effect.
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  • mike_lmike_l Frets: 5700
    If you're happy to use a pedal for dirt and have a nice clean amp, then maybe a Hardwire CM-2 would work nicely.

    Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21) 

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