90s paul weller amps

Wazmeister

Ive seen Weller so many times, including the very early gigs (when therE werE about 200 of us), and he has almosr always useD his Bluebreaker.

lustycourtier

Paul’s never used a blues breaker. It’s a lead and bass 50. 

billando

You sure its a bluesbreaker? a lot of sites say he used a 2100 led and bass combo and the amp in this video looks identical to them....also they reissued a paul weller marshall amp which was the 50w 1987xpw (i think) which is basically a nmv 1987x combo which would indicate his main amp was more like a lead and bass combo 50w than a bluesbreaker...im not saying its not a bluesbreaker...just pointing out it might not be  

p90fool

I remember an interview with him in Guitarist at around the time of Stanley Road where he said his Marshall combo broke up and was extremely loud at around 2 on the volume control, and that was the sweet spot where he kept it. 

Whether it was pot taper, valve biasing or something like a preamp repair gone wrong who knows, but nobody at Guitarist magazine ever asked a useful tech question of anybody, so we'll never know. 

ICBM

All the live pics and videos I’ve seen show a Lead & Bass 50 combo - I’ve never seen one of him with a Bluesbreaker.

This is very definitely one -

NervousJohn said:

https://youtu.be/U5QQEyM7QwE

The Lead & Bass 50 is exactly what you would expect from the name - a 50W non-MV 2x12” with a circuit that splits the difference between the two models, so it’s thicker than a 1987 Lead and edgier than a 1986 Bass, but a lot tighter and more aggressive than a Bluesbreaker.

I couldn’t say what he used in the studio, but it sounds like a L&B50 and not like a Bluesbreaker in my experience.

p90fool said:

I remember an interview with him in Guitarist at around the time of Stanley Road where he said his Marshall combo broke up and was extremely loud at around 2 on the volume control, and that was the sweet spot where he kept it. 

Whether it was pot taper, valve biasing or something like a preamp repair gone wrong who knows, but nobody at Guitarist magazine ever asked a useful tech question of anybody, so we'll never know. 

And they do have a very steep pot taper, like all the 70s non-MV amps. Starting to break up at about 2 if you play as hard as he does is about right.

Wazmeister

lustycourtier said:

Paul’s never used a blues breaker. It’s a lead and bass 50. 

Ah, I stand corrected.

What I meant to say is that he has nearly always used a Marshall combo !!

That's the one in the video

p90fool

ICBM said:

And they do have a very steep pot taper, like all the 70s non-MV amps. Starting to break up at about 2 if you play as hard as he does is about right.

Yeah I've had four or five non-MV Marshalls from the 70s but only ever used them with Strats or Teles, so I probably gained a bit more headroom than he would have had. 

Doctorfunk

Many years ago I was visiting a shop owned by Weller's roadie. He had Weller's Marshall Lead & Bass 50 2x12 combo out the back and let me play through it. A lot of natural compression from well worn in speakers as I recall. Loud doesn't fully describe it!

Cols

Well... having gone to the time and effort of putting the question to his actual bass player - who might be expected to know what Weller uses in the studio - and to be told “It’s a ‘60s Marshall Bluesbreaker”, I was slightly taken aback to be told by multiple people “No, it’s definitely not a Bluesbreaker”.  So I dug a bit further.

This from a 1995 interview with the man himself in Total Guitar:

”I use a 1968 Marshall Bluesbreaker which has a totally different sound to the re-issued models you can get now. My volume is only ever on number two otherwise its like 'blaaah!' “

http://www.wellerworld.co.uk/totalguitar.html

Worth remembering that artists may not use the same amp live as they do in the studio.

p90fool

Cols said:

Well... having gone to the time and effort of putting the question to his actual bass player - who might be expected to know what Weller uses in the studio - and to be told “It’s a ‘60s Marshall Bluesbreaker”, I was slightly taken aback to be told by multiple people “No, it’s definitely not a Bluesbreaker”.  So I dug a bit further.

This from a 1995 interview with the man himself in Total Guitar:

”I use a 1968 Marshall Bluesbreaker which has a totally different sound to the re-issued models you can get now. My volume is only ever on number two otherwise its like 'blaaah!' “

http://www.wellerworld.co.uk/totalguitar.html

Worth remembering that artists may not use the same amp live as they do in the studio.

I'm pretty sure the article I referred to earlier where he said he always ran the amp on two also said it was a Bluesbreaker and he compared it reissues, but assumed my memory was faulty when everyone else said it wasn't. 

ICBM

Cols said:

Worth remembering that artists may not use the same amp live as they do in the studio.

It's also worth remembering that not all artists are that knowledgeable about gear and can be wrong about what they actually use.

Bearing in mind that there's no such thing as a '68 Bluesbreaker... they were only made from 1965 to 1967, and then replaced by the Tremolo 50 combo.

He may use different amps on stage and in the studio - but neither the Bluesbreaker nor the Tremolo 50 have the same steep volume taper as the Lead & Bass, although the Tremolo 50 does sound more like the Lead & Bass (EL34s and solid-state rectifier).

xchrisv

Weller’s main amp is definitely a Lead & Bass 50. A mate of mine used to own one, actually – incredible sounding thing that I really should have bought when he put it up for sale. 

billando

This thread has been dead for a while. Although i play in an oasis cover band i really like the Stanley park and Heavy Soul Paul Weller guitar sound and am going to try and create something similar this weekend at a gig. One song i like off Heavy Soul is "Brushed". If you Youtube him playing this song live one that appears is a more recent one (cos he has the longer white hair) and seems in a studio room with the whole band in there. This would lead me to think the volume wasnt overly high for this but his lead and bass 50 was still fairly crunchy. This being a non-master volume amp i thought this would need to be really loud to get this sound. I actually have one of these amps its fairly clean up until really loud levels. Maybe the one i have isnt right.....
So if i am going for this type of sound this weekend out of these options what would you say would sound best in band context:

Lead and bass combo at low master volume fairly clean
Lead and bass combo higher volume attenuated
Lead and bass combo clean with little kick from overdrive pedal
Marshall vintage modern 50w combo on low dynamic mode (or high if you think this would be better)
WEM Dominator
JCM 900 combo with gain low (in a previous band i played changing man on lead channel with preamp around 10am)
JCM 800 4010 50w combo
I also have a 1979 Vox AC30 top boost but needs fixing maybe when this is fixed would be a good option

Going by his sound its clean with just a little bite would that be fair?

lustycourtier

billando said:

This thread has been dead for a while. Although i play in an oasis cover band i really like the Stanley park and Heavy Soul Paul Weller guitar sound and am going to try and create something similar this weekend at a gig. One song i like off Heavy Soul is "Brushed". If you Youtube him playing this song live one that appears is a more recent one (cos he has the longer white hair) and seems in a studio room with the whole band in there. This would lead me to think the volume wasnt overly high for this but his lead and bass 50 was still fairly crunchy. This being a non-master volume amp i thought this would need to be really loud to get this sound. I actually have one of these amps its fairly clean up until really loud levels. Maybe the one i have isnt right.....
So if i am going for this type of sound this weekend out of these options what would you say would sound best in band context:

Lead and bass combo at low master volume fairly clean
Lead and bass combo higher volume attenuated
Lead and bass combo clean with little kick from overdrive pedal
Marshall vintage modern 50w combo on low dynamic mode (or high if you think this would be better)
WEM Dominator
JCM 900 combo with gain low (in a previous band i played changing man on lead channel with preamp around 10am)
JCM 800 4010 50w combo
I also have a 1979 Vox AC30 top boost but needs fixing maybe when this is fixed would be a good option

Going by his sound its clean with just a little bite would that be fair?

Which Oasis tribute mate? I dep in a few. Heavy soul is probably my Favourite Weller record. Incredible tones 

billando

Undercover Oasis (cos we dont try to look like them)...we gig mostly around North Scotland we have a few clips on the tube mostly from practices. Were not bad must be doing something right cos we get gigs more weekends than not.

lustycourtier

billando said:

Undercover Oasis (cos we dont try to look like them)...we gig mostly around North Scotland we have a few clips on the tube mostly from practices. Were not bad must be doing something right cos we get gigs more weekends than not.

Ace. I play Noel with Definitely Oasis occasionally who are also Scottish.   

Deadman

His best sound of his solo career imo, presumably his Casino into the Marshall Lead :

https://youtu.be/NLvnn8jH9XI?si=bv6-Y5UQcNLk-1Z4

https://youtu.be/VfaSWF--MQU?si=NBaQJPPySSCbP_1l

Deadman

billando said:

This thread has been dead for a while. Although i play in an oasis cover band i really like the Stanley park and Heavy Soul Paul Weller guitar sound and am going to try and create something similar this weekend at a gig. One song i like off Heavy Soul is "Brushed". If you Youtube him playing this song live one that appears is a more recent one (cos he has the longer white hair) and seems in a studio room with the whole band in there. This would lead me to think the volume wasnt overly high for this but his lead and bass 50 was still fairly crunchy. This being a non-master volume amp i thought this would need to be really loud to get this sound.

This one?

https://youtu.be/mR-aaDNDztA?si=TyN-8ueu5s3zPAkw

Isn’t it well documented that he uses a BD-2? Maybe that’s what’s providing the drive. Good luck in the search, sounds fun. I’ve been after that elusive Setting Sons/All Mod cons/Sound Affects sound all these years personally.

billando

Did he use a BD-2? If he did use a pedal to get the crunch in that video im happy about that cos the only way id get my non master lead and bass combo to crunch is with an attenuator. He seems to have the same tone in this video in a wee room that he does in a big concert so maybe it is a pedal. Im thinking its unlikely hes cranked a 50w non master into crunch in a little room with the rest of the band.

ecc83

I don't know about The Man himself but his orchestra had two of the first Artisan 30 combos because I was taken 'darn the Smoke' to do the mods to them.

Dave.