# Amp talk.



## Gary

If you haven't gone full tube yet, try it! I'll never go back to solid state amps again.


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## Rawpower

Tube amps are way more expensive. You have to Re bias the amp if you want to change the tubes. There are some solid state amps that sound really good. I heard some line 6 amps that have a really tight sound. I have to admit that when shoppng for an amp. The first thing I do is look in the back for tubes. Vintage tube Amps is what I really like. I don’t know, they just seem to have more soul. Also, the new smaller tube amps like the Orange Tiny Terror and the Jet City amps seem really cool. I heard Mesa Boogie has a small amp out also. :cheers:


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## SurfRunner

I have Fender Deville....It's a hoss! Sounds good and clean. It's probably way more amp than I need. I got a fair deal for it on Craigs List. Probably almost 15 years old and very clean looking and sounding.


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## JOHNNY QUEST

I have duel marshal 50s hooked in sterio.... Mmmmmm... The joy.....


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## MB

I have a Dr.z maz Jr. 18 watt with a single 12 and can't say enough good things about this model. 18 watts sounds like a 100 watts and out front of the stage sounds very very clear. I wind up turning down in most cases. Also you can change 1 tube at a time with no change in tone. The down side is it does burn up tubes quite quickly when used alot, but has all that tone !!!

MB


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## Gary

Mine is a Fender 65 re-issue Deluxe Reverb that has been tweaked a little bit. I took out the stock Jensen speaker and replaced it win an Eminence Cannabis Rex of which the cone is made is actually made of hemp.

I have been playing around with biasing the tubes which I upgraded to JJ 6V6-S's. Bias probe is from Amp-Head. Right now I'm at ~70% plate dissipation and I think that's pretty close. For the pre amp tubes I have been playing with Tungsols and Sovteks, but I just bit the bullet for a Jan Philips 5751 that is supposed to give more head room and a slightly deeper tone. If I had any complaint about my rig it would be it's a tad "Ice Pickey" when hammered. Hopefully the 5751 will take that out.


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## surfspeck

Not just any tube amp will do. It's taken me a lot of years to figure out that you get what you pay for when it comes to quality music gear. If you want a killer tone, it's not wise to skimp. I have an old Fender Twin Reverb and splurged a couple of years ago and bought a Tone King Amplifier. I play a 52 Reissue Telecaster through a Barber Burn Unit, Fulltone mini Vibe, and a TC delay. I get some very interesting tones out of this rig from the cleanest of clean to rough and edgy, the sustain is amazing for a single coil guitar. Next on the list is a quality guitar with humbuckers and add a few more quality effects.


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## MB

65 Fender Deluxe sounds perfect with 6L6's ... The old 1965 Jensen's sounded awesome too ... Sometimes it's just the volume that makes the differance in the tone your looking for and of course where can you turn up and not have the whineing begin quickly. 

All tubes are made overseas and it's hard to find quality tubes. Dr.z talks about throwing away 1/3 of a box of tubes he can't use in their amps because they arn't good. I still like tube amps.

MB


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## Bruce J

I've got 3 tube amps and love them all for different reasons: Fender Blues Jr. (NOS Tweed version), Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister 18 head and 112 cab, and a small Fender Champion 600. That said, I've heard nothing but great things about the new Fender Mustang solid state amps.


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## Gary

MB said:


> 65 Fender Deluxe sounds perfect with 6L6's ... The old 1965 Jensen's sounded awesome too ... Sometimes it's just the volume that makes the differance in the tone your looking for and of course where can you turn up and not have the whineing begin quickly.
> 
> All tubes are made overseas and it's hard to find quality tubes. Dr.z talks about throwing away 1/3 of a box of tubes he can't use in their amps because they arn't good. I still like tube amps.
> 
> MB


You can still find NOS, but they aint cheap.

http://tubedepot.com/nos-5751jan.html

As far as the 6L6's go, I have a set of Tung-Sol 6L6GC STR's sitting around. I might try those out.


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## Gary

surfspeck said:


> Not just any tube amp will do. It's taken me a lot of years to figure out that you get what you pay for when it comes to quality music gear. If you want a killer tone, it's not wise to skimp. I have an old Fender Twin Reverb and splurged a couple of years ago and bought a Tone King Amplifier. I play a 52 Reissue Telecaster through a Barber Burn Unit, Fulltone mini Vibe, and a TC delay. I get some very interesting tones out of this rig from the cleanest of clean to rough and edgy, the sustain is amazing for a single coil guitar. Next on the list is a quality guitar with humbuckers and add a few more quality effects.


I'm also thinking of getting a Humbucker rigged guitar like a Paul or something. My Godin has a Bucker on the bridge, but its like putting Buckers on a Strat. It doesn't work for me.

As far as effex pedals, check out Catalinbread. They are made in Portland. I have their Forumula no. 5 and it's a pretty nice OD pedal.

http://www.catalinbread.com/


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## surfspeck

Those 1st couple of No 5 clips sound very interesting. I went in to SA to Guitar Center yesterday and traded in some junk and bough a new Pedal Train effect board and a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mofset. The clean overdirive on the FD Mofest is very killer!! Cant wait to get home and play some more on it.


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## Rawpower

I have Mesa Boogie Maverick Class A amp. It's only 35 watts but I will but up against any solid state amp. Not that I'am prejudist against solid state. It's just that tube amp with lower Watt rating are much louder than solid states. I have a Tele going thru a Flex drive Rockett pedal. Man, It's Just bad A**! I also have an old Peavey VTM 60. That thing is so loud it can tear down a house.LOL

http://www.rockettpedals.com/pro-series/overdrive-pedal/


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## Gary

surfspeck said:


> Those 1st couple of No 5 clips sound very interesting. I went in to SA to Guitar Center yesterday and traded in some junk and bough a new Pedal Train effect board and a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mofset. The clean overdirive on the FD Mofest is very killer!! Cant wait to get home and play some more on it.


Maybe I'm getting old, but I'm getting less enjoyment out of pedals. Which kinda sucks because I'm the usual gear head who is dying to buy more gear, and the obvious choices are boxes.


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## surfspeck

Your old enough to be able to tell the difference and you are right the big, multi effect pedal boards don't have the quality tones compare to the finer individual box effects.


Gary said:


> Maybe I'm getting old, but I'm getting less enjoyment out of pedals. Which kinda sucks because I'm the usual gear head who is dying to buy more gear, and the obvious choices are boxes.


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## surfspeck

The pedal train isn't what you think it is. It's actually a piece of hardware that you attach you favorite individual pedals to, effectively creating your own custom effects board. Mine has a Fulltone mini Dejavibe, Fulltone Fulldrive 2 MOSFET, Bayer Burn Unit, TC Flashback, & a Vox Wah and digital tuner. I have room to add maybe 2 more effects.


surfspeck said:


> Your old enough to be able to tell the difference and you are right the big, multi effect pedal boards don't have the quality tones compare to the finer individual box effects.


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## surfspeck

The multi pedal boards are great and very fun to play with until you actually experience quality gear. The tones are nowhere near the same when you compare multi effect boards vs quality individual effects. One of the dilemmas is that they are always coming up with new gear which is one of the reasons I try to keep my quiver of effects pretty simple.


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## Gary

I was surfing the net this weekend for pretty much anything else I could do my amp as far as mods go, short of actually replacing caps, resistors etc. Several pages deep I run across some guy that asked about "Channel Jumping".

What?

I never heard of it before and there aint much info out there about it but, after a few hours I learn a little more, just a little. It's a way to take the standard 2 channel amp, and use both channels at the same time. Now this piqued my interest thinking of the tone possibilities using both channels of my Delux Reverb. The normal channel is slightly warmer than the vibrato channel which is spunkier with it's "Bright Cap" and all. Not to mention the extra tonal possibility's with using different style pre amp tubes between the channels. I could take advantage of channel 1 which is warmer, toss in an even warmer bottle, and then sharpen up channel 2 with a brighter type bottle and mix the EQ until my ears are bleeding. :rybka:

There is a problem with just running a patch chord fro C1 to C2 with my amp. It turns out that they are 180 degrees out of phase with each other, but the guys said to try it anyway. So I did and most EQ settings sucked, and then, tonal nirvana! :dance: It sounded like I was now playing on 2 amps! And then I tried tweaking it more and I shouldn't of. sad2sm

So last night, I contacted a few people and the answer is the "Radial BigShot ABY True Passive Switcher".It's more than just an A-B switch. It has an option to turn channel B 180 degrees so both channels into the same phase. I can't wait. :mpd:


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## surfspeck

I'm assuming you would need an amp with two inputs for each channel or 2 separate amps? I used to have Peavy Stereo Chorus solid state amp back in the 80's with the feature built in. Of course I never used it and was only interested in the od channel. It's funny how things change with time. Now I'm more interested in a more pure clean overdrive sound. The heavy distortion days are long gone for me.


Gary said:


> So last night, I contacted a few people and the answer is the "Radial BigShot ABY True Passive Switcher".It's more than just an A-B switch. It has an option to turn channel B 180 degrees so both channels into the same phase. I can't wait. :mpd:


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## Gary

surfspeck said:


> I'm assuming you would need an amp with two inputs for each channel or 2 separate amps? I used to have Peavy Stereo Chorus solid state amp back in the 80's with the feature built in. Of course I never used it and was only interested in the od channel. It's funny how things change with time. Now I'm more interested in a more pure clean overdrive sound. The heavy distortion days are long gone for me.


Same here brother. Heavy distortion gets on my nerves.

And in my case, I have a two channel amp. I can combine and run both channels through the BigShot I have coming since it has a 180 degree phase shifter. It was designed for running one instrument through two amps and in just in case one amp was 180 out of phase, you can correct it with this box.


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## JOHNNY QUEST

Thats why I use 2) marshals hooked in sterio.... Works great. Most of my effects are set up for stereo and have 2 outputs....


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## Gary

JOHNNY QUEST said:


> Thats why I use 2) marshals hooked in sterio.... Works great. Most of my effects are set up for stereo and have 2 outputs....


Using one channel to drive the other. I have another Jan Phillips 5751 bottle on the way so I can mix and match the two different preamp tubes for different tones. Man, those things are expensive. Made in April of 1985.

Also will be adding another cab, and yes it's ugly. lol Cheap though.


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## Gary

I gotta get me one of these. Check the video. :rotfl:

http://www.catalinbread.com/Kit


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## Gary




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## surfspeck

The bigshot came in....survey says?


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## Gary

surfspeck said:


> The bigshot came in....survey says?


It might be just me yet, but I haven't noticed much difference yet. I'm gonna try again here in a few minutes.


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## Gary

surfspeck said:


> The bigshot came in....survey says?


I think I wasted $80. Yea it's ok and helps with offering differing EQ's, but every time I plug a box into my amp, I don't like them.

Fender Deluxe Reverb played clean with a tube tweak here and there, I don't know of anything better for clean!

Maybe I'm getting old.


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## surfspeck

At least you tried. Keep playing with it, you might find something you end up liking. You can always sell it.


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## Gary

I am now in "Tone Nirvana" :dance:


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## surfspeck

Tone Nirvana, Until the newness of the new tone wears off, then the quest must push on!! Enjoy your quest!!LOL!


Gary said:


> I am now in "Tone Nirvana" :dance:


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## Gary

Now I need a new stand. sad2sm


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## Gary

I just leaned something about about channel jumping and being a 180* of of phase. I read somewhere that most Strats with 5 way switches are wired to have some selections between pups out of phase. In position 4 my guitar allays sounded like doo doo poo poo. I tried position number 4, switched the ABY box to the other 180 setting, and I now have a totally new pup combo in order to play with.

I highly suggest channel jumping if you have a two channel amp with this box.


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## Gary

Re-did my rig.


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## phuzaxeman

my latest rig. matching "basket weave" light brown jcm2000 tsl60 (GT russians/Groove Tubes GT-EL34R russian duets) and Custom 2x12 cab with WGS ET65 and Retro 30 pair of speakers. i'm luvin this look.

i'm getting some clean tones on this. can't wait to record and play live.

www.kensarmientomusic.com


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## phuzaxeman




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## Gary

Very nice! angelsm


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## texjam

*Amps*

Dr Z of any kind, period.


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## burntorange

*Amps*

Speaking of Amps I am selling my Aiken Intruder head{30 watt Master Volume** with Bogner twin cab and also selling my original Naylor 38 watt. Both boutique amps and in great shape. Aiken is a marshall plexi type and the Naylor is more fender sounding but does rock. $1200 for each , paid 1500 for each. Great gigging amps. I used them in Church but we had to go direct sometime back. Text me 832-607-9903 for more info or pics


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## Redstalker

Gary said:


> If you haven't gone full tube yet, try it! I'll never go back to solid state amps again.


I know what you mean and almost agree. My "big show" rig is a Marshall JCM2000 1/2 stack with a 1960a 4x12, my back-up and smaller club amp is a Crate Palomino V32, I also like my Traynor, But my favorite is an old Richenbacher solid state amp with active eq and a tiny 10" speaker. I would gig with it miked with no problem!


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## Rawpower

Those Transformers are Bad A**!!


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## Rawpower

Don't forget David's Mod!


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## Rawpower

Sorry to High Jack Your post Gary. But I just wanted to post some cool tube Amp Videos! 



:cheers:


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## Gary

I'm now selling my gear. It's just too loud for where I live. Thinking of a Princeton.


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## Gary

I know I said I would never go back to SS, but I was just getting to many complaints with what I had. I was going back to acoustic and had pretty much sold all my electric gear and then I stopped by a local pawn shop and found this. It was $50 and couldn't pass it up.

Works pretty darn good.


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