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I play guitar in a band that primarily plays western swing. We have a drummer, and I'm having a hard time getting a good clean sound that I can hear well. I suspect that a big part of the problem is the Armstrong slimbucker that I'm using on my 40's Epiphone archtop. The bass is always squashed, muddy and distorted. Last week at rehearsal, I was using a borrowed 70's Ibanez ES-175 copy through my little, solid-state Fender Bullit-Amp at low volume and it sounded great-really clean and articulate sounding, but nowhere near enough volume for stage use.
I have about $4-500 to spend, and I have a nice 1x15" speaker cabinet. I'm looking for info on amp heads that will give me lots of clean volume without distortion, tube or solid state.
I'm also thinking about retiring the Epi from stage use and picking up a used Epi Joe Pass, or something similar.
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10-02-2011 01:04 PM
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I would sell the cabinet and grab a deluxe reverb. I have even seen them used as low as $550 out here in Nashville. Perfect grab and go combo. I personally run a blackface twin reverb, but they can be a bit on the heavy side. I've always thought that if it were stolen, they would have earned it
the deluxe won't be heard over a heavy handed drummer without miking like a twin, but for small club gigs with a tame drummer they work extremely well. Just my 2 cents.
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I have a '69 Deluxe Reverb, and it's not nearly powerful enough. Last Friday, I used a borrowed '66 Vibrolux Reverb, and it was powerful enough, but more money than I can afford. One of the things I'm thinking about is a Bassman head.
I'm just wondering if there's something else, since I'm really looking for a big, clean sound, and I wonder if I really need a tube amp.
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Bassmans are great, but tend to be one note amps IMHO. In other words I think it would work well for the clean jazz thing, but would leave you wanting for anything else. I'm referring to the 60's 70's heads mind you, not the famous 4x10 tweed.
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Any music man would be a great all round amp. You can usually pick them up for a song too.
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If you like your cabinet check the usual suspects: henriksen, acoustic image, evans, polytone. They all make solid state heads, usually very powerful. Check for impedance / power requirements, if the speaker in your cabinet can handle it they can be a good solution. They are all a little different but clean and loud.
Personally I have a jazzmaster utlralight head, to me its sort of a mix between a fender tube amp and a solid state jazz amp (in sound, its all solid state). But at 8 ohms its not as powerful as some of the others.
Music Man are fine amps and they made some heads I think.
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They made most of their models in heads as well as combos. I would advise staying away from a music man combo though unless you want a hernia
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I played with a RD 50 112 once and it was liftable and very loud. This model is very famous for getting the fender tone in a small / light package! With a neo speaker it must be even lighter, I think the stock MM speaker is heavy.
(I am talking about the non-blonde version, the blonde one has an EV and is much heavier I suppose)
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I had the blonde with the ev and it was a tank! Never thought about a neo... I bet that would have warmed it up quite a bit. A RD-112 fifty is a great amp though. Ever figure out what that 12ax7 was doing in the blonde?
Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
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I think something related to the limiter, but I cant help you much more than that.. :/
I love EVs but yes they can be cold! Ben Monder uses that exact amp and I really like his tone. I think a Jensen Neo Tornado would be a good choice but it would have less bottom end than the EV.
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John, you might look at an older Evans head (the AE200). I have an 1998 model that works great for both jazz and pedal steel guitar (I recognize you from the SGForum). 200 watts, very clean and the older ones have a spring reverb tank that sounds terrific. You can often find them on ebay in $400 - $500 range (or even on the SGF). I've paired mine with Black Widow 15's in the past, but now use it with an EVM 12L. Clean, loud and lots of tone shaping capability.
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Forget the corksniffer stuff and grab yerself a Peavey Bandit or something like that. 80 watts, very clean and warm for a solid state amp and can be had new for under 400 bucks.
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I have a Bandit 65 and love it (it has some mods but was very good stock). Clean and loud and can be bought for less than money than that, have seen them going for 100$ in the US! Sounds better than my Henriksen...
But it rules out the 1x15 cab...
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You might try out a Fender Bandmaster VM with your 15" cabinet. I have one paired with a Weber California Ceramic 15 and it sounds terrific. It'll have more headroom than the Deluxe Reverb (I have one of those, too). Since you already have the cab, and BMVMs are not terribly popular, you might be able to pick one up for not too much. ]
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Sweet Rig!!! Forgot about the bandmasters. Can you scoop one for Under $500??? Any idea what a 3x10 model would bring? (Just saying) I gigged BB Kings with a Deluxe reverb with a 5 piece blues set and it worked great for me, I've been on a blackface kick though for awhile now so I may be a bit prejudice
Originally Posted by lpdeluxe
You might try out a Fender Bandmaster VM with your 15" cabinet. I have one paired with a Weber California Ceramic 15 and it sounds terrific. It'll have more headroom than the Deluxe Reverb (I have one of those, too). Since you already have the cab, and BMVMs are not terribly popular, you might be able to pick one up for not too much. ]
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I think that a cube 80 is in your price range. I find that its JC clean channel sounds really good and has plenty of clean headroom.
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An 80s Bandit 65 is cheaper and sounds so much better than any Roland Cube made these days...
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