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Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 888
Location: Louisville, OH 44641 | Dear Ovation Folks and Family:
I'm fairly new to the guitar world and own a couple Adamas beauties that I love. Previously, I asked the OFC about acoustic guitar amp recommendations and received some great tips. Eventually, I purchased a Roland AC60 and it is fantastic.
Recently, however, I recently bought a nice Carvin electric guitar and what I'm finding is that electric guitar amps are very tricky...at least to me. I like to play blues and classic rock. My guitar is a semi hollow body SH550 (if that matters). I don't play in a band...just at home with a couple friends. My budget is $700.
Some basic questions are: Tube or solid state? Do I need an effects pedal(s)? Wattage size (I'm thinking smaller is better here but I'm not sure). What is the purpose of a multi channel amp?
Recommendations please....
Thank you!
Confused in OH |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Multi-channel amps allow you to footwsitch between preset volume and distortion levels. Tube amps are generally accepted as sounding "better" than solid state, but the downside is they need to be cranked to get the best out of them, and even those rated at under 10 watts can be far too loud for home use.
As you already have a good acoustic amp you use that with an amp modeller such as the Line6 Pod, or one or 2 of the SansAmp Character pedals. That way you can create a bunch of classic guitar tones at controllable levels without laying out as much cash. |
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January 2009
Posts: 4536
Location: Flahdaw | Mesa Boogie makes a tube amp with a 5 watt setting that'll blow your doors off. Pricey though. |
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Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 888
Location: Louisville, OH 44641 | Thanks guys....I'm on it. I'll dig into both suggestions. Perhaps an Ebay Mesa Boogie 5 watter.
No one ever told me guitar could be so much fun. I can tell this is something I'll have to watch because I know I could sink the ship (financially speaking) if I'm not careful.
Take care, |
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Joined:
December 2006
Posts: 6996
Location: Jet City | Match up your carvin with a carvin amp. With what you play, I think the nomad would be a great place to start. You can find them at pretty reasonable prices. I use it's big brother, the belair
Btw, awesome guitar! I'd love to hear what you think of it. I've been toying with buying one with the synth access and a bigsby |
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Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 888
Location: Louisville, OH 44641 | OK...well I've quickly learned that the Mesa Boogie is tooooo rich for my blood. Even the used ones are too much. Looks like I'll go with something simpler and possibly some pedals or something like a Boss ME 25.
Damon, I'll look into the the Carvin amps. I love my new Carvin guitar. I didn't want a full fledged jazz box guitar but I wanted something with richer tone than a solid body. The Carvin quality is amazing and it's really easy and fun to play. |
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Joined:
April 2010
Posts: 1227
Location: Connersville, Indiana | Dont' forget if where you play has fluorescent lights, using a tube amp you may get an unwanted hum or noise, where the solid state amps are not affected. Plus a lot of the amps like Crate, and others have effects on the amp it self, so you don't have to use a lot of pedals. I use a Crate and a line 6 pod plus, and it sounds great if I use the Ovations, or my Semi Hollow body Oscar Schmidt bluesman or even my semi hollow body Devlin Telecaster type guitar that has the F hole in the top, they all sound great. I would suggest you bring your guitar to the music store or stores and try out a bunch of amps, then choose the type you like in the smaller watt version.
Thats what I did. Spend a day or so, check out different stores and amps, then make an educated choice for the sound that you like and are looking for. |
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Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 1673
Location: SoCal | IMHO: The Mesa V-Twin pedal is #1 as a start for experimenting with tube-tone. They go for under $400 in impeccable condition w/power supply and can readily be resold. There is a ton of info out on the web. Make sure the one you get has the solo-blues/clean-gain-adjust on the bottom.
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | JIM,
I have a lot of old used pedals that are relatively inexpensive. Email or PM me when you get ready and I can put together a list for you with pricing. |
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Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Sans Amp Pedal, see if you like it, (your going to want to get some pedals anyway, so start with this) or get a tech 21 combo. In the terminology, the amp is technically the head, and when you get the speaker parts (the cab) combined with the head you call it a combo. I'd say go with Carvin, Peavey or Fender combo (if you don't do the tech 21). You can always swap out the speaker for an easy upgrade.
Personally, I like the solid state analog amps, for the reasons above, plus they are realiable, no tubes to change. |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I have the Mesa V-Twin pedal mentioned by Noah. Great pedal. The blues option is plenty for me. As far as an amp goes for private use at home, try a Fender Blues Jr. It has a lot of features and is rated high in some "best of" lists for blues and classic rock. With a fat switch, master volume control, reverb, and all tube preamp and output, you can't go wrong with this. I have three of them in various configurations. They go for around $500 in excellent condition on the used market. Plenty are available on the Bay. |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 1486
Location: Michigan | fender hot rod deville 4 x 10 .i bought one new in 1997 and it has about 1 hour of play time on it .
the problem being i wanted a tube amp for what everyone was saying was much better sounding for playing rock & blues.when i got it home i turned it on and it is so powerful that it can't be played in my house,this thing needs a concert hall.60 watts a channel with 4 10 inch speakers.the sound is incredible but to much power for my house.great for playing out. if you are interested in one p.m. me .GWB |
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Joined:
July 2007
Posts: 161
Location: Seoul, Korea | When I used to take lessons from this jazz guitarist who uses all kinds of guitars from Gibsons solid body (Les Paul) to jazz boxes to Collings acoustic, and even classical guitars, his amp of choice for performance within a small space was the German amp called AER Alpha. It is all transitors but you can connect two guitars. Alpha is the smallest or next smallest in their series and there are larger wattages. However, after trying them all out, he felt thi Alpha had the best overall sound, versatility, etc. In this country it costs around US$1,000. Used one is around US$600. It is really well made. I have tried out Roland AC60 before buying my own AER Alpha. I felt it was in a different class. Of course, it is subjective and I was influenced by my teacher. I know a few German OFC members who have AER amps as well. |
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Joined:
June 2005
Posts: 1320
Location: Round Rock, TX | Originally posted by Paul Templeman:
Multi-channel amps allow you to footwsitch between preset volume and distortion levels. Tube amps are generally accepted as sounding "better" than solid state, but the downside is they need to be cranked to get the best out of them, and even those rated at under 10 watts can be far too loud for home use.
As you already have a good acoustic amp you use that with an amp modeller such as the Line6 Pod, or one or 2 of the SansAmp Character pedals. That way you can create a bunch of classic guitar tones at controllable levels without laying out as much cash. What Paul said. I have owned several Line 6 modelers and currently have the HD500. Highly recommended. |
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Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 888
Location: Louisville, OH 44641 | Wow. Great information and tips. Looks like I've got a few emails to write. A lot to look into but is much better than me just guessing at all this.
Since my last post, I've played a 16 watt Carvin amp and it was awesome but too freakin loud. My wife would kill me if I brought that baby home.
Appreciate all the suggestions. Thanks.
Jim |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Jim, the problem with tube amps being too loud is solved with a master volume control. The purists object, but I like a tube amp with a master volume control. It allows you to turn up the channel volume into the amp's "sweet" range, where you can maximize that crunchy sound where the tone breaks up a bit (on some amps more than others), but then turn down the master volume so that overall output is tolerable. With a master volume control, you obtain the the sound of the amp's sweet spot without the overall volume. The prior owner of the Vibro King I recently picked up had a master volume control custom installed on the back panel. It makes all the difference in the world. The Blues Juniors are wonderful amps for this very reason. Without the master volume control, their 15 watts output would be way too loud at home. |
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Electric Guitar Amp Recommendations