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Joined:
October 2002
Posts: 9
Location: South Lake Tahoe, CA | Geez!
As some of you may know, it hasn't been but a couple of weeks since I purchased my first Ovation(Elite Special). Well, my boy's and I were perusing the internet and came across a nice looking black Breadwinner. To make a long story short they convinced me to buy it(didn't take much arm twisting though :D ). Should be here sometime late next week. Guess I better look at an amp now. |
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Joined:
July 2002
Posts: 327
Location: Houston, TX | Congrats on the Bwinner. You raise an interesting point: what amp now?
I bought a Marshall combo from a pawn shop years ago because it was a step up from the practice amp I had, and because it said Marshall on it. It has served well. I didn't know very much about amps at the time, and I still don't, considering the plethora of bells and whistles that are available now. It started fartin a bit, and is currently on the bench, so I started lookin round.
I have 9 guitars, and four of them are solid body Ovations. They each have such distinctive personalities and strenghts that I finally decided to get a good clean powerful, yet affordable half stack. One week into the relationship, I am very happy with my Hughes & Kettner. We just started dating, so I'm not ready to say "love", but I THINK THIS IS THE ONE MOMMY!
I also have a Boss GT-5 FX processor, which really makes me feel like a dumass. TOO MUCH...
What are you folks playing through? |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7222
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I have three or four favorite amps of the 20 or so amps I own, all for different reasons.
Many years ago I went into a store in Hawaii to buy a Marshall 900 something.. that came out at the time. The guy who owned the store knew me, and when he went to go get the amp from the back room, he told me to check out this Roland Bolt 60 (which was half the price by the way). I left with the Roland because it blew the Marshall out of the water. I single 12" with a hybrid amp AND preamp (tubes and solidstate support). I used that amp for many years and when I started setting up stereo, I bought another. I eventually sold them... and after 5 or 6 years bought two more because I could not duplicate what I could do with those amps. I would call these my mid-size club gigging amps.
I have a Carvin Anniversary head with a 4 x 12 slanted cab. For a large gig, this is it. It will level buildings and has such amazing tone out of those EL34's. Not many amps I have seen can achieve the volume and fullness of this amp and remain crystal clean. Of course it has overdrive, but unlike a Marshall, you can get loud without distortion too.
For noodling and capturing studio lead work is a Velocette 10". Simple, pure and clean.
The amp I use the most, is a VOX Valvetronix. An amazing tube amp. It also has a unique modeling circuit and simple onboard effects. It's a great jam amp because of it's simplicity and range of tone. It's great in the studio because I can dial in just about any sound of any amp ever made.
A Nemesys by Eden Bass amp. This 2 x 10, 200 watt bass amp is simple "the bomb." It's light and powerful, and just enough controls to bring the best tone I've ever heard from a Bass at lower volume. It's the perfect studio bass rig.
Two classic amps I have are the Ampeg B-15 bass amp and a Rockman X-100 amp. Both great, but limited. I also shy away from Fender and Marshall "classics" as I think they have their sound, and no matter what you do to them, they sound like either a Marshall or a Fender.
[ November 09, 2002: Message edited by: Mr. Ovation ] |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Your choice of amp will partially be determined by what you play. I've got a Fender Princeton (57) and one of the Vibro-Kings s/n 35. I find most of the time I'll wind up using a Matchless Lightening 15 and that's with a Hamer Newport, Daytona, Ultimate mahogony or one of the korinas. The real truth be told the house is small and the amps stay in the closet mostly and the acoustics get used, ocasionally with the Ashdown Reso 1.
Amps are kinda like strings, it's what you like. Lite guage, medium, nickle, stainless, round wound, flat wound, elixers etc. Back to the ice cream story. |
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Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | Wishing I had the space and money for one of everything (like Miles :p ), I wanted something to get a wide range of tones out of my stable of electrics ... so about three years ago I went for a Flextone XL 212 and couldn't be much happier. I have (among others) a Ric 360V64/12, Hamer Mirage maple top w/hummies, Charvel Surfcaster (surf green of course), older american Strat, '70s Viper, Epi FlameKat and Dano DC59. There are 32 different amp simulations so I can dial up everything from a Vox AC30TB, Mesa Boogie, a slew of Fenders (need -em for the surf sound I can't quite get out of my Champ), a bunch of Marshalls, Matchless, Soldano, Roland Jazz Chorus, a bunch of Line6 creations and more. Also has a preamp which adds some extra fun stuff, like sending miked vocals through a Leslie simulation. The 16 built-in digital effects are generally pretty good, and I can model all kinds of different cabs. Basically, you can tweak and dial in almost any sound you're looking for.
It's got plenty of power to rock the house when I play out (which is rare). Most of the time I noodle in the home studio, so the best thing is the stereo XLR direct outs with speaker cut, so I can sent the output to the recorder and really crank the master and use headphones ... making the wife, kids, neigbors, dog and cat oblivious to the racket I'm making. Generally the tones from the amp are pretty authentic, although some miss the mark. But of course, they are only simulations and if money were no object ...
What it doesn't do very well is on the acoustic side, which is OK because I generally go XLR direct to the board from the Ovations with the Optimas and process (or not) from there, or mike the older ones.
P.S. You gotta make sure you get the footboard with all the bells and whistles to really appreciate the amp. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10582
Location: NJ | I have more amps than one person should be allowed
current favs fender 59 bassman
62 fender brown princeton just had it redone to a 12 and will probably put a jbl or altec in it currently has a greenback celecstian
vellocette 10, twin 10, or 12 R I have all three and they rock.
64 fender vibrolux reverb i loaded it with e series jbls and the amp is killer.
for bass rigs groove tubes bass preamp (made by swr when they actually made usa stuff ) with a cavin pm 200 bridged into an ev twin 15 cab or for less of a back ache
genz benz bass monitor best bang for the buck and it kills all the swr stuff |
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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 18
Location: Radford VA | As far as affordable half-stacks, I recently purchased a Crate half-stack/head package (GFX-1200H head/GX412KS Cab). Granted it's not a high end amp at all, but I've been extremely impressed with the quality of sound. I also have a Spider Series 112 Line6 that has worked well for practice and solo gigs at small bars. I certainly agree with the input cwk2 gave "Amps are kinda like strings, it's what you like". |
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Joined:
October 2002
Posts: 9
Location: South Lake Tahoe, CA | OK OK. Now I'm totally confused(not too difficult for me ;) ). So I've got an Elite Special electric/acoustic and am anxiously awaiting my Breadwinner. I'm just getting back into playing and will only be playing for my enjoyment. I'm thinking 30 to 60 watts only...maybe a little more. Do any of you folks have what you would consider a good "general purpose" amp that could be used for both types of guitars? |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | IMO there isn't an electric guitar amp which will do a good job of acurately amplifying an electro-acoustic. Equally acoustic amps don't work for electrics. A possible way round this is to get an acoustic amp for your electro-acoustic and put your electric guitars through that via an amp simulator such as a POD, Berhinger V-amp, Tech 21 SansAmp or a Boss GP20 Amp Factory.
[ November 12, 2002: Message edited by: Paul Templeman ] |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15664
Location: SoCal | Paul is correct in what he is saying, but money wise, for what you'd spend for the POD, etc, you could buy a small Fender or other type of amp for your electric.
If you are going to play at home, you could buy a small Crate or Fender Acoustasonic amp for the acoustic guitar and a small electric amp. The cost combined would run about $400. Regardless of which way you go, you are going to spend about the same money. |
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Joined:
October 2002
Posts: 9
Location: South Lake Tahoe, CA | Cool. Thanks folks. That's what I thought as well. Our local music store has a nice Kustom Acoustic Amp(30 watt) for $225 that I'll probably pick up for the Elite. Again, thanks for the feedback. |
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I can't believe I bought another one
