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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 24
Location: OR | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Ovation MM68 should be delivered Thur and I ordered a Pignose Cv40 all tube amp also to go with it. It had the best reviews I could find at the price. Anybody tried this combo? I just needed a small practice/home amp. I got it online for 200 bucks delivered, which is a good price for an all tube amp even though it does use Chinese tubes. Harmony Central had pretty good reviews overall. Comments? This is my first electric experience!!! |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Great for electric guitar, fantastic value for an all-tube amp. Wouldn't be my first choice as an amp for acoustic guitar or mandolin. |
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 24
Location: OR | Paul
If it is good for reproducing the true sound of an acoustic guitar, why wouldn't it be good for an electric/acoustic mando? Harmony Central has 37 reviews of the amp and the general concensus was that it was a good amp for acoustic guitar. It wouldn't be my first choice either but I thought it would be better than a solid state amp of the same price. It will only be used as a practice amp at home as I'm confined to my home for medical reasons. I wanted something less than 30 lbs but wanted tubes for realistic acoustic sound reproduction. |
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December 2001
Posts: 10582
Location: NJ | I rarely believe anything I read on harmony central. |
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 24
Location: OR | I agree that you must sift the BS from the well meaning, but that is not too difficult when you have over 3 dozen reviews. All internet forums, this one included, must be taken with some anaylsis of the informatio given. I guess the subject of my question will be answered soon enough by myself as I should receive the mando on Thur and the amp about Monday.
Al---Thanks for the quick shipping of the mando, Mike in Oregon |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Mike, Harmony Central reveiws are a waste of time, they are written by people who have bought a piece of gear & either love it or hate it, so you generally get either of those extremes & absolutely no objectivity.
Tube/solid state is not the issue, it's the design of the amp & the type of speaker used. Amplifiers & speakers designed for electric guitars have a deliberately coloured and limited frequency response. This works fine for electric guitars, especially when using high gain tones, but is less than ideal for acoustic instruments which benefit from amplifiers with a flat, wide frequency response. Amplification & speaker enclosures designed for acoustic instruments are completely different to those designed as electric guitar amps. Try plugging an electric guitar into an acoustic amp & see if you can get a decent sound. The Pignose will amplify your Mandolin without a problem & you may well be happy with the sound it produces, but it will be quite different to the mando through a PA sysyem or dedicated acoustic amp. There has been a number of disscusions on this in the past, try a search. |
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December 2001
Posts: 10582
Location: NJ | Generally speaking for an acoustic guitar you are looking for an amp with a lot of "head room" this mean higher wattage. To get those higher wattages and cleaner tones out of a tube amp you need massive trannies and big tubes. Case in point ampeg svt weight 85 lbs. just for the head!
I understand wanted the "warmth of the tubes but you may sacrifice clarity if you push the amp in a live setting. That is when the tubes compress and you get that creamy sound that electric guitar players lust over. It is actually the Degeneration of the amp NOT the sound reproduction that is lusted over.
this is not the case for an acoustic electric player. You want that sound to be as crystal clear as possible at massive vol and no feedback.
As a practice at home amp the pignose is probably fine and maybe for small gig situations also. I am not familiar with the amp at all. |
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Joined:
December 2002
Posts: 939
Location: Fort Worth, Texas | Enjoy your new mandolin - I have the Applause version, I'm mostly a beginer on mandolin, maybe upgrade someday. I'd love to try out one of the mandocellos.... |
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May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Mike
I played my acoustic mandolin with a Barcus Berry Jr. through that type of amp and it sounded good. I didn't set it for the distortion that the guitar players get, and it had a pretty good sound for the mandolin.
Bailey |
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Pignose G40V Amp
