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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 648
Location: Florida | What is some kind of mantra they feed the salespeople?
Went looking at acoustic amps (oxymoron?), and heard a new one from salesmen in two stores. Namely - you HAVE to have an acoustic amp if you plug in your acoustic guitar, and even moreso, if you happen to play your acoustic, ESPECIALLY an Ovation thru a "guitar amp", it will "blow it".
Being the inquistive type - I asked why?
Answer: the intrinsically greater dynamics of a piezo pickup are "too much" for a "regular" amp to handle.
Wow says I...I have some nice old Fender's from the 60's that I wanted to use in the meantime.
Oh god! I was told. NEVER EVER do that. One guy told me he'd seen "literally dozens" of tube amps blown by plugging in acoustics.
So... like do all these guys (different stores) get the same playbook from the anxious sales reps or what? |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Total crap. What you need is an amplification/speaker system with a wide, flat frequency response & plenty of headroom in the powerstage. PA systems, some Keyboard amps & pro-spec acoustic amps will do the job. Electric guitar amps can be used for acoustic guitars & some people like the sound that combination produces but I'm not one of them. You will certainly not "blow" an electric amp by playing an electric-acoustic guitar through it.
Music store salesmen always cease to amaze me. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | The playbook the salespeople are working from is the "Sell More Product" playbook. I've never heard of a piezo blowing out a tube amp. Chet Atkins had a Standel amp that he plugged everything into. |
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December 2001
Posts: 10581
Location: NJ | Charlie
was the kid under 25?
if so "thank you for playing our game"! |
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Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 2246
Location: Yucaipa, California | CharlieB,
I play all of my "Os" through my old ('70s era) Rickenbacher studio amp (1-10") and couldn't be happier... nice acoustic sound.... couldn't blow it up even if I wanted to... (and really I tried to do that long ago with my Les Paul Custom....)
I also have a Crate "Acoustic" amp that I hate... can't get anything like the sound the Ricky gives...
Too bad that MOST sales people in guitar stores are just that: "sales people", not knowledgable representatives.
The ONLY question I ever ask a Guitar Center sales person is "Where are the USA Ovations?" They are just too stupid to give coherent answers to anything else.... IMNSHO
tim |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10581
Location: NJ | Q: When do you know when the sales man is lieing?
A: When his lips are moving.
I learned this the hard way many times. |
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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 648
Location: Florida | Hey well I know you cant "blow out" a tube amp by overloading the input. In fact, the input on a typical Fender or Marshall will take many nundreds of volts before it causes a problem (ie, sparks over from grid to plate or cathode). Any user of a VTVM can attest to that....
But to hear the same line, from two guys at two different places... seems like they're getting coached from an ouside source.
I've got a Twin Reverb here... BF with D120's in it. I'm thinking that a pair of horns in a small box on top of the amp, and a crossover ought to do it just about fine - since I've used that combination for PA/program music before, and it aint so bad at all. This Twin is the King-O'-Klean, so it'll do nicely. |
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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 648
Location: Florida | On further thought... (after coffee) let me say yes you can certainly whack a set of speakers on a tube amp if they're not up to snuff, by overloading the input. But blowing the circuitry... not by long long shot, no matter what the input is. |
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Joined:
July 2003
Posts: 1922
Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | Posted by Tim Chapman....
The ONLY question I ever ask a Guitar Center sales person is "Where are the USA Ovations?"
The only answer I've been getting lately is "none right now, maybe next week...."
But, hey, they got LOTS of Celebrities.......
Roger
1976 Applause AA14-4 6-String
1981 Ovation 1118-1 Glen Campbell 12-string
2001 Adamas 1598-MERB Melissa Etheridge 12-String
2003 Celebrity CC01 Spruce Top 6-String |
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Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 2246
Location: Yucaipa, California | The ONLY question I ever ask a Guitar Center sales person is "Where are the USA Ovations?"
The answer I usually get is a glaikit expression that says..."...uh, aren't these Celebrities in the USA now?..."! :confused:
p.s. I'm sure PT knows a glaikit expression when he sees one..... ;)
tim |
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What a line of amp BS...
