💾 Archived View for blitter.com › OLGA › MUSIC › RESOURCES › CONSTRUCTION_DOCS › FAQ › FAQ.AMP.REVIE… captured on 2022-06-12 at 08:09:15.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar,alt.guitar
From: bmilner@netcom.com (bmilner)
Subject: I tried 15 amps...I liked these (LONG)
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 02:18:06 GMT
Dear Lists,
In my quest for a new amp this week I played through lots and
lots of amps and I thought I would share my opinions as to what I liked
in case you are curious or in the market yourself.
First let me say that I play through a quadraverb most of the time
(not all the time) with a early ibanez guitar before they went to their
cheesy metal styles with LA metal pick ups. Second, as you can tell, I
don't play metal, I play spatial pop music and some bluesier things in a
Richard Thompson/the Sundays/Talk Talk style. I tried about 15-20 amps
and had these opinions...
VOX AC-30: lord god king of all the amps I tried. At least the re-issue
I played. it was so warm and full. U2's The edge played them
fo years, so did Dave G. of the Sundays. so did countless
british invasion bands. cost ($1500 street, new)
VOX-AC10: amazing slightly distorted tone. This would make an Awesome
recording amp as it distrots at low volumes into perfect
warm college rock or even neal young style tone (I know
he uses a champ with single coils in a les paul but...).
Juliana Hatfield has this exact tone. (cost used $800).
Not versitile enough for me (too distorted with a band)
FENDER VIBROLUX:
Ok, I played 4 of these. 3 blackfaces and one silverface from 1975.
They cost from $550 to $1300 (!) and all sounded completely different from
eachother. I chose the silverface because it was much warmer than the
others. The others were clinical. I have heard from a guru friend of
mine that with vibroluxes, many people like the Silverface models better for
some reason. The one I bought was a '75 for $550.
FENER DELUXE REVERBS: I played two of these. Both blackfaces but one was
the real thing from 65 I think (with the rare south african speakers that
are the stuff of legend) and the other was a new re-issue of same (or is
it a 64). The cost from $800-$1050 and sounded really great but they
didn't quite work for me. The older one was really noisy with lots of
strange grounding oddities and buzzy. My friend plays a old Gretch Duo
Jet through one and has the god tone of the century through it. I sounded
wimpy through it. I passed.
FENDER SUPER REVERB: everyone told me I would love this 1968 amp. They
said it was very very clean and very warm to boot. I didn't like it.
Maybe it was just this one (my friends blackface sounds nearly the same
though). Well, I didn't because it sounded too...motown for me.
Everything had a twang like a James Brown record. Kind of old style funk
sound. That is why my friend plays one and why I passed for the $600 they
wanted.
MESA BOOGIE BLUE ANGEL: I almost bought this amp because it sounded
a little better than my vibrolux. Much warmer without the random
resonances of the fender cabinet. It had a very quiet professional sound
and very real and tubey-too. This model is new for $1050 and has two
sets of output tubes which are switchable. One sounds more like a vox,
the other more like a fender. When cranked (no master volume or channel
switching) it sounded more like a marshall crossed with a vox. It was
very quiet and had some nice features like an effects loop. If you
thought all Boogies were for shredding, think again, this was a great
bluesy warm amp. too much money though for me ($1050)
MESA BOOGIE STUDIO CALIBRE (?): this expensive little combo amp has
channel switching, master volume, gobs of knobs and a good, open clean
sound. This sounded a little on the Trey Anastasio side. Hey, he plays a
boogie you know... It was warm but a little too Steely Dan sounding
(polished without enough character). If you need a flexible amp to do
different things or to record with. It is nice. One of my favorite
guitarists, Bill Frisell plays through a similar model I believe (a mark
III).
In conclusion...
Buy with your ears unless you are trying to just aquire an
investment. For example, with Fenders, whether it is a blackface or not
doesn't mean it will sound better or worse. Fender bought a lot of random
parts back in those days and each amp sounds different. Also age plays
havoc with amps, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
I found great sounding amps that dramatically changed their tone
when cranked to band levels. You need to think about wether you want a
recording amp (fender champ, Vox AC10) or whether you need something that
will push a little bit live. I didn't get my dream amp (vox AC-30) but
got 9/10ths of it, for 1/3 the money. Good luck. Hope this helps you
all in your never ending quest for amp knowledge.
Brandon Milner
bmilner@netcom.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------