hmmm...what amp am I looking for?

[zhivago]

thanks Jay, I'll take that under consideration...also looking at the handwired Marshall 20watt head...a good possibility...especialy through a cab of 2x12 efficient speakers (like maybe Celestion Blues)

[Pumpkin]

Can like 15-35 watts actually be played clean without breaking up into shit in a club or whatever?

I always have trouble with anything under about 80watts yet i see 18 watt marshalls being popular,WTF is with that???? I cant imagine giging with anything less than a 85watt twin or 100watt anything else.
Even 60 watts struggles like shit with my guitar style,i just cant see it working unless your playing for deaf people.

Bare in mind that if i have a 100 watt fender on 7-8 its clean,i cant handle it breaking up,surely ya cant get this with 35 watts?

Care to explain the deal with this people cause i have no idea about amps except for how to set the ones i use  myself?

[zhivago]

we play mic'ed in clubs, and people doing sound tell us to turn down all the time.

maybe it's noise restrictions...I dunno....it doesn't really matter why I guess...they still tell us to turn down....

I thnk I'm gonna keep the amp in the end and buy a Rat for the dirt sounds...I'll just have to argue with sound people loads....


I've been going round in circles with my requirements and the amps are getting more and more expensive...I've now had suggestions (in other forums - not, not the gear page) for amps that broke clean past the £1200 barrier...and I'm like "you cannot be serious"


I guess I'll just have to get on with playing with the Tremolux and shut up

(or maybe find an ultra rare EL84 Tremolux!! hehe!)

it's insane, I've looked at at least 30 different possibilities, and none of them seem to do exacly what I need...sound clips on the internet are horrible too...they always assume that if I want a Marshall, I wanna sound like Jimmy Page.

they say Jimmy Page andJimmy Hendrix, I say Thurston Moore, Steve Albini and Blixa

[Pumpkin]

it's insane, I've looked at at least 30 different possibilities, and none of them seem to do exactly what I need...sound clips on the internet are horrible too...they always assume that if I want a Marshall, I wanna sound like Jimmy Page.

they say Jimmy Page and Jimmy Hendrix, I say Thurston Moore, Steve Albini and Blixa

I hear ya,its the same the world over!

[mjet]

If you decided to keep your Tremolox, you could get something like the London Power Scaler installed (ducks to dodge projectiles being through by purists)?

http://www.londonpower.com/kits.htm#PSK

I also heard that Ceriatone is going to start offering project builds with the PS option built-in - that way you could benefit from the lower price, not be ruining vintage gear, and get scaling that would suit any (noise) environment.

There's also a pre-built box that minimizes the amount of mod work to your original...

http://www.londonpower.com/kits/psbox.htm

[zhivago]

hmmm...maybe an attenuator is the way to go...I dunno....yet more stuff to carry to gigs, and I'm starting to gig loads now....

I have to carry the guitar in it's case, various cables, pedals, the amp, the step-down for the amp, and now adding an attenuator + cables for that too...it's just insane, as my actual rig is meant to be very simple...guitar > tuner > drive > eq pedal > amp


and then there's all these bits just to get the amp to sound right.....



I just went upstairs and plugged the tremolux in....

I was on 7- 8 when it started driving.....this is with the Jazzmaster plugged straight in....maybe what I can do is to use the duper just for getting the amp to the right point for my cleanish sounds, and then use another dedicated distortion to get my dirt....that will be WAY cheaper too.....I'll give it a go at the next gig.....maybe it'll work.


I'm gonna look into something like the Zvex Box of Rock to get my drive sounds....

[mjet]

hmmm...maybe an attenuator is the way to go...I dunno....yet more stuff to carry to gigs, and I'm starting to gig loads now....

Actually the advantage of the London Power scaler is that it's built into your amp - no need to carry around a box or anything like that - it's hard wired (and you can presumably mount the box to the inside of your cab. It's just like a master volume option that behaves properly. 

[zhivago]

hmmm...maybe an attenuator is the way to go...I dunno....yet more stuff to carry to gigs, and I'm starting to gig loads now....

Actually the advantage of the London Power scaler is that it's built into your amp - no need to carry around a box or anything like that - it's hard wired (and you can presumably mount the box to the inside of your cab. It's just like a master volume option that behaves properly. 

ahhhh....ok...this sounds more interesting...

I'll look into it....

[mynameisjonas]

we play mic'ed in clubs, and people doing sound tell us to turn down all the time.

maybe it's noise restrictions...I dunno....it doesn't really matter why I guess...they still tell us to turn down....

I thnk I'm gonna keep the amp in the end and buy a Rat for the dirt sounds...I'll just have to argue with sound people loads....

maybe noise restrictions are extra hard in london, but i find this pretty strange. i have always played 100w amps through a 4x12 and i have never had much trouble keeping sound guys happy. how do you usually place the amp on stage? i always try to get my speakers facing away from the crowd as much as possible. not only does it make mixing easier (since the direct sound doesn't interfere with the miced sound), it also helps avoiding monitor feedback.
in any case, if the other instruments are to keep up with the drums, the total sound volume from the PA will always be much louder than a 35w guitar amp could ever be, so your amp can't be too loud. it's just a matter of how the sound is distributed.

[zhivago]

it depends on the stage...

last gig we played in France we had space, so I had the amp about 1 1/2 meters behind me, on the floor...that was great.

the gig before that in London we played on a tiny stage, with two bands with shitload of equipment...the amp was on a chair, on 2, and it was about 30cm away from me, so it was all blowing past my waist.


thing is, we don't even have a drummer....but it seems that techs nowadays want the volume on stage to be whisper low....I think maybe putting some tilt back legs on my Tremolux will help....

[chrisjedijane]

I think maybe putting some tilt back legs on my Tremolux will help....

This is a very good idea IMHO. I wish they made the Blues Deluxes so that you could put tilt-back legs on them.

Your idea sounds good about the boost+other distortion setup. however, I don't see a lot of difference between bringing another distortion pedal, and bringing an attenuator with you - it's a similar amount of gear/cables to bring, but with the added benefit that you don't really need to alter your setup much at all.

[zhivago]

I think maybe putting some tilt back legs on my Tremolux will help....

This is a very good idea IMHO. I wish they made the Blues Deluxes so that you could put tilt-back legs on them.

Your idea sounds good about the boost+other distortion setup. however, I don't see a lot of difference between bringing another distortion pedal, and bringing an attenuator with you - it's a similar amount of gear/cables to bring, but with the added benefit that you don't really need to alter your setup much at all.

cool...I'll go for the tiltbacks first before I do anything more drastic....

thanks everyone....I'll update everyone along the way....next gig's is in about 10 days....

[mynameisjonas]

the tiltbacks are good for hearing yourself play, but won't make much difference as far as being able to turn the amp up more. if the venue has a low ceiling it could even result in an improved projection of the sound, thus having the sound guy telling you to turn it down even more. i really think the best thing is to put the amp with it's back towards the crowd, facing a wall, or even off the stage, provided that there are monitors of course.

[zhivago]

I'll try all these suggestions....

man...at times, I cannot wait until the day they bring a POD out that sounds like a real tube amp....life will be so much easier.

[Superfuzz]

I've similar problems with miking my amp..it's a HR Deluxe and in the way I use it (volume at least "2" and all the EQ cranked) it's always too loud so the cheap mixers where I use to go trough, clips everytime..I'm very bored from that, because I need to be loud on stage, don't care about crowd, if I'm not so loud I can't play in a good way..
I really can't afford buying another amp, and I don't want to sell mine ..so my solution will be to make a Cab simulator that I can run from the "preamp out" or even directly from my pedals, so my volume on the line will be loud anough for a good miking and I can run my amp at the volume I need..I know that's horrible for everyone but give it a try it's totally worth for me..