Recommend Me An Amp.
Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2020 8:39 am
If a thread like this already exists, my bad.
For the past 5 or so years, I got rid of my Ampeg 90s multichannel half stack and went to a 7 watt Fender Bassbreaker 007 as my everything Amp. I have a fair amount of hearing loss from music and I wanted to not exacerbate it further. The plan was to be militantly low volume, and it's mostly worked. My thinking being that 7 watts will do for any room small enough not to have sound reinforcement. But I have run into problems.
Ameteur shows that are bigger with only a very basic PA set up. I'd max out the amp and lose all semblance of headroom and be left with a hideous, sputtering tone.
Medium actual venue stages where despite there being ample monitoring and reinforcement, the single 10" just dissappears in the open air and the wedge monitor winds up being louder than the actual amp on stage.
So, I've decided that more power is needed in certain contexts. Here is the want list.
A good amount of clean headroom with a preferrence for glassy, chimey sounds. Think Malkmus clean tones. I like breakup, but not that much, and I prefer the chundery, dark break up of power Amp breakup to the fizz of preamp. I use lots of jazzy, weird chords so too much grit makes my chords fall apart as harmonic resonances creep in.
Loads of bass. I play alone, so I need to bring the whole frequency range. Oddly, I've found Champs and other low watt dudes do this just fine in small contexts. Obviously, this is a relative measure as I could get a gargantuan bass cab.
Relatively quiet. This is easy, right? Just get a twin and crank it to the sweet spot. I mentioned Malkmus, I should just get an Orange and a 4x12. Except, I still have hearing issues and don't want to make them worse. So, if I could get this mostly clean, cinematic tone while moving enough air for medium rooms at around 90ish Db. that'd be great.
Budget 500-1200.
Things I've looked at:
DRRI silverface or blackface. Frontrunner.
Pros: small size, reverb/tremolo, super cool.
Cons: higher end of budget, concerned not enough headroom.
Hotrod or blues deluxe. Safe boring choice.
Pros: So so cheap used, 40 watts of headroom.
Cons: kinda meh tone, too much head room (volume at 3 max at shows).
EHX Sovtek Mig-50 clone. Oddball
I like the darker break up, could keep it in the clean range of its volume. Built like a tank.
Cons: Need a cab, likely too loud, no reverb. If cranked for special occasion- will turn Norwegian.
Quilter thing
Pros: cheapish, hyper portable, hyper versatile, hyper durable, antenuater built in. Actually kinda perfect.
Cons: no reverb(?), need cab, no t00bz. I haven't owned many tube amps and might like to before they go the way of the steamengine.
If I could, I'd like to avoid vintage amps. I know they're built more robustly, but the cost of recapping or chasing down some mysterious issue is something I want to avoid.
For the past 5 or so years, I got rid of my Ampeg 90s multichannel half stack and went to a 7 watt Fender Bassbreaker 007 as my everything Amp. I have a fair amount of hearing loss from music and I wanted to not exacerbate it further. The plan was to be militantly low volume, and it's mostly worked. My thinking being that 7 watts will do for any room small enough not to have sound reinforcement. But I have run into problems.
Ameteur shows that are bigger with only a very basic PA set up. I'd max out the amp and lose all semblance of headroom and be left with a hideous, sputtering tone.
Medium actual venue stages where despite there being ample monitoring and reinforcement, the single 10" just dissappears in the open air and the wedge monitor winds up being louder than the actual amp on stage.
So, I've decided that more power is needed in certain contexts. Here is the want list.
A good amount of clean headroom with a preferrence for glassy, chimey sounds. Think Malkmus clean tones. I like breakup, but not that much, and I prefer the chundery, dark break up of power Amp breakup to the fizz of preamp. I use lots of jazzy, weird chords so too much grit makes my chords fall apart as harmonic resonances creep in.
Loads of bass. I play alone, so I need to bring the whole frequency range. Oddly, I've found Champs and other low watt dudes do this just fine in small contexts. Obviously, this is a relative measure as I could get a gargantuan bass cab.
Relatively quiet. This is easy, right? Just get a twin and crank it to the sweet spot. I mentioned Malkmus, I should just get an Orange and a 4x12. Except, I still have hearing issues and don't want to make them worse. So, if I could get this mostly clean, cinematic tone while moving enough air for medium rooms at around 90ish Db. that'd be great.
Budget 500-1200.
Things I've looked at:
DRRI silverface or blackface. Frontrunner.
Pros: small size, reverb/tremolo, super cool.
Cons: higher end of budget, concerned not enough headroom.
Hotrod or blues deluxe. Safe boring choice.
Pros: So so cheap used, 40 watts of headroom.
Cons: kinda meh tone, too much head room (volume at 3 max at shows).
EHX Sovtek Mig-50 clone. Oddball
I like the darker break up, could keep it in the clean range of its volume. Built like a tank.
Cons: Need a cab, likely too loud, no reverb. If cranked for special occasion- will turn Norwegian.
Quilter thing
Pros: cheapish, hyper portable, hyper versatile, hyper durable, antenuater built in. Actually kinda perfect.
Cons: no reverb(?), need cab, no t00bz. I haven't owned many tube amps and might like to before they go the way of the steamengine.
If I could, I'd like to avoid vintage amps. I know they're built more robustly, but the cost of recapping or chasing down some mysterious issue is something I want to avoid.