Post a review of your favourite amp

[zhivago]

Post a review of your favourite amp...state the model and year in bold please, and then give us a review of your favourite amp

[zhivago]

1965 Fender Tremolux

My favourite amp is the Fender Tremolux I bought on ebay a few months ago. The amp is very clean and all the parts were there...the amp had been retolexed, so it was even cheaper than Tremolux amps usualy are

The amp has no reverb...it has 2 channels, normal and vibrato. It's 35 watts ,and it has a GZ34 tube rectifier....it's a piggyback amp that came with a 2x10 cab configuration...unfortunately, I only bought the head...there was no matching cab on offer.

front controls from left to right:

Normal Channel: In, In, Bright Sw, Vol, Treb, Bass
Vibrato Channel: In, In, Bright Sw, Vol, Treb, Bass, Speed, Intensity - Pilot Lamp

Back panel: AC Outlet, Ground Sw, Fuse (2A), Power Sw, Standby Sw, Speaker Jack, Ex. Speaker Jack, Vibrato Jack



pics of the amp's insides as it arrived, here:

http://www.againstperfection.net/guitar ... molux.html

I searched for a while to find the correct 2x10 extenson cab, but in the end got fed up looking, and ordered a custom made combo cab 2x10 from JD Newell

I also bought two reissue Jensen 10" speakers, and since this amp runs on 110 Volts, I use a step-down transformer so I can power it up here, in England



So, how does the amp sound?

it's full and complex sparkly sound complements my Jazzmaster very well..the sound has a "bouncy" feel to it at times...very dynamic...possibly because of the tube rectifier.

The amp can also be jumpered, and using it like that gives my favourite sounds...I can fine tune to my liking...the amp is loud enough to keep up with another guitar, bass and a loud-ish drummer in a large rehearsal space room.

I use a Zvex Super Duper to get it to overdrive....it sounds amazing like that, the sparkle cuts through, and I've never disappeared in the mix playing this combo.

unfortunately, I fried the transformer a month or two ago, and at the moment the amp is in it's flightcase at the rehearsal space..I'm hoping to get some money in to fix it this coming month.

all in all, an amazing amp, and a tremendous bargain..gotta love the blackface sound

[fuzzjunkie]

my current favorite amp is the 1993 Vox AC-30 that replaced the 1964 AC-30 that kept blowing up on me.

the amp has no reverb or effects loop. 2 channels, normal and top boost. i jumper them to cascade the overdrive a bit. it also has vibrato and tremolo, but the settings are stepped, not continuous, they sound great, but you have to have the song tempo match the speed, not the other way 'round if you want to use them.

my version has the 30 watt greenbacks rather than the 25 watt blue bulldogs. the '64 had the silver back bulldogs. i would like to replace them with blues and put the greens in a closed back cab for this reason: i play loud with fuzz which really pushes the amp over the edge. while this sounds beautiful through the Vox, the '64 would overheat and the caps had dried out, so i blew those, the tranny and the speakers at various times. i've not had that problem with the '93 because the speakers can handle it. i also like the slightly darker, Marshally tone I can get out of it with just enough sparkle. I do occasionally miss the ballsy chime of the blues in the studio though, so to be able to have both options, especially with the greens in a closed back cab would be heaven!

the complex clean chime of this amp is legendary, but it overdrives well too, which not all amps can do. it plays very well with pedals, especailly echo and fuzz, though i had to dial back the pot on my Vox wah as it cut peoples heads off. i prefer darker tones, which sounds contradictory, but I have a darker sounding JM and my Jag is the darkest by far of those I've played and they both work really well with this amp. Actually this amp sounds great with any guitar in front of it. I play a Gibson Explorer, Fender Tele, JM and Jag, Rick 360 and various Gretsch and while they all sound different, they all sound amazing...my other amps seem to pick favorites with pedals and guitars.

so, while my AC-30 tone isn't the typical Beatles tone, it is perfect for me! It's loud, complex, eye and ear candy cut through anything madness

[mezcalhead]

Okay, I'll play too ..

'62 Fender Princeton

Since I'm not playing in a band at the moment this is the amp of mine that gets the most use, as I can play it in the house without using an attenuator or deafening myself and the neighbours.

It came from Pennsylvania via ebay sometime early last year and was all original except for the handle which had been poorly replaced with a blackface type handle and looked very wonky because the original hardware was still there .. I think it had been cut to fit with a penknife. It cleaned up nicely and with a repro leather handle it looks almost new.

It's a brownface era combo amp and is a fairly simple arrangement with tremolo but no reverb. It's a 6G2 circuit, around 12W, with two 6V6 valves in the power stage and a single 10" speaker.

The front panel has two inputs (one of which is padded for humbuckers), knobs for volume/tone/speed/intensity, and the jewel light. The back has the on/off switch (no standby), single speaker out and a bias switch which I think is redundant now I've had the power cord replaced with a three-pin grounded cord. As Zhiv does, I use a step-down transformer to provide it with 110V.

It has a very clear sparkly sound similar to a blackface Fender but with a little more mid .. above 4/5 it breaks up and starts to sound more like a cross between a tweed and a blackface. You can hear it clean in the clean sections of the fuzz clips I did in the effects section.

Although it doesn't even come up to my knee and weighs hardly anything (when I picked it up from the shipper I thought I'd been sent an empty box), at its loudest it gets quite loud - it's almost comical to hear this tweedy snarl and look down to see this little thing. I haven't had the opportunity to take it out live but I reckon it would keep up pretty well in a small club, and it would be a great on-stage amp if backed up by a good PA.

The only pics of it I have were taken during the fuzz clip recordings, so here's one again:

[zhivago]

cool reviews guys!

keep 'em coming, everyone!

[daydreamdelay]

wow that's a gorgeous amp Jon  :?


I'm going to agree with fuzzjunkie on his choice.. I don't really have anything to add to his review, it sums up my feeling on them as well. I've had three of them, two had greenbacks and one had blues.. people think I'm crazy (actually.. i believe i am) but I preferred the greenbacks, they just sounded better to my ears but I never got caught up in how an AC30 is "supposed to sound" so if you're a purest maybe it makes a difference


she is missed 

[i love sharin foo]

I already typed up some of my thoughts in another thread, but I'll repost here and add/remove where appropriate 

Like most, I've been through my fair share of amps. It took a long time (and a lot of amps  ), but I've found that nothing works as well for me as the '76 Orange Overdrive 120 that I have now. I've been using it for a while now. It is a '76 model and is covered in original black tolex, which makes it somewhat rare. But, this is a case where the rarity factor may not necessarily mean higher value, eg most prefer the orange ones. As long as it sounds great, I don't care what color it is. These older ones have a really different sound. Even with the treble control full up, it still isn't overly bright. It's like the highs are diffuse in an odd way where it never sounds too sharp or brittle. The FAC control is a really cool concept where you can switch between various slants of the EQ spectrum,  ranging from thick and bottom heavy to much thinner and brighter. The tone stacks are pretty cool too... Even though it has just a treble and bass knob, you can get scooped or mid heavy tones. If both tone controls are abcked off, the natural EQ curve comes through which is more mid heavy. By cranking the knobs, it becomes overpowered and somewhat scooped sounds are possible. I find the amp to be super versatile. Even with just a few knobs, there is a ton of versatility. The master volume works really well. The headroom from 120 watts (with the master high and gain low) really makes it a great bass amp, too. Most think that 120 watts is totally insane and useless, but believe you me, it isn't. The sound and usability of an amp depend on more than just a wattage rating alone... speaker efficacy, what frequencies you're feeding the amp, the master volume and the sweep of it's control, etc etc.



Justin

[daydreamdelay]

my standard issue response to that pic..

[therizzla]

1961 FENDER CONCERT

This amp sounds like God.

What I really love about this amp is that it has the ability to be very clean and Fendery up until about 7 / 7 1/2 and after that it doesn't get louder it just starts to sound more and more like a Plexi Marshall.

I use this amp with my AVRI Jazzmaster, Uncle Spot reverb unit, TS808 and my Boss FZ-3 Fuzz and get a huge amount of sounds.


Best pic I could find.

[JazzBlaster]

I went through some rough times a couple of years ago and am currently rebuilding my gear collection. Like everyone else here I have had alot of different amps. I have 2 favorites Fender Twin Reverb and VOX ac30. I love the headroom of the Twin for playing live. I love the Vox for in the studio or at home the blue speakers are amazing! You can have the amp on 1 and get great tone. I currently have a Reissue twin on layaway at a local shop and will be looking for a new Vox soon after. You guys have some very nice gear! Hanging out here is giving me serrious gas!

David

[Jay]

Mid 90's Top Hat T-35 TB (would later become the King Royale).  Essentially an AC-30 in a head with beefed up filtering, tighter tolerance components, hand wired, add a mid control leave off the vibrato and that it.  It's still my reference when it comes to amps.  Nothing I've used before or since compares for me.  I like a lot of different sounds, Marshalls, Blackface Deluxe, my two Silvertone Twin Twelves are great, but this thing still knocks my socks off every time I turn it up. I had an ultra early Korg re-issue (one of the first 80 or so with fawn tolex) that sounded similar when played through the same speakers but the Top Hat always sounded a lot better.  Smoother with more note to note definition even when cranked.

[1946dodge]

Zhivago

unfortunately, I fried the transformer a month or two ago, and at the moment the amp is in it's flightcase at the rehearsal space..I'm hoping to get some money in to fix it this coming month.

I was looking at your filter caps. Are they new? If they are originals you may want to replace them. It looks like they were replaced because I have a Bassman head and the filter caps all had cardboard covers, so maybe yours are newer.
But I wonder if they are bad and this is why you fried your transformer.

[zhivago]

Zhivago

unfortunately, I fried the transformer a month or two ago, and at the moment the amp is in it's flightcase at the rehearsal space..I'm hoping to get some money in to fix it this coming month.

I was looking at your filter caps. Are they new? If they are originals you may want to replace them. It looks like they were replaced because I have a Bassman head and the filter caps all had cardboard covers, so maybe yours are newer.
But I wonder if they are bad and this is why you fried your transformer.

yes, they've been replaced...the reason the transformer went is because I din't have the speaker cables soldered onto the speakers...they had them clip-things...and they came off (probably from the vibrations of the speaker) while we were rocking out at my band's rehearsal 

should of listened to Mezcalhead who had wisely said "solder them on"

[Orang Goreng]

Late 70s Vibrosonic Reverb

This is not so much my favourite amp as it is my only amp, so I have little to compare it with save the sounds in my V-amp. This is a master volume with pull boost model, though it still has the old 100W rating (so it's not one of those 135W ultralinear models). It is the "export" type, so I can select between line voltages with the Big Red Knob on the back. Not that I ever have to.

Amp-wise, this is identical to a late 70s Twin (and other 100W seventies Fender amps). It has two channels ("normal" and "vibrato", which, of course, is tremolo), each with three band EQ and volume. The reverb spring has been missing since before I bought it. It has a different speaker though, an orange-frame 15" JBL D130F.

The amp has been modified by a previous owner. I'm not sure if it just has been repaired, or that the circuit was altered. I think the latter.
As it is, the sounds from the two channels are very different. The "normal" channel stays perfect Fender-clean, even with the volume on 10. The "vibrato" channel doesn't. It is considerably louder than the "normal" channel, and starts to overdrive with the volume knob on 3 or something. With the volume (maybe I should call this "gain") knob fully open, it produces a heavily overdriven sound that is quite unique. With the pull-boost engaged, a lot of mids kick in, which fatten up the sound (but also introduce some mud). I really like that sound. If the circuit is original and if I'm hearing this sound as intended by the designers, it must mean I'm the only person in the world who likes the pull boost feature. But a said I think it's modified, so the prios owner probably did something to make the sound more appealing. I'd love to hear some other vibrosonics just to figure out if the sounds compare.

I rarely use the amp these days. It's pretty much hidden where it stands, so when I just dug it out to photograph it it turned out there's a Philodendron vine growing into the speaker grille, and that several spiders have made their webs in the back. Nice to know, maybe I should give it a clean eh?

front, with vine:


back, with cobwebs:

[mynameisjonas]

unfortunately i sold this one about three years ago but...:

1965 fender bassman
this was the best sounding amp i have ever owned. it was imported to sweden in the 60s so it was fitted with a hagström transformer for 220V use.
i used it both for bass and guitar, and it sounded excellent with both.

two channels; bass and normal, both with two inputs, deep switch (bass), bright switch (normal), volume, treble and bass controls. i mostly used the normal channel, for both bass and guitar. i had the volume set at about 4-5, at which point the amp was just starting to break up, but still retained most of it´s clarity. treble and bass controls were both set around 6-7, giving a bit of a mid-scoop, but still enough mids to cut through.

the sound was just fantastic. when playing soft it was very glass-like, and when playing harder it was pretty aggressive without sounding harsh. the thing i loved the most was that it could be sparkly and sorta muddy at the same time. i used it with a turbo rat and a mxr micro amp. the rat pushed it into smooth overdrive with focused lows, and the micro amp (at full boost) increased both the sparkle and the muddiness, giving it almost a fuzz-like character.

i sold the amp because i couldn´t use it the way i wanted during gigs, i could never turn it up to where it sounded it´s best. and i had absolutely no money to spend on an attenuator, so i had to sell it so i could buy an amp with master volume

i´m sorry i don´t have any pictures, but you all know what a blackface bassman looks like...