Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: martinw on August 21, 2008, 02:17:40 PM
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I see the Orange is for sale Alan, what have you got lined up to replace it?
What haven't you had? :)
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I was wondering what was up next. He did buy that old valve amp recently, maybe he's going to stick with that and free up cash selling the Orange?
http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13797.0 (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13797.0)
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Have to say I chuckled when I saw the Orange was on the way out as well! Alan, you are an amplifier MONSTER :P
My money is on a module based system... with all the modules plugged in together :)
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Hmmmmmmm. I love the way you all make fun of my "problem". :?
The Orange is a great, great amp, but somehow just not doing it for me in my current band situation. If it was the only amp I could ever have in the world, I'd be very happy with it, but as you all know, I am on a constant tonal quest and I just love changing amps !
I bought the vintage "Miles Platting" actually as a backup amp to replace my Cube 60, which was a bit cr@ppy really.
But as the MP is a very, very clean amp, I needed a great dirt box to base my distortion tones on (as my current dirt boxes were all best at boosting already dirty amps). So I ordered a Blackstone Appliances Mosfet Overdrive 2S - http://www.blackstoneappliances.com/ - as I'd read a lot of very nice things about it.
The Blackstone arrived 2 days later (from the USA !!) and literally blew my mind. What a great, great box. Now this pedal is not easy to get a great sound out of. It is very, very tweakable, but there are some awesome sounds in it. And I knew that this pedal through a clean amp was actually doing more what I wanted than the Rockerverb. THis has been confirmed to me at band rehearsal yesterday, when my new rig just cut like a knife (but not in a harsh way at all - its all in the mids).
I think this Blackstone is the best £120 i've ever spent - didn't get any customs charges either ! Oh, and my Miles Platting was the best £200 I've ever spent !!
But, in reality, I'm not totally happy using a 34 year old amp as my main gigging amp. I just haven't yet got the skills to maintain and troubleshoot the thing to the standard that I would be happy with.
So I'm looking for a big clean beast of an amp, to use as my main amp, with the MP as my backup. Tone comes from the Blackstone !
If the amp can also do some nice distortion, then that is a bonus, as I could have the option of using the amp's distortion if I wanted to.
Current amps in the running are :-
- a used, power-scaled Matamp GT-1. Fractionally over my budget, but a possibility.
- a Ceriatone 2204 clone, with added PPIMV, FX loop and Kleinulator (FX loop buffer box)
Both will do very loud cleans, but also some great distortion if I choose to use amp distortion.
Any other suggestions for about £700 ?
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Something HiWatt? Fender Twin?
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Twinfan beat me to it with the Hiwatt suggestion.
Excellent cleans and gets dirty in a nice way (and fecking loud too)
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Fender DeVille? THe 4x12 is a really great amp...
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Definately something Hiwatt would be very much considered. It might be a struggle to fit in my budget though, and they don't come up too often. Also, I don't want to get anything too ancient, as reliability of 30 yr old amps surely does decrease.
The other consideration is that it HAS to be hand-wired. I want something I can maintain myself, or at least have a fighting chance of being able to maintain it.
Martin, you may be able to advise me on the GT-1 - how well might the amp's FX loop play with a DD-20 ? (The DD-20 does -10dB or +4 dB BTW).
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Martin, you may be able to advise me on the GT-1 - how well might the amp's FX loop play with a DD-20 ? (The DD-20 does -10dB or +4 dB BTW).
If the amp in question is the one I'm thinking of (Is it Rob's?) then bear in mind it's cathode biased one and lower power. Not a bad tone though, but be sure you like Matamp distortion, which has a flavour of it's own.
The EPS fitted to Matamps is not true Power Scaling as you'd understand it, it's a preamp scaling which is a bit different, although it still produces good tones.
I've used simple effects loops like that for Boss delays with no problems, and the level control on the DD20 will help, however they do seem to vary and if it's critical to you I'd suggest you try it first.
A chap came up to the factory a while back, very fussy about his cleans and compared the GT1 with an old Fender Twin. The GT1 was way better for cleans, to his surprise.
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Martin, you may be able to advise me on the GT-1 - how well might the amp's FX loop play with a DD-20 ? (The DD-20 does -10dB or +4 dB BTW).
If the amp in question is the one I'm thinking of (Is it Rob's?) then bear in mind it's cathode biased one and lower power. Not a bad tone though, but be sure you like Matamp distortion, which has a flavour of it's own.
The EPS fitted to Matamps is not true Power Scaling as you'd understand it, it's a preamp scaling which is a bit different, although it still produces good tones.
I've used simple effects loops like that for Boss delays with no problems, and the level control on the DD20 will help, however they do seem to vary and if it's critical to you I'd suggest you try it first.
A chap came up to the factory a while back, very fussy about his cleans and compared the GT1 with an old Fender Twin. The GT1 was way better for cleans, to his surprise.
The amp is Rob's one. I didn't know it was cathode-biased. Does that mean it's going to generally run the power tubes a bit colder than a fixed bias might ?
I find it difficult to assess Matamp distortion. The only viable clips I can find of a GT-1 are the 3 youtube demo vids by some guy who just widdles for minutes, on a strat (neck p'up), sound quality is awful, and it's virtually impossible to tell waht the amp really sounds like - I do believe that is the actual amp available to buy.
Alternatively, there are some much better quality mp3 clips on the Matamp forum, but they all seem to be downtuned doom style - difficult to see how that will translate to me playing Thin Lizzy or Free or whatnot.
Thank for the info on the EPS - it doesn't sound anywhere near as useful as the PS that you implement on your amps.
The more I think about this, I think the more risk it would be for me to go for the GT-1. There are a lot of unknown's about it.
The Ceriatone 2204 is much more a known quantity. I've owned a "real" 2204 before, which I liked a lot, I also know Ceriatone build quality is v. good, and I'm already familiar with the layout of Handwired Marshalls. I think it would be more accessible for me to tweak and to maintain.
Hmmmm, decisions, decisions.
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The 2204 isn't a big clean amp though is it Alan? Sounds like you're not sure what you want?
So I'm looking for a big clean beast of an amp, to use as my main amp, with the MP as my backup. Tone comes from the Blackstone !
If the amp can also do some nice distortion, then that is a bonus, as I could have the option of using the amp's distortion if I wanted to.
Based on this, I still say I still say Fender Twin (or clone) or a HiWatt.
There are new HiWatts available so you don't have to buy old and used. Not sure how good they are though, but they're there. The Custom 50/100 Heads would be the ones to look at:
http://www.hiwatt.co.uk/ (http://www.hiwatt.co.uk/)
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Ask Horsehead about Hiwatts he has the custom 100
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The amp is Rob's one. I didn't know it was cathode-biased. Does that mean it's going to generally run the power tubes a bit colder than a fixed bias might ?
No, just that it will produce less power (about 50 watts clean IIRC) and have a very slightly different tone.
I'd recommend a JTM45!
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Not loud enough mate, and doesn't do big cleans!
The JTM45/Bassman is the best amp ever though for all round use.
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Not loud enough mate, and doesn't do big cleans!
Not strictly true. Firstly define "loud" (or "big"), then define "clean".
Al English in Youthmovies seems to manage, as do many others.
Of course, it's not as loud as a Hiwatt or a Fender Twin, but not everybody needs that volume.
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Fair-ish point.
I'm thinking sparkly cleans and big venue volumes.
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Big venue = mic up.
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Jtm45 doesn't have enough volume for me. Al English's amp is my old amp, so I do have a reference point to compare things to. When I run a pedal-based rig, I like to keep the amp pretty pristinely clean. the pedals I seem to like (like the Box of Rock, the Blackstar pedals, or the Blackstone) always seem to sound better into a completely clean amp to my ears. Even just a bit of hair on the amp, loses clarity and note definition.
Dave, I'd love one of the new Hiwatts, but they are just too pricey for me. I could pick up a High gain head used, within my budget, but they are PCB amps. The Custom 50 is hand-wired, but costs about £1300.
A fender twin would work well, but the big problem is that I am not prepared to lug a 2x12 combo around. I'm looking for a head. Fender Twin heads are as rare as hen's teeth. Did they even ever make any - I'm definately no expert on Fenders.
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I was thinking of a Twin head Alan. You could get a clone built? Maybe Martin or Nik can build you one, as the schematic will be available somewhere?
Oh, and Martin? Told you a '45 still wouldn't suit in this case :wink:
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There are super Reverb heads from the Seventies around, plus there was an eighties rackmount version of the "Evil" Twin as well.
What about a Bandmaster or Bassman head?
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Al English's amp is my old amp....
I knew that. :)
For that level of clean you need at least the 60W clean you'd get from 2xEL34, but I'd suggest a 100W 4xEL34 would be better. The best option here, after a Hiwatt (which I don't like, because althought the cleans are ok, the distortion isn't, IMO) would be a Marshall 1959 Superlead clone.
A fairly gainy amp, but quite simple to clean up and "ease" the preamp a little.
I could do you one of these, or the 50W version, with FX loop, PPIMV (with a proper dual 250K pot :wink:) for a good price.
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Oh, and Martin? Told you a '45 still wouldn't suit in this case :wink:
No you didn't, you said "not loud enough and doesn't do big cleans".
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Err, yeah? So I was right!
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Al English's amp is my old amp....
I knew that. :)
For that level of clean you need at least the 60W clean you'd get from 2xEL34, but I'd suggest a 100W 4xEL34 would be better. The best option here, after a Hiwatt (which I don't like, because althought the cleans are ok, the distortion isn't, IMO) would be a Marshall 1959 Superlead clone.
A fairly gainy amp, but quite simple to clean up and "ease" the preamp a little.
I could do you one of these, or the 50W version, with FX loop, PPIMV (with a proper dual 250K pot :wink:) for a good price.
PM sent !
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Err, yeah? So I was right!
(sigh) :( No. The first post I addressed and you conceded I had a "fair point".
The point then became clarified and specified, coming down on your side of the converstaion, but to claim rectitude after the fact is fallacious, presupposing knowledge on the part of the reader of what you had meant by your general statement, and relying on hindsight. Much like a gambler saying "See! I knew that horse would win!"
:lol: :lol: :lol:
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what did he say?
He lost me after sigh!
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I said fair-ish point as I guess it could be open to subjective opinion in the wider scheme of things. One man's dirty is another's light crunch and all that.
However ;)
In this case, and I would say also in the case of the majority of people in the guitar world, a JTM45 does not do "big cleans".
Anyway, you cheated by saying mic up. That's the biggest cop out ever :lol:
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Oh do shut up, the pair of you!!!! :lol:
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OK :lol:
But I was right, wasn't I? ;)
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OK :lol:
But I was right, wasn't I? ;)
I'm staying out of it !
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OK :lol:
But I was right, wasn't I? ;)
Just for the sake of keeping this running :)
NO !!!
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:lol:
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AARRRGGGHHHHH
So comon Ham are you going to try a Hiwatt, I've made me offer to try mine, but you owe it to yourself to test one
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AARRRGGGHHHHH
So comon Ham are you going to try a Hiwatt, I've made me offer to try mine, but you owe it to yourself to test one
They're just out of my price range at the moment HH.
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What is the price range bud? Did I miss it in the first post?
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£700
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As daft as this may sound, but something like a Carlsbro 50-Top may do what you want.
I have 1 from about 73'/74' and I find it to be a really nice, fat sounding clean amp with plenty of volume too.
They're normally to be found for about £300, and sometimes for alot less.
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As daft as this may sound, but something like a Carlsbro 50-Top may do what you want.
I have 1 from about 73'/74' and I find it to be a really nice, fat sounding clean amp with plenty of volume too.
They're normally to be found for about £300, and sometimes for alot less.
I've already got a 50W Miles Platting V50 from 1974. It's fantastic, and a great, loud, clean amp. I'm just nervous having a 34 year old amp as my main gigging amp. I want the Miles Platting as my backup, and a much newer, hand-wired amp as my main gigging amp.
Anyway, it's all sorted now. I'll just Paypalled Nik at Ceriatone the dosh for a 2204 clone, with PPIMV, FX loop, and also one of their Kleinulator boxes - which is an FX loop buffer box - pretty essential for reliable, non-tone-sucking, use of a non-buffered FX loop.
All I have to do is be patient for about a month - maybe I could even practice a bit ----- ahhh, no, maybe not. I hate practicing.
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Seen a few and want a Platting