Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Keven on September 01, 2009, 06:24:56 PM
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on an entirely different topic, i know some of you guys work in/own music stores like me. we're looking to stock in some cheaper tube heads for the kid on a budget, and of course, you can imagine we've stopped on Bugera. they seem good enough for the price and have enough ''brootalz' value to appeal to the younger 16-20 year old rock/metallers we have as our regulars
but i was wondering, as customers/shopkeepers. combos or heads? we do sell quite a bit of combos and not many heads, but our heads are mostly higher grade like bogner , hughes and kettner, traynor, and some peaveys. combos are usually roland cubes and some peavey valve kings, of course, i can't ask you guys to guess what my customers would want, but we were planning on stocking 2 heads and a 4x12 cab. but do you think it would be wise to go one head, one combo and one cab? we don't want to order many many items because we're testing the waters, and we definitely aren't a huge store so big investments are always carefully thought and planned ;)
thanks for your input!
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I think combos are getting more popular. Heads and combos appear to be a thing of the past because they are sooo loud and people just mic up their amps now.
Small 5 watters seem to be doing well to for bedroom guitarists I think. I have a HT5 but I would like to try out some more like the Hayden mofo or the Cornford harlequin (or maybe even the marshall class 5)
I think people are buying up to 50 watts nowadays because it can be tamed but still be used for big gigs. 100 Watts is almost unusable in many situations. Well playing at home at least.
Also easy recording is popular i reckon.
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If you had less combos and more heads maybe they'd go for more heads? But then if they look at a combo, obviously the size comes into mind but to me looking at a combo throws me into the whole "would a head version sound better? I could get more speakers, etc."
I generally go for heads cause, well.. I can afford to plus there are some funky heads like the Tiny Terror and stuff.
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Heads look more b00talz if thats what you're going for.
Good idea to get 50w max though, i like the idea of one combo, one head and one cab - it will show the range well.
Perhaps combos are getting more popular indeed..
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Hurrah for combos! Stacks are for overcompensation. Combos are elegant and awesome.
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I've just spent the weekend on the mixing desk at a Bank Holiday music fest and the trend is definitely towards the 50 to 65 watt combo. PA systems are so good and so cheap these days that every one seems to want to go for mic'ing up the back line and doing it all from the desk. It makes a lot of sense; indoors you can get something approaching a studio mix, live, so who needs a big backline where the mix is down to how well the the lead guitarist's ego feels on the day?
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I'm firmly in the head and cab department 8)
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Hurrah for combos! Stacks are for overcompensation. Combos are elegant and awesome.
+1 I've always been a combo fan... but then again, I an much older (and less Metal) that your target audience :wink:
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Small head and 2x12
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You need to have a head and cab as the centre of the display but keep more combos in
The half stack has the wow factor but the combo has many advantages such as transportability and price.
Kids will ogle the stack and buy the combo- especially if they make the same noise
Some rich kid will then buy the stack, and use it at home!
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You need to have a head and cab as the centre of the display but keep more combos in
The half stack has the wow factor but the combo has many advantages such as transportability and price.
Kids will ogle the stack and buy the combo- especially if they make the same noise
Some rich kid will then buy the stack, and use it at home!
that's exactly the way i see it. stacks are for wow factor. combos are for selling. stacks are like the expensive newspaper ad but more permanent and with a possible profit coming from it ;)
just like out jay turser double neck guitar. we got it at bargain price, but it's more as a decoration than anything, but it plays pretty fine for 700 canuck bucks :D
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I prefer head and cab for portability, when playing lots of shows out of town means you just have to take your head, car would be getting pretty full if we had to take 2 combos rather than 2 heads anywhere.
but also as said it has the definate wow factor, and if most of your market is youngish dudes then thats what they really want. Whats the difference in prices between a 2x12 combo compared with a head and 4x12? I have no idea since ive never shopped for combos
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I prefer using combos, even for gigging. If it's a relatively big gig I'll sometimes use two combos, usually a Fender twin for cleans and a Marshall JCM2000 combo for overdrive. Most of the time I just use the Fender twin and an overdrive pedal though.
I find it a lot easier for transporting and I can get the sound I want from them so there's no need for me to have a half stack or whatever.
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Combo for me because that is what I have. Though I do find it more than adequate cos we are never really loud.
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I use both styles, but I agree on the one stack/one combo idea for the shop.
Combos do seem to be popular at the minute.
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Combos take up less space. That makes them very attractive.
I had several combos but I always ended up hooking them up to my 2X12.
The last combo I owned was an Ampeg Superrocket. Forget portability. It was a 100W, 2X12 monster that weighed close to 100 pounds.
A head and cab splits the weight in two. It takes up more space but mostly in height, not floor surface. IMO a (semi) closed cab sounds better than an open back cab/combo. Tubes (valves) are not happy in combos.
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I like combos for the 5W thing as they can easily be carried around (living room -> music room etc).
But for serious stuff I am all about heads and cabs.
I usually stick with my cabs and buy/sell heads all the time.
Maybe mini stacks like the Krank Rev Jr would be a good idea as well?
As for Bugera, if I see ths right, they have like the Peavey department for Metal, the Marshall department (1960 and 1990) for old skool rock and the Creamytolexcombo department for blues/rock.
The Metal amps (333 and 6260) only come in 2x12 configurations as combos. I wonder if those would be too heavy to be useful. Maybe I'd go for a half stack 333XL (heard that amp at musikmesse and it was great) and then take a 22W and 55W cream combo, maybe one of the 5W models too. Those Marshall heads might be awesome, but rarely will you find someone who buys a 200W Plexi from Bugera.
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A lot of the comments seem to be from the perspective of:
heads = big
combos = small and portable
But (stating the obvious) not all heads are 50w or 100w monsters, not all cabs are 4x12s. And many combos, as Ratrod has pointed out, are not very portable at all....
There are some nice little heads on the market, space-wise I'd rather have a few of those and maybe just one or two cabs. I know there's the problem that the same speaker(s) don't necessarily work equally well with different amps.
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What amp do you use Phil? I know you're a play at home kinda guy and I'm looking for a 'home' amp myself.
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A lot of the comments seem to be from the perspective of:
heads = big
combos = small and portable
But (stating the obvious) not all heads are 50w or 100w monsters, not all cabs are 4x12s. And many combos, as Ratrod has pointed out, are not very portable at all....
There are some nice little heads on the market, space-wise I'd rather have a few of those and maybe just one or two cabs. I know there's the problem that the same speaker(s) don't necessarily work equally well with different amps.
same here, i only play at home too. Certainly i can normally justify a (small) head much more easily than a combo, in terms of space, anyway.
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What amp do you use Phil? I know you're a play at home kinda guy and I'm looking for a 'home' amp myself.
I think Phil has a Tiny Terror?
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What amp do you use Phil? I know you're a play at home kinda guy and I'm looking for a 'home' amp myself.
I think Phil has a Tiny Terror?
I think Phil has a Blackheart?
:? Come on Phil, tell us you've got a Mesa Duel Recto :P
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What amp do you use Phil? I know you're a play at home kinda guy and I'm looking for a 'home' amp myself.
I think Phil has a Tiny Terror?
I think Phil has a Blackheart?
:? Come on Phil, tell us you've got a Mesa Duel Recto :P
I have the Tiny Terror, an Orange 1x12".... and as I confessed at the London BKP meet, one of those "Andy Dokken" modified Harley Benton GA5's from eBay. :oops:
Also an old, broken Sessionette 75 and a Pod XT. And four Korg Pandoras.
What a backline, eh lads? :lol:
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Damn... I knew you had an Andy Dokken but I thought it was the Blackheart :(
What is the Harley Benton like? Gain monster or blues machine?
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Both, sort of. It's pretty versatile - it has gain and master volume controls, a 3-way "bias" switch, a 3-way "gain" switch, a pentode/triode switch and Power Scaling. $%&# knows what they all do... :?
However.... this will sound really stupid, but I honestly don't know if it actually sounds any good, my playing is so terrible (I don't think the 8" speaker helps, even though it is a Celestion). Which is why I was so reluctant to admit to owning the damn thing. :oops:
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I think Philly should get an Egnater, he would love it. A MOD50, or if it's too much, a Renegade. I just think it would match well, and they are killer amps.
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I do like the look of Egnater stiff, but I think the MOD50 or Renegade would be too complicated (and powerful) for me.
The Rebel 20 is really cute though.
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I do like the look of Egnater stiff, but I think the MOD50 or Renegade would be too complicated (and powerful) for me.
The Rebel 20 is really cute though.
Hmmmmmmm .....
Maybe you'd like this: http://www.eddiesguitars.com/products/bogner-mojado-head
(http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0000/9876/products/img_4915_medium.jpg)
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I certainly like the look! What the hell does the schizo knob do?
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He's had that one in the Metropolis, basically gives you 5 different flavours of preamp voicings and gain. In the Metropolis it's surely great, really dug that amp when I tried it!
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my playing is so terrible
we all saw you on Afgan's BC Rich and know this is a lie
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Also an old, broken Sessionette 75 and a Pod XT. And four Korg Pandoras.
One of the guitarists I used to play with had a 1980s Sessionette 75. For a solid state amp it sounded really great.
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Why do you have 4 Korgs Philly? :?
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Why do you have 4 Korgs Philly? :?
I really liked the Pandora and got each version as it came out - the PX1, PX2, PX3 and PX4. Haven't bothered with any others though, I think they were just different versions of the PX4.
The PX1 had a great preset called SCHENK which gave a dead-on Michael Schenker wah tone - but only with my SG Standard. :lol:
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my playing is so terrible
we all saw you on Afgan's BC Rich and know this is a lie
:drink: , but I am terrible! :lol: