Looking for a Vintage toned amp

[Fourth Feline]

Matamp would be good, but probably quite expensive?

If you like british tones, a Laney would be good. I believe Laney have more low mid than your typical Marshall, so could perhaps give you more of a deeper sound. With 6L6's in it, I imagine the sound would have more bottom end and grit,  I've not tried them - I may at some point though.

You beat me to it Tom,

When I was last gigging, I sometimes used my Laney LH50R-II,  which was like having a mixture of my Fender Twin and a convincing switchable gain stage if needed. I use N.O.S Jan-Philips 6L6WGB output valves which certainly do give plenty of clear bottom end and tasteful breakup when using the gain channel. As you may gather, it is not a single channel - but the layout is along one single row - and therefore remains uncluttered. For some it may not be as 'sexy' as as Matamp - but it is a very nice and affordable option if you can find one second hand.

[HTH AMPS]

Fender Tonemasters have a smooth vintage-flavoured overdrive, lots of bottom end and thick as a whale omelette.

 :twisted:

[Underground_Player]

I've got a late nineties Twin on long term loan at the mo and it ticks all the boxes you said. Very good thick bassy 'plummy' overdrive when pushed a bit...and with the 25 watt mode it breaks up relatively early, although still at some volume. It's no 'house' amp!
Main reason for posting though is because I've tried a newish 'The Twin' and a Matamp King Street side by side. I'm a fan of Matamp (I've got a Chino) but the Twin just blew it out of the water. It made the KS sound flat, honky and with no depth, and the KS is a pretty good amp. To be slightly fair this was at relatively low volume, but having a Chino, which shares the KS power stage, I'd say even flat out it would struggle. My Chino sounds very good indeed with my Les Paul copy though, probably because the preamp doesn't impart a great deal of character, which the LP compensates for.

The second reason for posting was because I had to buy some new power valves for the Twin a couple of weeks ago, and I just thought it was extremely unbelievably weird that out of hundreds of 6L6s, I chose NOS Philips JAN 6L6WGBs, which is what Fourth Feline put in his Laney. Weird.


To sum up at last - I'd never considered a Twin before because it's such an obvious, non boutique choice...but I tell you there's a very good reason they're an industry standard!!

[gamesandy135]

Just thought I'd post so I can add to the wierdness but I put NOS Philips Jan 6l6's in my amp recently too!

Got them from Watford valves, where'd you find yours? If it's from Watford valves, they must be thinking that something is going on!

[Ratrod]

I've put Tung Sol 5881's in my Ampeg Superrocket. Same kind of valves as the Philips JAN 6L6WGB's. Awesome tubes. Very lively.

[Fourth Feline]

Just to complete the circle, my Fender amp is also a late 90s 'Twin Amp' .

I  got turned onto the N.O.S. Jan Philips ( for my Laney ) by Derek at Watford valves. I specifically wanted a 6L6 that had better headroom than the stock Sovtek 5881s, but would break up creamily if pushed. I envisaged that to be the task required of my Laney.


For the '97 'Twin Amp' ( A.K.A. evil twin ) - I have a set of N.O.S 7581s which give an even bigger sound stage - and begin to break up after small animals and children have been stunned by the sheer clean volume.  Thank goodness there is a 25watt / 100 watt switch on the back ....

( Is this one like the one you have on loan Underground Player ? ).

 :D

[DeanS]

Fender Supersonic - now people are beginning to understand them and QC problems of the early rush are over, they are getting good reports - I had a go with the head and thought it a great amp.

+1 If I was looking for another amp I'd probably go for a supersonic- you've got a Bassman channel for meaty clean to thick crunch tones, a vibrolux channel for sparkley cleans and a burn channel for superb modern high gain sounds. Remember these are not amp sims either its an all valve beasty!

[badgermark]

Has anyone looked at the dates on this thread? It's oooooooold.

[sambo]

"Mesfigas" revived it. :lol:

[Underground_Player]

Yep that's the one mr Feline, just like 'mine'.
Saying that I thought the latest Twin on the Fender website was identical to mine, but the bias section of the rear panel is slightly different and mine is supposed to be biased at a (worryingly high) 80Mv instead of 60. I think Fender must have given the amp a sly makeover recently.
I got those Philips from Watford Valves too, on the strength of their NOS-ness, military-ness and apparently early breakup. I'll see if I run out of headroom tonight...somehow I doubt it!

[Fourth Feline]

Yep that's the one mr Feline, just like 'mine'.
Saying that I thought the latest Twin on the Fender website was identical to mine, but the bias section of the rear panel is slightly different and mine is supposed to be biased at a (worryingly high) 80Mv instead of 60. I think Fender must have given the amp a sly makeover recently.
I got those Philips from Watford Valves too, on the strength of their NOS-ness, military-ness and apparently early breakup. I'll see if I run out of headroom tonight...somehow I doubt it!

I agree that you'll not run out of headroom. That is one of the nice things about that 'Twin' and those valves - the fact that the 25watt option is not really much quieter, but rather it's character changes to encourage an earlier breakup on the hot channel whilst a quick switch back to the 100watt option restores optimum headroom using the same valves. I see from the schematic, that it is simply reducing the voltage coming off of the mains rectifier, so giving something like that effect which E.V.H got by putting a variac on the mains supply of his Marshall. I never ran out of headroom with those valves the Laney, unless I switched to the hot channel.

The other restraint I had to consider is that the Laney in the picture ( mark II with low profile and slope front ) - will only take 'short bottle' 6L6s due to lack of physical space in the back. As I therefore could not switch to EL34 bias without modding the amp, I found a nice Jan / Philips 6L6WGB made inroads into the Rock side of things  and gave me quality on the mellow side.

Thanks for telling me about your kit Underground Player, I enjoy reading how people use the same kit - and news of how other variations work.

Cheers !  :D

[JJretroTONEGOD]

you might want to try out the Fender Champ 600, it has a true vintage tone (if you want 40's, 50's and 60's) they have just re-issued the vibro-champ as well from the 70s. Also the Fender Super Reverb reissue, Orange 5A, Marshall vintage reissue's, Vox AC15 Heritige, Vox AC 30 CC. None of them are cheap!  except the Fender Champ 600

[viking]

Nice to see a Twin !When i was younger  :oops: ,my amp was a Traynor 100w (1974),2 channels and very similar to the Twin...Very sweet sounding with my Strat...I lost them when my place burned down..There are new Traynor made today but they looked very different.Is there anybody out there who knows them?

[Henk]

Hi, wondering if anyone can suggest anything...

I'm after (preferably).... Single channel amp, with the kind of depth of a Fender Twin type amp but with smooth overdrive. Ideally 50watts (no more) in either a 2x12" or 4x12".

I'm not into modern tones like a TSL or DSL or similar and I'm not looking for an all out blues sound either. Kind of thing I'm lookin for is very full sounding, lets the guitar shine through, a fair amount of bottom end.

I thought maybe a Soldano Hot Rod 50 but that sounds quite modern sounding too. I also thought a JCM800 but that lacks a bit of bottom end for my liking (well in the combo I played through)

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Intitially i though of a Fender Prosonic, but that might be to hard to get your hands on. The JCM800 head 50w with a V30 cab or greenback cab will surely do what you want. The 50w JCM800 heads are alot more bassy/bluesy then their big 100w brothers. The V30 cabs have better bass response, allthough the greenbacks, if kicked in the rear a bit will give you a sweet vintage tone like the bluesbreaker but with a bit more balls and with a warmer, deeper sound. The stock JCM800 G12T-75 speakers in the combo are definately not what your after.

If you have a chance, try the prosonic though its a very good amp. And dont think 10" speakers have any less low end, they often have better low end than larger cone speakers.

GL, Henk