Bedroom Amp for Mother's Milk Strat

[coelacanth]

Gentlemen,

This is a really cool place. Appreciate all the clips posted here especially.

Anyway, here's my long story, but I'll try to keep it short.

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A few weeks back, I had this urge to sell off all my gear to start everything over from scratch. It kind of worked out except that it was too painful for me to see my long-time MIJ Strat go (basswood w/ maple), so I decided to keep it and get it a really nice set of pickups instead.

And one day, I came across this BKP set called "Mother's Milk". I believe it's designed for rosewood-neck Strats, but the clips posted here sound great regardless of which type of neck wood used in the recordings, that eventually led me to purchase it. :twisted:

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I play mostly chords/arpeggios since I'm more of a rhythm player. I'd say, 50% clean and 50% dirty. I'm a big fan of minimalists such as Vincent Gallo (http://www.myspace.com/vincentgalloisbillybrown) and The Gentlemen Losers (http://www.myspace.com/thegentlemanlosers), but I occasionally play some bossa nova, jazz and funk as well.

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And here's my problem - The only amp I'm left with at present is my Vox Escort from 70s - 2.5w solid-state! :oops: So, as soon as I'm set with the guitar (I'm still waiting for the mail to arrive here), I'm in need of a new (valve) amplifier.

What amps have you had great results with the Mother's Milk? Basically, I want my guitar to stay true to its sound without much of colouration in tone, especially when plugged straight into an amp. And with enough amount of bass response.

I'm open to all recommendations/suggestions, but I'd like to get something cheap and reliable, and easy to get. I'd love to get my hands on some hand-wired boutique amps but that would be out of my budget (Shipping to my town itself would cost over hundreds of dollars...). I've been looking at this little combo, Fender Pro Junior, lately. Love its simplicity, but how much headroom's in it?

I'm a bedroom player, so anything over 15w would be overkill in my opinion.

Thank you very much for reading, guys!

[AndyR]

I'd think about an AC4TV - settings for 4W, 1W, and 1/4W.

I've had one for about 8 months now. For me, it works best with strats or my Explorer with MQs, but I can get some nice tones out of teles, LP, SG if I put some effort in.

It's actually a bit loud for a bedroom amp for me. I have to use it on 1/4W most of the time (probably why the humbuckers and teles don't work as well for me as the strats do). I plug straight in, no pedals, and run the volume between 1/2 and 3/4 - cleans up when I roll back the guitar volume, pokey enough for blues/rock lead when I run the guitar full.

With my Irish Tour strat, guitar volume up, the amp's clean until I raise it to around 1/2 on the volume. Running that at 4W is as loud as I'm ever going to need for clean!

EDIT: And welcome to the forum :D

[tomjackson]

Hi, welcome to the forum :D

What's your budget? 

I'm thinking Laney VC15, Fender SCXD or even a Roland Cube for the Jazzier stuff....

[choucas09]

Two months ago I bought a Bugera V22. It's an all valve vintage voiced 1x12 combo. Designed in Germany made in China £259 delivered. I've been playing for many decades and this amp is the best musical bargain I've ever had. I absolutely love the sounds I get out of it. It's 22w switchable to 13w, but it'll turn down to whisper levels and still sound sweet. The cleans and drives are equally gorgeous. Fantastic amp.

[dave_mc]

are you in the UK? that's going to affect prices. also, what's your budget?

[coelacanth]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

I'd think about an AC4TV - settings for 4W, 1W, and 1/4W.

I've had one for about 8 months now. For me, it works best with strats or my Explorer with MQs, but I can get some nice tones out of teles, LP, SG if I put some effort in.

It's actually a bit loud for a bedroom amp for me. I have to use it on 1/4W most of the time (probably why the humbuckers and teles don't work as well for me as the strats do). I plug straight in, no pedals, and run the volume between 1/2 and 3/4 - cleans up when I roll back the guitar volume, pokey enough for blues/rock lead when I run the guitar full.

With my Irish Tour strat, guitar volume up, the amp's clean until I raise it to around 1/2 on the volume. Running that at 4W is as loud as I'm ever going to need for clean!

EDIT: And welcome to the forum :D

Thanks, good to hear Strats sound good through the amp. Is yours a combo or head/cab? I thought it didn't have quite as much bass response as I wanted when I tried it out last time (with a Tele), especially when I was strumming all six strings on the guitar. It may be due to the speaker. But I had this impression that it would've been a REALLY great "jazz" amp if it had a bit more headroom in it (I can't recall if it was 1/2, 1 or 4w unfortunately...). That being said, I might have another go at this actually. It's just one of the best looking little amps out there.

Hi, welcome to the forum :D

What's your budget?

I'm thinking Laney VC15, Fender SCXD or even a Roland Cube for the Jazzier stuff....

Thanks, my budget is $600USD, $700USD if stretched further. The VC15 sounds really good, is it anything like the AC15? I'm considering it as well. I'll have a look at the other two as well.

Two months ago I bought a Bugera V22. It's an all valve vintage voiced 1x12 combo. Designed in Germany made in China £259 delivered. I've been playing for many decades and this amp is the best musical bargain I've ever had. I absolutely love the sounds I get out of it. It's 22w switchable to 13w, but it'll turn down to whisper levels and still sound sweet. The cleans and drives are equally gorgeous. Fantastic amp.

Thanks, never heard about them. Looks like what I'm after though. Sounds great at low volume, clean and dirty. Not concerned about the Made In China thing too much, isn't Vox's whole current line of products made in China as well, including their "HANDWIRED" AC15s and 30s? :roll: Anyway, will definitely check it out, I hope some retailers here carry them.

are you in the UK? that's going to affect prices. also, what's your budget?

No, I live in NZ. Here in my town, retailers charge you $160 for a Digitech Bad Monkey, which is equivalent to $110 USD. Nearly three times as much. Amps, even worse in general. But it's hard to find a dealer on the internet who would be willing to send an amp to here for cheap (If there are any, please let me know!).

[AndyR]

My AC4TV is the 10" combo version, I understand the 8" combo is a little boxier.

Mine can get boxy and not enough bass-response - but it does depend on the placement of the thing, much more than I remember my old gigging amp being affected (mind you, I'm older and choosier now! :lol:)

Like most combos, it is prone to a spot of valve-rattle, specially on the low E. It's almost like it's tuned to this note on mine! That did worry me initially (valve life etc), until I realised that it's more noticable than I got used to years ago because the amp is somewhat quieter than I used to gig with... The rattle doesn't intrude on your playing, though.

[gwEm]

some one i know has a small torres amp with a 1x12 which sounds excellent with mothers milks

[BigB]

Hi coelacanth

Given your specs and since you've been looking at the Pro Junior, you might want to give the Blues Junior a try too.

[dave_mc]

ah, yeah from my experience on other online forums you guys get hit with pretty high prices in new zealand. I normally check out the prices in the country where stuff is made to see how much of a premium I'm paying for stuff which isn't built at home.

[coelacanth]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Yeah, prices are pretty high here with options pretty narrow...  :?

I was interested in the Blues Jr, but after reading some reviews, I figured the Pro would be a better fit for my needs. Less features, but better tone in overall (well, that is subjective though...). That being said, I'd love to have some Fender with reverb, and I would go with the Princeton Reverb RI if I had the money...

Just got the Mother's Milk installed on the guitar by the way. Very very happy with it so far. Exactly what I've been looking for. Beautiful cleans, and how it stays so clear and articulate even with lots of distortion!

Which leaves me thinking, this guitar deserves some above average to decent amp - well, it deserve a better player than I am to begin with. :oops: Would love to try out the mentioned Laney, Bugera, Egnater, etc, but none of the local retailers carries them...

I'm planning to A/B the Blues and Pro Jrs at a shop this week, and will let you know of my opinion on that if anyone's interested. And I'll see if I can find an AC4 with a 10" speaker too.  :)

Cheers!

[Elliot]

For your needs i'd say a Blues Junior rather than a Pro - The master volume of BJr allows you to play nice tunes at low volumes.  I have a mega modded tweed B Jr - with 6V6s - and really love it as a knock about amp.

[froglord]

Fender Super Champ XD - beautiful single coil clean tones on channel 1 and a load of digital tomfoolery to experiment with on channel 2.