Electric guitarists, what amplifier do you use? Photos, please!

I just bought a little solid state 3 watt Orange mini crush practice amp that came out last month. This thing's pretty sweet for practicing in the living room.

 

My workhorse for guitar is a bone stock '94 Blues Deluxe, and an early 70's Peavy "The Classic" (2-12" w/square magnets) for slide.

 

I used to have a Marshall JCM800 stack and a Fender Twin Reverb. I kick myself for selling them. I now only have a Carvin AG100. It’s basically an acoustic amp which can handle acoustic and electric guitars. It also has a channel ported for bass.

 

'66 Fender Vibrolux Reverb
Celestion G10 Alinco Gold and Greenback Speakers
Sovtek 5881 Power Tubes
Hammond Output Transformer
Dr. Z Brake-Lite Attenuator





'57 Strat Reissue with Burns Mini Tri-Sonic Pickups and Kahler Locking Whammy System.



I rewired my Strat to have a 2-way kill switch in the lower cutaway; the middle "tone control" is actually a switch that converts the pickup wiring between series/parallel and also can pull out to invert the phase of the middle pickup. The neck pickup is wired out of phase and the bottom tone control has been converted into a master tone control.

There is no object I care more about in this world than that guitar.




My pedalboard (Left to right):

1. Custom Vibrato/Reverb switch box for the Vibrolux Reverb. It also acts as a splitter to send the clean guitar signal to the tuner to keep the tuner out of the signal chain.
2. Custom Fuzzbox that can switch between a Dallas Arbiter Fuzzface and a Sola-Sound Mark II Tonebender Fuzz. Germanium Transistors.
3. Electro-Harmonix Small Stone Nano Phase Shifter
4. TC Electronic Flashback Delay/Looper
5. Digitech WH-5 Whammy
6. Dunlop GCB-95 Crybaby Wah

 

Well, photosuckit sapped a bunch of good pics; so, here's another.

I agreed to play again for friends of a friend. And so, I pulled this out (not wanting to go full monty). Had to blow off a lot of dust. It is the dreaded reissue Vox AC30CC2. I hated this amp when I first got it. It blew it's rectifier tube within a month of it's arrival. It took a lot to get it to sound decent. I ended up replacing every tube in it. It now runs a "Yellow Bolt" Sylvania in V1, a GE JAN med. plate in V2 and I'm about to replace V3, again, from an EI (to good for this position) to... I don't know what. The rectifier tube is another Sovtek GZ34 (apparently from a much better batch). The Wharfdale's were tossed in favor of a pair of Celestion G12H 30W 70th Anniversary's. I'm pretty sure I had to slightly modify the cab to fit the magnets in there. It actually sounds pretty good.................... now. Would I recommend this amp? Having an AC30/6 TB clone, I would have to say, "No."


The little yellow post it note on top is a reminder of what tubes I've put in it.

 

What is it about those Vox amps that give them that 'chime-y' sound? I have a little one --a cheap reissue with a good speaker in it- and it has that character too. It's a great sound.

 

As an amp builder (but not a circuit designer), I'd have to guess that it's the combination of the voicing of the circuit and the entire circuit, itself.

My AC30/6 TB clone sounds so good, I've put it in the witness protection program. Unfortunately, the guru who built this one has gone off the grid. If I want another one like it, I'll have to build it myself.

 

This is the exact same Twin that I have! I've had mine since 1992. Yes, this thing is a beast. I think my lower back problems might be in part from schlepping this thing around to gigs when I was younger. Sounds great though!

 

Nice. I always preferred the Kahler to the Floyd. The Kahler always stayed in tune much better for me. I finally got Floyd's to behave with a HipShot Tremsetter; but... Now, I don't use bars, at all. Nevertheless, if I had to go back to one, it'd probably be a Kahler.

 

How does the Strawberry Blonde sound with the bass?

 

Ripped out the crappy speakers that came with it back in the 90's, put in some Celestians GT-75's and it's alive!!
The most simple and best upgrade for this amp. It gets a lot of flack, but it's a great amp with a couple of mod's.

 

Sounds good, very nice tone with my P-Bass at home.

 

Thanks. So the single locking Kahler stayed in better tune for you than the double locking Floyd?

 

I'll unfortunately most likely have to put my custom-made one-of-a-kind JTM45 up for sale.

Harbeths aren't cheap.

 

Sweet. Love the Boogies!

 

I have an identical-looking Tremolux!, although I think mine's a 1963.



I have the cabinet, too. Mine appears to be in slightly less clean condition than yours. It's been out of commission for several years (needs a re-cap job) but when it's working it sounds magnificent! I bought it in 1976 from a guy who worked at the art museum in La Jolla, California. I met him at the empty museum auditorium and he let me play it full blast in that nice big room with all that natural echo. It sounded incredible! I paid for it with sacks of change I had been collecting.

 

How can I find out how old my amplifier is?

 

That's interesting. I just had a peek at the tube chart - it's partly obscured but the tubes, but I don't see a stamped code. I'll open it up later and see what's on it or on the transformer. I don't specifically remember doing it, but I may have already gone through this exercise years ago and determined it was a '63 at that time.

Thanks!

 

This has been my amp of choice the last 2 1/2 years.

 

The tube chart date codes on my Fender Bassman... NA: N = 1964 - A = January.





The vintage guitar dealer who sold me this amp reported that it was previously owned by Bob McNitt, Guitar Tech for Emerson, Lake & Palmer in the ‘70’s. However, I have no way to verify or prove that. No big deal, it's still a great amp.

 

I have several, but I mainly use two, depending on the gig: a hand-wired Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue and a Valvetech Hayseed 30 (a '63 Vox AC30 clone).

 

You got me curious enough to make me take the back cover off...



I can just barely make out the stamped code "MC", which indicates March 1963. I probably didn't use this method before, but however I figured it out, I was right!

I gotta get this thing fixed. If I knew someone I'd trust to work on an amp of this vintage, I'd have it done right away.

 

I found my amp and guitar techs (both are geniuses) by talking to a vintage guitar dealer in my area. Maybe you could find someone to work on your amp the same way. gbase.com has a dealer locator function that might help you find a dealer in your area who could recommend a good tech. Find Dealers - near boston | Gbase.com > Guitars Amps & More

 

Fender Blues Jnr Tweed

 

Roland Blues Cube Artist. Just a fantastic amp. The most versatile amp I’ve ever owned.

Vox AC 15. Only a real vox can break up early and have “that” sound

Epiphone blues Jr head and cabinet stack. Great for clean tones. Great amp with my Gibson p90 archtop .


I just sold an old Roland Jazz Chorus 55. As clean as they come. If I played with lots of Chorus, I would have kept.