On to serious stuff...

Quote (Former Member Gone @ Jan. 28 2005,14:46)
I'll run my guitar through a freakin' clock radio if it sounds good in the mix.

Don't forget to record that freakin' clock radio with a stick mic (and as long as it's not a Les Paul) :)

BTW, check out the Beatles tune by Pickngrin over on the music page. He used what I read to be a stick mic on the vocals and it's cool :)

You know, video guys are never this way about video. You never hear people say (In my experience anyways), "Yeah, I like to run all my video back through a 16mm projector. It just as some warmth to the image you just can’t recreate in digtal video."

fish

This will get me in trouble, but it’s not the amp. It’s how you play to the amp. The amp and settings you are using helps dictate what will sound good through that particular amp and settings.

That said I think it’s easier to get a GOOD tube amp to sound good across more styles without having to tweak it to death.

Anyway, how many tube amp modelers use real tubes? Some of them sound great, and just like tube amps…what we associate with tubes.

If you want to plug and play get a tube amp. If you don’t mind working a little more get a solid state amp.

Someone (Willy?) mentioned Bobby Krieger. I think he means Robbie Krieger from The Doors. Robbie Krieger used those baby blue Acoustic solid state amps for a long time in The Doors and he sounded fine for what he was playing. Listen to his tone though. It’s VERY ratty and not what most would call a good tone, in the sense that Eric Clapton’s tone on Crossroads is the best pure tone ever (guitar -> Marshall Model 1959 Plexi 100 -> 4 - 412" Marshall green Celestion 25 cabinets…yes 4 cabinets and 1 amp – nothing else but room). It’s what Robbie Krieger plays that makes his tone work. Anyone else playing other stuff would sound like crap through those Acoustic amps the way he used them. He also used those Acoustic cabinets that had 215" and a horn…more crappy sound.

Another guitarist that used those blue Acoustics was Mick Box of Uriah Heep. He used a fuzz box almost all the time, but his tone was really good for that stuff.

A fuzz box is transistors. Does one make a tube amp sound like a solid state amp? Maybe…maybe not. I know some of the presets that come with the GuitarPort start with a Plexi preset then add Fuzz Face to get the sound of some guitarists amps that I know used a straight Plexi at the time of the sound being duplicated.

One other thought. Transistors distort one way and tube distort another. That’s one reason they sound different, regardless of what that difference is actually caused by. FET’s which are solid state will distort much more like tubes than transistors. A lot of the better sounding solid state or hybrid amps use FET preamps. That might be why they sound better off the rack (so to speak).

Yep, I’m a tube guy mostly.

I had one of those Acoustic amps back in about 1978. It was loud, I remember that. :)

Loud and harsh was the one I had, but it was clean clean clean up to the point of distortion then it was instant major clipping. The amp I had was NOT a guitar or bass amp but a pure power booster amp. It was made to daisy chain from the line out on the guitar and bass amps - same size/color but just one volume knob.

I got as delayed payment for another amp I sold, but was never paid for. He eventually gave me the Acoustic amp instead of cash. When that guy was licked out of his band the other band members came and got it back. Seems like it was the amp that they had been using on their horns - a very large all-Acoustic PA. They didn’t realize it was gone until he was gone, THEN they found out that the large all-Acoustic PA hadn’t been paid for either. Whoever they bought the PA from was repossessing it…WHAT A GUY! :D

Acoustic was using basically the same power section in all their amps at that time. That was a common practice - Kustom and Kasino did the same thing. There were different wattage models, but if you got a 200 watt amp of any kind you had the same output config - PA-Guitar-Bass - make the power section as clean as possible and do all the tone in the preamp. Nothing wrong with that as long as the preamps sound the way you want them to. It’s funny to think that an amp that was considered good for horns was also considered good for guitar, if you don’t count the preamp section.

I guess even Marshall did it back then. Anyone ever work with a Marshall all tube PA? I remember seeing them in Marshall catalogs from the late 60’s. (I might have one of those catalogs boxed up somewhere)

I had no idea that marshall ever did PAs. :)

Yeah, he was running a PA hire shop iirc…

I remember seeing Marshall pa’s in their catalogs way back when, but I don’t remember ever seeing or hearing one. Not sure they ever got exported to the States. I could be wrong - it was the late-'60s-early-'70s. :p

Once upon a time, I had an Acoustic 150 with the 6x10 cabinet. Loud, but it wouldn’t distort to save it’s tolex. Heh, I was fifteen - all I cared about was loud. I could always run a fuzzbox to it for distortion.

http://www.toneheaven.ndirect.co.uk/marshallpa.htm
http://www.toneheaven.ndirect.co.uk/marshall_pa_plexi2.htm

I wasn’t able to find any info, but Jon Lord played through some larger Marshall PA cabinets on stage with Deep Purple a long time ago. They were similar to regular Marshall cabinets except they have a horn and are taller.

Thanks phoo! prices are pretty low for them, actually…

This will get me in trouble, but it's not the amp. It's how you play to the amp. The amp and settings you are using helps dictate what will sound good through that particular amp and settings.


You said it Phoo! :)

A good bipolar amp will give out what you put into it, (but bigger :D).

But all amps distort if you drive them near clipping.

With valves and FETs, it tends to be mostly even harmonics, which sound sweet, whereas most Bipolar amps designs tend to produce odd harmonics, which sound harsh.

Of course, it's not that simple, but it does all mean that overdriven valves add something that is likeable, and overdriven bipolar's don't.

And it's not just the valves either, the o/p impedance matching has a lot to do with the Marshall sound too.

So, if you're thinking of your amp as an FX unit, ok, fair enough, but judge it as an insert FX unit, not as an amplifier. :)

But, if you want a pure amplifier that adds as little colouration to the i/p as possible, don't even think about valves or FETs.

Ali