what's your favorite amp?

zguitar71 said:
Earlier on this thread I mentioned my favorite amps but I need to update that list. I have a bit of an obsession with the early Fender Pro amps. The 5a5 amp with 15 horse power and the smooth cone 15” Jensen. I really cannot buy a real one as they are a little pricey but I am having aspirations to build one. 
Click to expand...
+1 on Fender Pro amps.

My first real amp (excluding the Vibro Champ) was a 60's Fender Pro 1x15.  That was the later 40 watt version Pro.

For gigging I also connected it to a matching Fender 1x12 extension speaker.  That was my 'chittlin circuit' and USO rig.  Man, that thing could bark!!

 
Years ago,  the other guitar player in our band had one of these.   His YBA-1  was a beast, and sounded great.   My poor little Guild Thunderbird was running wide open just to keep up.   I have often thought about grabbing one.   There's one available locally that has been recapped and had the power cord replaced.  Only $900, but I have no clue where I would use it anymore!

00r0r_1AX6S830jZ9z_0CI0t2_600x450.jpg


 
Here is Clapton playing through a Traynor. I believe it was a YBA3 though?

That's John Lennon & Yoko Ono behind him. Yoko's just climbed out of the bag.

clapton_TO.jpg

 
zguitar71 said:
Earlier on this thread I mentioned my favorite amps but I need to update that list. I have a bit of an obsession with the early Fender Pro amps. The 5a5 amp with 15 horse power and the smooth cone 15” Jensen. I really cannot buy a real one as they are a little pricey but I am having aspirations to build one. 
Click to expand...
Go for it!!!! My buddy, who owns just about every cool old Fender tweed amp, just built one with all premium parts (mercury magnetics transformers, vintage Jensen 15", etc), and it sounds great! It easily hangs with the vintage one that he has. He also built a 3X10 Bandmaster and it sounds great too!

 
I have whittled my collection down. All I have left for guitar amps is my Supro Black Magick Reverb with the matching 2x12 cabinet. It does everything I want my amp to do. Such a great all-around amp.

 
rockabilly69 said:
Go for it!!!! My buddy, who owns just about every cool old Fender tweed amp, just built one with all premium parts (mercury magnetics transformers, vintage Jensen 15", etc), and it sounds great! It easily hangs with the vintage one that he has. He also built a 3X10 Bandmaster and it sounds great too!
Click to expand...
I just did a little inventory of parts I have, I’m getting ready to build one. I’m going to go with 6sl7 preamp tubes instead of 6sc7 otherwise I’m keeping it true to the schematic. As for a Bandmaster 3x10, that is another favorite amp of mine too. Your friend has great taste. Maybe I’ll get into one of those down the road. 

 
zguitar71 said:
I just did a little inventory of parts I have, I’m getting ready to build one. I’m going to go with 6sl7 preamp tubes instead of 6sc7 otherwise I’m keeping it true to the schematic. As for a Bandmaster 3x10, that is another favorite amp of mine too. Your friend has great taste. Maybe I’ll get into one of those down the road. 
Click to expand...
I like 6SL7 preamp tubes, that's what's in my Ampeg Mercury, one of my favorite amps...

AM.jpg

 
zguitar71 said:
That sounds great!  The entire song is great not just the amp, I really like the entire feel. 
Click to expand...
Thank You! The amp was a big part of the feel! Those old amps have that give and take feel that just makes you want to play, and you will definitely find that in a tweed pro. I hope you get your project off the ground soon, I would like to follow your progress.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Gitfiddler said:
For me the Heritage Liberty amp sets the standard that all of my other amps are compared to. 

This modern day 'high powered (45 watt) tweed-based circuit' brings the goods no matter what guitar it is paired with.  

It absolutely sings with my H555.

Click to expand...
Maybe my favorite amp ever.  Played through one once and I’ll never forget it.

 
zguitar71 said:
I just did a little inventory of parts I have, I’m getting ready to build one. I’m going to go with 6sl7 preamp tubes instead of 6sc7 otherwise I’m keeping it true to the schematic. As for a Bandmaster 3x10, that is another favorite amp of mine too. Your friend has great taste. Maybe I’ll get into one of those down the road. 
Click to expand...
Remember I told you about my buddy with the tweeds. Well I was at his house yesterday and we had an amp party.

Check out all the vintage amps on this wall (the only ones that aren't vintage are the Victoria Regal II on the bottom left, the homemade tweed princeton in the front, and the Marshall head on the right. But the guy is a killer amp builder so they sound GREAT...

Wall Of Ampd.jpg

And we were rocking a '59 5E3, a '59 Pro, a homebuilt Tweed 3X10 Bassman here (along with a vintage Supro Dwight and a '64 Blackface Vibrochamp)

Tweed.jpg

 
rockabilly69 said:
Remember I told you about my buddy with the tweeds. Well I was at his house yesterday and we had an amp party.

Check out all the vintage amps on this wall (the only ones that aren't vintage are the Victoria Regal II on the bottom left, the homemade tweed princeton in the front, and the Marshall head on the right. But the guy is a killer amp builder so they sound GREAT...

View attachment 29550

And we were rocking a '59 5E3, a '59 Pro, a homebuilt Tweed 3X10 Bassman here (along with a vintage Supro Dwight and a '64 Blackface Vibrochamp)

View attachment 29551
Click to expand...
Omg! That is amp heaven. What a great collection, Super cool!

 
rockabilly69 said:
That's only two walls of the amp heaven. He owns more cool amps that anyone I've ever known. There's days where we play only Supros, or only Ampegs, or old Gibsons:)
Click to expand...
That sounds like Joe Bonamassa’s house!
I wasted so much money on new amps in the 80s and 90s when I could have bought Tweeds and Brown and Black amps. I just didn’t know anything about them back then. By the late 90s when I started to get it, some of those amps were getting too pricey already. Now they are just over the top. Fortunately I can at least make my own copy of some of those old amps. The real thing though…….

 
zguitar71 said:
That sounds like Joe Bonamassa’s house!
I wasted so much money on new amps in the 80s and 90s when I could have bought Tweeds and Brown and Black amps. I just didn’t know anything about them back then. By the late 90s when I started to get it, some of those amps were getting too pricey already. Now they are just over the top. Fortunately I can at least make my own copy of some of those old amps. The real thing though…….
Click to expand...
Yeah if we only knew what we know now about the vintage stuff. But, my favorite amp that I played was the 3X10 Bandmaster that he built, It was rock heaven! I had my R4 there and the combo was killer!

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top