Amp Tone Philosophy

[bolero]

I like vintage sounds on the "primitive" side, so love my Victoria 5112, which is a Champ SF1 circuit in a tweed deluxe 1X12" cab.

 

now THAT sounds like a cool amp!!

[tsp17]

 

now THAT sounds like a cool amp!!

+!

[sonar]

 

now THAT sounds like a cool amp!!

 

 

Thanks guys.

 

 

For basically being a Fender Champ with a 12" speaker, it rocks (and "jazzes" too)!

[zguitar71]

I know a lot of folks want a certain "color" from their amps, and thus shop accordingly. I was reading an amp review today that encapsulated my philosophy:

 

"It proves that if you start with the best clean tone you can find, add drive from quality pedals and play dynamically, you'll be rewarded with everything you've ever wanted from an amp. What you put in is what comes out, but somehow better than you've heard it before! "

 

I have always tried to start with the best clean I could find which lead me to the Carr Rambler and then to the Two Rock. Now I'm wondering how you guys feel about it. Do you want an amp that naturally gives you the tone you want, or do you look for an amp that sounds good clean and than alter the tone to get what you want? (shades of fractal some might say).

 

I have a Carr slant 6 and bought it for the clean Blackface tone it had and ended up liking the dirty channel too. I thought I could get the perfect tone with pedals but I never could. I used the 40 watt setting for the most heaedroom and let the overdrive pedal do the rest but after trying a bunch of pedals found that the tone was never as good as the dirty channel of the amp itself. I then got into a low wattage (6watts) Silverface champ and put 2x10's in it and love it more than the Carr. I use it to get a dirty sound. I just turn all the knobs to ten and go for it. The tone is too die for. Better than the slant's dirty shannel because I can clean it up with the guitar volume better. I have started to turn the Slant up to 10 as well on the clean channel on the 18 watt setting and I get the same results but at a much higher volume, too high for most of the gigs I play.

 

So in the end I say get a clean amp (I think the Rambler is perfect for that) for the clean stuff and a low watt amp and crank it for the dirty, you will never find a pedal that will be as dynamic as a good point to point tube amp will be when they are cranked. I only use pedals that color the tone like wah's, chouruses, delay,rotovibe, ect.. no more boost or distortion of any kind on the board or in my ownership. Now the dabate is what type of amp for the dirty; Tweed, Blacface, AC, Marshall, ect... and that can go on forever.

[NoNameBand]

I want clean to be Super Clean (Fender Deluxe reverb), and I want dirty to be perfectly dirty (Marshall Class 5). I've never found an amp that does both equally as well except maybe the Egnator 212 Renegade. Even when using pedals, if I use the Fender Deluxe with an overdrive, I still don't get the tonne I want. Nothing like a Marshall dimed out for dirty tone and nothing like a Fender tube amp with 1 or 2 12" speakers and at least 40 watts to be super clean (including Slammer's Twin).

[byrdland]

I like Dr Z. The sweet spot is the on/off switch.

[rjsanders]

...

So in the end I say get a clean amp (I think the Rambler is perfect for that) for the clean stuff and a low watt amp and crank it for the dirty, you will never find a pedal that will be as dynamic as a good point to point tube amp will be when they are cranked. I only use pedals that color the tone like wah's, chouruses, delay,rotovibe, ect.. no more boost or distortion of any kind on the board or in my ownership. Now the dabate is what type of amp for the dirty; Tweed, Blacface, AC, Marshall, ect... and that can go on forever.

 

gotta have great cleans (you can add dirt, but not cleans, as the saying goes). Juke Coda works great for me. get singing gainy sounds, then roll back guitar volume for cleans without losing tone. this is one of my test for new guits, cuz so many need some work to hold the tone with vols down around 3-5.

 

if i need more loudness or gain, i'll use a Tim or Timmy pedal, cuz they won't affect the basic tone much, unless i set 'em to...