A new amp for my pedals!

metropolis4 · 02-21-2009, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mt.koinae

wow! thanks for all the responses guys! Never learned so much about amps in a single thread... haha

If you guys look into bands like Moonlit Sailor (The tone of the guitarists in this band really inspired me to search for a new amp) and Explosions In the Sky, it will give you a good idea of the kinds of cleans and headroom I would want from my future amp.

Also, to clarify what I meant by an amp for my pedals...

I want an amp that can really respond to all of my pedals (I plan on keeping the amp on clean ALWAYS) and when has some decent clean tones for when I'm just using my delays and such...

It seems like the Crate powerblock, Fender Hot Rod are the two amps that just might be my solution... Please let me know if there is anything else I can look into! I want to try out all the amps I can in one visit to the guitar store

I'll have to check out those bands and get back to you on that... As for the Power Block Vs. Hot Rod I've used and giged quite a bit with both. You're going to get a little more clean headroom from the power block and it has a decent tone to it, but you're going to get a richer sounding clean tone from the Hot Rod. Your OD pedals will sound a little smoother through the Hot Rod and slightly fuzzier and sharper through the Power Block (just a little bit). The Power Block is nice because it's so small, but you'll also have to get a speaker cabinet to carry around with it.

The Peavey classic series are also worth checking out. I would say go in and try everything you can, even if it's not quite in your current price range it will be good to get a feel for different types of amps and how they respond to your playing. A lot of stores will even let you bring in some of your pedals to check out how the amps handle them.
We can all sit around here and talk forever about this amp Vs. that amp, but what it's really gonna come down to is which one speaks to you...

Quote:

Originally Posted by thesteve

Consider yourself blessed then. In San Diego competent sound people are about as rare as hen's teeth. Many of them are formulaic in their approach and as soon as you throw something at them that isn't within their particular mindset things can get rough quickly.

The key is finding the good ones, paying them well and holding on to them

I have two or three who I've used for years. They're all really good at what they do, awesome guys and I trust them entirely with our live sound. It's great to have guys like that just a phone call away.

**thesteve** · 02-21-2009, 07:36 AM

From what I've seen of pictures, this looks at least semi-accurate amp list for Explosions in the Sky. In a few pictures it looks like Mark may be using a '59 Bassman (RI?) in tandem with the Twin Reverb. Here's an article from early 2008 that describes Explosions in the Sky's stuff a bit more.

metropolis4 · 02-21-2009, 11:00 AM

I just listened to a little bit from each of those bands and I think thesteve is right about the Fender Twin. That just seems like it would be the ultimate amp for this stuff! Especially the Moonlit Sailor stuff I heard was definitely that classic clean tone that only a Twin can give. For those type of clean sounds some natural tube compression like you get in a Fender Twin is going to be a big part of that sound.

If a Twin a little out of your range, I would say look at 2x12 combo's. The way the 2x12 speakers work together is going to get you closer to that type of tone than a 1x12 or even a 4x10. The Peavey Classic 50 2x12 combo might be a good economical way to get in that arena. A Carin Legacy seems like it might also be a good choice and they can sometimes be found cheap on eBay. You could also do well with something like a Roland Jazz Chorus. Maybe even a digital combo like the Vox AD series.

**thesteve** · 02-21-2009, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by metropolis4

If a Twin a little out of your range, I would say look at 2x12 combo's. The way the 2x12 speakers work together is going to get you closer to that type of tone than a 1x12 or even a 4x10. The Peavey Classic 50 2x12 combo might be a good economical way to get in that arena. A Carin Legacy seems like it might also be a good choice and they can sometimes be found cheap on eBay. You could also do well with something like a Roland Jazz Chorus. Maybe even a digital combo like the Vox AD series.

I haven't heard the C50 212, but based on just the C50 410 and the C30, I would actually not recommend the Peavey C50 series. Maybe the 212 is much different sounding, but I've felt like the C50 410 tends to be a lot darker sounding than would be ideal.

In light of all this, the Acoustic 150, or an Acoustic 150 based combo (Acoustic 134 or 135) would really work great. I believe Pat Metheny used the Acoustic 134 for quite sometime. I've ran my Acoustic 150 through a cheap (Crate) 212 cab can gotten some very convincing TR-esque tones. An Acoustic 150 + a budget 212 should be attainable at under $400.

***BillSPrestonEsq*** · 02-21-2009, 02:31 PM

This is not going to be in a music store....

But...

I love the clean tone on my 70's sf princeton (non-reverb) combo. If a twin is too freaking overkill, those do run used at the $400 price point and are clean as clean can be and have the classic fender clean in spades.

I really wish the OP lived in LA. I know where an acoustic is that I personally could buy for a song. (I get about 60% off at the shop I work for, sometimes more)

Maybe its just me, but I like princetons a lot more than twins because I feel I can get the fender mojo out of them without earplugs. (and I do not mean breakup, my sf princeton dimed is still perfectly clean)

Forged by Fire · 02-21-2009, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by metropolis4

I don't know what your experience has been, but I've worked with a lot of very good professional sound men and I have a lot of respect for what they do. They are an integral part of a band and it always bothers me that musicians treat them with such disdain. Trying to make yourself louder is really disrespectful and undermining to what they do. That would be like your other guitar player reaching over and turning your amp down at a gig because they didn't like what you were playing.

Its not a lack of respect. Its just the reality that many places will not pay their sound engineers decently. Many venues do not give the sound engineering the respect it deserves which does not attract competent people to those positions. This is especially true of many Christian venues who do not even pay that position and expect volunteers to man the sound boards. So its not disrespect or disdain at all on my part. It actually stems from my belief that sound engineers do not get the respect they deserve at all.

Quote:

That aside, we obviously just have entirely different tastes in guitar tone and aren't going to agree on anything and as I can't see how this could possibly be useful to the OP in any way I'm bowing out of this unless he/she has something else to add.
I'm off to use my insufficiant, unprofessional 15 watt 1x10 combo to pay next months bills, Au revoir

Well the OP said he got something out of it thats why its good for people to air various opinions and suggestions. Which is what everone in the thread did. For some reason however you seem to always think that im bagging on you somehow. You can look at my posts and see that I never said that a 15 watt amp would be insuffecient in all situations. I said every time that it depended on what exactly he wanted to get out of the amp, the genre of the music, and the volume level. It seems you just want to take everything I say glean out the negative and get upset about it. If thats what you want to do you have the free choice to do so but as my mom used to say you can get unoffended in the same pants you got offended in.

**bread man** · 02-21-2009, 07:29 PM

Really, if you want Explosions in the Sky tone then a Fender is absolutely the way to go and a Twin Reverb is about as good as you can get. I know this because I bought my Twin Reverb based on the fact that Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai use them.

That article that thesteve posted was from a street press from my city. I was at the show that the article was about and I was seriously amazed at the tone they got out of the gear they used. Both their clean and distorted sounds were some of the best I've heard.

I would seriously look into BSPE's suggestion of a Princeton or go with a Hot Rod Deluxe or Deville (2x12).

telecasting · 02-22-2009, 08:59 AM

OP, where abouts do you live? Just so that we can get an idea of where to craigslist. As an old post-rock fan, there are a lot of guitarists that use some unusual amps and get some good ol' tone. I've seen quite a bit of bass gear used, but I don't think that's ideal.

My 2 cents would be to go for a fender hot rod amp if you can find one in the budget, and I would recommend maybe stretching the budget for a hot red deville 2x12 if you can.

Just a suggestion. Try going into a guitar shop with your guitar and give a bunch of amps a go for a clean tone. Most amps handle most pedals pretty well, and the board will give you a bunch of opinions about which amps handle different pedals better and worse.

Finally, post-rock more than many other genres (apart from punk) are about making some noise potentially over having the right amp, so don't stress loads and loads about getting the amp.

mt.koinae · 02-23-2009, 09:12 PM

@Telecasting
I live in Austin, TX

And about the princetons...
Can someone send me a link to the exact amp they are talking about?

telecasting · 02-24-2009, 07:29 PM

An example of a silverface princeton.

***BillSPrestonEsq*** · 02-24-2009, 09:59 PM

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fender-Princeton...3%3A1|294%3A50

is an example of an amp like mine. Its low watt, no reverb. (the reverb models usually go for over 1k) Mine was ~$400. $400-$450 is a good deal on one. I know, right at the top of your budget, but not a grand.

Also, they are one of the best amps for pedals IMO. Very clean, very nice sound. Some guys mod them to blackface specs, but personally, I love the stock sound of mine. The old fender musicmaster tube amps running 6v6s are also nice IMO for the money. They are physically bigger and not as desirable, but a little cheaper.