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Thread: I need an Amp

  1. #1
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    I recently bought a Ryder EM-45, but don't have a great amp for it. I want a tube amp for sure, but not sure about much else. I am getting a tube amp made for harmonica (harpgear), and wonder if that will work alright. I also wondered about everybody's favorite effects to use, since I just started playing electricly. Thanks

  2. #2
    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    un tube though it is, I just got a 'roland' AC-60,avec ,2 separate chanels , aka stereo, one is condenser mic supporting phantom power switchable channel, that I use my Schertler pickup with its XLR jack into {though the phantom juice isnt needed for that, and the other channel for my humbucking pickup equipped 4 string mandola. tone seems fine...
    Theres lots of extra ways to hook it up ,effects loop..out/in and including run a bigger poweramp and a powered subwoofer, Woof!
    I like that its small.

    a DSP which has a bundle of effects packages a variety to try out relatively cheap
    [given individual efx boxes, like 'Boss' pedals now start at a hundred each and go UP from there]..


    a Selenium co-ax speaker, here, is wanting a cabinet to be built for it. Cone is 15" ,
    Horn Ti compression tweeter is hidden behind a mesh center dome.



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    I tried some amps recently and thought that the following tube amps were good:

    1. Fender Bassman 59 LTD - pros: great crunch, versatile (can handle harmonica, bass, and mandolin), wonderful tweedy vintage sound, and handles pedals, great quality, all tube. Cons: no reverb, heavy, and may be over-kill as it gets really loud.

    2. Fender Blues Jr. Tweed LTD - pros: easy to haul around, upgraded Jensen speakers, has a nice tweedy blues sound, surprisingly loud, handles pedals pretty well, and easily modified. Cons: has SS components, reverb is not great, not USA made (if that matters - older ones were made in USA more recent ones made in Mexico).

    3. Fender Pro Junior - pros - very light and has some Bassman qualities and has a very decent sound, very reasonably priced. cons - no reverb, has SS components, #not USA made (if that matters - older ones were made in USA more recent ones made in Mexico).

    You can certainly find the above amps at ebay for reasonable prices - between $200 and $1000. #I got mine locally so I could try it.

    Other amps: Crate V series and Peavy. #These are also very good amps that should be looked at. #Both are surprisingly good quality and good price. #If you are looking for awesome amps - the Fender ’57 Twin amplifier is pretty much perfect, hand wired, beautiful, wonderful clean sounds, and expensive. #Then there are great tube amps from Victoria, Carr, Tophat, Rivera, etc. The list goes on and on!!!

    In the end, for me the two that caught my attention were the Blues Jr and the Bassman. #I got the Blues Jr. #I liked its small size and find it plenty loud enough. #The Jensen speaker is really nice (the same speaker as the Bassman) and I like the way the Tweed looks. #Ultimately, I will someday purchase a Bassman. #It was just a great blues amp with an unbelievable sound.

    As far as effects, I am presently using an English Muffin pedal that really brings my amp closer to the bassman sound and makes it richer sounding. #I am now looking at an Analogman chorus and a some octave pedals as well. #I probably won't use more than three or four pedals all together. #

    I will say that the electric mandolin is a blast to play and has ended my MAS but has increased my GAS.



    Will Hardy

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    Registered User clem's Avatar
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    Depending on your harp rig (8" or 10" inch speaker, circuit, etc.) it could work fine. I am partial to the smaller Fender black top amplifiers, both for tone and ease of transport. Try finding a Super Champ (circa early 80's). THis amp has it all in a small package--clean, overdrive, reverb, etc.; designed by Paul Rivera when he briefly came to work for Fender.

    The ultimate amp is a pre-CBS black top deluxe reverb. But it'll cost you.

    I have been having A LOT of fun (and using it for all gigs) with the Line 6 POD XT live. It is a digital floor box with numerous amp models, effects, etc. You should definitely check it out!! It is light weight, and with some tweaking (which is VERY easy) it can get great sounds. Everything fdrom a Fender Champ amp to a Marshall stack and beyond. Plus you get numerous fuzz, chorus, delays, reverbs, octave dividers, etc. I run it straight into the house P.A. for gigs; it has a great headphone out for "silent practice" and it retails for $360! I never thought I'd be into this (I am an old school guy) but IT ROCKS. Best bang for the buck of any electronic device I've ever owned (and I've had a lot of them!!)

    Good luck

    Clem

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    Is there a "talent" knob? Christian McKee's Avatar
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    Effects! In order I run:

    Mandolin > Boss tuner > Boss OD1 (overdrive) > Boss OC3 octave divider > Danelectro Dan-O-Wah > Q-Tron > Digitech DigiDelay > Holy Grail Reverb > Fender Pro Jr.

    That said, I can't really recommend the Dan-o-Wah, but it's what I've got, and I don't need it for gigs much at the moment. When I replace it, it'll be with a Buddah Wah, those things are killer for mandolins. The Q-Tron is more fun than I could tell you here, drippy, chewy psychedelic sounds, and the DigiDelay is a pretty flexible tool which offers everything from Bill Frisell subtlety, to hillbilly slapback. The OC3 I don't actually use as much as I thought I was going to, but it does have lots of flexibility that I really like: it has two octave settings, one mono- and the other polyphonic, and can also be switched over for use as a drive pedal with or without octave. When I flip on both the dedicated drive pedal, and the drive-plus-octave function on the OC3, I can get some pretty great Neil Youngian tones, and that's a lot of fun. The only reason I have the Holy Grail is that my amp doesn't have a reverb tank, but I love it too much to want to switch it for something else. I've considered adding chorus or phasing to this rig, but nothing in the works immediately...

    Christian
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    The answer really depends on what sound you want out of your electric mandolin. #I use mine mostly for Western Swing. #In my experience, the sound that people want for amplified harmonica (and thus the amps that work well for such applications) doesn't work very well for Western Swing electric mandolin. #I'm a big fan of Fender Twin Reverbs for Tele and electric mandolin. #If, on the other hand, you're trying to get a bluesy sound out of your EM, then a harp-type mike could work just fine. #

    I agree with Clem about the Pod XT Live. #Great unit.
    EdSherry

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    I have a 1965 Fender Champ and I run a BOSS blues driver through it sometimes. I have two Kent Armstrong mini-hums and they are the biggest little picups in the world. Here are two pics of my "Tiny Caster".
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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    One more
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  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by
    The ultimate amp is a pre-CBS black top deluxe reverb. #But it'll cost you.
    Or you can do what i did and get a Silver Face Deluxe Reverb (cheaper than BF but going up in price) and have it "de-CBS'ed" to BF specs by a good tech. Should cost about $35-$50 for the job. Really great all-around amp.

    If you can, hang out while the tech does the work. He/she can sculpt the voice of the amp to suit your mando if you are plugged in and play while the tech tries different value caps, etc. That's be a nice way to get your sound tweaked to your liking-at least as a starting point...whatever good tone you get in your room will totally change in a club or rehearsal space with other instruments...

    Now, the silver face (original) amps stay cleaner longer (louder) which may be a good thing for you depending on what style you are playing.

    There are re-issues of the Black face, I haven't tried them and my picky friends are unimpressed by them- but who knows, go to a store and plug in, you never know. It's getting hard to find original Fenders for low $ anymore.
    Boutique tube amps are expensive, but life is too short for bad tone, as they say #

    YIKES_ I just saw a '79 Silverfaced Vibrolux Reverb for $1200 on eBay...my '69 was $75 in 1991...



    John McGann, Associate Professor, Berklee College of Music
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    If you like a twin, the Peavey Classic 50 hangs pretty well for a lot less $. I have the 4-10 version and it is NOT for sale! Err...well... I might consider SOME trades. This guys has some mods so you can make it sound more like a tweed bassman (what it resembles cosmetically): http://blueguitar.org/new/articles/blue_gtr/amps/peavey/c50twdbm.pdf

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    My favorite new amp is a Carvin "vintage 15" It comes with a 12" celestion vintage 30 speaker and a switch in the back to change from 15 watts pentode to 5 watts triode. In the 5 watt mode it has that really sweet, clean, saturated tube sound and is still loud enough for most gigs; even the outdoor one I played last nite! (believe it or not) As with any amp,I still find it necessary to go through a para eq preamp to tweak it properly. Nice sounding reverb too. I think they're around $350.

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    A good handmade tube amp starts with the B1uesboy. A very minimal 5-watts, on-off toggle with LED, and a volume knob. #Ya don't need no stinking tone controls.
    Without mods you can experiment with different pre-amp and octal power tubes.

    Yikes, his website disappeared.



    Wye Knot

  14. #14

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    i have a whole bunch of amps (some vintage)from my rock and roll days that i am selling. anyone interested can pm me. personally, i am using a top hat cadet for my mandocaster.

    i love my little blues jr's too. tweed. classic tone.



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    Mandobar, tell me more about the Cadet. My favorite amps are either a Club Royale or the Club Deluxe. I was curious about the little bro' Cadet. What're the tubes? Any clean headroom? Stock speaker? etc

    Well, it seems the B1uesboy isn't in production anymore. It was a 5Y3 circuit clone apparently.
    Wye Knot

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    Bringing this back to life, I just bought a new Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight SS head and enclosure. They're extremely portable and sound really great with electric mandolin. I think I actually prefer it to my tube amps for this purpose.

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    Crate has a LTD run of the V1215 with the Tone Tubby Hempcone speaker in it. It screams and works well with the harp. I use a converted Astatic JT30 or an Arggone mic converted for the harp. J
    Johnsmusic

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    Try to find a used Princeton Reverb. 30 years into mine and I have seldom heard a better tube sound for strings. Just my $.02.
    Mike Plunkett

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    What's the thought on the Genz-Benz Stereo 60? There is one at the local acoustic shop, I plugged in and it was very sweet. Nice balance. Stereo 60 Watts, two channels w/3 band eq and sweepable mids. Seems like more of a "high end" kind of amp, but it's "on sale" for $550. Is it too much amp for typical sit in play?

  20. #20
    Work in Progress Ed Goist's Avatar
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    Default Re: I need an Amp

    Quote Originally Posted by hotclub View Post
    My favorite new amp is a Carvin "vintage 15" It comes with a 12" celestion vintage 30 speaker and a switch in the back to change from 15 watts pentode to 5 watts triode. In the 5 watt mode it has that really sweet, clean, saturated tube sound and is still loud enough for most gigs; even the outdoor one I played last nite! (believe it or not) As with any amp,I still find it necessary to go through a para eq preamp to tweak it properly. Nice sounding reverb too. I think they're around $350.
    Has anyone else owned/played through a "Carvin Vintage 16" amp?
    The Carvin website and what I've seen/heard of demos really has me intrigued.
    Thanks.
    c.1965 Harmony Monterey H410 Mandolin
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  21. #21

    Default Re: I need an Amp

    Quote Originally Posted by clem View Post
    The ultimate amp is a pre-CBS black top deluxe reverb. But it'll cost you.
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Yeah baby, you know it!

  22. #22
    Registered User CelticDude's Avatar
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    Default Re: I need an Amp

    I don't see where anyone said it, so I will - take your mando to your local guitar supermart and start pluggin' into whatever amps they have. They will likely have the Fenders mentioned, plus some others worth trying. Find the sound you like.

    Having said that, I will second the Fender Blues Jr. I have the NOS (tweed), and think it sounds great, plus the reverb is absolutely wonderful. I have to say that the quality on it has been iffy; it's been in the shop twice for repairs in the past 2 months, including for a new reverb tank. I also have a Vox Night Train, which also works well for my electric octave. I will confess that I've been playing more electric guitar than mandolin lately, and both amps work very well for this. I was thinking of selling one of them, but they both sound really good, and rather different. The perfect amp really is 2 or 3 amps...

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    Default Re: I need an Amp

    I have been playing the Robert Schmidt Fender through my seafoam green LTD Edition Blues Jr. that has been modified for my harp (harmonica) playing. 5751 tubeClick image for larger version. 

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ID:	86197 in first pre-amp stage and a Cannibas Rex Eminence speaker, Accutronics reverb tank. It sounds great! Schmidt plays through a Vibrolux.

  24. #24
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    Default Re: I need an Amp

    What's the "Soak" knob do electronically on the Carvin Vintage 15?
    Wye Knot

  25. #25
    In The Van Ben Milne's Avatar
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    Default Re: I need an Amp

    Soak function is usually to attenuate the volume of a speaker while retaining the load on the amplifier output. This allows you you run your output valves hard to break up the way you want without having the ear bleeding volumes usually associated with going to eleven.
    Hereby & forthwith, any instrument with an odd number of strings shall be considered broken. With regard to mix levels, usually the best approach is treating the mandolin the same as a cowbell.

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