Bacorn Amps

[Daniel Nestlerode]

http://www.bacornguitars.com/amps/index.html

Anyone ever played one? I am smitten simply by the look of them.

Daniel

[Tripp Johnson]

They do look nice, look forward to hearing more about them.

[Ken Olmstead]

These should sound great for emando! They are basically a hot rodded late 50's Champ or Princeton. They have more power using a 6L6 tube instead of a 6V6 and a heavier output transformer. The 10" speaker is very efficient for reproducing the frequencies of the emando. The beauty of the single ended amp is the second order harmonics that are added to the signal in the amplification process. It makes the emando sound beefier and fuller. Would be cool if they use a choke in the filtering section. I wonder how much?

I built my my 50s champ with a a few "upgrades" that make it sound pretty lush including a 10" ceramic Jensen speaker and solid state rectifier (more clean headroom in both cases). I have always wanted to bump the power tube to the 6L6 and use a bigger transformer and have the stuff to do it but I like it so much the way it is, I am afraid to mess with it!!

Here is one on my wish list! At $799 and this builders rep...oooo baby!!

http://www.allenamps.com/classic10.php

This amp is available with 2 X 6" speakers which would be very cool to try. When multiple speakers are going, they are never perfectly in sync so you get some slight phasing going on that adds to the depth to the sound and more air movement than a 10". Could be tonal bliss for emando!!

[Elliot Luber]

That's a lot of clams for 10 watts, isn't it?

[Ken Olmstead]

That's a lot of clams for 10 watts, isn't it?

Well granted it is not a "steal" but it is very reasonable for a professionally designed, hand built instrument. The amp is really important to the sound of an electric instrument. You can take a pretty cheap emando and plug it into a great amp and get great sound. The reverse is rarely true. Electric guitar players offten blow most of their budget on the guitar but for sound, they really should spend it on a better amp. Ideally, you get both. So many people have way too much amp for how it is used. Large amps sound pretty marginal at volumes that don't piss off the niegbors or the wife. 10 watts of tube power is pretty dang loud. Miked, it will play most venues just fine.

$25k on a Gil, now THAT is spendy!

[Daniel Nestlerode]

+1 on everything Ken wrote. One small point though. Most folks spend more in the instrument because that is what they directly manipulate. The amp's indirect contact with the player makes it seem a little less important.

Daniel

[Elliot Luber]

interesting perspectives on sound contour over instrument. I've just always been told that headroom prevents unwanted distortion, and you don't get a whole lot with 10 watts. I'm sure I'd love one at home.

Certainly a lot of bands do mic their amps or speaker cabinets, but I bet a lot go direct these days in a larger venue. But your point on sound being as important as an (electric) instrument is well taken.

[Ken Olmstead]

Santiago - we do live in an amazing time though. Some of the amps coming out of China sound down right amazing and the cost is super reasonable! I am a gear 'ho when it comes to electric stuff so I do gravitate to high end, or hand built, boutique, blah, blah, blah, but I have a Vox AC4TV that sounds so good and it only cost $249!

I think the point is to view the electric instrument as two equal parts, instrument & amp. It takes both to give pleasing sound and be enjoyable to the player. So, if there is a $1000 budget, planning to spend $500 on a eMando and $500 on an amp would be a good approach, but it will have to be adjusted to meet reality when shopping.

Most of us spend our time playing at home and for that a small, quality amp will yield excellent results. Almost interesting story time: Just the other day a guitar guy asked me to come over and help him get a good sound out of his gear. He had good stuff, 65 Fender Twin Reissue (80-100watts or whatever), a good Strat and a MI Audio Blues Pro pedal. I went over with my Strat and Princeton Reissue. He had a terrible time getting good sound in his small apartment. He had the amp on like 1/2 volume wise and those 2 12" speakers were just way too much for the small room. The sound lacked any definition due to too much air trying to be moved in such a small space and the fact that tubes need to run in an operable range to produce any quality tone. The best sound was still a loud, mushy sound. I plugged in the Princeton, using his guitar and pedal and Holy Moly, did that sound good!! I want that pedal now! The difference, the amp was an appropriate match for the room. 15 watts had the tubes in a usable range and the 10" speaker moved the right amount of air for the room. It was pretty shocking really! Now playing an outside gig with drums, the Princeton would be inadequate and that Twin would be just the ticket!! The older guys have always preached lower power amps to me and I did not believe them until about two years ago and they were right. This experience was a suprising example!

[Daniel Nestlerode]

Exactly why I'm interested in the Bacorns, Ken.
For almost all situations in which I find myself playing electric mandolin, a small amp (15w or less) creates as much volume as the rest of my band can stand. Once we get a drummer, I may need to get something more powerful. But even then I'm not sure. The frequency range of an electric mandolin seems to cut through a standard rock band set up pretty well.

Daniel

[Christian McKee]

Most of the heavy gigging I've done on electric mandolin has been with a Fender Pro Junior modded with a 12" speaker. I've heard the bits about 10" being more suited to mandolin frequencies, but the 12" breathes better to my ears. But more to the point, I never struggled for volume with that amp, and it's 15 watts that sound like butter if you start to heat it up.

A while ago I switched to a Fender Hot Rod for the increased wattage and greater headroom, and I've had pretty mixed feelings about it. I don't get the push I want by using the drive channel, and the clean sound isn't that clean. I don't gig electric much these days, but if that starts to happen again, I might head to a Deluxe - seems like that might be a good middle ground.

But I'm with Ken and Daniel on this one - buy for sound, not volume or wattage. Any venue you're going to play with a drummer is going to have PA, and if you need more stage volume, get some in the monitors. Oh amps, how I love thee...

Christian

[mandroid]

Fender offered some of theirs with more select cabinet wood that got finished rather than covered.

wonder if any company uses a floor wedge shaped cabinet for a tube combo amp .

I guess .. if you are playing thru a PA , you will be putting a Microphone in front of the speaker to have 'that sound' going out to the throngs of admirers .. so it will have the real horsepower boost from the mains for the group..