In my quest for a cheap Fender Tele I was also thinking about getting a new amp. My current amp is a Crate GX65. Nothing spectacular about it. Nice reverb, nice crunch, just nice in general. I want something that excites. I like some of the Fender tube amps that I've played at Guitar Center and I've been researching "boutique" amps. Soldano is mentioned alot.
What are your thoughts?
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14 comments:
looks sweet, but i dunno anything about Soldano. What don't you like about your Crate?
I love the idea of tube amps but they do involve a lot more worry/bother depending on the model as some amps need re-biased if you change the tubes and that needs done by a pro, so that kinda stinks. some are very prone to "issues" and quality control problems making it a crap-shoot to know if you are getting a dud or not.
but on the plus side, you can swap out tubes and get different sounds, mix and match with various cabinets to customize, and have a amp that needs to 'warm up' before playing... how cool is that! ;-)
It's hard to decide since there are no truly objective resources as far as reviews since you'll get about 3/4 of the reviews saying 'its loud, takes pedals well, has great clean...' and then about another 1/4 saying 'it's built like crap, sounds terrible, bought ________ instead and it's way better' blah blah.
I would say they best bet is to actually play one in person with one of your guitars but I have bought 2 tube amps without playing on them first now so I'm not one to ask. I basically started really paying attention to what other guitarists were using onstage live on YouTube, Austin City Limits, etc and then did the research based on what some guys were using to find a decent model I could afford... but considering before I had an amp I was just using a ZOOM Pedal into PA or old solid state bass head, every amp was an improvement to me!
When i want to play louder i just get the drums harder....oh, wait .....this is about guitars oooppppss......:)
hit.....now i feel like j.m.
"I don't know what you just said kid but, you touched me."
I'm confused. Was that some sort of crack on me?
lol I don't think so but I'm still not sure what 'we' are talking about so I thought I'd chime in.
at least ONE post was on topic...sigh...
:-D
Your thread got hijacked Scotty. And you didn't even get a ransom note.
Back on topic, I am not all that versed on amps that much. But here it goes: I had a tube amp once and it was loud and they always have a great sound to them. The downside was that my particular tube amp was a bit moody. It turned on when it wanted and stayed on as long as it wanted. So I prefer the old trusty Crate type. But mine was most likely moody because it was given to me and it was old, stored in an attic for years and the tubes hadn't been maintained.
I think Sean hit the nail on the head when he suggested that you test out the amps with your guitar and see what tickles your ear. But I thought I read that you wanted to buy a Tele eventually so perhaps testing it out with a Tele is better course.
no slam intended John. it just reminded me of the post of Hum's drummer. I just felt dumb leaving that post thats all.
I played a Fender tube amp at Guitar Center with a cheapo $159 Tele and it sounded amazing. The price of the amp was amazing too! For $1,600 it should play the guitar for me...
the latest guitars and gear has a bit of interesting info about speaker cabinets and amps here:
http://guitarsandgear.sweetwater.com/2009/03/mods-setup-the-speaker-cabinet-quotient/
Great article...thanks!
so did you ever reach any conclusions on your amp research?
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