The Electra Forums

For the past 6 or so years I've been doing southern and country gospel mixed with praise and worship with a local group and playing in church during services. And that represents a huge change in my life from playing up and down the coast in every club and beerjoint that would put up with us. I've sold all my old tubers with the exception of one (70's Bassman 10....and nobody seems to want that) and gone with keyboard and steele amps for raw punch and clarity. Started with Peavey Nashvilles and finally migrated to my present Fender Keyboard 200 SFX. Apparently that's the one I like the best for what I do now....'cause I've kept it for 5 years.

Here's my gospel rig.....vintage B-bender, POD, and Roland synth...gives me everything I need playing for HIM. I don't use much of the POD...mainly flange, compression, delay, and small tweed style tones. I keep stuff minimal these days and I love wheels.

jd

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JD's Electras

Nice rig you have there. Bet it sounds great.

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Always give thanks for everyday, It may be your last so Rock On Semper Fi!!

From a previous post:

Vintage mint condition 1984 Peavey Heritage VTX 130 watts -2 x 12 combo - really gets the job done -
but it weighs 94 lbs!!!!!!! I have wheel casters on it; have never had to have the volume setting over '4' - even for outside gigs - this thing really cranks; a player and a definite keeper -
I stole these pics from the 'net for all below:


Replaced stock speakers (they were shot) with Eminence 12" guitar speakers with logo across the voice coil like this:




I use this amp for small venues as it has plenty of punch with one 12" Eminence speaker with 2" voice coil -
and a line out to go directly into a mixing board if necessary;
A late 1970's Kustom V Lead 35 watt practice amp is fully enclosed;
Similar amp - Kustom 1 Lead link:


For acoustic venues -

2000 Crate CA60:


I have my eye on this new amp that Fender announced at the January 2010 show -
30 watt Fender G Dec 3:


This is programmable with on board backing tracks and tuner ............

Also comes with computer software, and is currently selling for $299:

Like the ad says "Watch the videos ...."

http://www.fender.com/features/gdec3/#/home

RCSBlues

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RCSBlues

My main bass amp is an old Acoustic Control 122. It is a solid state combo with 125W (that's Acoustic watts though) and 1 15" It has a great sound and is very loud. I have never turned it up past 3. The only problemis that it it d@mn heavy. I have a smaller Peavey amp, also solid state with 85W and a 12" speaker. It is OK for practice and can keep up with a band if they are not insane gain types. The sound is OK but lacks the shake the earth sound of the Acustic.

For guitar my favorite is my Acoustic Control G60T 112. Although Acoustic were known for there solid state amps they did make a tube series and this is one of them. It is a class A/B 60W combo with 1 12" speaker. The clean is very nice and the lead channel is great too. the only minor nit is that it does not have separate eq for each.

I also have a Traynor YCV 20 a 15W tube combo with a 12" speaker. Frankly it took me a long time to come to terms with this one. The clean is just OK. If you set it right you can get a great range of crunch each of which can be fantastic but it takes a lot of adjustment.

I'm not much of a player-- I'm not in a band, I don't play shows. But I do keep and maintain a number of amps for use in the studio. My previous full time job was recording engineer. I still do studio work every week, just not full time anymore. Amps, guitars, and effects are just some of the tools that I keep near at hand. To that end, my favorite amps in my stash are:

'72 Fender Vibrolux. I rescued a basket case over 15 years ago, fixed it up and modded it. Now it's a great sounding amp that gives exactly what you expect from a classic Fender.

'65 Vox AC30. One of the Holy Grail amps that I'm fortunate enough to have acquired years ago. Absolutely mind blowing tone and dynamic interaction when playing it. It almost always earns it way on to every recording I make.

'64 Silvertone 1484 Twin Twelve. Soft, squishy, swampy. Lovely gain and tonal dimension.

'60 Fender Concert. Brown panel 4x10 combo. Very unique early example of the first of the tolex covered Fenders. It filled the slot in Fender's lineup that was previously covered by the tweed Bassman. It's an interesting blend of some tonal aspects of the tweeds, mixed with some of the louder, stiffer, brown and black face amps.

'90's Crate Vintage Club. It's a 50 watt head, and the only amp I have that has a preamp gain/master volume setup. The amp's designer has tweaked and modded this one, and it sounds pretty cool. I usually run it through a Marshall 4x12, an open back single 12, or a Leslie cabinet.

'65 Vox Pathfinder. Thomas Organ USA made tube amp that is kind of like a british-y flavored Vibro Champ. It's a little thing, and really comes into it's own through an extension cab.

There are more, but the above list gets the most use. I also have a few things that I borrow from friends, including some vintage Marshalls, Traynor YGM3, Fender brown Deluxe, Ampeg flip top bass amps, and so on. I'm extremely fortunate to have these amps available to me, either on loan or from my own collection.

Lately I have been playing a custom tele style guitar through a Danelectro DS 50 that I've been working on, and also playing lap steel through the Vintage Club into the Leslie cabinet. The last recording session I did was a two amp setup: the guitar player's silver face Vibrolux and my Silvertone into the open back cab loaded with a 12" Celestion Vintage 30. He mostly played his LP Special (P90's).

Up till I left NZ and put all of my gear in storage, I was using a Holden !00W combo for guitar gigs and recording and found it covered all of the bases I needed covered!! This is a NZ made 6 valve open back amp manufactured with a 'sort-of' fender-y, Gibson vibe in the late 1970s and this example I've had since about 1983; it's as heavy as the centre of the sun and cqarting about was certainly a trial but it has such as sweet sound that I put up with the weight and heft of the thing.
It has 2 6550s and 4 ECC 84s in there at the moment; I changed out the EL34s for the 6550s as I felt they had a much more mellow all round sound; well, to my ears anyway!!
My bass amp is an ELFA 200W combo,made in Australia in the 80's as well... I think!! Great all rounder.. and light for the power output hence no major hassle to haul around the place! A 15" heavy-as speaker ensures that my pants flap in the breeze rather well; the magnet on the thing is as big as a dinner plate...
I moved away from half and full stacks simply because of the logistics in moving the damned things about the place, as I'm sure you've all experienced!!
Pedals are all Roland because they are bulletproof; I have actually driven over a couple over the years and they're still running just fine....
Keys and lap steel just run through the old Holden and sound just fine, particularly when miked up by a good soundman!!
I'll try to find a pic or two for y'all....

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"... and on the eighth day, God created New Zealanders.

Because even the Australians need heroes."

Is that their 'Boogie' Model Workingman? If you can get to EF2010, you should bring that, I'd love to take a spin on it!



Well you guys have all seen my amps... but that doesn't mean I'm gonna pass up the chance to show you again! First up, the Princeton Reverb Clone, with a Jensen 12" speaker, 6V6's in the power section, Optional Mercury Tranny and Bias adjustment. I've gigged with this amp more than a few times, at just over 30lbs, it's the lightest amp that will keep up with a drummer (that I've found):


Next up, The Mesa Brothers:


Left to Right, Mark IIb, Mark III in Hardwood/Wicker, Mark IV rackmount. The Stripped down Mark IIb is my favorite go-to amp, I've put a ton of hours on it. The Mark III is one of the last 50 or so they made, awesome flame on the cabinet, and the Mark IV is just a beast that I almost never have run at full power (built in Variac) or all four tubes for that matter. Mesa's are not the easiest amps to 'Dial in', especially for using multiple channels live (volume changes), typically sound best when cranked up and the tubes are glowing, although on the other hand its tough to get a bad sound out of one.

Here's a really cool modded '68 Bassman Head, would have been a silverface (you can still see the drip edge trim), bought it with a pair of New Old Stock RCA 6L6 blackplates, yummy!

Clean channel is pretty true to original, clean up to about 2.5, above that it will start to get distorted fast, and nice. Footswitchable lead channel is modeled after a Dumble/Boogie with stacked gain. Awesome little hotrod.

Not pictured is a John NAU custom Combo with London Power Scaling, footswitchable mid boost and lead channel, with Matching open back extension cab. Also have a Epiphone Galaxy 10Watt single 6L6 tube combo floating around somewhere...

The box on top of the amps is an Altair Attenuator, which I have three of. The only way to run a tube amp is all the way up. They suck some high end out, but you can dial in anything from conversation level to stage volumes instantly, I love 'em. I tell myself could get by with two or three amps, but its nice to be able to leave them at practice places or have people over or whatever. Cheers.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

...

I wish I could use a guitar synth as I reckon it would open up a few doors that i haven't been through musically, but I have enough trouble with the knobs on my guitar!!!

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"... and on the eighth day, God created New Zealanders.

Because even the Australians need heroes."

...

My main amps I use are older Peaveys from the 80's and a 1968 Traynor YBA-1 with a cab with 2 15" speakers. Sounds really great. The peavey amps are a Peavey Solo Series Bandit 112 solid state (blue stripe) from the 80's. The second Peavey is a Triumph 60 with a scorpion spkr(tube Amp) and the crunch channel is awesome on this thing as is the older spring reverb and they are both plenty loud and heavy. I aso have a small Fender Frontman reverb practice amp. For my Bass amp I have a Roland 100 Cube amp and it is very compact but very loud but has a great Bass tone with my X700 Futura or my older Peavey T-40 Bass guitars. These seem to work for me and my son but I hope to aquire more amps in the near future. I like the sounds of the older Peavey Classic and the Fender Twin Reverbs.

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Always give thanks for everyday, It may be your last so Rock On Semper Fi!!

I just have a Fender Frontman 25R.

Morning Randy...there's nothing wrong with a Frontman...I bet most of us have had one or still have.

The Roland JC120 can't be beat to my way of thinking for clarity and power. I used a JC120B (Japan).....and I saw my old one for sale again on CL the other day:

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/msg/1702671273.html

Even though that monster had wheels it was still too much to lug around. That's the only reason I sold it. My Fender KB is easily moved and doesn't require much floor space at all.

By the way...the only hernia I've ever had came from moving band equipment!!!! The older I get, the more I think about just strapping everything to a hand cart and leaving it that way.

jd

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JD's Electras

Yep that it is, though there is some controversy as to how much they used of the Mesa patent. I hope to make it but $'s are tight and St. Luis is a bit more of a drive than Michigan.

Current amps

1967? (not sure) EKO Prince Reverb. It is an Italian amp! Incidentally, the front panel is in Italian but it looks fairly normal at first glance as some of our music words are Italian. Others, I can figure out ("Tono" for example). It is a two channel, 2xEL84 powered 1-12 combo amp, with reverb and tremolo in one channel. A friend brought it to me to repair in the 90s, I think he probably found it in some church somewhere in a non-functional state. I recapped it for him (and pulled out the large mouse nest inside it). It was a funky beast. VERY clean, actually anemic sounding. A few years later he sold it too me at a fairly reasonable price (well, what is reasonable? I've never seen another one in real life, and not sure I've seen one on ebay). I bought it. I looked closely at the circuit, and it had similarities to a Marshall 18w style amp with reverb (ultra-rare). So I wondered why it sounded so pathetic, anemic, and extremely clean - oh yeah, and not very loud either. I made a handful of small changes and WOW. This amp IS just like an 18w marshall with a better speaker (a 12" Goodmans - and English speaker with a MASSIVE magnet, and the speaker part of the cabinet is closed back). I wound up doping the speaker a bit to keep it from going crazy when all that new found distortion was applied, and it worked great. It is like finding a killer vintage marshall 18W mixed with a VOX AC15, with reverb and tremolo. I have never been able to find another in the states. If you do let me know. They really don't sound good before modding, but they sure do afterwards.

EKO made the Vox guitars during that time frame. Incidentally, all the knobs on the amp are the same ones on the vintage Vox guitars.

I have one of my 4x6V6 heads that I was building that have a Marshall inspired front end with a couple of tweaks. It rocks!

I have a 1966 Fender Super Reverb amp. What can I say? I have owned it since 1980 or so when my Dad found it for sale cheap and picked it up for me. It was my first good tube amp. It was way too much for me most of the time - this one had oxfords in it. It was VERY loud before it would distort. I tried some weber 12A100s (P10Rs) in it, and then it was better but crunched up. It didn't sound quite like a tweed bassman though. I could not understand how to get that amazing super reverb tone out of my amp. Mine was good, but I work on them all the time and some sounded amazing. I finally got some CTS Alnico 10s that were used in probably a majority of the super reverbs from that era into the 70s. And there it was, that big fat and compressed clean and semi dirty tones and the volume was a LOT less. I could actually turn it up and not sterilize folks in a mile radius.

Honorable Mentions

Besides my builds, I have owned lots of good amps. I liked most bogners I have played and have owned a few Shiva models. I used to have a 70s 50w Marshall JMP master volume combo that I loved. I have owned a bunch of boogies, and my favorite probably was the DC2. Lots of fenders - a good princeton reverb, deluxe reverb, bassman, bandmaster, vibrolux - they are all awesome in their own ways.

I am a tube guy, so please don't ask me to like the modeling gear. I actually own a peavey vyper 15w, but I got it as a light weight practice amp I could take to a hotel and plug headphones into for when I was consulting away from home. It crapped out a few months after buying it. I took it to the local store I bought it from and they gave me another - just like shopping for a can of peas at walmart. It really does some interesting things, but truthfully sounds dreadful next to a real tube amp (My opinion). But I don't have to have a bunch of FX pedals it all is built in. I know it CAN sound ok but most modeling rigs tend to sound "squashed" when played in a band setting - they can't be heard in the mix. They can sound amazing in a bedroom setting or for some quick recording. But again, you should expect me to think that way. I am VERY BIASED (pun intended). I put these old tube amps back together. When a modeling one quits, it generally goes in the trash and you get another one. But they also are cheap and do LOTS of versatile things for the money. It will get better, and eventually almost no one but collectors will use tube amps. But they still hold on.

My real immediate concern is not the modeling gear, it is the cheap Chinese tube amps that are coming into the market. They make them so inexpensively, they are also almost not worth fixing. If your $300 chinese tube amp has a bad day and needs a repair, new tubes, and to be biased are you going to spend to have it done or throw it away and get another? Also, their quality is getting better. Soon you won't see ANY American gear unless it is "custom shop" type gear. Pretty well just like everything else. I have heard some of the Bugera, Jet City, and the Chinese Bogner Alchemist. I must admit, some of it isn't bad at all. Some of it IS too though. But they will get better. I have a couple of recent Chinese guitars, and they are not bad. A few years ago they were all trash.

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Thorny