View Single Post
  #7  
Old 11-12-2017, 09:42 PM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Staten Island, NY - for now
Posts: 14,983
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tommy_G View Post
...With just a mini-humbucker, the Music Man RP65-112 with a Music Man-labeled speaker is very warm and dynamic. Excellent tone and grab-n-go weight.

It does not sound great with the bridge piezo. Too smooth and bluesy greasiness.

My Peavey Heritage is a more generalist of an amp...with its two channels of EQ I can dial in both pickup and piezo tones that meet my satisfaction. Heavy but could be reworked as a head and cab. I paid 100 bucks for it...and it's a fantastic amp in nearly every application.

I wasn't as fond of my '72 SF Fender Bandmaster through a JBL 2x12 closed-back cab, but I believe there is abundant potential with the right speakers and cabinet.
My experiences:
  • I had a late-70's Music Man 410-65 (think latter-day Super Reverb) that made my '64 Gretsch Double Annie sing like Pavarotti's parakeet - took me from straight-ahead fat jazz tones (normally unheard of for this combination) to rockabilly twang, and I'm sorry I sold it; didn't do so great with my first-gen/single-knob Ovation Custom Balladeer, though - needed an outboard 10-band EQ to get any kind of usable tone...
  • The absolute best "amplified acoustic" tone I ever got (as opposed to the treble-heavy/nails-on-a-blackboard "quack-&-screech" that often passes for acoustic-electric tone these days) was with said Ovation through a mid-80's Peavey Bandit 65 (the one with the defeatable Saturation control in the second channel) fitted with a Scorpion Plus speaker; this was a total plug-&-play deal - low-gain input, set the EQ at 12:00 across the board, bright switch off, a little 'verb to give it some "air," set up channel 1 for accompaniment chording and use the second channel for lead boost or fingerstyle - and it also doubled as my all-around electric amp (this puppy was LOUD... ). Not surprised you get good results from your Heritage, and if it were me I'd fit it with a set of removable casters or get a dolly - don't mess with success...
  • I've been in this game for 55 years, and in that time I've never met another player who didn't think vintage JBL's were the "right" speaker with cleaner-sounding tube amps (blackface/silverface Fender, blue-check Ampeg, et al.), especially when paired with a hollow-body guitar - I had them in a few amps of my own, still have a barely-broken-in E-120 that I keep around just because, and it probably would have found its way into my Bugera V22 if the weight wasn't prohibitive (we're talking a 22W Deluxe Reverb-size 1x12" combo that would scale in around the same 65 pounds as my '65 Super RI - at my age, not exactly conducive to either longevity or marital satisfaction... ). My thoughts: if you're running an A/B/Y box (or similar setup) dial in your main tone with the mini-bucker through the trem/verb channel high-gain input, patch the piezo into the low-gain input of the "normal" channel (kill the bright switch and dial back the highs a bit), and gradually bring it in until it adds a little bit of acoustic vibe to your blended tone without becoming scratchy or overpowering the mag PU; when Charlie Kaman introduced the first generation of viable acoustic-electrics half a century ago they were intended to be used through amps such as your Bandmaster, a typical pro/semi-pro rig of the mid-/late-60's - and, with a little care and attention, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to get a decent tone out of that setup when combined with the mini-bucker...
Then again, if you're that unhappy feel free to send it to me: I've got a dolly and an SUV for transport, a Gretsch E-matic 5622T-CB and P-90 LP goldtop that'll more than do it justice, and a very supportive wife who also happens to be my on-and-off bandmate for the last 50 years - we'll definitely put it to good use...
__________________
"Mistaking silence for weakness and contempt for fear is the final, fatal error of a fool"
- Sicilian proverb (paraphrased)
Reply With Quote