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  #46  
Old 06-29-2015, 05:22 PM
Hurricane Bob Hurricane Bob is offline
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I need at least 25-30 watts on stage to compete with drums, keys, bass, guitar, and 3 vocal monitors. I use a HD 130 Music Man and run it on low using 65 watts and it sounds great, but is very heavy.
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  #47  
Old 06-29-2015, 05:29 PM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Originally Posted by Hurricane Bob View Post
...I use an HD 130 Music Man and run it on low using 65 watts and it sounds great, but is very heavy.
Those MM amps ran some big iron - TMK only Ampeg used larger transformers watt-for-watt; glad to see them back in production, but it looks like they're going a little lighter in that department - hope the long-term reliability is as good as the vintage stuff...
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  #48  
Old 06-29-2015, 05:39 PM
Gypsyblue Gypsyblue is offline
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Originally Posted by Hurricane Bob View Post
I need at least 25-30 watts on stage to compete with drums, keys, bass, guitar, and 3 vocal monitors. I use a HD 130 Music Man and run it on low using 65 watts and it sounds great, but is very heavy.
If I need more than my 22 watt '66 Deluxe Reverb can provide, I just bring two Deluxe Reverbs.

Guess what tho? It's never happened. I've brought two amps and I like playing through two amps but I've never actually needed the second amp.

I always replace the stock speaker with a great speaker though.

UK made Celestions are what I prefer and I've found that a great Celestion (like the G12H30...) not only makes a Deluxe Reverb sound awesome: it also makes a 22 watt amp sound like it's picked up another 10 or 20 watts!

The Celestions I use are pretty efficient speakers. They don't call them LOUDspeakers for nothing.
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  #49  
Old 06-29-2015, 06:47 PM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Originally Posted by Gypsyblue View Post
...I always replace the stock speaker with a great speaker though...it also makes a 22 watt amp sound like it's picked up another 10 or 20 watts...The Celestions I use are pretty efficient speakers. They don't call them LOUDspeakers for nothing...
Same thing I did with my Bugera to take it over the top - I'm a die-hard "American tone" kinda guy though, so I swapped an Eminence Swamp Thang for the factory-issue Celestion clone; picked up ~4-5dB efficiency over the OEM speaker (did the math a while back, works out to 57-58W equivalent) and, with the upgraded tubes, it sounds like an old bud's '66 Ampeg B-12XT Portaflex guitar amp (Linden's answer to the blackface Twin, but richer/fuller in that vintage Ampeg kinda way)...

Don't ya just love this stuff...
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  #50  
Old 06-29-2015, 08:43 PM
Gypsyblue Gypsyblue is offline
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Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa View Post
Same thing I did with my Bugera to take it over the top - I'm a die-hard "American tone" kinda guy though, so I swapped an Eminence Swamp Thang for the factory-issue Celestion clone; picked up ~4-5dB efficiency over the OEM speaker (did the math a while back, works out to 57-58W equivalent) and, with the upgraded tubes, it sounds like an old bud's '66 Ampeg B-12XT Portaflex guitar amp (Linden's answer to the blackface Twin, but richer/fuller in that vintage Ampeg kinda way)...

Don't ya just love this stuff...
Yes I do.
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  #51  
Old 06-29-2015, 08:58 PM
Rickenbacker1 Rickenbacker1 is online now
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When I used to play out R&R , I tried so many amps

Blues junior I could not control it It went from soft to a monster .
Old Music Man 130 watt , too many problems .
Mesa Boogie , don't remember which one ...Just wasn't me
Crate Modeling amp Uh why me .
Tube Works ( Tube Driver ) 100 Watts Hybrid ..to me the best Amp made .

Now for my Strat . at home a 5 Watt Blackheart . It has been modified sounds great but not the Tubeworks .

For just playing around home find one of the old Epiphones and Hotrod it . They are darn near free.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Epiphone-Val...70838489&rt=nc
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  #52  
Old 06-30-2015, 05:03 AM
Duff Duff is offline
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Originally Posted by ljguitar View Post
Hi gc…

Love my Fender Blues Jr.





I'd say a Blues Junior or a new '65 not '68 (the '65's are made in the USA the '68's are made in Mexico) Fender Deluxe Reverb Re-issue.

I have a Blackstar HT5-RH (reverb head) and an Avatar vintage style cab with twin Eminence "Swamp Thang" speakers (free shipping for 498 dollars) and it is a great rig, awesome cleans, almost three dimensional; an the overdrive is really cool, very cool really.

I bigger Blackstar HT would be nice as well, but for the "stay at home player" the HT5-RH and a good two by twelve cabinet is totally awesome and more than loud enough to piss your neighbors off, but sounds awesome with fully saturated drive tones at conversational volume and below. It's a great rig. Those "Swamp Thang" speakers definitely contribute to the awesomeness of the rig.

The Blackstar HT 40 is really awesome sounding, as well as the HT 20, but the HT 40 is not much more and has a really great sound.

A Peavey Classic 30 is a cool amp but they just started making them in China. I would think that you could find a USA made one in a store if you looked around and put some foot work into it.

The Peavey Delta Blues has a fifteen inch speaker in it and it is very similar to the Classic 30. Finding a USA one should be still quite easy.

I would totally stay away from the Bugera's, dudes have been having major problems with them and view them more as toys and cheap junk to play with, while they have their real good tube amps that they really care about.

A Marshall DSL40C is also an awesome amp with four voices that are all very good and it has the ultra overdrive distortion voices that are really cool sounding. It is a class act and not to be underestimated by cork sniffing dudes nodding out over their keyboards.

Good luck. There are a lot of great little amps out there. The Vox 15 watt Night Train head is also a very cool amp head and matched to a nice one by twelve cabinet with a Celestion Vintage 30, it screams. It is a very loud 15 watts and the new version has reverb built in - which is important to me.

I play my Blackstar mostly lately, along with my Marshall DSL40C that I keep close at hand next to my bed where I recline or sit and groove out in relaxation, especially very late into the quiet of the night - no close neighbors to bother if I don't really crank it up. Cranking these amps up during the day is a mind blowing experience. No pedals needed.

I have a Marshall DSL100H right above me and a Vox AC15C1 behind my DSL40C. My Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Re-issue sits right behind my monitor, next to my bed. I switch around playing these amps and they are all awesome. These rigs range from 600 to 1000, but are worth it. The DSL100H with the cab would have been closer to 1500 if it was all I had, but I just use my Avatar cab when I play thru it.

All of these are super screaming zonkers, dependable, and fixable. Those are the main things I look for in amps these days.

Good luck in your quest, and save your money for something really decent.
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  #53  
Old 06-30-2015, 06:36 AM
perttime perttime is offline
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Originally Posted by Duff View Post
I'd say a Blues Junior ...
And replace the amp chassis with a Blues Baby from Award-Session...
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  #54  
Old 06-30-2015, 09:19 AM
Hurricane Bob Hurricane Bob is offline
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Originally Posted by Rickenbacker1 View Post
When I used to play out R&R , I tried so many amps Old Music Man 130 watt , too many problems .
My HD-130 Music Man has never let me down in 40 years, never even blew a fuse, still has the original one in. All she needs is tubes here and there.
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  #55  
Old 06-30-2015, 09:27 AM
Gypsyblue Gypsyblue is offline
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Originally Posted by Hurricane Bob View Post
My HD-130 Music Man has never let me down in 40 years, never even blew a fuse, still has the original one in. All she needs is tubes here and there.
Used to own one. It was dependable. Didn't have the tone I like but it was dependable. Bought mine new when they first came out.

The HD-130, by the way, has tubes only in the power amp section.

The preamp section is solid state and doesn't generate the "tube" distortion most electric guitarists crave because there are no tubes in the preamp of the HD-130.

I felt that the sound of the HD-130 was a little to flat and lacking in personality for my tastes.
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  #56  
Old 06-30-2015, 11:01 AM
Hurricane Bob Hurricane Bob is offline
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On my Music Man--if you turn up the master to about 7 and the volume at 2 you can bypass the preamp and get those tubes to really sparkle.
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  #57  
Old 06-30-2015, 06:39 PM
jp2558 jp2558 is offline
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Another vote for the Peavey Classic 30, especially if you can find a used MIA model.
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  #58  
Old 07-01-2015, 07:57 AM
blue blue is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hurricane Bob View Post
I need at least 25-30 watts on stage to compete with drums, keys, bass, guitar, and 3 vocal monitors. I use a HD 130 Music Man and run it on low using 65 watts and it sounds great, but is very heavy.
As the owner of a Fender Showman I used to use for Surf Shows (a lot of the playing was done outside), I'm the last to argue against overwhelming wattage.

However, it's generally accepted that doubling the power only gets you about 3db gain. Can't remember the theory title, something like "the power of 10"? 10times the power equals twice the volume? Something along those lines. Now "Double the volume" is pretty significant, but the implication of how many watts you need to achieve that is pretty staggering.

If you need buckets of headroom, unless you go solid state, it can take a lot of amp to be really loud and clean, even more so if you favor certain builders. Jeff Beck plugs his strat into a Marshall 100 (not sure the model) and turns it to "6". That's his tone. At 6 an honest to goodness "real" tube amp (not a hybrid) is just starting to breath.
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  #59  
Old 07-01-2015, 08:05 AM
blue blue is offline
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Originally Posted by Gypsyblue View Post
The HD-130, by the way, has tubes only in the power amp section.

The preamp section is solid state and doesn't generate the "tube" distortion most electric guitarists crave because there are no tubes in the preamp of the HD-130.
Contrary to what most musicians in the rock world wanted in the late 60's till... Well, forever, Leo's life was a fight against distortion. The HD is at the very least Leo Inspired. History says "designed by".
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  #60  
Old 07-01-2015, 08:11 AM
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In the 4 to 6 watt range it's hard to beat a silverface champ. Same circuit as the Blackface. Just less attractive in every way (switching, color, etc.) I had a short that fried quite a few things in mine last year. Paid $250 for an almost full rebuild. Should be good for another 40 years

If I wasn't concerned with spending money, not that they are all expensive, for home use I would look at some of the great half to one-and-a-half watt all tube handwired amps. There are times when I would like to turn the champ up and let it run, but it's too much volume. A half watter that starts to distort around 5 or 6 would be perfect.
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