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Old 10-18-2017, 04:11 PM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hotroad View Post
Just acquired a new Peerless Monarch. Which small amp works well for an archtop. I want that jazz tone but also want some good acoustic guitar tone plugged in too. I need good highs as well as mids and lows. I need two channels for dual source as I might go with an acoustic UST as well as the floating humbucker. I also need to keep this around $500 or less...
Been playing archtops since 1962 (electric archtops since 1964), UST-equipped acoustics since the mid-70's - voice of experience here; in order:
  • Small is nice - I'm not getting any younger, and I appreciate lightweight gear - but if you're looking to get the most out of your instrument the operative words here are power and headroom. Wattage in an amplifier doesn't necessarily need to equate with raw volume - what you want here is sufficient dynamic range to allow for the full expressive spectrum of which these instruments are capable, and enough reserve capacity to reproduce your tone clearly and accurately at any desired volume; I saw Les Paul play a small-club gig with a silverface Twin Reverb - most players would consider it gross overkill - and I'd be inclined to think he knew a little something about both tone and electronics...
  • If you're using a UST and you want your instrument to sound "acoustic" - as opposed to the Tommy Emmanuel "scratch-&-quack" that passes for good acoustic-electric tone in the judgment of many (but not all) players - you need fewer "highs" than you think, especially given the natural response envelope (often referred to as "cutting power") of an archtop. When Charlie Kaman developed the first viable piezo-based acoustic-electric pickups in the mid-60's, they were designed around the typical pro/semi-pro equipment of their day - think mid-/high-power (tube) 1x12"/2x12"/4x10" combo amp - and IME you'll still get the most "acoustic" sound from a UST if you run into the low-gain input of an amp of this general type...
  • If you need two channels for separate mag/piezo EQ capability, you might want to look into an old-style combo amp with two independent channels - Roland JC-120, Fender blackface/silverface, Ampeg Gemini I/II, or the like - that will also provide you with the period-correct jazz tone you're after when you kick in that humbucker; unfortunately, none of those come cheap. Speaking as a long-time owner, I'd recommend seeking out a pre-1985 Randall RG-120 (these came in two variations - "orange-stripe" and "gray-stripe"); designed by a former partner of Leo Fender and intended to compete with the silverface CBS/Fender combos (as well as Leo's own Music Man amps) - and priced comparably in their day - they were an extremely rugged, toneful, low-maintenance alternative for working musicians at all levels (small wonder the metal guys embraced them), and available in a variety of speaker configurations. Good news is that they're grossly underappreciated/undervalued in today's market - I've seen electronically-sound road warriors selling for as little as $100, with good-to-excellent examples in the $200-250 range (about one-third the price of a used JC-120 - with better tone IMO); they're not exactly lightweight - they were quality then and now, and approach their Fender counterparts in the pounds-per-watt department - but if your needs are simple, or you want a solid platform for outboard effects, I can't think of a better way to go in terms of price/performance...
Hope this helps...
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