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#62
10-13-2011, 07:56 AM
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Big amps turned down low tend to sound like old men in need of serious fiber infusion; small amps cranked up, on the other hand, tend to sound like Bruce Lee unleashing a can of fresh whoop ***. td 
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#63
10-13-2011, 09:20 AM
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One more observation... I assume from what you've said that the other instruments in your band are acoustic. If you're playing loud, it will make the onstage balance very difficult and the other players may have difficulty hearing themselves and each other unless monitors are pushed very loud... which may cause other problems. A smaller amp, miked, might make the on stage sound much more manageable. Again, when talking tube amps, smaller equals 10 watts or less. In my book, 15 watts (two EL84 amps) or 18-22 (two 6V6 amps) are not "small" and are big enough for most club gigs with a band with drummer and electric instruments. You don't need a 50 watt Marshall stack unless you're playing very large, loud gigs or are compensating  FWIW, My last two "bigger" amps were a Peavey Delta Blues 210 - a phenomenal sounding 30 watt amp with four EL84's that happens to not be particularly reliable. I played that in a loud 9 piece funk band and never turned it past 3 or 4. We occasionally miked it for outdoor gigs or very large gigs. I like the Peavey classic series better than comparably priced Fenders. Before that I had a blackface Deluxe - 22 watts and two 6V6's with an EV speaker, that amp deserves it's hype - in a five piece pop band that played bars and clubs with an occasional wedding and it was always more than enough, never miked, and rarely turned past 5. As I said, now I have a silver face champ in a bigger cab with a 12 inch speaker - 6 watts, one 6V6 tube - that I play in a 6 piece church band, unmiked, and never turn it past 4. It sounds great and is a wonderful platform for pedals. here it is... 
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#65
10-13-2011, 09:52 AM
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#66
10-13-2011, 10:30 AM
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Not to try to push the point but a Princeton or DeLuxe RI gives you the best of all worlds. That would be great sound, easy serviceability and low price.
Lots of pros use these and they are highly respected
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#68
10-13-2011, 10:44 AM
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...at least the real ones; I'm too much of a snob to know about the reissues. Which leads me to this: why buy a reissue when you have enough for a real one? If you don't like the reissue (or playing electric at all, for that matter), it'll be worth roughly 2/3 of what you paid for it new if you try to sell it used. While the Silverface Princeton Reverb I bought about a decade ago, when they were already inflated, is worth nearly twice what I paid for it.
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#69
10-13-2011, 12:04 PM
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The current, 15-watt, '65 Princeton® Reverb has a single channel with reverb and vibrato driving a 10-inch speaker. The blackface Princeton introduced in 1964 had the same features but was rated at 12 watts.
The current, 22-watt, '65 Deluxe Reverb has two channels, one with reverb and vibrato, the other without, driving a 12-inch speaker. If I wanted to perform with a clean sound, I would want more amplifier power than if I intended to create a distorted sound. The volume control position is not an indication of the percentage of power being used. Some amps I have played were developing full rated power with the volume knob set below the midpoint of the control knob scaled (5) and turning the knob beyond that point produced no additional volume.
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#70
10-13-2011, 12:39 PM
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As others have suggested, I would (and do) go for an OD pedal or boost pedal and one good channel vs worrying about gimmicky channel switching.
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#72
10-14-2011, 03:29 PM
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I havent read all 5 pages of this thread but I did read the first so..if all this info has already been said..disregard this post.
First..be careful when you say loud. If you want some tube overdrive you're gonna have to crank it a little and VOLUME is your enemy a lot of times. Power, watts, and volumt is a pretty confused subject(s). A lot of people think that 100W is twice as loud as 50 watts when it face the difference in volume is negligible. Doubling wattage gives you only a 3-4dB increase in volume. To double the volume you need about 10X the wattage...so...a 100W amp is about twice as LOUD as a TEN watt amp. Also...USUALLY when amps show their RMS wattage output, that usually refers to clean power before clipping. With Solid State amps that's about the max because clipping transistors don't sound very musical...BUT..when a tube amp says somethiung like ..say..45Watts RMS...that's before clipping. We WANT clipping (well a lot of us do) and so we like to go PAST the 45watts of clean power. If you test , say a 100W marshall tube amp that's cranked, a lot of times you'll find that they actually put out like 150watts. OK now PCB vs PTP. A printed circuit board shouldn't SOUND any different than a ptp or tagboard or whatever "hand wired" platform. Where the PTP amps win is when modding and tweaking. It's a LOT easier playing with a non PCB amp. Plus..old style caps and resistors "fit" a non PCB board better...especially the new PCBs that have those TINY lay down resistors and caps. I don't think you'll find lay down computer MUSTARD caps lol. Another "issue" with modern amps is that a lot of them mount things like pots, switches, tube sockets etc directly to the PCB instead of the chassis. When one breaks it's a LOT harder to fix...and are easier to damage than non PCB boards. A good example is...a friend brought me his old hotrod deVille because the input jack was messed-up. I opened it up and there was a small PCB mounted right above the "motherboard". In order to replace the (plastic sealed) jack, I would have had to remove the small pcb. Then I would have had to unsolder 6 legs from the main board. I didn't mess with it. I closed it up and suggested he bring it to a real tech...or a computer repair shop. Back to the volume thing. I've been playing in bars since I was 12 (35 years now) and it has been a 30 year battle of volume vs tone. I tried EVERYTHING. Pulling two power tubes from my 100watter, fewer speakers, less efficient spkrs, baffles, attenuators, putting the cab in another room or turning it around...I tried EVERYTHING and I could never get my Marshalls to "work" at low volumes. A few years ago my bassist gave me a '67 Harmony H-415. It's a 2-12 combo that makes about 18watts (two EL84s). I brought it home, plugged in a guitar, cranked the amp to 10 and....AC-DC came out of the amp. It was AWESOME. A screamer that wasn't too loud and beautifully overdriven. Turning down the vol on the guitar cleaned it up beautifully. I brought it to the next gig. Well..I found that it lacked a touch of headroom when I was playing clean. I spoke to Nik at Ceriatone amps and told him the story of the 30 year battle, about the Harmony, and the tones I was after. Oh..I also never found a master volume amp that sounded great. I asked Nik if his 18W amps would have more headroom than the Harmony (Nik builds a lot of Marshall clones including their 18W). He found a schem of the Harmony and said that his transformers were a little beffier and more linear than the Harmony so it SHOULD provide some headroom..but..he suggested his 36W mastervolume amp. I told him that 36W is almost as loud as 50W and that I don't like mastervolumes. I asked if he could make me a 36w with a half power switch. He said..I can do WHATEVER you want. We can make you an amp with a Marshall pre section with a 6V6 power section...or a Trainwreck pre with marshall power section..or ANYTHING I wanted. I had also been thinking of getting a kit and building my own which would have been AWESOME...but..his "built" amps were like 50 bucks more than the kit so..I fugured I HAD to have a pro build it. It would have been a GREAT learning experience to build it myself but wouldn't be as "pretty" as if I had him build it. So, it took about a month. He built it, bench tested it, changed and tweaked it, re-tested, re-tweaked..he really wanted to get the tones I had in my head. When he was satisfied he shipped and it got here (from Malaysia) in FOUR DAYS!!! It came with a bag of resistors and caps that he had gone through in the "tweaking" stages. He said.."I've included all the values I had tried in case you decide you want to mess with it a bit later". He didn't charge an extra PENNY for all the mods and differences I asked for. No charge for the half power feature, the negative feedback switch, the tweaks...NOTHING. the amp, built and shipped was like $800. HAND built to MY specs and BEAUTIFULLY done I might add. It has been my main stage amp since '06. The master actually WORKS and sounds REALLY good. In 18w mode it is plenty loud and nicely overdriven. When I play BIG stages like festivals I COULD bring a 50W Marshall but the 36W is more than enough. In 36W mode it sounde almost the same as in 18 but with a little more punch, crunch and clean headroom. It isn't a WHOLE lot louder than 18w. I did find it to be a bit boomy though so I had to swap a .022uF cap for a .010. It came with Mallories. I went online looking for a NOS mustard and figured..ahh..it aint a whole lot more $ for a few caps than a single so I ordered ALL mustards to replace ALL the Mallories. Oh..it came with JJ glass which I instantly replaced with TESLA EL84s and various pre tubes (a mullard in V1 and I can't remember which combo I put in the PI and CF. After all the mods...which were EASY because it isn't a PCB It sounded even BETTER. SO..my advice IS..lol: YES, DO get a tube amp. If you can, get one that isn't PCB IF you want to modify/tweak/mess with it a bit. Go try some different wattage tube amps so you can really see how LOUD they really are. If you want a "boutique" amp, ie: one that is hand built and to YOUR specs (ok I guess that's custom boutique), DO go to the ceriatone website, take a look (they build ALL kinds of Fender circuits/clones) at what's available, talk to Nik and let him know what it is you want. He'll build it for you and it will NOT be expensive. About a quarter or a tenth of what other builders will charge. I don't have any affiliation with Ceriatone other than they built the first amp I ever owned that REALLY filled my needs. I was a little skeptical at first since they are in Malaysia and I voiced my concerns to Nik. I told him that to ME, Malaysia means China. Not that there's anything really wrong with China but.. Nik assured me that he builds amps there because labor is cheap...BUT..unlike the Chinese largely unskilled labor pool, Malaysia has a highly skilled workforce. It's where a lot of our computers' processors are built. He has electronic and other engineers working for him. And, I can certainly vouch for their workmanship and dedication to their customers. Anyway..whatever you decide, I hope this info is at least somewhat helpful.
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#74
10-14-2011, 04:32 PM
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Yeah...sorry about that man. I'm long-winded. It's just that I've been hanging here for a while now but am pretty new to the acoustic side of the guitar. It was cool to find a thread about something I KNOW.
That was a lot of pent-up info. Again..sorry about that.
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