Ok, This Time I Got A Practice Amp

[ch willie]

A couple of weeks ago, I was shopping online for a small practice amp and instead bought a Vox AC30. Am I a salesperson's dream or what?

Today I was determined to find a small practice amp. So I ordered an Ibanez Tube Screamer amp. They're discontinued now, but I've watched vids and read reviews, and it seems to be a good little amp. It'll probably be here towards the end of next week.

[RP]

Very cool looking. You definitely need the right guitar to go with it...

[3notes]

Sweet little piece of furniture. Cool.

[ch willie]

Thanks. I do have a beauty (or 4) to go with it. Here's my go to.

[KevWind]

Man I must be coming down with corona everything looks backwards on those guitars Great looking little amp congrats

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by ch willie

Today I was determined to find a small practice amp. So I ordered an Ibanez Tube Screamer amp. They're discontinued now, but I've watched vids and read reviews, and it seems to be a good little amp. It'll probably be here towards the end of next week.

Originally Posted by RP

Very cool looking. You definitely need the right guitar to go with it...

- and now for something completely different - take the furniture legs off the amp and it's reminiscent of the rare 1963 Gretsch Princess outfits:





Some apocryphal Gretsch lore and trivia: After her divorce from Les Paul in 1963 (I was fortunate enough to see their last TV appearance as a kid, in 1962) Mary Ford was attempting to jumpstart both a solo career and an endorsement deal of her own with Gretsch. It has been rumored that the short-lived (and now uber-rare) "Princess" pastel-colored solidbodies based on the '63 Corvette platform (vaguely resembling the contemporary - and strong-selling - single-pickup SG/Les Paul Junior, and sold with the aforementioned matching white case and amplifier) were in fact intended to be the first "Mary Ford" instruments, to be joined by similarly-colored Duo-Jet-based "Standards" and a double-cutaway White Penguin-based "Custom" model. Production of the Princess ceased by '64 when the deal fell through - no instruments of this type were ever produced under the Mary Ford designation - and while similarly-colored double-cut Duo-Jet "Standard" prototypes are said to exist (possibly as a single example, almost certainly no more than four or five) as well as her personal double-cut Penguin that was to be the platform for the "Custom," only the Corvette-based Princess "Junior" model saw the light of day. FWIW the above FSR Electromatic, in Surf Green with white back/pickguard/trussrod cover and gold Filter'trons/hardware, is probably a 90% accurate representation of what the Mary Ford Standard might have looked like - under Les' tutelage Mary became a formidable guitarist in her own right, and it undoubtedly would have been equipped with some proprietary cutting-edge electronic gadgetry garnered from their time together (which Les himself was extremely reluctant to license for mass production until circa 1970, with the Les Paul Professional/Personal/Triumph Bass models)...

To add some fuel to the fire - and credibility to the story - Ken Achard's History and Development of the American Guitar shows a documented prototype of a double-cutaway Les Paul Standard produced circa 1962 by Epiphone, when they were under Gibson management and using the same methods/materials. As you're well aware Les Paul - who had complained long and loud about the SG version that would bear his name until mid-'63 (when he suspended his endorsement deal amid his divorce proceedings) - performed many of his first experiments with solidbody design on Epiphone guitars, and this may have been an attempt to appease him with a more "modern" appearing instrument while still keeping him in the Kalamazoo corporate camp; suffice it to say that the body shape is nearly indistinguishable from the contemporary double-cutaway Duo-Jet - the same one that would have been used for the Mary Ford Standard/Custom - and if push came to shove it could have been a very interesting state of affairs...

[Dru Edwards]

What a cool looking, retro looking amp!

[ch willie]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

And don't be showing me pics of Gretsches. Because I LOVE them. I want a Country Gentleman like crazy.

And yes, my guitars are backwards, but it's only because the hospital reversed my arms when I was born.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by ch willie

Thanks for the replies, guys.

And don't be showing me pics of Gretsches. Because I LOVE them. I want a Country Gentleman like crazy.

And yes, my guitars are backwards, but it's only because the hospital reversed my arms when I was born.

For some strange reason the same thing happened to Jimi Hendrix at the hospital but his guitars turned out 'normal'.

Looking forward to your review of the amp!

[ch willie]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

For some strange reason the same thing happened to Jimi Hendrix at the hospital but his guitars turned out 'normal'.

Looking forward to your review of the amp!

Ha ha. Poor Jimi. Too bad he never built a good reputation on the guitar. Fender is ashamed of him, and no one has ever played Purple Haze in a guitar shop.

[paulp1960]

Congratulations that's quite a sweet little amp:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydqdc_tSfoU

[RP]

Steve: I definitely agree with your choice of the Gretsch but would admonish for removing the amp's legs whose accent goes well with the rosewood fretboards of either the Gretsch or the Strat....

[ch willie]

Originally Posted by paulp1960

Congratulations that's quite a sweet little amp:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydqdc_tSfoU

Thanks! Man, he's got it sounding great. Not bad at all.

Yeah, I love the art deco look. Can't wait to rock it.

[3notes]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

- and now for something completely different - take the furniture legs off the amp and it's reminiscent of the rare 1963 Gretsch Princess outfits:





Some apocryphal Gretsch lore and trivia: After her divorce from Les Paul in 1963 (I was fortunate enough to see their last TV appearance as a kid, in 1962) Mary Ford was attempting to jumpstart both a solo career and an endorsement deal of her own with Gretsch. It has been rumored that the short-lived (and now uber-rare) "Princess" pastel-colored solidbodies based on the '63 Corvette platform (vaguely resembling the contemporary - and strong-selling - single-pickup SG/Les Paul Junior, and sold with the aforementioned matching white case and amplifier) were in fact intended to be the first "Mary Ford" instruments, to be joined by similarly-colored Duo-Jet-based "Standards" and a double-cutaway White Penguin-based "Custom" model. Production of the Princess ceased by '64 when the deal fell through - no instruments of this type were ever produced under the Mary Ford designation - and while similarly-colored double-cut Duo-Jet "Standard" prototypes are said to exist (possibly as a single example, almost certainly no more than four or five) as well as her personal double-cut Penguin that was to be the platform for the "Custom," only the Corvette-based Princess "Junior" model saw the light of day. FWIW the above FSR Electromatic, in Surf Green with white back/pickguard/trussrod cover and gold Filter'trons/hardware, is probably a 90% accurate representation of what the Mary Ford Standard might have looked like - under Les' tutelage Mary became a formidable guitarist in her own right, and it undoubtedly would have been equipped with some proprietary cutting-edge electronic gadgetry garnered from their time together (which Les himself was extremely reluctant to license for mass production until circa 1970, with the Les Paul Professional/Personal/Triumph Bass models)...

To add some fuel to the fire - and credibility to the story - Ken Achard's History and Development of the American Guitar shows a documented prototype of a double-cutaway Les Paul Standard produced circa 1962 by Epiphone, when they were under Gibson management and using the same methods/materials. As you're well aware Les Paul - who had complained long and loud about the SG version that would bear his name until mid-'63 (when he suspended his endorsement deal amid his divorce proceedings) - performed many of his first experiments with solidbody design on Epiphone guitars, and this may have been an attempt to appease him with a more "modern" appearing instrument while still keeping him in the Kalamazoo corporate camp; suffice it to say that the body shape is nearly indistinguishable from the contemporary double-cutaway Duo-Jet - the same one that would have been used for the Mary Ford Standard/Custom - and if push came to shove it could have been a very interesting state of affairs...

That's a beautiful Gretsch and it makes me wonder if that gave Yamaha an idea for their Revstar RS502T.?? Love the tailpiece.

[ch willie]

Holy Scheisse, Batdude! This amp is seriously great. I didn't expect it. I figured it'd be an "okay" practice amp.

The cleans are beautiful, full, and verrrrry tube-y. The reverb is no where nearly as good as a Fender tube amp's, but the reverb sounds very good anyway. The amp shines too when I turn on the TubeScreamer OD. I don't know how close it is to the treasured pedals, but I'll be ****ed if it doesn't sound fantastic.

I'd gladly use this amp for any gig situation. Put a mic on it, and you're golden.

Unless there's some design flaw that's going to bite me in the ***, I can't understand why Ibanez discontinued the amp. Maybe sales figures prompted them to kill the model.