80’s Lush Warm Cleans?
- Thread starter glpg80
- Start date
That was amazing. Had me entranced the whole time
japetus
Moderator
I don't believe you even want these tones
VonBonfire
Well-known member
Wow niiiiiiice rig. I use an Edwards ES w/57 classics into a Rockett Blue Note into a Twin and it definitely gets the job done, clean or mild OD. I have two separate amps with different speakers in each one and they both sound great now that I got all the bugs out! Even with the amp cranked and the Blue Note set with Gain and Volume at about 1 o clock it will still clean up nicely with my guitar volume knob. I have done about 800 gigs with that arrangement now sometimes just plugging straight in but the Blue Note makes a pretty nice boost with a wide range of low OD tones. So many other tones are available just by mixing the pickups and playing with guitar's tone knobs but I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir telling you!
Glad you enjoyed it as much as I do! Johnathan Dubose is quite an amazing guitarist and has recorded with all sorts of big names. Pretty cool what he can do with a strat and an old Peavey combo! Definitely looks like he's put some honest miles on that guitar. Some other good gospel oriented guitar guys that might be worth your time are Erick Walls and Isaiah Sharkey. They too have recorded with many big names.
glpg80
Well-known member
VonBonfire
Well-known member
Scooped maybe but definitely not too bright or ice pick with buckers and the right speakers. I run the bright switch on treble on 10 mid and bass 1 ditto and dime the volume as much as they let me heh heh. With 57 classics it's just right, even with aluminum domed JBL's. Maybe if you are using pickups or a guitar with more aggressive highs. It was a little too bright with the Seth Lovers but still manageable. An ES into a Twin is the bluesman's rig of choice. BB King, Freddie King, Mike Bloomfield (ok mostly an LP there), Joe Guitar Hughes...too many to list have all used that arrangement at some point. but the general "for the win" blues rig is a Gibson guitar into a Fender amp. Heck I learned that on the internet and shit, it was true!!!!
braintheory
Well-known member
Agreed. They are scooped as vintage American amp tend to be, but still what I consider a lush, sparkly clean, at least the ‘60’s Blackface’s are. They also have some give to their feel imo in a good way vs many stiffer clean amps
Greazygeo
Well-known member
The ES and amp are my wife’s. I get to use them anytime. She has a ‘64 or ‘65 Deluxe Reverb that I use sometimes. This Princeton, I can’t believe how good it sounds. Sat in the corner a long time before giving it a real go. Really great with the ES and even my Ibanez John Scofield. That 70’s classic rock stuff with the ES type guitar is one of my favorites.
Had a bunch of twins over the years, too heavy for me. Kinda would like to get a nice Super Reverb, but those are alot to move.
braintheory
Well-known member
I don’t know specifically about ‘80’s cleans or fx, but surprisingly my favorite clean amp I’ve tried so far has been this 1969 Marshall 50w tremolo (bass circuit) I got recently. I’ll be listing later my ‘64 Fender Vibroverb if that says anything. This 1967 Marshall 50w Tremolo I had in the past also had great cleans, but this ‘69 is even better for it (‘70’s ones not that great for cleans IME). The Alessandro’s also are really good for a lush, pretty clean, although I mostly use them overdriven
VonBonfire
Well-known member
Lucky fella! My wife is an acoustic junkie otherwise I'd have a lot more electric guitars and amps to try! The Twins are heavy but manageable for me. My lightest is about 80lbs and the heavier version is about 95lbs and that's with the reverb tank removed, lol. You get used to it though and no one is gonna steal your amp and get away with it on foot. Built in anti-theft! None of your friends will ask to borrow your amp either. I get 'em cheap for that reason! Big, heavy, loud. EV's and JBL's are great then there is my latest acquisition, a pair of Eminence PF-350's. Them puppies are about 21lbs apiece. I got more speakers right now than I have Twin Reverbs to put them in. I get a lot of enjoyment trying out different speakers in a Twin. I've put a few speakers in the grave yard doing it. So many great choices out there right now for nice speakers never mind the classics....
VonBonfire
Well-known member
I can definitely see this. Until 2015 I had a early 90's 100 watt SLP RI with 6550's in it. Through the greenback 4x12 cab the cleans were easily as good as a Twin, just different. I know the Plexi's are known for their OD sounds but man, the EQ controls on those things are insanely powerful and I could get some truly beautiful cleans with a good single coil loaded strat. Exceedingly rich and 3-D sounding without being muddy.
braintheory
Well-known member
The ones I had have been with EL34’s, but I can imagine 6550’s having more top end sparkle and clarity (like a bigger brother to 6L6’s IME). The other plexi’s I’ve played or had didn’t get that glassy sparkle my Vibroverb gets, but this ‘69 one somehow finally has it and so much more to offer like the more 3D/rich quality you mentioned. It’s I find about getting both the eq and bright & darker volumes balanced out well
In general, greenbacks or most celestions (besides ‘60’s Alnico Blues) haven’t really my first choices for cleans. I usually prefer vintage American speakers for that like my Altec’s, JBL’s and a few others I have. The Fane Crescendo’s can be really good too for cleans
VonBonfire
Well-known member
A good JBL D or K series is my favorite all time speaker, hands down. I have blown many D's out having fun trying to make a buck, lol
I can only speculate but I do think the greenbacks in a closed back cab in conjunction with the 6550's imparted a level of warmth that might have been otherwise lacking with that arrangement. It was definitely warmer than a JBL equipped Twin but still had glassy highs just not the same overall shimmer to the tone a Twin with JBL's can achieve. The lows were richer and fatter than a Twin but I never did really use cleans in the studio so not sure how that would play out on tape. This may be what the OP meant when he felt that the Twin can be a bit "sterile". I will say that if you get a Twin that is freshly serviced and recapped, or had cathode bias resistors changed out, until it burns in, it can be very tight feeling and sterile sounding.
braintheory
Well-known member
JBL’s are in my top 5 favorite all time speakers too. I also like the E’s similarly well (at least for high gain). Yeah pre-rola greenbacks have more warmth vs JBL’s, but I feel I get that even more with ‘60’s Alnico Blues (sold them) or Altec 417B’s and their voicing has for me at least more sparkle and what I like in a clean sound
I compared the ‘69 Plexi to the ‘64 Vibroverb using the same cabs to try to make the comparison more apples to apples and it was the first amp so far I’ve had where I wasn’t hearing anymore anything in the amp that I felt I wasn’t also getting in the Plexi plus more (wasn’t the case with my ‘67 Plexi or other amps I was hoping could send it packing). Now I’m very curious to try 6550’s in it if possible lol
Maybe some of the later ‘60’s or onward fender’s could be like that (haven’t played any in years now), but I wouldn’t call any of the many pre-cbs fenders I’ve tried sterile or surgical at all, but I can see them being maybe bright, glassy or scooped for some guy’s taste. I always was a fan of them
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VonBonfire
Well-known member
I don't believe the mod is difficult but you might find you no longer like the OD tone depending on your playing style. Definitely different than EL34's. It was the most demanding amp I ever tried and could be a real bitch to dial in right if you had to keep a lid on the volume. I fought it soooo many nights. Absolutely insane volume levels at breakup. When I moved to a Twin it felt like I was playing a practice amp. it was weird cause in the studio I would say to myself "this sounds like shit" and would be thinking I need to dial it in better, but on the playback it sounded badass, all the clang of a good Marshall. Mind you I was playing blues and blues rock on a strat so the MO was likely different than yours but you get the idea.
I once A/B'ed it against a friends Triple Rec half stack and blew it away with punch and cut but that Rec also had some really rich cleans of it's own inside.
mentoneman
Well-known member
when i first got the rockman stereo chorus in my rig i did a little tribute yt vid to def lep and boston:
wasn’t exact as my rig runs as a wdw and pure stereo gets a bit more wobbly and exaggerated, but i was happy with vibe of the tones i got. i used the synergy DS module blue channel for the core clean tone while my IE 4 was back for service in Michigan with Bruce.
i have never been a fan of the jc-120s for the exact reasons you described.
mentoneman
Well-known member
my hero!
mentoneman
Well-known member
since the early-mid 90s when i started using my triaxis rack rigs live until now i’ve always had a simple fender clean preset (vintage rhythm green) and a second more tricked out compressed chorused clean preset (hyper clean rhythm yellow) with big verb and delays.
but for lush vintage fendery clean tones from an amp, this was one of my favorites:
this too:
X88 Myasnikov clean channel split into two power amps (ps100 with time based effects-fx8) and VHT2150 dry through 2 ADA cabs. Bam 1989… this is zero tweaking. It just sounds like this
cobrahead1030
Well-known member
Strat-ce2w-mark III clean ch; Strymon timeline in the loop.
There are more authentic delay platforms, but that's the one I have & it works.
There are more authentic delay platforms, but that's the one I have & it works.