Thoughts on the small amp trend

[1big1]

my wife and i have been sort of floating around the idea of moving to a milder climate the last couple of years. shoveling snow and -20 temps in the winter aren't getting any easier to deal with.. and neither is arthritis. that sh*t hurts! she's got an older brother who lives in sw oregon near the coast. thanks for the invite. i never say never.. so who knows.

 

[MOAAH]

^
The Oregon coast is super nice, and a big bonus is Portland. For a city it's purdy dang clean and if your into cycling, it's the most bike friendly city in North America.
I have 2 types of arthritis, but no matter what I go cycling as weather permits and the more I get into it, the less pain and problems I have. It's maybe the best exercise going for low impact cardio. Some say swimming is, but you'd never catch me in a public pool, makes me sick just thinking about it, UCK!

 

[stephen sawall]

I am here because I hate hot and cold ..... my winter jacket is my summer jacket. It was in the low 60's here today.

I really like my Silver face champ and Egnator Rebel 20. Both with a decent 2x12 or 4x12 is plenty for a lot of things I do.

 

[MOAAH]

I really like my Silver face champ and Egnator Rebel 20. Both with a decent 2x12 or 4x12 is plenty for a lot of things I do.

Years ago I found a 58 Champ in a Salvation Army store. I paid about 7CND for it. When I got it home all it needed was a new rectifier. A couple months later I sold it for 300, WITH a nice Ibanez SG clone. Man did that guy get a deal, I've seen the same amp in a pawn shop for over a G note lately. I think that's nuts for such an amp, but I guess some people will always have more money than they know what to do with

 

[JTyson]

I totally agree

About MOAAH or the Bass or something else or all of above ?

The bass being used in a live context. I hear bands all the time where the guitar leaves no room in the mix for the bass player

 

[1big1]

i get plenty of exercise when i work. believe me. i've also had jobs where i've sat behind a desk too. can't stand that. i've got to be doing something other than shuffling paperwork. i try to stay active and for the most part it's working quite well for me. there are some days however when it gets tougher to get around than others.
as far as bass disappearing in the mix? sometimes i think they add distortion to the bass tracks as well these days because it's more about layering tracks than giving them their own space.
i'd like to check out a tweaker with a vin 30 loaded cab. i think that would be interesting.

 

[MOAAH]

I wouldn't call it a musical trend, the demand wasn't really there from the consumers (they are not really that much lower in volume anyway) It was more like a manufacturer trend of follow the leader and all this mini amp stuff was prefaced by the Valve JR. that amp is responsible.

Blame the trend on the Valve Jr.

Haha, excuse me for my lack of humility but back starting in late '02 and early '03 every second thread on HC(good or bad) was about me and my small amps. I know for sure how many manufacturers lurk there to PU IDs and such. It was only after a 2 or 3 years of selling more amps than I could possibly build in a reasonable time frame and raising shit with my prices that other companies started designing them, and a little while later released the VJ and others...
It was no coincidence that my first amp(No BS Amp) sold for 130USD. I sold it at that price because that's what I figured I could make them for once in mass production and still make a profit; the exact same price that the VJ came out for originally.
The VJ of course looked far better but needed a pile of mods to sound good. My first amp to hit America sounded great, I still don't hear anything in that price range that sounds like this outta the box.
My first amp evar in American hands, no mods, just a great player:

So please, put the blame where it's due, LOL.

 

[MOAAH]

i get plenty of exercise when i work. believe me.

Cool, but do you enjoy your work? Working out for me has to be fun, cause then I put more into it. I have some great help thou, my wingman (Rotin Roti) is a great PU ploy for all the hot girls up here, too bad she gets jealous when I really score. She's purdy funny when she thinks she can compete with real girls, but after all, I'm her pet in her mind

i try to stay active and for the most part it's working quite well for me.

Keep it up, you'll thank yourself more as time goes on. I just don't believe you have to get old, I contend you just have to work harder to stay young as you age! Speaking of which, the sun is out and it looks like another beautiful spring day here, think I'll go riding

 

[1big1]

sometimes they let me play with erector sets like this.
http://www.ia470.com/gallery/cntry08d.jpg

 

[stratotone]

I wouldn't call it a musical trend, the demand wasn't really there from the consumers (they are not really that much lower in volume anyway) It was more like a manufacturer trend of follow the leader and all this mini amp stuff was prefaced by the Valve JR. that amp is responsible.

Blame the trend on the Valve Jr.

Haha, excuse me for my lack of humility but back starting in late '02 and early '03 every second thread on HC(good or bad) was about me and my small amps. I know for sure how many manufacturers lurk there to PU IDs and such. It was only after a 2 or 3 years of selling more amps than I could possibly build in a reasonable time frame and raising shit with my prices that other companies started designing them, and a little while later released the VJ and others...
It was no coincidence that my first amp(No BS Amp) sold for 130USD. I sold it at that price because that's what I figured I could make them for once in mass production and still make a profit; the exact same price that the VJ came out for originally.
The VJ of course looked far better but needed a pile of mods to sound good. My first amp to hit America sounded great, I still don't hear anything in that price range that sounds like this outta the box.
My first amp evar in American hands, no mods, just a great player:

So please, put the blame where it's due, LOL.

Hey Rob, is that Ripfence's Fab Fox? It's mine now!

Pete

 

[MOAAH]

sometimes they let me play with erector sets like this.
http://www.ia470.com/gallery/cntry08d.jpg

Hey that's pretty dang cool. I luv building stuff that will be around for a while
I shoulda knocked on wood before I went out. Thar's hardly a cloud in the sky but it started to hail

 

[1big1]

4 semi's of truss and over 100,000 square feet of decking. i love looking at it at the end of the first day of the build and just the towers and deck supports are up. it's there for a week and a half and then it's gone. and so am i!

 

[MOAAH]

My first amp evar in American hands, no mods, just a great player:

So please, put the blame where it's due, LOL.

Hey Rob, is that Ripfence's Fab Fox? It's mine now!

Pete

No, you have the first head I sent down stateside.
That was the combo that Ronnie P bought. Combos do sell more and even thou I'll always promote heads as the best alternative my first amps sold into America were combos.
I must say thou that you impressed me to no end with your clip.
Just shows how much tone is in the hands of the player, IMO.
https://soundclick.com/share?songid=6219090
Still freaks me out what you can do with a guitar!!!
Glad I'm more of a vocalist/song writer or I'd be a very jealous person

Plus, kudos to you for fixing it after the shipping damage
Just so you know, your amp had my 8 watt poweramp which was based on a '50s Bogen PA, driven by a SVT preamp. The FX out is just the same as a SVT preamp out. That said I've truly never heard any of my amps sound better than in your hands, No BS

 

[MOAAH]

4 semi's of truss and over 100,000 square feet of decking. i love looking at it at the end of the first day of the build and just the towers and deck supports are up. it's there for a week and a half and then it's gone. and so am i!

I'm glad to hear that some building is still happening and folks are still working down stateside, they make it sound real bad on the news up here. There was a ton of construction work in Van related to the Olympics, so we are now in for a bit of a slow down. However we still have the costliest real estate in the world,(thanks to the recession we have passed Manhattan & Tokyo東京都) a big growing housing market and the highest rated standard of living anywhere, so people will be moving here for some time to come and construction jobs are still plentiful. Things are so good that non union workers are paid as much as union guys, but without any benefits.

 

[Zachman]

Like my thread yesterday, I love the HT-5. If I ever used it to play out, I would use my slave w/d/w rig.

At home I still use the Camerons, Marshalls (100 Watt), Boogies 180 Watts and 75 Watts and don't have to crank them to get them to sing -- BUT some guys insist they have to be cranked to sound good. BS, just gotta know what you're doing.
My $.02

one thing to consider. A tube change on a ht-5 vs a tube change on your 100 watt amp. Over years of use your gonna save money. I don't have a ht-5 or similar amp I use my bigger amps since they do lower volumes very well. I am ust stating a reason for why someone might. Maybe for a light easy gig back up also.

While that may be true (unless you crank your non-mv amp to get the sounds these guys are going for-- it certainly would NOT be true-- because doing that will take them through power tubes WAY more often than I will/do). We both know that isn't at the heart of the small watt amp trends. It's because there is a lot ignorance with people thinking you have to have power tube saturation to get nice gain tones, and doing that means a high watt amp will be too loud-- and it just isn't true, when you know how to choose the right amps for the job, or run gear in other than conventional ways such as re-amping and/or running load boxes (which will go through power tubes more often).

You'd be surprised how many times I've heard guys tell me the problem w/ my 180 Watt MKIII Coliseum to get the sounds they want, and when I get it at TV volumes they go into their "Oh I heard....." diatribe, which was just proven false.

Don't get me wrong, I couldn't possibly care less if guys use whatever they want and it happens to be a 1.5 Watt Sears Silvertone. I just shrug at the insistence that it's the "Only way" to get from point A to point Z

I do agree that good sounds can be found at low volumes.

In my case though I must have the amp running loud as hell to get my ideal tone as a large component of my total distortion is the speaker distortion.

I have tried every other way fathomable and always wind up with the best tones IMO by backing off on the amp gain and turning it up loud until the speakers are added the finishing touch.

In my case there is no substitute for turning up f*n loud, nothing else comes close or even can. As I also play metal the headroom afforded from 100 watts is key also.

I prefer power tube saturation in my gain tones, it has a thicker, chewier, tone. predominantly preamp based tones sound too sterile to me. to each their own...

I hear you, and love that fact that I have my Cameron Marshalls, and Boogies which scream at any volume, but speaker distortion isn't likely to occur w/ a low watt amp and a 4x12. My lowest powered amp is a Super Reverb, and I use it for cleans in a live setting, so it has the right amount of headroom to get me loud enough and stay clean.

Low volume and no sterility here:

 

[Atropos_Project]

I think it's an extremely good trend, and one that smart amp manufacturers will continue to take seriously.

Folks who aspire to do DIY recording want tube tone without volumes that will have neighbors pounding on their door (or ceiling ). And the price is generally something that folks find a bit easier to deal with.

The downside is that smaller amps might not give you the sound you're after. There's a 'complexity' of tone that is missing with lower wattage amps, in my rather limited experience with them. Whether it's sheer gain, or overhead, or some combination thereof, it's certainly present.

PS. I have a well-cared for Orange TT for sale if anyone's interested!

 

[1big1]

the recession has caught up with us on the touring end too. no doubt about that. the promoters around here are scheduling more events in the friday.. saturday.. sunday time periods than during the week. there's only so many entertainment dollars to go around and they need to maximize their gate or we'll all be flipping burgers somewhere.
the good news is that it appears to be working. quite a few events seem to be selling rather well.
we'll see if that continues this summer and into the fall. i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[MOAAH]

^
Well that's one thing that sucks up here, especially for rock. There's only 3 clubs that book rock bands, and there's so many somewhat big name bands around(mostly has beens) that little guys have to travel outta the city to get any work, and then it's usually just Friday and Saturday. Seems crazy to drive for a day there and a day back but only play 2 nights, but whatcha gonna do

 

[1big1]

you asked me if i loved my job? yes. but more importantly i love the people i work with. stages of that size don't construct themselves.. pa rigs don't fly by themselves and neither do lighting rigs or video walls. but if the people putting it together fail to function as a cohesive unit you could be putting yourselves and others at serious risk. performers depend on us to construct things properly. i depend on my co-workers not to put me at risk and vice versa.
our business agent has been really good when it comes to working multi day events. people get rotated in and out during a week long run so we have some fresh bodies and minds at hand for events like that. safety first.
as far as local gigging goes? most of the venues are small clubs that seat from 75 to 100 people.. and that's a crowd! low ceilings.. live walls.. jammed into a corner somewhere.. and they generally move the pool table to make more room. we also have the old dance halls that were made for polka bands to play in. wood floors that bounce when the dancers are on it. most tend to reverberate a lot. i've got to play one of those saturday night. should be fun. a low wattage amp makes lots of sense in spaces like that. sometimes i run into people i haven't seen since forever.. so that keeps things interesting.
we generally play venues within an hours drive and only play a handful or two of gigs a year. anymore than that and it messes with everybody's home lives. it's supposed to be fun.. not a career move.
we have a whole mix of bands doing clubs here.. but mostly it's new rock.. classic rock.. blues and country. there are a few jazz places in the larger communities. unfortunately there are also tons of dj's.

 

[stephen sawall]

1 watt for every audience member for guitar amps. It makes as much sense as anything else ?