Thoughts on the small amp trend

[1big1]

makes perfect sense as a rule of thumb. however in these parts if abc got married to xyz.. your audience could be 1.. 2.. 3.
bar hopping is a sport up here.

 

[Zachman]

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

 

[MOAAH]

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.

It's good when you like, or even luv your work. Makes getting up in the morning much easier

I'll never forget this on fairly large gig I did production for. It was kinda out in the sticks so in order to save money and the hassle of bringing a crew I was promised help with the set up and security. Well the help, minus lifting the bass bins onto their scaffolding, turned out to be a 15 year old. Security was even worse, it was the beer tent run buy a certain group of bikers I care not to mention by name. Needless to say I'm glad I showed up a day early and brought my dog, who slept with me on stage for the three day event.

The clubs I mentioned are between 100 and 300 seats, anything smaller has solo acts and yes, DJs Rock may not be huge in Van but blues sure is, plus jazz has remained a good alternative for those who can dig it. Sadly, metal's gone the way of the dinosaur as far a paying gigs up here. Some guys will play for free just to get to play. I won't, but then I've done solo since the 70s, so I have a ton of small venues where classic rock is cool, enough to keep me busy when I'm into it.

For sure music should be fun, whether it's a career move or otherwise. I'll never give up totally on making it my mainstay. Even thou I have a quite a few other things on the go they mostly run themselves, besides music and some volunteer work, I'm kinda semi retired and I like it that way.

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

Not sure about guitar amps, but I'd be fun to try building an amp to suit about 10 thousand fans using your formula
They do make transmitting tubes(or used to) that started at about 10Kwt. Doubt they make trafos that big, but with enough OP tubes in parallel you have something called OPTL, output transformer less. Not very popular, as most people don't want 36 OP tubes to replace every year or so

 

[1big1]

it's too bad that hard rockin' bands can't find a gig. they'd be busy around here.
there seems to be another trend of sorts that's just starting in the small clubs. two or three people get together with pretty much minimalist gear and play for the night. these are guys i know who were in hair bands in the 80's. they show up with a small pa.. small trap kit.. guitar maybe bass.. or keys.. and a vocalist. not sure how that's working out for them 'cause i haven't talked to them.. but i've heard some good things. yet another example of a gig where a low wattage amp with a few bells and whistles would work well.

 

[MOAAH]

^
Well if you're a old fart who just happened to play for Loverboy back in the day you'll always have work. Myself, I use my PC in my solo act accept a few tunes where acoustic guitar and vocals are just right, some people still wonder where I hide my back-up, LOL. One saving grace for me is all the small clubs have their own small PA. So all I need is my own mic(refused to use another), guitar, PC and my own design preamp(as in the first clip I put up here). The only FX I use is a touch of verb on vocals, and tons of tube type distortion, so no pedal board even. My back thanks me every time I play, which ain't been for a bit. Trying to get into studio work lately, somehow very difficult for me. I've been live all my life, and I just can't, as of yet, get into it without playing for others. Something about a crowd, sends me over the top.
So, what are your fav bells and whistles for a small amp?
Just in case I get an offer to go into production, AND stay outta China

 

[1big1]

two channels a with good loop for delays etc.. would be nice. a clean channel on the order of a deluxe reverb with enough gain to do a decent od that doesn't get muddy or masked when you need to go over the top. something like lowell george used to get back in the day.
the od would sound something like an 18 watt marshall cranked to it's sweet spot with a bit more nuts and grind just for flavor.

 

[MOAAH]

two channels a with good loop for delays etc.. would be nice. a clean channel on the order of a deluxe reverb with enough gain to do a decent od that doesn't get muddy or masked when you need to go over the top. something like lowell george used to get back in the day.
the od would sound something like an 18 watt marshall cranked to it's sweet spot.

Well your not asking for much, IMO.
My first small amp design(even thou I sold more one channel amps), the Classic Master series, had two separate tone stacks, a simple Fender tweed clean channel and a slightly boosted Marshall 1959 for dirt. Plus a decent FX loop, super silent foot-switching and a Mud knob that actually worked, to tighten up the poweramp, for those that hate muddy and/or loose tone. The sweep knob could also help in that area, but it focused on the preamp. The lead wankin' clip above was from the same(except combo version) and this is what an early design head looked like:

Which grew into this later:

after I met a cool guy down in VA that helped me with the custom face plates.

I had an offer from Magnasonic to go to China and mass produce my Scamp design, basically a quieter Champ. I would only go as far as Mexico even though I preferred to stay in the US or Canada, so we had a no go. Call me crazy(and lots of folks have, LOL) I just can't see with all the robotics and stuff we have today why cheap Chinese labor is the only way to go.
But then, I really dig the new Jet City line up. Best deal out there today, IMO, even thou I think an 18 watter is the smallest they got, but who knows what the future holds

 

[1big1]

too many bells and whistles don't necessarily make an amp sound better imho. that amp looks sweet btw. i'll try to stop drooling.
olaf (duesentrieb) posted a vid of a jet city he modded a few weeks back. that was also very a very nice sounding 20 watts.

 

[1big1]

totally relate to the dog btw. i've got to run into town and get some canned soup for my dog.. bozo. he's a 16 year old dobermutt we got from the shelter and have raised him since he was a pup. he has a bit of trouble getting up and down stairs these days.. but he's my bestest buddy in the universe.

 

[MOAAH]

but he's my bestest buddy in the universe.

+1. Me dog never lets me down, accept maybe when she rolls in pooh or chases skunks.
She also makes a good model for promotion and stuff!

I read Olaf's input on the Jet City amps. Still wonder if all the good FB he gave was the reason he banned himself from HC

 

[MOAAH]

that amp looks sweet btw. i'll try to stop drooling.

Well, I could quit posting pics:

LOL.

 

[1big1]

i didn't know he had banned himself from there. i don't go there much anymore except to read reviews. even those leave me scratching my head. a lot of times some of those reviews don't make any sense.
i wish they had a review the reviewer section where you could leave comments like " no wonder it sounded like poo. look at what you've got and what you're trying to do with it."

 

[MOAAH]

i didn't know he had banned himself from there. i don't go there much anymore except to read reviews. even those leave me scratching my head. a lot of times some of those reviews don't make any sense.
i wish they had a review the reviewer section where you could leave comments like " no wonder it sounded like poo. look at what you've got and what you're trying to do with it."

I only go there for input on what's new when there is something worth looking at, and I've really followed the Jet City thing in detail. AFAIK he did ban himself and I'd like to believe that, cause he is banned and knowing Olaf over many years, I doubt it was anything he did. He's just not the kinda guy to warrant banning. At one time HC was where's it's at, now, I have very few nice things to say about it, so I best not go on

So ya had enough pics yet?

Here's a freebie, for the DIY guys or anyone thinking my amps were purely clones.
A modded Superlead going into a 5wt amp:

You'll likely not hear anything so simple yet so sweet!
Note the OP protection, can't blow this one up cause you forgot to connect a speaker, in fact it's designed to operate without a speaker, so you can use it DI, as a very cool preamp that contains OPT distortion, something like what I use today.
NTM DC heaters, such a simple thing, yet so rare on most stock low watters. Also note the cathode OPT connected to the heaters, one way to lower noise like crazy is to raise the heaters above ground! Not used enough today, almost like some folks forget the good stuff learned back in the day...

 

[1big1]

well, my keyboard IS getting kinda sloppy from the drool.

 

[MOAAH]

well, my keyboard IS getting kinda sloppy from the drool.

Does that mean I should stop now?
This is the Superlead 5wt from the schematic above:

For those who dig black, count me in:

For the EL34 lovers:

It's a tube jungle out there:

You can say stop anytime. But I've build hundreds and hundreds of these little guys, so I could go on for a long long time, LOL.

 

[1big1]

o.k. you can stop.

 

[MOAAH]

o.k. you can stop.

But, but, but, how 'bout I just take a break, or post some vintage stuff that I worked on?

But ya, I guess I could stop.
Mind you any DIY guys or new amp builders want a few hints, ask away. I'm into something totally different now for biz, and I like to argue far to much to promote it on line.

Oh and I must hand it to Mike Soldano, the guy he picked as his on line rep is as good as they come. Man the guy has class, and for sure that's a huge part of success on line.
Unlike me of course

 

[1big1]

i almost bought an old traynor bass head when i was in canada about three years ago. found it in a pawn shop in thunder bay. they were asking 110 cad. unfortunately i was on vacation and couldn't talk my wife into spending vacation money on it.. or it would have come back across the border with me.

 

[MOAAH]

i almost bought an old traynor bass head when i was in canada about three years ago. found it in a pawn shop in thunder bay. they were asking 110 cad. unfortunately i was on vacation and couldn't talk my wife into spending vacation money on it.. or it would have come back across the border with me.

You're a quick poster.
Thought maybe I'd be pushing it posting any more pics, seeing how you're the one responding and ya did ask me to stop, so I edited my post, eliminating any further pics.
Now if ya change your mind, let me know, LOL.

I always find it amazing how bass amps are great for guitar, including my Traynor amp, that Bass Master I posted. I'm kinda a Marshall guy, but the Fender Bassman was the original Marshall circuit as many may know, and the SVT will always be my first pick for cleans and pedals. It also has a very high input impedance, so it works great with those new acoustic PUs. Both remarkable designs that IMO have not been improved on, just modded to taste.
BTW, if that amp worked it surely was worth 110CND, doubt you could buy the tubes for that much!

 

[stephen sawall]

I just played the Jet City JCA20H about a hour ago. Pretty cool amp .... amazing for the money.

MOAAH you can post all your amps here or on Ann if you want. I know a few of us would be interested in what you came up with.