This is something I’d like to think of as my tonal enlightenment! 🙂
My precursor story to getting the tones/sounds I wanted for both home practice and playing in a session with other guitarists and a P.A. In essence a few years back I:
a) Learnt that there was much more to plank spanking than just hitting the strings on the right notes and in the right order, there was this thing called tone!
b) I wanted to explore more sounds/tones that my kit (Hohner lx250 and Vantage VG15) couldn’t give me.
c) I bought a pocket pod for practice with headphones and to explore different sounds.
d) I found some sounds that I liked, bought a new guitar (Gordon Smith – Graduate Ref: [Post=”182″]) and started looking for a new amp to deliver the tone my guitar was capable of.
e) I stumbled across a friend at work who was selling a Marshall ValveState VS100R, tried, tested, leagues ahead of my Vantage, bought, done. Pocket POD shelved.
f) After months of honing the sound of my Les Paul/Marshall mix I got to the place where I was really happy with the sounds it was producing, but unfortunately to get the great Les Paul/Marshall sound I was after it needed cranking! 100watts…. Cranked…. Is LOUD! (yes even solid-state/tube pre-amp rig)
Ok, decision time, my playing at present is both at home and at a session with circa 5/6 other guitarists and a P.A. the cranked Marshall was obviously too loud for home, but also too loud for the session. The problem being was that I had entered into a territory where I now had an opinion on what sounded good and what sounded ‘bad’ (all subject to personal opinion, but, the fact that there is an opinion being expressed is key here!)
So I needed something that I could get the same great tones (or even better if possible!) at lower volumes for both practice at home and for the session.
So I started looking on ebay for lower wattage ValveStates, but came across a statistic whilst trawling review sites that ‘1/4 wattage gives you 1/2 volume’ unfortunately the valvestates are only really ‘Valve’states down to 40w, any lower than that and its just a solidstate amp with a Valvestate badge! SHOCKING! 🙂 loosing the Valve Pre-amp wasn’t an option as it would forfeit the tone.
At this point my guitar teacher let me borrow his New Blackstar HT-5 all tube 5w amp. Have no bones about it, just because this is a 5w amp, does not mean it’s not loud! I quickly learnt that solidstate wattages and Valve amp wattages are a country mile apart! It also opened my ears up to what everyone was banging on about tube amps for. Again, another level I had been exposed to, and once exposed you can’t take that experience back!
At his point its probably worth mentioning that my aspirational sound is that of a Humbucker Overdriven Vintage Marshall with bags of sustain, with the option of rolling back to some light crunchy blues tones: and the option of pushing through the distortion point to some face melting metal. And to pigeon hole this in to Genres: Classic Rock, Hard Rock & Heavy Metal.
Now I wanted an all tube practice amp! This would be pitching in at the right volume for the session but would be border line for home (depending on who was in!) the problem was… cost… this isn’t a piece of kit you can pick up off ebay for sub £100… your looking at £200+ for something in this area (AC4TV aside), and the added complexity that this seems to be the latest ‘New market’ that the amp manufacturers have been pitching in at. Which is obviously a good thing, as more competition means greater choice and invariably better bang for your buck. But It wasn’t going to make amp selection clear cut due to so many being out there!
To mention a few of these amps that I’ve been trawling the reviews for, to search for what is most suitable for me, all with slight variation on features and sound:
Blackstar HT-5, Orange Tiny Terror, Fender Blues Junior, Epiphone Valve Junior, Vox AC4TV, Mesa Boogie Transatlantic, Laney Lionheart, Marshall Class 5 etc… etc..
All with varying characteristics pitching in at different levels: from great cleans to dark distortion; power attenuators/variable resistance to just one control (volume); EQ or not; Combo or head; multi channel to single channel; hand wired to circuit boards etc etc… and I haven’t even covered the boutique amps…. Or home construction kits!
The fact of the matter is: YouTube is your friend to help narrow you down to the sound you want and then you’ve just got to go and try them out in the shop or at a mate’s house.
Personally, I’ve got down to the Blackstar HT-5 (for the Marshall tone, in a more robust package than the actual marshal offering) and the VOX AC4TV (mainly for the simple offering and competitive pricing point!) I still need to try them both side by side, but I’m pretty sure I’d have to get some pedals on board to get what I wanted from the VOX, but the Blackstar I recon I’d get away with out of the box (with a bit of CryBaby on the side)
The only outstanding question now is what to do in the interim, whilst saving up for one of these low watt tube amps and getting the chance to test them out side by side…
Struggle with the current setup and carry on lugging the 100w Valvestate about? or look for an alternative to this?… at this point I’ve turned to the old kit, which I’ll talk about in another post ‘Getting the best from your Pocket POD…’ [post=”588″]
For reference the guitar of choice throughout this has been my Gordon Smith Graduate in Vintage Sunburst, Rosewood fingerboard, with tune-o-matic bridge, tapped pots, Seymour Duncan APH-1 in the neck and a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates in the Bridge, and using Ernie Ball RPS 10’s with a Steve Clayton Acetal 0.63 pick. And my fingers that are obviously custom to me 😉