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ColonelJohnMatrix
Jun 24, 2006

Because all fucking hell is going to break loose

So after purchasing my Mustang 2 last week I wound up returning it due to being unhappy with it at gigging volume.

I researched and played a variety of 4-15w cheap tube amps and wound up scoring a 15w Fender Super Champ XD (I bought the older XD, not the newer X2). I got it for $300 w/ footswitch from a local shop. Channel 1 is the standard Fender ultra clean tube sound which sounds awesome with a touch of reverb and takes pedals very well. Channel 2 is the hybrid modeling channel which uses solid state circuitry for a variety of amp "voicings". I taped a cheat sheet to the top of the amp with notes on each voicing so I could see them clearly at a gig for easy on the fly changes.

I rehearsed with it and found the AC30 dirty & Hot Rod Deville dirty channels to be loving tits. I've owned both of those amps before and the voicings are probably 90 percent accurate. The acoustic simulator channel is also great. My bandmates and I were very pleased at rehearsal but we wanted to see how it performed at a gig.

I gigged with it Saturday night for a 4 hour show. The thing is a dream. Both the clean and dirty channels sounded so good that I didn't even use any of my pedals, save for my wah and tuner! The onboard delay and reverb sound 100 percent authentic. We play Another Brick in the Wall pt 1, 2, and 3 and with my strat it sounded perfect.

Several other musicians were there that night and kept asking what the hell that little thing was. The band that opened for us had 2 guitar players using 60w Marshall halfstacks and were so loud that people were leaving the bar. 15w is perfect because I can crank it up to around 7 to get the tubes hot but the volume is still under control so I'm not causing issues. The sound guy loved me.

All in all I could not be more impressed with the lil' Super Champ. It sounds beautiful, is easy to use, takes up no space and is light, and was crazy cheap.

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Declan MacManus
Sep 1, 2011

damn i'm really in this bitch

Do you mic your amp in rehearsal or is it really able to keep up with a drumset cranked halfway?

ColonelJohnMatrix
Jun 24, 2006

Because all fucking hell is going to break loose

For rehearsal it's unmic'd. It's set right around 8 (less so on the dirty channels, as it's loud around 6-7) so I still have some headroom. I love this little thing.

I've already started planning on doing some modding. I'm going to change out the stock Fender speaker for a Weber.

Revvik
Jul 29, 2006
Fun Shoe
Gun to your head: Mesa Nomad 4x10 combo, or Mesa Heartbreaker 2x10? I want to go from punk, blues, and bar rock and I have these two options available to me.

The Electronaut
May 10, 2009

Revvik posted:

Gun to your head: Mesa Nomad 4x10 combo, or Mesa Heartbreaker 2x10? I want to go from punk, blues, and bar rock and I have these two options available to me.

I don't think the HB came as 2x10, I have a purple 2x12 one in storage. It is heavy as hell amp: 11 tubes iirc, reverb tank, 3 transformers, plus the speakers. It weighs more than my 5150 combo.

DiscoDickTease
Mar 19, 2009

Hi, boys and girls, I'm Jimmy Carl Black, and I'm the Indian of the group!
Holy loving pisspants do I love my new amp. I rented one of these 6 years ago and I swore I would have to get one in the future because I never sounded that good. It is THE SOUND that I have been looking for. My last amp (Orange TH30 head) was alright in the terms of cleans but the distortion was so buzzy and weak. It was more of a high gain amp where as I wanted more of a pretty overdriven classic sound.

More importantly I paid so very little for the amp!

I run it through an Orange PPC212 closed back cab and the bass response (along with all the other poo poo) is insane! Anytime I hit a big chord air seemed like is was chuffing out of the F holes on my ES-335 Block inlay!

The best ever ever ever ever.....

I present the 1997 Marshall 1987x 50 Watt Superlead.

Revvik
Jul 29, 2006
Fun Shoe

The Electronaut posted:

I don't think the HB came as 2x10, I have a purple 2x12 one in storage. It is heavy as hell amp: 11 tubes iirc, reverb tank, 3 transformers, plus the speakers. It weighs more than my 5150 combo.

Yeah I definitely meant 2x12. How is yours for the purposes I've stated? Leaning heavily towards blind buying the Nomad 4x10...

The Electronaut
May 10, 2009

Revvik posted:

Yeah I definitely meant 2x12. How is yours for the purposes I've stated? Leaning heavily towards blind buying the Nomad 4x10...

No clue honestly. Part of inheritance, so it sits along with approx. 30 other amps in storage a couple thousand miles away. I never played while my dad was alive. Only started a year ago. It and the 5150 combo made me hate combos, I'll never buy one.

...

I picked up a RedPlate Amps Magic Dust Duo head recently, it has all the Dumbly goodness you could ask for and then some.

BobOfDoom
May 24, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post
I picked up an Engl 4x12XXL cab for an amazing deal ($200!) and now I need a head for it. I'm pretty close on pulling the trigger on a Peavey 6534+. I see nothing but good reviews for it all around, but there really aren't many reviews period. Anyone here had a chance to play on them? High gain modern sound is the obvious draw, but a solid clean is pretty paramount as well. Also, how does it compare to a Mesa Boogie TripleRec?

BobOfDoom fucked around with this message at 08:56 on Oct 26, 2012

RetardedRobots
Dec 19, 2010

Have you seen this man?
Melon "Weed" Dude 1936 - 2011
Rest in peace, you shitposting bastard.
How do you get 11 tubes? 4 power tubes, 3 preamp for each of the two channels and 1 rectifier?

The Electronaut
May 10, 2009

RetardedRobots posted:

How do you get 11 tubes? 4 power tubes, 3 preamp for each of the two channels and 1 rectifier?

I was off by one, going off memory.

4 power, 1 recto, and 7 12ax7.

7:

2 channel 1
2 channel 2
1 Phase Inverter
1 Reverb
1 FX loop

the wizards beard
Apr 15, 2007
Reppin

4 LIFE 4 REAL

RetardedRobots posted:

How do you get 11 tubes? 4 power tubes, 3 preamp for each of the two channels and 1 rectifier?

I have an amp with 5 preamp tubes and 6 power tubes.

Oscar Romeo Romeo
Apr 16, 2010

Something's bugging the poo poo out of me. When I'm at home, I never play with the master volume on my amp higher than 1, if I have the day off work I'll push it up to 3 since its a small room, the neighbours aren't around, and I can Bill n' Ted for a few hours. I use a Carvin V3M, now at those low volume levels the valves don't glow much or give off much heat. You can rest your palm on the top of the metal housing and not get burned, its just a bit warm, and there's a dim glow coming from the valves. A few days ago I'd only been playing for about twenty minutes and all valves were glowing brighter than the sun and the room was hotter than a Finnish sauna. At first I didn't care, I've seen and felt the thing cook like that in clubs, but then there was the horrible burning smell and the realization that I was at home, in a tiny room and wasn't pushing the amp at all, so clearly something was wrong. I turned everything off and let it sit for a few minutes to cool down. It hasn't done that since, but its driving me mad trying to figure out what the gently caress drove it to nearly burn out.

After The War
Apr 12, 2005

to all of my Architects
let me be traitor
Sounds like you've blown the bias resistor(s). It's what keeps the tubes regulated at just the right amount of current and prevents them from burning out/destroying other components. Take the amp to a tech ASAP to find out how much damage has been done. With luck, you'll just need the resistor(s) replaced, but will probably need new power tubes as well. Also make sure that your fuse is the correct value, it should blow if the tubes start drawing too much current and certainly before it overheats the room.

Most of all (and this should go without saying, but just in case), don't turn on the amp again until you've had it looked at!

spiritual bypass
Feb 19, 2008

Grimey Drawer
I have some old particleboard stereo speakers that look like they'd be just big enough to make into a 2x12 cab. Is there any reason this is a bad idea? It seems very convenient to me.

On a related note, what are some good brands of inexpensive guitar speakers to put into this cabinet?

After The War
Apr 12, 2005

to all of my Architects
let me be traitor
I've seen this tried a few times, but the reason you never see cabs made of thin particleboard (or decent stereo speakers, for that matter) is that it just doesn't sound good. Cabs and combos are heavy both to support large speaker magnets but also with enough resonance to fill a room. If you're trying to build up something low-power/low volume for trashy recordings, it could work, but I can't see anything gig-worthy coming of it.

This is one of those "if it were that easy, the big boys would have been doing it for ages" moments.

Boz0r
Sep 7, 2006
The Rocketship in action.
I've got a Marshall JVM 410 combo and I've realized that it's too drat loud and heavy. Does anyone have any recommendations for a head/cab combination that will hit an early Van Halen sound with a little Extra to go but also gets a near-clean sound? I play glam rock/metal but I also need to play some pop songs occasionally. Maybe something close to Satchel's tone in Steel Panther.

Boz0r fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Dec 9, 2012

niff
Jul 4, 2010
any of you tube amp connoiseurs own a 60s Sunn 2000S or 350B? i plan on building a clone of one if i can't get one shipped over to new zealand, and i'd be interested on hearing some opinions - especially about the tube vs. ss rectifiers, the ridiculous spacing of the chassis, the trannys the size of a baby's head..

After The War
Apr 12, 2005

to all of my Architects
let me be traitor
Building any of those high-power, ultralinear monstrosities would be a tremendous undertaking. They're from an era when there was still such a thing as industrial tube use and parts were easier to come by. The transformers alone for a 2000S are running 295 and 420 USD (for power and output respectively) on Mercury Magnetics. If you really want one, you may have to hold out for a seller willing to ship internally.

On the other hand, if you're looking for an amp project, there are some other designs you will be able to find parts for. Just not these historical aberrations.

I love 'em, too, but there's a reason I keep praying to the Transformer Gods to protect my 135w Twin.

niff
Jul 4, 2010

After The War posted:

Building any of those high-power, ultralinear monstrosities would be a tremendous undertaking. They're from an era when there was still such a thing as industrial tube use and parts were easier to come by. The transformers alone for a 2000S are running 295 and 420 USD (for power and output respectively) on Mercury Magnetics. If you really want one, you may have to hold out for a seller willing to ship internally.

On the other hand, if you're looking for an amp project, there are some other designs you will be able to find parts for. Just not these historical aberrations.

I love 'em, too, but there's a reason I keep praying to the Transformer Gods to protect my 135w Twin.

after customs, GST, currency conversion and shipping costs it ends up being much cheaper to build one - if you can find someone willing/able, and i only know one and he is ridiculously busy. hey, at least the preamp section is easy, and you can use an SS rectifier instead of a cross-your-fingers-when-you-turn-it-on tube rectifier to modernise it a tiny bit. it is truly the beautiful power section that gives you the most trouble whether built or bought - such is life.

there's some mojo to these old things. they may just be super-sized 50s hi-fi stereo systems, but every modern tube amp i've played is a boring soulless husk in comparison.

After The War
Apr 12, 2005

to all of my Architects
let me be traitor
The earliest Sunns were basically modded Dynaco stereos, but by the time they were doing monstrosities like the 2000S, everything was being made to order.

On the other hand, if you're down with building your own preamp, you could probably do like the Sundholm brothers did and modify an existing tube power amp - Dynaco or the local equivalent. I just popped onto TradeMe and saw an amp very similar to the Stereo 70 around which the earliest Sunns were built (and I still use for video games and porn listening to records).

Boz0r
Sep 7, 2006
The Rocketship in action.
If I want a THD Hot Plate, can I hook a 8 Ohm version up to the 16 Ohm output when I have a 2 speaker cab without damaging something?

Manky
Mar 20, 2007


Fun Shoe
Oof, the Orange Micro Terror is lovely. $150 to sound like the real deal. $250 with a paired cab (recommended). Sounds grrreat with a Boss '63 Fender Reverb.

After The War
Apr 12, 2005

to all of my Architects
let me be traitor

Boz0r posted:

If I want a THD Hot Plate, can I hook a 8 Ohm version up to the 16 Ohm output when I have a 2 speaker cab without damaging something?

I'm not a Hot Plate expert, but no one else has responded so I'll give it a shot. The attenuator doesn't care what it's being plugged into, as long as it has the expected impedance. So if you're using an 8 ohm version and have two 16 ohm cabs, make sure they're set up to run in parallel. As long as the attenuator has an 8 ohm load, it should be fine.

Loaf32
Feb 18, 2007

I'M NOT ABOUT TO START SPENDING MONEY ON THE FORUMS, THANKS.
Hey all, I'm still working through a lot of the potential in using amps (mostly played my banjo acoustic, and when I amped it, it was just through an ss practice amp). I have a Sunn Beta Lead and footswitch, and I'm just spitballing some possibilities and want to make sure I'm not being retarded.

The Beta Lead has two channels, and a 'both' option. I'm thinking I should be able to plug my guitar into channel A, the banjo into channel B, and use the footswitch to select which instrument would be active. The point that I'm really curious about is if I used the 'both' option and had both channels going simultaneously, using the guitar or banjo for feedback while I play the other.

On a scale of 1-yes, how dumb am I for thinking this should work?

niff
Jul 4, 2010

Loaf32 posted:

Hey all, I'm still working through a lot of the potential in using amps (mostly played my banjo acoustic, and when I amped it, it was just through an ss practice amp). I have a Sunn Beta Lead and footswitch, and I'm just spitballing some possibilities and want to make sure I'm not being retarded.

The Beta Lead has two channels, and a 'both' option. I'm thinking I should be able to plug my guitar into channel A, the banjo into channel B, and use the footswitch to select which instrument would be active. The point that I'm really curious about is if I used the 'both' option and had both channels going simultaneously, using the guitar or banjo for feedback while I play the other.

On a scale of 1-yes, how dumb am I for thinking this should work?

I can't quite recall, on the Beta Lead does it blend A and B inputs together, or does it simply blend the channels together?

You're not crazy, anyway, awesome idea - if it does actually work as you describe I would wholeheartedly recommend that you get some kind of foot control for the feedback like an MXR micro amp, some kind of cheap distortion or booster, or even a volume pedal if you have the amp cranked to feedback levels by default.

Loaf32
Feb 18, 2007

I'M NOT ABOUT TO START SPENDING MONEY ON THE FORUMS, THANKS.

niff posted:

I can't quite recall, on the Beta Lead does it blend A and B inputs together, or does it simply blend the channels together?

You're not crazy, anyway, awesome idea - if it does actually work as you describe I would wholeheartedly recommend that you get some kind of foot control for the feedback like an MXR micro amp, some kind of cheap distortion or booster, or even a volume pedal if you have the amp cranked to feedback levels by default.

The face has three inputs for A, B, and Both. A and B are each separate preamps, and I've been reading conflicting reports on whether there is a single power amp or if there is separate direction to each speaker in the unit. I don't have any problems with experimenting. I'm more concerned that I would hurt the amp. If it won't hurt anything, then I'll just plug everything in and see what happens!

Boz0r
Sep 7, 2006
The Rocketship in action.
I'm thinking of getting a new amp. I've got a Marshall JVM410C and it sucks having to lug a 35kg combo around, and I've never had the master above 3-4. I play mainly 80ies glam rock/metal so I'd like to get close to that hot-rodded JCM800 sound. I'd like an effects loop and more than one channel, preferably seperate EQs. Those lunchbox-sized amps look pretty good so I've been looking at the Dual Terror and the Mesa Transatlantic, but they don't seem to have both.

Any ideas? Head + cab setup.

EDIT: Budget under 1500€

Boz0r fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Jan 22, 2013

Alec Bald Snatch
Sep 12, 2012

by exmarx
Maybe a Mini Rectifier?

The Grapist
Mar 12, 2003

All in all I think I had a pretty normal childhood.
Marshall JCM1 and JVM1. Tried out the JCM1 and it nails the tone of my JCM800 but a bit more hot rodded gain thanks to the Jubilee boost, and much more manageable.

Boz0r
Sep 7, 2006
The Rocketship in action.
I went and tried the Mini Rectifier. It sounds pretty awesome and it's probably the one I'm gonna get, even though it's a bit pricey. I thought it was going to sound too modern metal br00talz for my taste but the vintage setting sound very good. They didn't have the 1 Watt Marshalls, but I'll ask them to order it. Will 1 watt be loud enough for band practice, though?

Boz0r fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Jan 24, 2013

nrr
Jan 2, 2007

Hi amp thread. I recently accosted guitar thread with amp questions because this thread had fallen off the main page and I didn't realize it existed, but now that I know it does...

Due to travelling and not really having a home base where I could justify an amp, I've been playing mostly acoustic for the last 8 years and have no real idea what tone I should be looking for. I play a mix of bluesy soulfull (think Hendrix's Little Wing) through to heavy, jump around rock (kind of like RATM) and am looking for an amp that I can use for home practicing/recording stuff, but that will also be able to gig with in small to medium venues if need be.

I'm looking at buying used to keep costs down, and would like to spend ~ $500, although would be willing to maybe even go as high as double that if it's really going to be worth my while. Guitar thread guys had me leaning towards a Blues Jr, and I'm thinking that maybe what I want is something with a really nice, big, fat clean sound, that takes pedals well to get me to that big rock tone when I need it. I'm playing a Les Paul Standard with Burstbucker Pros.

I've been tooling around with some amps in Amplitube and actually really like the tones I'm getting out of the '59 Bassman and even the Orange Dual Terror. I've got a feeling that both of those might be out of my range both in budget and in how loud they're going to be for playing at home.

Any suggestions or advice would be mucho apreciated.

Warcabbit
Apr 26, 2008

Wedge Regret
A Marshall is a Bassman with british tubes. Essentially. Or was, at one point. As I said there, what are you going to do with it?

Schlieren
Jan 7, 2005

LEZZZZZZZZZBIAN CRUSH

nrr posted:

Any suggestions or advice would be mucho apreciated.

I might supplement my MusicMan 212HD 130 combo at some point, but it's so versatile that I'll always have it nearby. It's a bit loud and heavy for your needs, but if you're interested in a Fender, make sure to look for any used MM's in your area. They are traditionally undervalued so you can usually pick up a good deal. I'm thinking like a MM 65 Reverb, or a 210 65 combo, something like that. Even the single speaker MusicMan amps are pretty cool. Try to get an older one with the valve serving as a phase inverter.

Please note however that if one of these has its original tubes, they're going to need replacement sooner than later, same with some of the caps. If you can get the owner to give you a look at the chassis, you could probably get an idea of the amp's overall care through the years.

All I really wanted was something loud as gently caress with tons of headroom, but it turns out that with 130 watt / 65 watt options, and the low / high inputs, I've really got a flexible rig.

I agree with you that LPs are a good combination with Fender-y amps like the MusicMan... if you're going for bluesy, I think it sounds best to have the amp (scooped) and the guitar (warm) sort of in competition with one another. If you had a single coil guitar I'd tell you to go for some sort of Marshall clone, for example.

nrr
Jan 2, 2007

Warcabbit posted:

A Marshall is a Bassman with british tubes. Essentially. Or was, at one point. As I said there, what are you going to do with it?

Well, as of right now, there's nothing solid but I would like to have options. I'm working with a DJ/Producer on some recording stuff and the hope is to be able to play live together with him for shows in clubs eventually. Along with that there's another project I'm working on that will probably be playing smallish 2-300 person venues. Most of that is a bit down the track yet though and for the immediate future is going to be playing/recording at home, maybe with a drummer from time to time. I'd like to be able to get something now that is going to keep me covered down the track instead of having to go out and grab something else.

Funnilly enough, since you mention Marshall, a bud of mine told me the other day that he's got a JCM900 halfstack that he's had sitting in storage for ages and he'd like to get rid of. He wants to get $800 for it but I don't need anywhere near that much power and I don't really have any way of transporting it around either. I've asked him if I can borrow it for a bit and it's at my place right now but I'm waiting on him to get the power and speaker cables to me so I can actually try it out. The cab has a JCM800 label on it, so I'm not sure how the 800 and 900 cabs differ of if that's going to be an advantage or not.


Schlieren posted:

MusicMan and other rad words.
Thanks a lot for this, I'll add MM to my list of things to check out. I'm about 2 hours away from any music stores with no transport, unfortunately, so it's a bit of a trip in itself to go and check out any of this gear. I actually have an Xaviere semi hollow Les Paul copy as well that has Soapbar Alnico P90's in it, so I've kind of got some options, but the LP is definitely my main guitar.

I've also heard some solid things about the Fender Super Champ in the guitar thread. Any opinions on that? I really wanted to stay away from modelling stuff, but it's being made to sound pretty damned impressive.

Warcabbit
Apr 26, 2008

Wedge Regret
I'm going to point out, such as it is, that I believe the Beatles didn't play with anything bigger than a 30 watter till they hit Shea Stadium. Am I wrong? Back in the day, before METAL, amps really didn't have that much juice. A surprising amount of the songs you love came out of an old 5 watt Fender Champ. (tube amp, classic)

I can say I love my FourForce, but it's an experimental sort of amp, and it's not everyone's choice. But for what you're saying, I don't think you'll really need anything _much_ bigger than a 30 watter. Unless you decide to go for a ZT Lunchbox. Which is an option that will BLOW YOUR MIND. What is it, 150 watts in a lunchbox amp? But it's very, very solid state. Really, there's no substitute for screwing around with things in person, in a store.

Will the 2-300 person venues have PAs? If so, you can probably get away with a smaller amp. But under 10 will probably get chewed by the drums. It's a fine balance. You have to lug your stuff around, so you don't want it too huge or too delicate...

Really, modelling amps have been pretty great since the last three-four years.

Warcabbit fucked around with this message at 05:37 on Jan 25, 2013

Alec Bald Snatch
Sep 12, 2012

by exmarx
Something like a Peavey Classic 30 with a boost/od would work pretty well. Unless you're playing basement shows in a really large basement you're gonna have a PA in 2-300 cap venues.

Krustic
Mar 28, 2010

Everything I say draws controversy. It's kinda like the abortion issue.
I try the super champ xd every time I go to guitar center. It's the best sub 300 dollar practice amp I've ever used. The peavey classic 30's are really good amps too. I've tried the blues junior and I liked the peavey better although the peavey didn't seem that much louder even though it's twice wattage. I also wouldn't recommend getting an amp much larger than 30 watts without an attenuator.

Schlieren
Jan 7, 2005

LEZZZZZZZZZBIAN CRUSH

Warcabbit posted:

I'm going to point out, such as it is, that I believe the Beatles didn't play with anything bigger than a 30 watter till they hit Shea Stadium. Am I wrong? Back in the day, before METAL, amps really didn't have that much juice. A surprising amount of the songs you love came out of an old 5 watt Fender Champ. (tube amp, classic)

A Fender Champ is kind of a special flower because it's a true class A amp in a sweet spot where the nice harmonics and overtones occur at a non-ridiculous volume level, so it makes a perfect amp for recording in the studio. As others have posted, something like that would probably be overpowered if it didn't have a PA.

Krustic posted:

I try the super champ xd every time I go to guitar center. It's the best sub 300 dollar practice amp I've ever used. The peavey classic 30's are really good amps too. I've tried the blues junior and I liked the peavey better although the peavey didn't seem that much louder even though it's twice wattage. I also wouldn't recommend getting an amp much larger than 30 watts without an attenuator.

I've heard good things about smaller Peavy amps constantly, and so I assume they are in that middle ground where they are really versatile in terms of the sort of genre someone is interested in playing... but I'm shallow so the really dumb logo has always turned me off. The amperage in those lower-watt amps really just means you get more "clean" space before breakup; for more SPLs (loudness) you have to look for more efficient drivers (loudspeakers) that are rated for the resistances which your amp uses.

Anything tube that is over, say, 30 watts is generally for high gain situations (the Vox AC30 being an exception in that it's generally considered very powerful for its rated wattage, not that anybody playing with super-saturated gain is going to be interested in a chimey Vox).

nrr posted:

I've also heard some solid things about the Fender Super Champ in the guitar thread. Any opinions on that? I really wanted to stay away from modelling stuff, but it's being made to sound pretty damned impressive.

I haven't ever seen Super Champs being played in the Seattle indie scene, not that that means much. In general, I'd simply say that something you really are going to want is an amp that has on it somewhere the ability to remove all the "features" from your tone loop. For example, the MM I play has two channels (high / low) with a reverb spring and a tremolo circuit, and two channels (high / low) which bypass that functionality. Any modeling or effects functionality are going to introduce more stages between your pickups and the power tubes, and rob you of that "little extra something" for which you might be looking.

For as long as I can remember, if I were playing my amp, it meant it was set to HIGH (130 watts)(4 power tubes), plugged into channel 1 (high gain), on the effects-enabled side. And that's fine, if you want to play the amp LOUD. It's only recently (needing to play more quietly in my current living situation, but still wanting some good tone) that I've been using the amp on LOW (65 watts)(2 power tubes), plugged into channel 2 (low gain) on the side which bypasses the reverb and tremolo. MusicMan amps were the first major amp manufacturer to delve into hybrid circuits (solid state preamp, valve power section), but I have to say that I haven't been happier with the sort of lovely timbre emitting from my amp since I started to experiment a bit with some of its features which I never understood before now. You'd never know it had anything solid-state in it; the breakup is totally organic, its responsiveness to touch is remarkable.

Your situation is problematic because once you finally get somewhere where you can experiment you're going to feel the pressure to buy now. If you get into town make sure to check out any used music stores, not just the ones selling new product. And when you do, don't think twice about plugging into every input, fiddling with every knob, flipping every toggle switch, and stomping every foot pedal. You might find yourself surprised at what you discover interests you.

For me, I suppose I'm fortunate because everything that sounds like something that would give me a genuinely different, but equally good range of tones is, like, some Marshall 60s / 70s reissue that costs $2500. It keeps my (lack of) money right in my wallet :)

edit: As far as your P-90 guitar is concerned, generally they are fairly high output so what sounds good with the humbuckers likely would represent the P-90 pickups equally loyally.

Schlieren fucked around with this message at 09:41 on Jan 25, 2013

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nrr
Jan 2, 2007

Thanks so much, guys. I've just finished up a 12 hour shift and have to get up and open up tomorrow, so I won't post the wall of words that I would like to right now, because I don't have the energy. I do want to say thankyou very much to all of you though because this is all super valuable to me.

Long story short, yeah I really, really badly need to get down to the city and camp out for a few days and try out anything and everything I can get my hands on, because there is no substitute for first hand experience. Please don't hold back on any more insight or advice though, because every time one of you guys adds more it gives me another target to go hunting for to try out.

Thanks a lot.

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