Alamo Montclair amp

  • Thread starter Thread starter pdadda
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No idea what a sound city is. Is it single handedly responsible for your awesomeness?

Ouch. Neil Young. He sucks, too. I play rockabilly. I prefer the high asses, but I never really paid alot of attention to the bangs, so I have no preference.

Bragging about your gear makes you look like a dork.
 
that's sooooo rock n roll man...

cephus said:
No idea what a sound city is. Is it single handedly responsible for your awesomeness?...
Bragging about your gear makes you look like a dork.
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I guess this is just a simple case of my dorky informed tone junkie nature versus your complete apathy for tone as you're too "rock n roll" to bother. Tell us another story about how you argued "with other musicians about the qualities of different nationalities' pussies." That's soooo rock n roll. I'm sorry I "don't understand the music." Perhaps you can enlighten me about how I can better understand it by buying crappy gear instead of investing in not only time playing, but a righteous tone. Some of those early T-Rex records, the tone and the style in which Marc Bolan played them made the record (a Sound City for the record). Johnny Thunders' Les Paul Jr. through his Orange stack made the Heartbreakers and just reached through the speakers and grabbed you. It's the difference between settling for "something that works" and something spectacular.
And you're right, I am a dork, probably not cool enough for rock n roll. I guess I'll live vicariously through you on this message board.
 
hungovermorning said:
Shouldn't you be playing your Peavey instead of poking fun of my Sound City on the Internet? Hippocrate.
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He's a doctor? ;^)
 
TravisinFlorida said:
I don't think pc boards really have anything to do with tone and probably most radio shack grade parts would be fine too. I do think the blues jr. is pretty anemic for a tube amp. I do have to say that I've never heard one with really good tubes in it. That could change my mind twice over.........but I doubt it. :D
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Anemic? Mine is not very loud; with dual EL84's it wouldn't be, but it's definitely not anemic. It's not very versatile, but it does a fat overdriven tone pretty well.
 
hungovermorning said:
I guess I'll live vicariously through you on this message board.
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Join the club.

I think that people who assign greater weight to the equipment than the technique are flat out wrong. I also think that I have gotten really good recorded tones out of total crap equipment and have been disappointed when someone brings in some really nice piece that doesn't seem worth all the hype.

I wanted to tease you because you obviously were posting under the context that "maybe you aren't good enough to hear the difference, but I am" and I think I am good enough to hear that there is not really a perceptible difference and you couldn't pick your amp out of a lineup in a blindfold test.

It's not the rock and roll thing. It's a hillbilly thing. Everyone knows that a '74 chevy half ton is way better than a brand new Tundra, right?
 
Just my opinion. Does gear matter? Yes. Should you let it hold you up? Of course not. Should you settle for "good enough"? That depends on wether you've heard "kick ass". I agree with hungovermorning. The right gear can be very inspiring. This is coming from someone that spent most of his life playing thru shitty gear with a few exceptions here and there. I'm the last person that wants it to be true but I can't deny it. I don't think "getting it" has anything to do with skill level. If you've plugged into an amp that made you say "holy shit, is this thing magic?", you know you've "gotten it" and "getting it" is probably worse than heroine. I think that some guys will never "get it" simply because of the guitar sound that they go for.

I still think the Blues Jr. is about the shittiest tube amp I've ever played thru. :D Yea, it's a one trick amp and imo it's trick ain't nothing to write home about. That said, it's probably better than any solid state amp I've tried. That's all subjective though.

If it works for you, that's all that matters.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
I still think the Blues Jr. is about the shittiest tube amp I've ever played thru. :D Yea, it's a one trick amp and imo it's trick ain't nothing to write home about. That said, it's probably better than any solid state amp I've tried. That's all subjective though.

If it works for you, that's all that matters.
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I have to disagree, but that's why there's different amps. A friend of mine who has an extremely nice Boogie and a great old Twin, who has owned various Marshalls, Fenders, etc. over the years, and who is a miles better guitarist than I am, borrows my Blues Jr frequently and has been after me to sell it to him for years. The tone he gets out of it is just plain killer. For myself, I can't say that it is the best tube amp I've ever played through, but it is leaps and bounds away from the worst. I dunno, maybe you've just never heard a good one.
 
I owned an Alamo Montclair that I purchased used in 1976 and sold it 20 years later for what I'd paid for it when factored for inflation. That said, I would not buy one again. It was OK for a college student who wanted an amp and did not have a lot of money. But I think $400 for an amp that went out of production 40 years ago when the company went belly-up is way too much money. If one wants a tube amp one can purchase a brand new one for that much money--and have a warranty to boot if something goes wrong. You won't have that with a used amp that was past its prime 30 years ago--even if it has had a major overhaul.
 
Thanks for all your reviews/opinions, both positive and negative. In response to the last comment, the amp is a HEAVILY modded Alamo montclair, basically a fender deluxe tweed in an alamo cabinet. I'm not personally concerned about the age of the amp (especially since it was recently serviced), but more about the tone. I have bought lots of new music equipment at stores like GC and Sam Ash and been surprised at how little the warranty meant. I feel more comfortable that a good engineer personally wired this amp rather than somebody in a factory in another country for low pay. Just my opinion though.

To me, the gear only matters when you reach the potential limits of your gear. It has taken me 15 years of guitar playing to even search for a new amp. I have been happy with my Princeton Chorus, and I still love its clean channel. The gain/distortion is not the sound I'm after, even after messing with the amp for years and running distortion pedals up front and through the effects loop. The Alamo has the overdrive sound I am after. This Princeton Chorus may have the exact distortion sound someone else is looking for. My other top contender was a Fender Blues Deluxe. I think the overdrive is great on that amp too. The amp was a little to bright for my taste, even after messing with the EQ a bunch (even though I found it MUCH more pleasant sounding than a hot rod deluxe). Also, I went to GC to try the blues deluxe, and the first 2 "straight out of the box" amps were busted in some serious way. The third one sounded great, but I became concerned about the build quality if I was gonna drop $650 on it.
 
I played a new twin in a local store earlier this year that died after a few minutes. I guess they don't build them like they used to. Oh, and it didn't sound that good either...........not bad but nothing special.........definately not worth the price tag.
 
Mesa

cephus said:
I never heard a single person play out with a mesa boogie that didn't use way too much distortion. That seems to be what these things are good at.
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Wow. I use a Mesa Boogie Mk III. I play funk, motown, and soul all night. I mean, I bought it so I would have a good lead channel if needed. But the clean channel is amazing, and it's got tons of power.

It's a big world out there. You ought to step out and take a look sometime. Those broad statements wouldn't fall out of your mouth so often.
 
OK, I now own the combo. It came with a vintage jensen special design 12" installed. Great tone, but it can't really handle the low E on my guitar, even at low volume. The guy tossed 2 Celestion G12K-85 speakers into the deal, so I popped out the jensen and tossed one of those in. The amp is set up for 8 ohms, and the Celestion is a 16 ohm speaker. I noticed a louder hum right away, but the buzz from the low E was gone. I think this speaker is a little too big for the cabinet though (the back is about a mm away from one of my tubes). So I'm looking for reccomendations for another single 12" speaker to buy to try out. I play rock and blues.
 
Also, would it damage the alamo amp to plug the output (it was rewired so that I can plug it into external speakers through an added jack) into the mono effects loop return of my Fender Princeton Chorus?
 
I am still very interested in the answer to my last question. But here is one more. I have a baffle that fits this cabinet that can hold 2 8" speakers, and I have 2 good 8" speakers as well. Before I go about seeing if they sound any good in there, has anyone ever heard of a guitar amp that sounds good that uses 8" speakers? I'm afraid I'll lose too much low end.
 
don't connect a speaker out to anything but a speaker or dummy load.
 
Travis in Florida is right. DO NOT CONNECT THE OUTPUT OF THE AMPLIFIER INTO THE EFFECTS RETURN OF SECOND AMP. Unless of course, your spouse is an underemployed amp tech to whom you owe big favors. Or maybe the second amp belongs to your ex.
 
OK thanks. Out of curiosity, what would this do to either amp/speaker?
 
like the electronics geeks say, "you'll let the smoke out".
 
sorry bout your luck pup!!!!!!

are ya tone deaf hillbillybob??? solid state crap sounds like a wholelotta chainsaws tryin to hit a lick! tube amps are not all about the tone, its mostly about the feel when the tubes get hot it lets you ring the neck squeezing the trigger instead of of yanking on it sorta like your best DATE LOL!! p.s. Hank the third is probly your idea of music huh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek::mad::D:cool::cool::cool:
 
loveofjazz said:
Wow. I use a Mesa Boogie Mk III. I play funk, motown, and soul all night. I mean, I bought it so I would have a good lead channel if needed. But the clean channel is amazing, and it's got tons of power.

It's a big world out there. You ought to step out and take a look sometime. Those broad statements wouldn't fall out of your mouth so often.[ RIGHT ON BROTHER BOOGIE!!!:cool:
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