Question about recording guitar amps....

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gene12586

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I have a Fender Deluxe Reverb and am looking to do some home recording with it. I've read that for recording purposes, it's better to have both the cabinet and head pieces. Will the head piece make that much of a difference?

Gene
 
The Fender Deluxe Reverb is a combo, so I guess I don't know why you would need a head? or am I misunderstanding something? I know alot of people that record with combos, alot that record with seperate heads in a control room with the cab in a sound room. It all depends on the sound you want, the mics you got, and what you can afford. But if you want to just mic your Fender Deluxe Reverb and record, I personally don't see an issue with it.
 
Yup...what phriq said.

I use combos all the time...and it's no different than recording a head/cab rig. My studio is one open space, so I have need to bring a head into a "control room" with the cab outside.

What was your concern about the combo or what exactly did you read about it being "better"...?
 
miroslav said:
What was your concern about the combo or what exactly did you read about it being "better"...?
Click to expand...

I think that's a lot of people's concern actually. A lot of people seem to think you need this monstrous 100 watt tube head and a 4x12 to get a good recording.
 
Capt Hair said:
A lot of people seem to think you need this monstrous 100 watt tube head and a 4x12 to get a good recording.
Click to expand...

Which, in my opinion, is totally bunk. You're only micing one cone, so unless you have a room, the rest are a waste. Personally, I don't mind combos at all. However, if I do record using a head, I would rather have a single 12" or 2x12 cab to mic as opposed to having a massive 4x12 cranked to 11. Guitar amps are your source of your gain structure, so why ruin it with over-pressing your amp? (Unless, once again, that is the sound you want).
 
Not to get haughty, here, but I think from reading between the lines here, that no one who has responded yet owns a Deluxe Reverb. I do- a vintage silver face one, but for our purposes here, black face, silver face or reissue are all the same. Do allow me to chime in, here.

DR's are combos- there was never a model of DR that was a head/combo (there may well have been something that was darn close, but it had a different name, and I am too tired to research it. Ask Lt. Bob what can happen when I post when I am tired, and you will realize you are lucky I don't stay up late, researching...) But, DR's do have jacks on the back, with which one can plug in either the on-board speaker, or an extension cab, or both. The biggest complaint folks have with combos may be that, as the speaker and the chassis are in the same cab, and 12AX7 tubes are always somewhat microphonic, vibrations from the speaker can travel through the cab and into the pre-amp tubes- which causes something of a feedback-like loop. Having a separate head and cab breaks that loop, and you will avoid the nasties that loop could cause. If you unplug the DR's speaker and plug in a different cab, you have done essentially the same thing.

A few more things about the DR. The vintage ones are rated at 22 watts, and drive a single 12" speaker. Even a 22-watter, cranked to 10 (sorry, the amp pre-dates Spinal Tap) will be painfully loud in most studios, and DR's do not have a master volume control. If you want power tube distortion, put a true attenuator (not that rip-off POS some asshat sells on ebay) between the amp and whatever speaker cab you are running. Really, DR's are terrific club amps (Fat Mat's Rib Shack in Atlanta uses them,) but for studio work it might be a bit over-powering. A Princeton or even a Champ might suit you better for studio use.
 
Closed back is a different tone than open as well (beyond the tone variations of the actual drivers).
But then you could have closed back combo too, so a bit of a side step..
 
stevieb said:
The biggest complaint folks have with combos may be that, as the speaker and the chassis are in the same cab, and 12AX7 tubes are always somewhat microphonic, vibrations from the speaker can travel through the cab and into the pre-amp tubes- which causes something of a feedback-like loop. Having a separate head and cab breaks that loop, and you will avoid the nasties that loop could cause. If you unplug the DR's speaker and plug in a different cab, you have done essentially the same thing.
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That's why asked the OP what was his real concern and what exactly did he read about combos.

I have 3 combos at the moment, and have had other ones in the past...and never had a problem with tube vibrations except when I use to have Peavey Delta Blues for a short period, but I fixed that with better tube springs.
AFA microphonic tubes...they are as much trouble in a head as in a combo because they'll ring at the slightest bit of noise, so unless you drag the head to a different room, it's still a problem, though sometimes, the microphonic tunes just ring any time they pass signal/electricity...so with them it's best to just swap them out.

I guess the point is that if your amp has sonic issues, they are best dealt with directly, and in that regard a combo records perfectly fine 100% of the time if it has no issues to begin with.
 
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