recording on small amps

  • Thread starter Thread starter kcearl
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a tiny tube amp through a big condenser mic = happy!

It works incredibly well.

I've got a 70's Fender Champ, newish Blues Jr., a 25W oddball 1 12" Alamo amp, and they're all too big!

The one I use for single gtr tracks is a small 50's Sonyreel to reel with a tube amplifier in it. I don't know if it's 1W or 8W, must be around that. Original tubes and everything - my Grandma bought 2 in the 50's to send tapes back and forth between Hawaii and California - I guess they didn't have Skype back then.

A friend has a some Supro's I've used and the small ones are better!

I'm always on the lookout for tube "victims" at Goodwill - tv's, radios, home organs, console stereos, phonographs... anything that takes 2 min to come on.

I don't play guitar at all, that pic in my avatar is Leslie West when he was in his late teens that I Photoshoped into my backyard.
 
well Ive just been checking ebay out and there are quite a few early 60s valve practice amps going around roughly the $200-$300 mark...the champs are going for $500+ so maybe a wee bit out my price range...buts it's already got me thinking/wanting/hiding credit card bill from wife ;)
 
Buy a used Victoria 5112 instead. I've seen then for about $600 on Ebay recently. Great sound and no worries about old caps. They take pedals really well and are generally just fun to play.
 
Small amps sound really good in small spaces. I used to record with a little peavey amp with a 57 on it in an old broken refrigerator with the door shut. It sounded massive on tape, but you could barely hear it in the room.
 
I am curious about thoughts on this regarding speaker replacement. Most of these small amp have tiny speakers i tend to think they just don't pull off the tone without a cab or speaker upgrade. For instance i have an old Gretch (Valco) 6152 5w with old RCA tubes on loan from a friend at the moment and it is pretty good, but i need to check it out through a 2x 12 cab, as currently it sounds good but tinny as hell to my ears. these seem tosell for upwards of $600-800, I don't see it myself.

Anyone out there of the opinion that the original small spaekers are important to the tone-rep these small amps have?

Incidentally, I have another vintage 12 watt lafayette (univox) that absolutely rocks, with a 12 inch speaker part of the original combo, or through external cab. The 12 watts can be loud, but the great thing about this amp is that you can get a fantastic clean with volume at 4, great crunch at 6, and waves and waves of saturated distortion at 9. Dig in when picking or go easy and you have plenty of expression options while playing at just about any volume. I picked it up for $125 and put a vintage 30 into it, along with new tubes, probably about $225 total.

Daav
 
daav said:
I am curious about thoughts on this regarding speaker replacement. Most of these small amp have tiny speakers i tend to think they just don't pull off the tone without a cab or speaker upgrade. For instance i have an old Gretch (Valco) 6152 5w with old RCA tubes on loan from a friend at the moment and it is pretty good, but i need to check it out through a 2x 12 cab, as currently it sounds good but tinny as hell to my ears. these seem tosell for upwards of $600-800, I don't see it myself.
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Though, you never know how it'll handle a mic. I'm generally a big amp guy myself (it's worth noting that most of these tones are in the "raw" rock and roll school, where a loose, raw, and ragged guitar sound is the target - you're not going to get the sort of preamp saturation and clear low end of a Rectifier out of a Champ no matter what you do, however, so for some situations they just don't cut it), but I've done some tracking here and there with a Tech-21 Trademark 30.

It's a small amp, about the size of your typical beginner practice amp, and runs through a 10" speaker. It sounds a little on the small and boxy side on its own, but it REALLY loves a microphone. It's strange.
 
c7sus said:
Buy a used Victoria 5112 instead. I've seen then for about $600 on Ebay recently. Great sound and no worries about old caps. They take pedals really well and are generally just fun to play.
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still a bit much for me to experiment with...especially since Ive chucked more than that at software amps :(

cephus said:
Small amps sound really good in small spaces. I used to record with a little peavey amp with a 57 on it in an old broken refrigerator with the door shut. It sounded massive on tape, but you could barely hear it in the room.
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love the idea of using an old fridge...genius mate :)
 
daav said:
... Anyone out there of the opinion that the original small spaekers are important to the tone-rep these small amps have?...
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I think they do. My Grandma's tape recorder has an odd oval, maybe 4x8 in speaker. I like the old small magnet speakers like those amps came with, they seem to speak real fast it's all about the mids, it kind of does the whole eq thing for you.
 
kcearl said:
still a bit much for me to experiment with...especially since Ive chucked more than that at software amps :(




love the idea of using an old fridge...genius mate :)
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What about the epi Valve jnr, about a hundred quid, 5 watts?
 
kcearl said:
Ive seen a couple of them come up second hand..I think Ill nab one next time and see what it can do :)
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I have a couple dude, stock they are quite 'dark' sounding, simple wire snip mod brightens them right up.

I stick a Marshal BB2 infront of mine, use them when I can't crank the DSL.
 
CMunch said:
I have a couple dude, stock they are quite 'dark' sounding, simple wire snip mod brightens them right up.

I stick a Marshal BB2 infront of mine, use them when I can't crank the DSL.
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great, Ill give you a yell when I spot one....hopefully next apartment will be better for noise...wont hold my breath though :)
 
cephus said:
Small amps sound really good in small spaces. I used to record with a little peavey amp with a 57 on it in an old broken refrigerator with the door shut. It sounded massive on tape, but you could barely hear it in the room.
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That's just crazy enough to work. I'll have to try that sometime.
 
I have a Silverface Champ myself and though I have never done anything with distortion on it though, since I am a clean player... But you can get a phat sound out of it alright!

I got mine at a good price at a yard sale, so keep those eyes open :)
 
kcearl said:
Ive seen a couple of them come up second hand..I think Ill nab one next time and see what it can do :)
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Not even in the same ballpark as a Champ with a good Tubescreamer. I recommend not wasting your time or your money on any amp that says Epiphone on it. Just mo......
 
About 3 years ago, I went on an ebay binge -- I had a guitar get smashed in shipping, and the insurance paid out and so I decided to use the money for amps. I made a search in the amp section for > $100 and "tube" - mostly returns tubes, but a few amps. I picked up 7 or 8 for less than $200 (most for less than $100). I was lucky enough to live pretty close to a great repair shop, with a great repair guy who was on the verge of retiring - I think I irritated the crap out of him, because I took all but one of them to him for a work-over.

My favorites:
1962 Gibson Skylark - 10 inch speaker. I got two of these - one is much better than the other, for some reason:
skylark1.jpg

Stock speaker in one, and a replacement (Weber) in the other. The Weber speakers are fantastic, imo.

1960something Silvertone 1470 - I have to be careful not to overload this one with too hot of a pickup (by turning down the volume on the guitar), otherwise it sounds farty. I think it has a 6 inch speaker - maybe 8 inch.
silvertone1470.jpg


1950something Magnatone Varsity - [no pic - mother-of-toilet-seat green] - great sounding clean - breaks up well, too, but I don't like to push it.

1960something Epiphone 101 - [no pic - blue tolex] - 10 inch speaker - *really* nice tremolo


A few of them sounded like total crap, it's worth noting -- notably one that said "AC/DC" (pre-dating the band - I think it was from the '50's and designed to work off either an AC or DC wall socket) - these sound awful and are dangerous, too - beware :)


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for the most part, I'm using the stock speakers. I had one of them re-coned, because it was falling apart. That cost about as much as a replacement, and I'm not sure it's better than a replacement :)

on the new side, I've got an Epiphone Valve Jr. head that's too dark for me - a friend used a fuzzface pedal with it and it sounded great, though. I've also got a Blues Jr. that I heavily modified - I really like it.
 
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