the dairy giant
New member
Ok, I've played guitar forever, I'm pretty accomplished but I'm not a gear head or tone freak kinda person. I've never even played through a tube amp, to my knowledge... most of my playing lately has been at home, recording into Logic, using Amplitube etc.
But I do play live... in a kinda jazzy duo, using a 335 copy. this I play through a Zoom GT7-something directly into the PA. It usually sounds pretty good, scoff if you will. its warm and clean and is great for a clean jazzy vocal accompaniment. Kinda tuck andress-ish sound, with a wee bit od distortion sometimes from the little toy tube thats in the Zoom.
I have also played for a more rock outfit.. quite dynamic, using lotsa settings on the zoom, from ambient washy echo stuff to heavy powerchords. I plugged the left side of the zoom into a powered floor monitor from my stage sound and the right into the PA (no stereo effects so didnt matter). The sound guy said it was about the best guitar sound he had had live for the cleanish effected stuff, still good but not great for the distortion (though I think that might have been my settings as much as anything).
and now Im also playing in a western swing kinda outfit, like Hot club of cowtown, if anyone knows them ( I didn't, they are way cool though, even though I'm not a country person...). The guitarist plays a vintage Gibson L5 through a vintage 30's Gibson amp. I really don't want to play my zoom through a powered monitor for this! (even though I could get a useable sound I'm sure).
I also have a big old Yamaha G100-115 II, which gets a lot of cred for a tranny amp, but its crapping out, and its sooooo heavy.
SOOOOO.... I am looking at new amps. I kinda thought the tech21 trademark 60 would be ideal, coz I'm not a tube snob, and it has cool features, its light, probably reliable... but there aren't any in my city that I can try. I'd have to buy one unheard, or pay $70 to get one shipped from another branch of the Rockshop to try... I really liked the boost switch on each channel, so i could have a clean sound and overdrive sound, and boost each a little for solos. and the emulated speaker out to go to a PA.
then I though something like a fender blues junior, so I could play a real amp with tubes...but do i want that? I dont want heavy, i dont want fragile, and I'm not that into blistering distortion, or blues based riffing stuff, thats just not my thing really. And thats where a lot of tube people seem to be coming from. I dont want to have to wind up the volume to reach some fragile balance of tone nirvana with the sag and the whole shooting match. I want to get easily reapatable sounds, at any volume level. good sounds of course.
I get so caught up in reading other peoples opinions, I want a reliable tranny amp like the tech1 with some nice features, then I hear people going on about tube amps and I think I gotta have one.
what do I want? people with lots of amp experience, help me here!
thanks
But I do play live... in a kinda jazzy duo, using a 335 copy. this I play through a Zoom GT7-something directly into the PA. It usually sounds pretty good, scoff if you will. its warm and clean and is great for a clean jazzy vocal accompaniment. Kinda tuck andress-ish sound, with a wee bit od distortion sometimes from the little toy tube thats in the Zoom.
I have also played for a more rock outfit.. quite dynamic, using lotsa settings on the zoom, from ambient washy echo stuff to heavy powerchords. I plugged the left side of the zoom into a powered floor monitor from my stage sound and the right into the PA (no stereo effects so didnt matter). The sound guy said it was about the best guitar sound he had had live for the cleanish effected stuff, still good but not great for the distortion (though I think that might have been my settings as much as anything).
and now Im also playing in a western swing kinda outfit, like Hot club of cowtown, if anyone knows them ( I didn't, they are way cool though, even though I'm not a country person...). The guitarist plays a vintage Gibson L5 through a vintage 30's Gibson amp. I really don't want to play my zoom through a powered monitor for this! (even though I could get a useable sound I'm sure).
I also have a big old Yamaha G100-115 II, which gets a lot of cred for a tranny amp, but its crapping out, and its sooooo heavy.
SOOOOO.... I am looking at new amps. I kinda thought the tech21 trademark 60 would be ideal, coz I'm not a tube snob, and it has cool features, its light, probably reliable... but there aren't any in my city that I can try. I'd have to buy one unheard, or pay $70 to get one shipped from another branch of the Rockshop to try... I really liked the boost switch on each channel, so i could have a clean sound and overdrive sound, and boost each a little for solos. and the emulated speaker out to go to a PA.
then I though something like a fender blues junior, so I could play a real amp with tubes...but do i want that? I dont want heavy, i dont want fragile, and I'm not that into blistering distortion, or blues based riffing stuff, thats just not my thing really. And thats where a lot of tube people seem to be coming from. I dont want to have to wind up the volume to reach some fragile balance of tone nirvana with the sag and the whole shooting match. I want to get easily reapatable sounds, at any volume level. good sounds of course.
I get so caught up in reading other peoples opinions, I want a reliable tranny amp like the tech1 with some nice features, then I hear people going on about tube amps and I think I gotta have one.
what do I want? people with lots of amp experience, help me here!
thanks