Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

GA,

What is a preamp? Thats a good question. On your amp think of it as the gain volume, in most smaller amps this will generate distortion while your master controls the overall volume. Your amp has 2 sections the gain stage which is the volume you would use for distortion, ussually this includes the tone controls and the effects loop if it has one. The signal then goes to another amp section (master) which controls your overall volume. True tube amps have tubes in the preamp and tubes in the master section. A hybrid amp may have tubes in the preamp and solid state amp in the master section.

The POD XT is a preamp. It by itself cant power a speaker cab. You could either run it into a power amp or a guitar amp. Most people who use something like a POD into a guitar amp will set the amp for a clean sound and then let POD get their tone or distorted sound.

A distortion pedal is a preamp. Once years ago I blew my amp at a gig and ran a distortion pedal straight into a spare pa amplifier and made it thru a gig. In fact I think I read where Kurt Kobain used to use crown power amps and drive them with distortion pedals.

If you were to get a JCM 800 you would limit what sound you can get with just the amp. An 800 is an awesome amp in my opinion, particularly the Slash model that Chris talks about in this thread. It has a sound that it does real well, but if that is not the sound you want you will limit yourself. Then you might need a preamp like a POD to dial in the specific sound that you want.

Im sure you are totally confused now.

Rock On

JW, I can do calculus easier than I could understand that! Lmao. Neh, just kidding man. I think I get the basic idea, thanks for explaining it so in depth for me.

I see what you mean, actually, I found an amplifier I like man. Tell me what you think, it is a Marshall JCM2000 DSL100. Maybe you have played through it before. I watched a bunch of people demo it online, it has a great sound to it, really great sound, I love it. It is like that old fashion rock sound mixed with a more modern tone.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

GA I think the DSL is a solid amp. I think Jimmy Danger mentioned on here that he had one, so he might chime in.


We can talk amps all day long but the bottom line is an amp should make you want to play on it. It and the guitar and whatever else you are using should make you want to play. Music to me is just emotion. Having the equipment to turn that emotion into sound is the real trick. You talk about Kirk a lot so I just assume that you want a heavier sound. Im sure a DSL can be tweaked to get that sound.

I know half stacks are sexy, but for your situation a good solid combo might be a better option. Maybe something with a headphone out so you can practice quietly. A 50 watt combo head will also drive a 4x12 cab if the need arises.

JW, do you think a 50 watt amplifier is strong enough for gigging?

Peace, GuitarAnatomy.

JW, do you think a 50 watt amplifier is strong enough for gigging?

Yes AND No. It depends. What is the house sound capable of doing. I've found that if your rig is loud enough to blend as well as boost/cut thru the mix in a rehearsal room with PA only for vocals - you should be fine at most local gigs. If you start doing larger venues, house sound will help you with the audience but you may not have enough stage volume for your liking other than your monitor mix.

I have used 50's in the past with disappointment. I love to tone they get, great for recording, but I felt like my amp was not even on.

Now I run 2 100watt heads and 2 4x12 cabs. 1 gets the mic the other I keep on the side angled in to blow across me to our other guitarist. He runs his rig the same way. As long as I can walk over to my drummer and hear my partner's guitar, I will be fine.
I came to never trust stage monitors except the few times we had our own sound guy.

You should be fine with a 50 unless the situation warrants more.

Thanks Chris, that was very helpful advice. I doubt I will be playing any large venues anytime soon though, so the 50 watt is probably fine.

This is an interesting thread pardon me as I butt in. My whole band plays through a Carvin PA. It has four 300watt amps two designated as monitor. Two as L/R mains. I use three Boss stomps ,wireless from my Strat into Tuner with a DS2 and an MT2 angled so when I stomp I can alernate or turn both off. I then use my guitar tone volume and P/U selector to vary the tone as well. Our front man use a Boss blues stomp a chorus stomp and a Wah pedal if I remember correctly. Bass has a older fender head and cab I also route thru the PA. At present I am using two 400 watt two ways as mains.
Here is my quetions 1 I intend to obtain two three way speakers for my mains. Is there a significant difference in the live sound between two ways as compared to three ways? 2 Also consider obtaining some sub woofers as bass support. Do they really make that much difference in the live sound spectrum? 3 Ive been told that subs would protect my mains from the bass is that true?

GA

I have a small Mesa tube combo thats 20 watts. I have used it many times and been pleased with it. These days I do mainly medium volume type gigs and my big amps are overkill.

If we are talking 50 watts tube I think you will have all you need. If we are talking solid state I would go for as many watts as I can get. This is my opinion but a 50 watt tube amp will get as much overall volume as a 150 watt solid state. Also solid state amps seem to be able to get their sound at a lower volume than a tube amp. Unless you are planning on playing extreme heavy metal or just extreme volume levels, I think a 50 would suit you. In past post you indicate that you dont plan on doing any major gigs, just maybe something occasionally. A JCM 50 watt combo would be a sweet amp, I think the model number is 4210 but not sure. Go to e-bay and look up JCM 800 in a search and see what pops up. If you are really interested in Marshalls Im sure there is a Marshall site with forums like this. That might be a good place to look. I go to a site called grailtone.com which has a lot of Mesa stuff on it.

Before you buy something, please go play on one somewhere so you know what it is and does. What I like or someone else on here does might not be what you want. Amps are a big investment and
ultimately dictate what you will sound like to other people.

Thanks for the advice, JW. It has been very helpful. I will look through E-bay and see what I can find. I agree, you got to try an amplifier before you buy it. I will go and do that at my local guitar stores.

Thanks again.

Peace, GuitarAnatomy.

Sunday I took my 11 yr old daughter to see the Hannah Montana movie in 3-D. Being a musician Im always looking at the backline. I noticed that her lead guitar player was playing a Marshall head and Cab. He also had a large effects rack going. The Marshall head was turned on its side. I guess this is for the guitar techies on here, would laying a tube head on its side have any effect on the performance of the amp? Ive never set an amp of any sort on its side. On a side not the other guitarist was playin an Epiphone half stack. I had never seen one of these before.

I've seen tube heads used on their sides before too with no ill effect to the amp. I figure it can't be any worse than when they hang upside down in a combo amp.

The Epi half stack may have been the new So Cal series that came out last year, unless Epi has some kind of vintage stack stuff.

GA

Just to let you know, there is a cheaper very good Marshall amp that I think you'd love.

Just yesterday I bought a Marshall Valvestate 100 -8100 model.

These amps are killer and you can get them on e-bay for $200-$250.. I know from personal experience that these amps have been used for recording in real-deal albums by some very successful artists. There are a lot of V-8100 owners who swear by them and always keep one around.

Even though it's a valvestate, it's a hybrid. It has 2- preamp tubes (12ax7's) in the amplifier.

I have a couple of friends who have them, and now I'm a proud owner of one as well (even though my other head costs 5x's as much).

But we have kind of taken them to a next level, so to speak.

When you get one, you immediately replace the tubes with some that are higher quality ( It's literally the equivalent of changing a light-bulb). Then you put 2 tube dampers (looks like rubber bands) around each tube, this will keep them more stable from vibration, and make them run a little hotter. When tubes are pushed hotter, they sound better.

As an addition I picked up an Electro Harmonix 'Tube-Q". This adds 2-more tubes to the mix, (but it's not a distortion pedal, it's just a really fat eq) to give it a little more of a tube amp feel and headroom in the clean channels.

This sound would have you loving life my friend.

Even if you went with a lower level eq pedal, or couldn't pick one up right away. The amp has a really good sound by itself when it's cranked up. You wouldn't be disappointed with the distortion on it at all.

Then, maybe later when you have the cash to spare, you can go for the amp you really want.

This is the amp I would recommend you try to find if you can't afford the higher end Marshalls. But make sure it's a Model 8100 Valvestate. There are different ones out there that aren't as good.

I only spent $400 on this setup (including the eq pedal, which I can use on my other rig too), and I already know exactly what it's gonna sound like.. Freaking great.

By the way.. If you want to hear one.. Listen to the song "burn" on my page. It's mainly the other guitarist's 8100 that you hear in the recording. And this recording wasn't mixed and mastered.

Shredd6, thank you very much for the recommendation, I will look into it. I have decided to start searching for a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, I heard some demos on it and the heavy gain can kill on that thing, I love it. So I cannot wait to find one of those to try out, quite pricey, but it will be worth it once I get a band together (Its in the works).

Thanks for the demo tape, the amp does sound good. I will definitely do some research into it.

Thanks for taking the time to do all this.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

That's definitely a good choice too.. That's the other head I own. I've had it for 10-years now.

Dual Recs. are extremely moody. You'll spend some time finding that sweet spot, but when you do find it, it's worth it. It took me a couple of years to find the right combination of guitar, pickup, and eq that gave me the sound I wanted.

Oddly enough, I now play an LTD as well. Only I ditched the active pickups for passive Dimarzios. It's just the best baritone guitar I've found for my style.


I'm not ditching my Rec., but there are certain things that a Marshall can do that my Rec just can't. Which is be controlled!! Hahaha..

Where I give Marshall a slight edge in sound is in the midrange area. I know what it is that drives people to Mesa's. That heavier than God distortion. But it's a different ball-game when you play in a band.

I want to show you something here. This is a really important thing to consider when you're looking for an amp.

The first part of this video, you can probably skip over. It just goes through the basics of Bass, Mid, and Treble controls on an amp. But it's the last part (about at the 4-min mark) that is REALLY important. Do yourself a favor and always remember what this guy is saying about the Midrange. It was something that a producer friend of mine taught me a while back (I won't say who he is, but in his engineering career, before becoming a producer, he received a gold record for working on an Incubus album), and it was priceless advice..

Now if he can only show me how to record things correctly.

Anyway.. Check this out. And good luck in your search.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQanVdQP ... re=related

Ps.. The guy in the video isn't the producer.

Peace.