Dannyalcatraz Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Amps come as combos and separate amp/head setups. All I have ever owned is a single Fender HRD combo, but I've been thinking about other amps lately. Not all are available as combos. So...what are the advantages of going amp/head? What- besides portability- is an advantage of going combo? Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx http://murphysmusictx.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Often, separate head-and-cab rigs use either closed-back (most often) or "tuned" ported cabs (less often) for the speakers, partly due to the influence of classic Marshall stacks and the like, and partly because separate cabs don't need as much ventilation for tubes, etc. Combo-amps almost always have open-back or largely ported cabs. These differences make for very different sounds. In a combo, it's much easier to place a spring-reverb pan far enough away from transformers and the rest of the amp's components to avoid hum problems, than it is in a head enclosure; note how rarely heads have reverb, and how often combos do. A head can be less susceptible to speaker-vibration affecting the tubes and other components in the amp. A head offers more flexibility in speaker and cab choice. You don't have to remember to connect the amp and speakers all the time with a combo, as you do with a separate head and cab. Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyalcatraz Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 Thanks! Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx http://murphysmusictx.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarzan Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 and you can carry the head and leave the 4x12 for the drummer to carry. http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=193274 rock it, i will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 and you can carry the head and leave the 4x12 for the drummer to carry. Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larryz Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 You can get Light Headed and go with a 2x12 or even a 1x12 and carry the amp head and speaker(s) up the stairs a lot easier than a heavy combo all on one side of your body...then again, if you have a lighter combo, you can carry the guitar in at the same time...weight is a big factor when you get older... Take care, Larryz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyalcatraz Posted December 10, 2011 Author Share Posted December 10, 2011 I'm 44, and have no plans on getting a 50 Megaton Amp. I'm just examining my options for higher end smallish amps. F'rex, I've always loved the sound of Orange, but have no reason to buy one of their bigger amps- I rarely get past "3" on my HRD. Anything louder tends to be too much for my practice space...and freaks out my pets. So I was thinking about getting a small Orange amp to scratch that particular sonic itch. Something 30w or less. Maybe even one that can be dialed down to 7w. In that size, some Orange amps are available as combos, but not all. Ditto some of the other "boutique" amps I've been looking at. Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx http://murphysmusictx.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 ...I've always loved the sound of Orange, but have no reason to buy one of their bigger amps- I rarely get past "3" on my HRD. Anything louder tends to be too much for my practice space...and freaks out my pets. So I was thinking about getting a small Orange amp to scratch that particular sonic itch. Something 30w or less. Maybe even one that can be dialed down to 7w. Orange Tiny Terror & 2x12 w/ Vintage 30s-thread (link) Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 You can get Light Headed and go with a 2x12 or even a 1x12 and carry the amp head and speaker(s) up the stairs a lot easier than a heavy combo all on one side of your body...then again, if you have a lighter combo, you can carry the guitar in at the same time...weight is a big factor when you get older... Yeah... I have a Vox AC30 head and a 2 x 12" cab because carrying the combo version for years was so heavy. I have a Bedrock combo that looks like an AC30 and have been using a buddy's Marshall 2 x 12" combo a lot and they're a lot lighter and easier to handle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Small boutique amp? I'll plug my buddy's amps... http://www.kometamps.com/jpegs/19blueangle.jpg http://www.kometamps.com/komet19.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyalcatraz Posted December 11, 2011 Author Share Posted December 11, 2011 I just looked at the price for the 19... *giggle* Ahhhh, the price of quality. Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx http://murphysmusictx.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 I just looked at the price for the 19... *giggle* Ahhhh, the price of quality. Dude , don't discount the Orange Tiny Terror with a matching Orange 2x12 w/ V30's; if you use one right (see the thread I threw up a link to above) you'll get excellent sounds from it, and you should be able to find a good deal on used specimens by now. Seems that many players stupidly turn the master down and crank the pre-gain, never even touching the volume-controls on their guitars, and thus miss the gold that such amps can deliver. Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyalcatraz Posted December 11, 2011 Author Share Posted December 11, 2011 Oh, one day I WILL own an Orange, make no mistake! Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx http://murphysmusictx.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Oh, one day I WILL own an Orange, make no mistake! If I hadn't already bought the Fuchs, I DEFINITELY would have bought both an Orange Tiny Terror head and an Orange closed-back, Celestion Vintage 30 loaded 2x12. Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larryz Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Seems that many players stupidly turn the master down and crank the pre-gain, never even touching the volume-controls on their guitars, and thus miss the gold that such amps can deliver. GUILTY: I have been one of those that have cranked the gain and dialed the master down on my Hot Rod Deville and toggled back and forth between the clean and "more gain" channels sans distortion pedals...but always kept the strat volumes on 5 just in case I needed a little more...now in my older years I run just the clean channel volume on 4 reverb on 4, master and gain on 0, mid bass pres and treb straight up in the middle and use just about any guitar (including my acoustic) and just dial in the guitar controls for some really clean rock-a-billy sounds...I must check out these orange amps one of these days soon...but my little Club 12 ZT is my travel amp (22 lbs) with a couple of pedals like the tech21 blonde and a carbon copy delay...the tech 21 lets me go straight to the PA and leave both of the amps at home...cool daddy-o... Take care, Larryz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 I used to have a Hot Rod DeVille 2x12, myself! I might've been a little harsh in the way that I worded that; I just get frustrated with people telling me that they have to have loud, high powered amps, usually channel-switchers, and usually turned up too loud, to get their clean and dirty sounds- who still sound awful and are too loud; the same ones are always amazed at what I can do with a 30 or even 7 watt amp and my volume-knob and "touch", but they go right back to hurting my ears while not being able to hear themselves. Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Seems that many players stupidly turn the master down and crank the pre-gain, never even touching the volume-controls on their guitars, and thus miss the gold that such amps can deliver. GUILTY: I have been one of those that have cranked the gain and dialed the master down on my Hot Rod Deville and toggled back and forth between the clean and "more gain" channels sans distortion pedals...but always kept the strat volumes on 5 just in case I needed a little more...now in my older years I run just the clean channel volume on 4 reverb on 4, master and gain on 0, mid bass pres and treb straight up in the middle and use just about any guitar (including my acoustic) and just dial in the guitar controls for some really clean rock-a-billy sounds...I must check out these orange amps one of these days soon...but my little Club 12 ZT is my travel amp (22 lbs) with a couple of pedals like the tech21 blonde and a carbon copy delay...the tech 21 lets me go straight to the PA and leave both of the amps at home...cool daddy-o... Big Tech 21 Liverpool and Blonde fan here... and I also have Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic (with speaker emulated signal) and a Siegmund Micro-tube twin preamp pedal, and an Xotic EP booster and few other things I've come to think of as preamps more than dirt pedals, so the pedal board right into the P.A. lets me get a bunch of good and different amp like tones. Now if I could just find a drummer who plays electronic drums when needed... I've played a few Christmas parties in hotel ballrooms and Country Club dining rooms in the past few weeks and they want the band to sound like prerecorded music with no sound pressure at all. Fine... I'll be more than happy to avoid the pain of loading in to those places with a lot of gear and take the $1000+ paychecks for less effort in dealing with all of that and make them happy, I REALLY WILL, AS OFTEN AS I CAN!!!! But the drummers I know act offended and huffy... maybe it's time to sequence drums and play them off of a laptop... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyalcatraz Posted December 13, 2011 Author Share Posted December 13, 2011 Hi there, I'm Dannyalcatraz, and I'm a gear slut. I can envision a time in the future when my practice area will be literally carpeted with pedals, so that every step I take will result in a change in my sound. I may even need a couple more Carl Martin Octo-Switches in that world.* However, should I ever find myself performing onstage in that future, I will probably be using some kind of multieffects pedal. Or 3. * This will be right before Skynet goes nuts and starts killing all of humanity...probably in response to the sound coming out of my amp. Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx http://murphysmusictx.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 someone has heard our prayers, dannyalcatraz... http://www.benadoeffects.com/product/1.jpg oddly when I first started gigging at the end of the 80s I used an Ibanez unit like this that belonged to a buddy (Peter Buck from R.E.M. to this day still uses his, which was configured as a rack unit with a footpedal controller, I saw Mitch easter from Let's Active play a few years ago and he pulled a Korg unit like this out of the back of his amp and sounded great). This is kind of what I had in mind when I mentioned in another thread that I kind of wanted to take the stuff I have that I love and take them out of their housings and relocated them to some durable thing that all wired up for power and hardwired to eliminate the oxidation problem and wear on cables... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyalcatraz Posted December 13, 2011 Author Share Posted December 13, 2011 Interesting piece of gear- is that all analog, or is that an early precursor to those massive multieffects pedals you see from Boss, DigiTech, Zoom and others? Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx http://murphysmusictx.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 It's analog except for the delay which they say "sounds analog." It's a new unit tone heads like Vince Gill are using. [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-nzhFexbTQ [video:youtube] I just peeked at ebay to see if one of those old 80s Ibanez analog multi-effects units I used to play though was around, and they seem to fetch $500 these days... probably because the overdrive is a TS808 tube screamer. I have pedals I like, but I live in the land of constant humidity so oxidation is a problem and setting up means unplugging and plugging in each cable on a pedal board if I want to be sure nothing annoying pops up in a show, then there's the pains of dealing with power adapters and supplies. I have friends who do metal work, woodwork... flightcase work... one day... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 http://www.guitartest.de/DIETSIDE%20BILDER/Foxrox%20Captain%20Coconut%202%20big.JPG Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 ha... and the next site I went to had an example of what I saw people doing in the 80s that's in my mind, though a crude example: http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2011/Dec/GALLERY_Show_Us_Your_Gear_Pedalboards_IV.aspx?Page=2gallery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 ha... and the next site I went to had an example of what I saw people doing in the 80s that's in my mind, though a crude example: http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2011/Dec/GALLERY_Show_Us_Your_Gear_Pedalboards_IV.aspx?Page=2gallery Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larryz Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Seems that many players stupidly turn the master down and crank the pre-gain, never even touching the volume-controls on their guitars, and thus miss the gold that such amps can deliver. GUILTY: I have been one of those that have cranked the gain and dialed the master down on my Hot Rod Deville and toggled back and forth between the clean and "more gain" channels sans distortion pedals...but always kept the strat volumes on 5 just in case I needed a little more...now in my older years I run just the clean channel volume on 4 reverb on 4, master and gain on 0, mid bass pres and treb straight up in the middle and use just about any guitar (including my acoustic) and just dial in the guitar controls for some really clean rock-a-billy sounds...I must check out these orange amps one of these days soon...but my little Club 12 ZT is my travel amp (22 lbs) with a couple of pedals like the tech21 blonde and a carbon copy delay...the tech 21 lets me go straight to the PA and leave both of the amps at home...cool daddy-o... Big Tech 21 Liverpool and Blonde fan here... and I also have Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic (with speaker emulated signal) and a Siegmund Micro-tube twin preamp pedal, and an Xotic EP booster and few other things I've come to think of as preamps more than dirt pedals, so the pedal board right into the P.A. lets me get a bunch of good and different amp like tones. Now if I could just find a drummer who plays electronic drums when needed... I've played a few Christmas parties in hotel ballrooms and Country Club dining rooms in the past few weeks and they want the band to sound like prerecorded music with no sound pressure at all. Fine... I'll be more than happy to avoid the pain of loading in to those places with a lot of gear and take the $1000+ paychecks for less effort in dealing with all of that and make them happy, I REALLY WILL, AS OFTEN AS I CAN!!!! But the drummers I know act offended and huffy... maybe it's time to sequence drums and play them off of a laptop... +1 on electronic drums...they can be turned down (as can high powered amps) and they can actually get under an acoustic guitar being played without any amplification and provide some beautiful back-up...many solo, bluegrass, folk and other genre groups play without drums these days and do a great job...but if you add in some electronic drums, it can really add a whole new vibe to the mix...I've played with a great drummer that converted to electronic drums for small venues and it really worked out fantastic...can't say I would play with a laptop or other fake drums, as I like live musicians on stage and prefer to play without any fake drums or vocal harmony, but I can see the value of the fakes for practicing now and then... Take care, Larryz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyalcatraz Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 It worked for Timbuk3...for a little while. Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx http://murphysmusictx.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyalcatraz Posted December 20, 2011 Author Share Posted December 20, 2011 Hi there, I'm Dannyalcatraz, and I'm a gear slut. I can envision a time in the future when my practice area will be literally carpeted with pedals, so that every step I take will result in a change in my sound. I may even need a couple more Carl Martin Octo-Switches in that world.* However, should I ever find myself performing onstage in that future, I will probably be using some kind of multieffects pedal. Or 3. * This will be right before Skynet goes nuts and starts killing all of humanity...probably in response to the sound coming out of my amp. Aaaand someone else has done an interactive art piece that is but a postage stamp of my probable reality: Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx http://murphysmusictx.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 It worked for Timbuk3...for a little while. I think he meant electronic drumset played by a drummer with drumsticks, not a drum machine or sequencer... Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larryz Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Correct-o-mundo O'Christmas Tree... Take care, Larryz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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