BolivarBaLues

beatles.... 30 jan 69

Jefferson Airplane, December 7, 1968.

It's YouTubed here. I was amazed first time I saw it (on the Fly Jefferson Airplane documentary - awesome viewing!) how much The Beatles aped Jean Luc-Goddard's film on Let It Be. It's almost a carbon copy.

Thank you for apologizing. I have gone to Harmony-Central and read up on the reviews and I'm somewhat torn between a Blues Jr. and a Pro Jr.

But meh, they aren't my only choices. I need to go up to the guitar store and play through more amps. Again, thank you for the help and suggestions.

That's it right there. Reading reviews and listening to others' opinions can help steer you in the right direction, but ulimately your ears should be the judge. Buy what sounds best to you.

I think the Blues Jr. offers more versatility given a choice between the two.

Which group was the first to play in a major city on the rooftop of a tall building during a busy workday, only to have have their efforts quickly thwarted by the police? Also name that month and year this took place.

I'm with John. Just about all of us play tube combos in the 15-30 watt range, and very few of us would trade those amps for 5 watt numbers. In fact, BolivarBaLues was just talking in another post about he really loved the sound of a 50 watt amp and was considering trading his 30 watt amp for one.

 

The truth is, even if we suceeded in browbeating AlistorTheGreat into buying a 5 watt amp, in a few years he'd just want to get a bigger amp with a few more options, more headroom, or something that just sounded better to his ears. Why not just let him get that amp now?

 

By the way, being born in the 90's doesn't bother me. Being born in the 80's and talking about people being born in the 90's bothers me.

Yeah, I like the added bass and headroom of the 50 watt Classic 50 and I wouldn't mind a trade up from my 30 watt version, but there are some sacrifices involved in such a trade, including having to play at a louder volume to get power tube overdrive. If you play a tube amp, you have to almost accept that playing in your bedroom will have to involve an overdrive pedal, headphones or an amp with an overdrive channel that allows you to overdrive the preamp and keep the volume at a reasonable level. Tube amps simply aren't a great option for someone who just plays at home, IMO. If you have an amp with a master volume/gain setup, you can overdrive the preamp and get a decent enough overdrive sound for practice settings. However, the Pro Jr. only has a volume and a tone knob, so you'd have to either crank the hell out of it or use an overdrive pedal. Or play clean.

Fifty watts is as loud as I would ever get, and the 15-30 watt range is ideal. However, I gig frequently and sometimes I need a little bit more volume when I'm playing somewhere that I can't mike my amp (especially outdoor gigs). Different needs for different folks.

The bottom line is that you'll never get the kind of power amp overdrive that everyone covets without being too loud for most non-band settings. What I and others I think were trying to impress upon ATG was that if you are used to solid state amps, you can't accurately judge how loud a tube amp is going to sound. I'd wager that a 30 watt tube amp would kick an 80 watt solid state's ass volume-wise. And ATG would be lucky to figure that out at 14, because I was too stupid to make the switch to tube amps until I was well into my late 20s. I was a solid state guy for years, mainly because I didn't want to fool with having to replace tubes and keep sinking money into my amp. But once I got a tube amp, I knew that there was no way that I'd ever go back to solid state.

I applaud young guys like him for wanting to play music at his age. I couldn't think of a better hobby. I started to play guitar when I was 12 and started my first band when I was 15. I wish you all the best, Alastor, and I hope you find playing guitar as rewarding as I have. The age remark was because of your angst-ridden attitude. You posted asking for advice, after all, and seemed to shoot down everyone's suggestions. Nothing wrong with being born in the 90s, but if you're going to carry on a discussion with older folks, you might want to leave out the "duh, I already knew that" sort of attitude.

But I digress; you can't expect too much from a 14-year-old, and I apologize to you Alastor for cracking on your age. I really just want to help you make a good purchase. There's a lot of folks around here that can help you that have considerable experience playing music. I wish that I'd had the smarts at your age to seek advice from those older and more knowlegable, but I thought I knew everything at that point. I've played guitar for almost 25 years now and have spent over 20 years now playing in bands and I've got several hundred gigs under my belt. But one thing you learn as you get older as that you don't know near as much as you think you did when you were younger. I'm in my late 30s now and already feel like I didn't have a clue in my early 30s. And I'm sure that I'll look back in 10 years and think about how little I knew now. I'm sure that there are others on this board older and more knowlegable than I am, so don't think that I'm trying to come across as the oldest or the wisest, because I'm neither. I don't want you to hesitate to ask for help in the future, and cracking on you for your age is a sure-fire way to keep you from asking again. Again, my apologies. At my age, I should be a bit better than that.

BTW, I notice that the Pro Jr. only has a volume and a tone knob and doesn't have reverb. That's certainly something to consider. Personally, I've got to have a decent reverb. A good place to check when making equipment decision is Harmony Central. They have user reviews of just about any piece of equipment under the sun. You can read the reviews for the Pro Jr. here: http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data..._Junior-01.html

Best of luck.

Ya'll are part of the way right. Tune your guitar to DGDGBE (drop E and A strings down to D and G). I don't want to get into tabbing it all out right now, plus I don't have it all figured out just yet, but I figure that this should get you started.

E |---------------------------------------

B |---------------------------------------

G |-10-8--4--2--------7--7--7--5--5--7--7-

D |-8--8--0--0--7--5--0-----0--5--5--0----

G |-8--8--0--0--5--5--0-----0--5--5--0----

D |---------------------------------------

You give the D note (g string, 7th fret) a bit of a bend and a shake on that last bit.

Good advice on the warmup. I read my amp's manual and it said to leave it on standby for a minute before turning the power on. I guess letting it warm up longer is better (?). I also noticed that I have to turn it up LOUD to get any drive, so I think an overdrive pedal is in order. Better that than not having a place to sleep at night! After having my amp on and playing thorugh it for an hour or so, I definately noticed it sounded like butter, so I'll have to let it warm up longer before playing from now on. Thanks for the advice.

Others might have different suggestions, but I think the best overdrive pedal option for a tube amp is a pedal from the vast family of TS-808 style derivatives. Many of these can be found here. The newer Ibanez Tube Screamers have different circuitry, but you can buy them already modded like I did with my TS9-DX Turbo Tube Screamer. The Keely mod is supposedly killer (has a true bypass), but I've never heard one. Other models based on the TS-808 circuitry include the Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, which I also hear good things about. A band mate of mine uses one and he loves its ability to blend an overdriven sound with a clean sound. And it sounds really nice, too.

Like I said, there's surely other opinions out there, but I and many others believe that it's the best overdrive option going, both for its ability to push your tubes and also for the fact that the overdrive sound seems very natural and doesn't color the sound of your guitar.

For fucks sake, just because I don't want to buy a 5 watt tube amp doesn't mean I'm stubborn. My parents, for the most part, LIKE loud noises.

 

In other words. My amp, not your's.

You're the one that came on here asking for advice, pal.

That sort of language is not very becoming for a child your age.

EDIT- Do you have the Ken Burns Jazz version of Faubus Fables?

Of course. Love that version! It also appears on Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus.

even more AC/DC trivia: what musical instrument did Bon Scott play before becoming their lead singer?

The bagpipes.

Sonny Rollins, no?

Yup.

Okay, here's one. The Young family from Australia produced brothers Angus and Malcom of AC/DC. What is the first hit song to come from that family?

I think we're wasting our time trying to tell a 14-year-old anything. You know, they already know everything at that age.

So, I just got my first tube amp...fender blues reissue. Excellent. Just wondering if it is normal for the tubes to get really damn hot. I touched one after about an hour of playing and burned the hell out of my finger!

Hell yeah they'll get hot! That's how you want them! I always let my amp warm up for 30 minutes to an hour before a gig. You'll notice that as the tubes get hotter, the sound will become warmer and you'll hear harmonic overtones that weren't there before. It's almost like your amp starts talking back to you. One of the many beautiful things about tube amps!

to answer your question...

i have a recording by their guitar tech when they were making yankee. i think it was from sam jones.

anyway, he said that they had 168 guitars, about 50 amps, 20 of which were bass amps, and 10 hammond b3 organs.

 

he said that it was close to $500,000.

 

and to tell you the truth, it doesnt seem that out of the ordinary. i am in a small post rock band, just 2 of us, and we are adding up all of our equipment for insurance purposes. we have been collecting equipment now for about 5 years, and we just broke $20,000. yikes. thats a boatload for college kids, you know? i guess its better spending it on guitars than beer...

cheers.

 

sean.

p.s. my band... www.afnpmusic.com we are neat...

I'd say that Warner Brothers bought a lot of those guitars for them. A sometimes band-mate of mine played in a group that was signed to Elektra in the mid-90s. They were still toting around their pawnshop specials and cheap transistor amps when they went to L.A. to record their first record. The producer complained about the guitarist's sound and told him that they could include the cost of new guitars and amps in with the bill the studio sent to the label. The band broke for lunch and their guitarist returned with $8,000 worth of new gear.

It's funny that after buying the new gear and trying virtually every guitar/amp combo in the studio in a day-long effort to get a good tone, they eventually used his el cheapo guitar and amp that he brought in to begin with. Only in L.A.

Meh. Too quiet for me.

I think you'd be pleasantly surprised just how loud a 5-watt tube amp can be, especially if your frame of reference is based on solid state amps.

Maybe this is too easy, but what jazz great played sax on the Stones "Waiting For A Friend?"

I love my Epiphone SG. I put in two p-90s and took out the crappy ones they give you and it is a really really nice guitar and plays like a dream. I wish I could afford a real Gibson though.

I've really come to appreciate the musicality of a good single coil pickup. I put a Seymour Duncan Phat Cat (which is a P-90 designed to fit in a standard humbucker space) in my Les Paul, and I'm completely in love with the tone! Nothing wimpy at all about this pickup; it can get as nasty as any humbucker pickup, but it has much more versatility. I love the dynamic range of a single coil; it makes the guitar's volume knob a very useful tool in coaxing a wide range of tones. Humbuckers are much more compressed.

So yeah, if I was getting an SG I'd definitely go for one with P-90s. Or you can always replace the pickups, which I would do if the guitar is a newer model with stock pickups. Harmonic Design also makes some great pickups; they're handwound and made by a small shop in California. I have a couple in my Tele and they're probably the best sounding pickups I own, and none of my guitars have stock pickups. I've also got some expensive handwound Jason Lollars, and I think the Harmonic Designs sound better.

They've got several options for an SG here: http://harmonicdesign.net/allpages/gibsons.html#vp-90

A friend who has owned several SGs once advised me that one should pay close attention to the neck joint when selecting an SG. Apparently, a loose or malaligned neck joint can make the guitar reluctant to stay in tune.

I'm not really an expert (at all) on amps, so I was wondering what the advantage of using an FX loop on an amp is. In the past I have just gone from the guitar into the pedal and then into the normal input of the amp. What is the advantage to using the FX loop? Are there some pedals that should be or are better to be used in the FX loop as opposed to running guitar->pedal->amp? And is "send" the "in" or "out?" Any help and clarification would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I've never used anything that would work in an effects loop (well, at least it wouldn't sound very good). Overdrives for sure don't sound good in an effects loop. The loop effectively places the effects in the signal chain between the preamp and the power amp, as opposed to before the preamp. The result is less noise - this works for stuff like delays, choruses, etc. - time based effects. But bear in mind that though the result is less noise, you may not like the sound as well as if the effect was placed between the guitar and amp. Just play around with your effects and you'll see what I mean.

Effects send = out, effects return = in.

Here's something that might help:

http://www.guitarsite.com/guitar_FAQ.htm#LOOP

I refuse to buy a trans-tube solid-state piece-of-shit.

 

I'll probably end up getting the Pro Jr, as my family really doesn't care now that I think about it.

Good call. Personally, I avoid anything that claims to have "tube sound with solid state reliability." Nothing sounds like a tube amp except for tube amp. Solid states fall short with their inability to respond to touch - a tube amp will become increasingly dirtier as you pick harder. I've heard lots of solid states make claims of being "touch sensitive," but they aren't the same.

And for all of that line 6 pod business, well, that's your call, but all of that modeling business sounds second-rate to me. Insted of trying to buy some silly little box that claims to duplicate the sound of various different vintage amps, get a real tube amp that does one thing and does it well. Those things come fairly close, but there's still some undefinable characteristic they have that really turns me off.

Don't know about the Pro Jr., but I've heard lots of good things from folks who have Blues Jr.'s.

Also, in that price range you should be able to find a used Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (1x12, 40 watts) or Deville (4x10, 60 watts).

I have a Peavey Classic 30 that I paid about $250 for used. It's 30 watts, 1 x 12 and I use it for club gigs, touring, recording, you name it. I put up a review on Harmony Central recently; mine is the first one listed (http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data/Peavey/Classic_30-1.html).

There is also the Classic 50, which is the 50 watt, 2 x 12 version of my amp. Both can easily be found within your price range.

Tube is the way to go. Once you make the switch from solid state, you'll wonder why in the hell you wasted so much time with those crappy amps. There's just no comparison.

I'm a big believer in low wattage (50 watts or lower) tube amps. I think you'll find that the best overdrive you can get from a tube amp is from the power tubes, and the only way to get that is by turning your amp up loud. Even something that is rated fairly low like the Fender Deluxe Reverb (22 watts) is going to be plenty loud for most normal applications. You can't accurately base how loud a tube amp is going to be on the loudness of a solid state amp of equivalent wattage. Tube watts are much louder than solid state watts, so I suggest trying one out first and getting a feel for it.

A good overdrive pedal is a big help in getting a decent overdrive from a tube amp. I use a modified Tube Screamer (circuitry has been replaced with the same circuitry found in the 70s models) with the level all the way up and the drive only barely on. This will boost the signal going into the amp and help push those power tubes. The Tube Screamer and other equivalents (Sparkle Drives and such) are good for getting that vintage overdrive sound without coloring the natural sound of your pickups.

I was at the show, too, and arrived too late to catch the fabulous opening act, local rockers The Tenderhooks. I dare any city in the country to produce a music scene as rich and talented as Knoxville's (on a per capita basis, that is). Of course I'm biased because I've been a part of that scene for over 20 years, but still... Mic Harrison and the High Score, Tim Lee, Todd Steed, Stewart Pack and the Royal Treatment, The Westside Daredevils, The Rockwells and The Whisky Scars just to name a few. It was good to see K-Town being represented so well at Bonnaroo this year. Like the MetroPulse article by Jack Neely said, even though these local bands are well connected (A.C. Entertainment main man Ashley Capps is a Knoxvillian), that does not belie the fact that they are Bonnaroo-caliber acts. I was a small part of that with The Tim Lee Band; it was the opportunity of a lifetime, but I'm rambling...back to Rhett Miller.

No traffic problems here, since I live less than 10 miles from downtown Knoxville. I was really surprised at how sparsely attented last night's show was. I've been at shows before where the Market Square was packed so full that I was extremely uncomfortable (I have personal space issues), but there was plenty of room to stretch out last night. Rhett Miller seemed to be really enjoying himself, which is always a plus. Nothing I hate worse than seeing a performer who acts as if it's a burden to be there. The band was lean and tight; the guitar player was particularly good, ripping off manic solos such as "Our Love" note-for-note. I'm not sure if he's the guy who played on the record or not, but he effectively nailed it. He could of been, however, turned up a tad in the mains. My only complaints (minor, I might add) were that the backing vocals were a little "pitchy" (to borrow a phrase from American Idol). Miller's music relies on good harmonies, and they were a bit off. Also, I thought the drummer was a bit stiff. She kept a steady tempo and was far from being a Meg White-type novelty "girl on drums" type; she had chops. But still, a bit clunky and slightly ahead of the beat. I think a drummer with a more fluid behind the beat style would have served the band better. But hell, it was a free concert, and this was the one Sundown In The City that stood out to me on the calendar when it was announced. In fact, it was the only one I've seen this year, and I most certainly won't return for the finale next week, being that it's going to a jam band noodle-fest with that band Perpetual Groove.

Perpetual Snore is more like it...

If you are talking about the Orange AD-30TC, I've got one and love it. Can't help you with the Rockerverb, but word is they are more versatile. Pricewise, the AD-30TC is on par with a new AC-30 with the Celestion Blue speakers (about $1500-1600 new).

Okay, I was thinking about the cheaper AC-30 that's going for about a grand. I played one live (cheaper AC-30, that is) about a month ago (club provided the backline) and I wasn't too impressed.

I had mentioned the Peavey Classic 30 earlier in this thread. Well, I played through a Classic 50 during a gig Sunday night and it's convinced me that I need to upgrade. The thing was just screaming, you know. It was just one of those gigs were everything seems to go right because the tone is so good. The other guitarists in the band were using a Fender Twin and a Mesa Boogie combo and neither one sounded as good as the Classic 50. It's something about the Peavey's gain structure that makes getting a good sound as simple as plugging in and turning up, as opposed to some of the weird gain structures you get into with Fenders and Mesa's that take a while to get used to.

Thanks so much for your help on that, been scratching my head for a couple of days now...

 

alex

Any time.

Seems like every jam band guitarist these days is using one of those awful Mutron envelope filters. The guy in that band moe. was using one at Bonnaroo yesterday. Why would you want to use something that is obviously going to make you sound like Jerry Garcia? I love the Dead, but I never even liked the sound when Garcia used it. Looks to me like these cats would want to try to seperate themselves from the pack. You know, forge your own identity, create your own sound. But I suppose that sounding like the Dead is what sells tickets for those guys.

Has anyone heard the new Orange combos? I wasn't even aware that they still made amps, but I saw a 30 and a 50 watt combo at a music store the other day. They were very pricey; can't remember exactly how much, but it was certainly more than a new AC-30 is going for.

I'm in love with my Les Paul's new Seymour Duncan Phat Cat pickup. It makes the perfect mate for the Seymour '59 in the neck position.

You can also let the high "e" string ring open with both of those chords, if you like. Works either way.