skullsession


You guys should be aware that you're bringing pea-shooters to a big-gun fight.


 

Funny....  You might think that about a 22watt combo...... however.... that combo has a line out on the back.......

I used to run that out to a DCA-800 Carvin power amp..... and each channel in the Carvin pumped 400 watts each into a pair of 200w-rms rated LabSeries 4x12 cabinets..... yeah, that rig could easily run with the big dogs....and never break a sweat....


At times I regret selling the cabs...they were clean, loud, and awesome... but when I quit playing live, I had no need for them.  I kept the amps. I bought a Marshall 4x12 some time back..... but never use it.... oh well....

Yeah...talking about the studio 22. The vox has a line/phone out jack but I never had it when I gigged live. 

It took a bit of getting used to... the studio 22.... on the high gain channel since it was soooooo cranked. I would have preferred a channel where I could adjust the gain... but the boogie didn't really allow the tweezing I would have preferred. I got used to it and eventually fell in love with the tone.

let me tell you about an amp that I had that was so cool...... I had an Ampeg... that was so heavy and sounded underpowered for what it was... a twin 12 combo. I sold it and bought a Carvin VT112.

This Carvin VT112 was a sweet, fairly light weight, 50w combo with a single 12" stock speaker. I blew the speaker about 4 times before I decided to disconnect it for gigs and use a 15" Jensen in an old Fender cabinet.  The amp was really loud for a 50w combo.

The sweet thing was the channel set up. The amp had 2 channels with 3 inputs. Input one was for the clean channel..... input 3 was for the distortion channel and input 2 bridged both channels. I have not seen too many amps that have that input option..... it's usually one or the other channel but not both.

This allowed for plugging into input 2 and dialing in the clean level and then adding just the distortion level you wanted. Plugging in a foot switch allowed switching between channel on or two..... so I mostly ran with the footswitch disconnected and set my mix of channels and used the guitar volume know to clean it up of grunge it out. This worked well on country with my "Paul" guitar with hot pickups.

One other downside to this amp, besides blowing speakers, was the tendency for it to blow the preamp chip on the clean channel. This was not good for the country tunes we played.   I called Carvin and after the second time this happened, I asked for about 6 of the chips. I kept them in my guitar case and could change one out during a break. I still have a few of the chips, but not that amp.

I swapped the 30w Vox ValveTronix for the larger 50w version.
Has 12" speaker (vs. 10" speaker on the 30w version) and speaker out
Like the tone even better (fatter/warmer - uuuhhhggg those over-used/abused words)?  
 
I think I'm going to pickup the Night Train head too...
Work with all the above and see what sticks.
 
I'd like to have a classic Fender at some point...  

I went to GC the other day and saw they had the Tweaker and Night Train set up right next to each other.
I spent over an hour running these wee fellers thru the paces.
Both sound great but I favored the Vox a bit more.
I already have a 60Watt Valvtronix and I really didn't feel either one of the heads would add a tremendous amount to what I already have...but I might get one just for the hell of it.
I think I'll try the Tiny Terror next.

I've owned quite a few amps over the years including a couple Princetons, a Bassman 50 (which was a great guitar amp) and a Showman.  All of the these amps were great back then except the Bassman 50 and Showman were just loud.  But one thing they didn't have is the flexibility of the Tweaker.  I'm getting the same tones as the Fenders plus a whole lot more to play with.  Was just recording a few different styles of music the past couple weeks and found that I rarely needed to use my pedals as I was able to dial in the tones without needing them.  One thing I couldn't do with the old amps is push the gain up and turn the master down since none of the Fenders had this ability.

Jim

This thing intrigues me...I may have to check one out. Not sure if I'd want to sell my vintage Champ to buy it though. I just used the Champ for the first time on a recording...and I can get so many different tones with it; well it's not even funny!

I ended up putting down 50+ tracks of just a Tele and the champ because of the tone variations (2 tracks per tone style). I'll post up a rough mix once the guitars are done. I mostly recorded with the Tele plugged right into the amp, except a few tracks where I had a modded wah. I actually giggle when listening to it...I thought the Princeton I had was versatile...but damn!!!

This thing sounds great...and the brand new Weber isn't even broken in yet! I was a bit aprrehensive of having an 8" speaker (love 12's, hate 10's), but the 8" emulates just as well as the 12".

I don't mean this to off topic...

But a little snippet of the Champ and the Tele:
http://www.soundclick.com...3u?id=9421057&q=hi

I still need to really mix it, but this was for tracking the other instruments

.

i would strongly suggest going with one of the more high powered egnaters, if you like them, any of the ones with the more substantial transformers.

even high watt amps, with master volumes set on zero, seem to have a more 3-dimensional sound (with the larger transformers being part of the equation) than the tweaker can do.

Lugging a twin alone is too heavy, which is why I sold mine and bought a Vibrolux in 1980. If he can take the weight, it does sound like a good solution.
 
I run my Princeton on 9 volume 5 trbl and 3.5 bass. Reverb is on 3. That's the best tone I get out of mine with the telecaster. My new pride and joy however is the Vox AC15C1. It's an amazing 15 watt amp which is way under rated because it keeps up with the Vibrolux on volume which is a 40 watt amp.
 
Amps....you just can't have enough colors.

After living with the Tweaker combo for a while, I decided to return it in exchange for the separate Tweaker head and the Rebel 1x12 cab. 
The Tweaker combo (open back) is very articulate... but it was lacking a bit below 200Hz (not a lot of thump).
The sealed Rebel cab yields a bit more bottom/thump... and it's still articulate.
I like this combination a whole lot better.
 
 
 

All of the Egnater series that you can find at Guitar Center/Musicians Friend, etc., are assembled in China.

Egnater still designs and manufactures boutique stuff here in the US as well, but these amps you can find at GC are a new line - designed to keep the price in the "normal" range for the average player.