Amps...

I have too many amps. (Nah, one cannot have too many amps). I have 5 that I can see from this chair and a bunch more upstairs. A few days ago I got one out that I have not played in a while, a Crate V-16 Palomino. Man! This amp can really sound good and it takes pedals really well, especially a Boost pedal. I guess it's just the el34 class A thing (I think it's class A). It has a great clean and edge of breakup tone and with the guitar tone rolled off it is beautiful. I'm glad I got it out. I'm getting a little bit of buyers remorse over the Mark V. It is an awesome amp but I have a hard time using any OD, Fuzz, or Distortion pedals with it. They seem to sound like a rasp, really buzzy and bad while the same pedal through a Fender sounds great. I don't get that. I always try with channel one and clean... not that the Mark really needs any sort of OD or Distortion pedal, it's all built in but I like to try. I think of moving it until I play it and remember what good tones I can get from it but right now I am VERY pleased with this little Crate amp, I can't get a bad sound out of it.
Anyway... new old stuff.
J

jamesg1213
I haven't owned a usable amp for about 20 years now. I have occasionally fooled a few people into thinking I have though

What's an amp?

It's always fun to re-discover gear that one hasn't played with it a while. Wasn't familiar w/ the Palomino but I just looked it up - nice!
 
Me I think I pretty much have my set up figured out. I've never been one to agonize over tone or feel that I needed some kind of expensive, hot rodded vintage amp. As you know, I like a Marshall type of sound, and that's basically it. I can appreciate fancier amps, but I am okay with the basic ones.
 
As such, I've been quite happy w/ the DSL 100 head and its 4 x 12 cab I bought last year. However, I always felt that there was a gap between the green channel (classic gain) and the red one (ultra gain). Though I like having the Ultra Gain option, in most cases, what I really want is more of the green channel goodness.
 
I've never been into pedals but that changed recently when a friend of mine who designs and builds boutique pedals in Canada asked me if I'd be interested in showing his pedals down here.
 
He sent me a bunch of them, including a fantastic booster which allows me to really take advantage of the green channel on my Marshall. Likewise, his Dude Screamer was the ticket for one of our classic metal project. I also received one of his fuzz pedals. I never thought I'd like a fuzz that much - that one is just so much fun to play. And the echo/delay is just what I needed for our rockabilly project.
 

 
Overall, the pedals turned my adequate but somewhat generic rig and breathed life into it. I was used to my POD HD's effects when I needed delay or such, but it sounded so static by comparison to JRG's delay. Likewise, the overdrives and booster didn't really do anything for my Marshall. But these - man...
 
At this point, I finally feel like maybe I'd want to explore different pick ups on my Les Paul, something with a bit more character. 

I've had all sorts of vintage and boutique amps over lo these many years. And still own my Strawberry Blonde for acoustic gigs and my Egnater Rebel 20 head/speaker combo for electric gigs.

And even though I still have the Kemper in the studio I still prefer my 150 watt Fender Mustang for all live work. Light as a feather, loud as fook, and beautifully modeled. Works great with pedals as well.

Still wish I had my 1964 Princeton Reverb though. I miss it near to death.

yorolpal
Still wish I had my 1964 Princeton Reverb though. I miss it near to death.

 
you need this then:


https://www.flickr.com/photos/137947485@N03/25200372846/
 
http://www.ceriatone.com/american-classics-prinzetone/

http://guitarampsusa.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=60_67&product_id=105
 
 
Ceriatone introduces their tribute to the classic and much loved Princeton amp, but made with an amazing twist! The Ceriatone PrinzeTone 16w is a combination of the Blackface and Brownface Princeton amp, in one petite, portable package. And it's HANDWIRED on eyelet board, just like old ones. No mass produced PCB stuff here!
All configurations come with pre-wired eyelet board!
In Blackface mode, the amp is cleanish, as it should, and with Treble and Bass tone controls. However, we have fixed issues of originals such as bias on the Phase Inverter, too much boominess/bass, and weak tremolo. The tremolo has been carefully adjusted to be strong but not too much that it "helicopters". It just sounds so luscious!
 
And, there's a bias potentiometer to adjust bias, as well as a negative feedback control. In Brownface mode, the tone controls are defeated, giving much more gain. Our PrinzeTone does have more gain than the stock originals, you can even get some British style crunch when overdriven. What's more, we have sized it to be very portable.
 
Features:
Chassis size is 13.5 x 6.75 x 2.5".
Head cab size is about 14 x 8.25 x 9.5". Carry it in your pocket! :)
Combo 1x12 size is about 19.5 x 9.5 x 18.5" - carry it at the back of your Vespa!
Yes, you have found the answer to your small recording/gigging amp here!
Tremolo footswitch included.
Power = 16.58711 Watts
Tubes = GZ34, 6V6GT (2), 12AX7 (2)
 

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Guitarhacker
 
My Carvin 50w combo was sweet.... 50w but louder and better sounding than the Ampeg.  

I had a Carvin 50w combo back in the 80's; I wish I had kept that one.  Very much a Marshall copy, if I remember correctly.  I am down to basically 2 guitar amps these days.  A Peavey Classic 50w and a smaller version of this, a Classic 20w head.  The 50w, for some reason, still sounds the best to my ears, but the 20w sure is easier to lug around.  
 
For Bass, I have a Mark Bass head....500w Big Bang.
 
 

 
 
 
 

mixmkr
It's the wall...making America great again

With British amps. :P

There... A true American Wall of amps (which were most likely made in Mexico.) :P

 
 

UbiquitousBubba

 
Wait. You said wall of Amps, right?
 
Never mind.

I think you're a shade off there Bubba. 

               My 66 Fender Vibrolux Reverb .

 
               The Guitar is a DeArmond M-75T
 
Kenny
 
 

craigb
My first amp was some kind of Fender no power special along with a Hondo guitar.  Crap into crap amplified.
 
Then I had a 200W Yamaha amp that looked a little like this:
 

 
Along with a 1976 Les Paul that looked like this:
 

 
Except I had Dimarzio Super Distortions.

You think that was crap? A friend had a Hondo which was incredible compared to my Les Paul copy. As for the amp...
 

 
 
My first decent amp was a solid state Marshall like this one.

 
By that time, after a few horrible replica, I'd graduated to a Made in Korea Fender Strat Squier. 

I bought a used '63 Fender J bass and a used brownface Fender combo amp in '67 for the high school band I played in. I can't remember the specific amp model and I have no pictures (my mother gave away all of my music gear after I enlisted in the Army; never saw any of it again; I was P'd off then, and still am now). I also had a Farfisa minicompact that I plugged into the same amp (we just HAD to cover 96 Tears, right? ).
 
A genuine replacement for the bass would have cost me many thousands, so I bought a Fender repro of the '63. It's black instead of sunburst, and it's MIM and not pre-CBS MIA, but it sounds pretty much the same to my ears. I put Pyramid Gold flats on it and never looked back.
 
I'd love to get my hands on an old Fender Bassman at some point.