New amp makes all the difference!

[jalevinemd]

Just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. I was playing Bear, with its Skylark electronics, through a Marshall MG100HDFX half stack. It's a solid state, relatively inexpensive rig. While the guitar sounded good, I still wasn't getting some of the tones I wanted and was getting discouraged. I never really noticed the same problem with my other guitars (most of which have passive humbuckers) - not even so much with the Orion. I tried a bunch of effects pedals with no luck. So today, as a birthday present to myself, I sucked it up and bought a Marshall JCM 2000, all tube amp with a 1936 2x12 cab. What a difference...I can't even begin to describe it! I guess these things are like pure bred dogs...they know when you're trying to feed them generic food. Somehow this one instrument was really sensitive to the shortcomings of my previous amplifier. Who knew?
 
Regards,
 
Jonathan

[kmh364]

Jonathan:  
 
Congrats on your new purchase...enjoy it in good health. Always remember: Your sound quality is only as good as your weakest link in the audio chain. I learned this as a teenager and it has served me well all my life since. For added improvement, you might wanna try using premium interconnects (instrument and speaker) like Monster 1000-series or MIT. A power conditioner will also help improve sound quality and afford additional electrical protection (both effects dependent on the unit utilized). If you really wanna get silly, you can re-wire the speaker cab (and even the amp output wiring) with premium speaker wire for a small improvement in overall sound.  
 
I personally have been looking for a dirty amp rig that I was satisifed with since my teens. I have a satisfactory clean set-up (70's silverface Twin Reverb), but nothing pleased me distortion-wise. I wanted those vintage Marshall plexi tones, but wanted the added flexibility of more modern hot-rodded high-gain tones a la Eddie van Halen. I looked at buying a vintage Marshall plexi and having it upgraded and modded, but the price to do so is retarded. Ultimately, I went with Harry Straub, but quality builders like Greg Germino, Scott Splawn, TopHat, etc. all make great hot-rodded Marshall plexi-style amps.  
 
Harry is the Alembic of the custom guitar amp set. He'll build you anything you want. I'm getting an all-tube (incl. recto), 50W hot-rodded plexi style amp, hand-made, hard-wired all-discrete (with premium components like E-H EL-34's, Mercury Magnetics transformers, sealed MIL-spec pots, etc.) in a lacquer-finished mahogany (actually sappelle wood) dove-tailed cab. with flamed maple laser-engraved faceplate, super LED-backlit plexi laser ingraved faceplate with custom THG knobs (cocbolo with an inlayed silver tube logo), leather handle, etc. Bill Boekhoff @ Sultone is making me a matching custom-dimensioned 2X12 cab with a convertible back (closed, 1/3 or 2/3 open) with Celestion Greenbacks. It also will be lacquered Sappelle with custom grill cloth and a flamed maple face board. I'm having them both wired with speakons (as well as 1/4 phone jacks) as I feel they are superior for power signals. Custom-made ATA flight cases for both were optioned as well. Both handmade units are dirt cheap as well.  
 
I should get my rig by late Nov., so I let you know how it sounds. Harry only builds about 10 amps a year, and mine will be the last this year (and maybe for sometime as Harry is taking a sabbatical of sorts away from amp building).  
 
While Harry doesn't have this function on his site, ck out the Splawn Guitars and Germino Amps sites for sound bites of what an awesome modded-Marshall amp sounds like. Greg Germino is quite an acomplished blues/blues-rock player, and his amps (with a Les Paul) get the best Dwayne Allman sound I've yet heard. Harmony Central is also a good source of info.  
 
I think Splawn can mod your JCM 2000 as well, and his prices are very reasonable. Ck it out.  
 
See what you started: now I'm gonna need an Alembic six-string because the Strats and the Les Paul aren't gonna cut it any more, LOL!  
 
Cheers,  
 
Ke(vi)n  
 
(Message edited by kmh364 on September 26, 2004)

[lbpesq]

Kevin:
 
    Your custom amp and speaker cab sound very high end, but I would be shocked if they are truly dirt cheap.  You got uranium in your dirt where you live?  Dirt cheap like an Alembic is dirt cheap?  (Yea, the kind of dirt that does your laundry, rotates the tires, and takes your mother-in-law to the opera while you watch the game).  As for any guitar player (I make no claims for bass) that needs both a clean sound and a crunchy sound, I have two words.  Mesa Boogie - my nomination for the Alembic of amp builders
   
Bill, the guitar one

[kmh364]

Yes, it is extremely high-end: sound, spec and construction-wise. A hand-built 50W Tube Straub Cantus Head like mine starts out at $1100 (w/laquered sappelle cab, Heyboer XFRMRS, premium EL-34's or KT-66's, S/S recto, premium discrete components, laser engraved faceplate and backlit your-choice of five color CCT plexi control panel). Mine has every option and then some for around $1800 with the fight case delivered to my door! The Sultone cab is around $400 delivered (not including the Greenbacks or the flight case  both of which Harry Straub is providing at his cost). If you've priced Marshall's (new is expensive, vintage is obscene: plexi's cost $2k+ spanked!) or Boogies (even more money), I guess you could say Straub amps are relatively dirt cheap. Everything is relative. To me, Straub is more like Alembic: All hand-made and completely custom spec'ed. This guy is an Engineer for 3-M and his partner is a designer for the extremely high-end Hi-Fi all-tube amp company called Atma-Sphere. He builds 'em in his basement for little to no profit because he loves doing it. Each amp is voiced to exactly the sound the owner is looking for. Harry is known for his customer service and for standing behind his product. Sound familiar?  
 
Wow, now you really wanna throw a monkey in the wrench(?)...a single amp that does both clean and dirty?...it's been an almost 30yr quest for me to find an amp that does only ONE of those things the way I want it to, LOL! The Twin is not the ultimate jazz amp, but for $250 in '81 for a barely-used one-owner 2-yr. old amp with the original warantee card intact, I couldn't go wrong.  

[bigredbass]

If you all wouldn't mind . . . allow me to put in a shameless plug for a 'boutique' amp built by a good friend of mine.
 
Check out www.boydenamp.com.  Dick Boyden runs the repair shop at Tringas Music, the ALEMBIC dealer in (hurricane-ravaged) Pensacola, FL.  He's a great player, an utterly qualified guitar and amp technician, and the kind of guy you want to do business with.  I can't recommend him highly enough to you all.  
 
J o e y

[pace]

Ive been building & rebuilding circuits for a while. Ive mainly been doing champ style circuits. Gerald Weber's Desktop Reference for Hip Vintage Tube Amps is a great reference for any of those amp you used to own/play but wouldnt mind tweaking slightly.  
 
At my current job, we recycle metal & electronics, so this summer we got in a ton of old tube radio chassis which I was able to score transformers, tubes, porcelin sockets, etc etc....  But two of the best scores were a Jess Oliver 35watt head (jess was with Ampeg until '65 I believe). Its a very clean amp~ only vol, bass, treble controls, great for country & jazz. I also scored a Roland cube 60 the other week which has quickly become a multi purpose amp for around the house~ my pedal steel sounds really nice through it.  
 
Personally I cant justify having a boutique amp built, but thats just me.  

[kmh364]

I could certainly build my own amp (I have the skills and knowledge), especially if I had access to surplus and/or used parts (I don't). At this point in my life, however, I can afford to let someone else do it for me (they're better at it than I am). It costs, but I get brand-new AND I get a warrantee. That means less work and aggravation for me and more freedom and time to just play music and enjoy myself. What can I say: I'm spoiled, LOL!

[pace]

I hear ya when it comes to time Kev. One of the reasons I prefer to mod amps as opposed to build them is because I have no way of fabricating a chassis or a nice beautiful dovetailed cab in my house~ That said, I can show you a nice JCM800 or a silverface Pro-reverb which were comepletely gutted & done from the ground up.... the JCM I did point to point, and it sounds phenomenal.
 
      I hope to clear out my garage and make way for some of my woodworking tools soon... Working from the kitchen table just aint cutting it!  
 
cheers, -Mike

[kmh364]

I hears ya. I'm sure you did an excellent mod job.  
 
Ck out Sultone.com. Bill Boekhoff makes gorgeous wood cabs for existing combo amps, heads, and speaker cabs. That's their original raison d'etre: They claim your (Stock or modified) amp will sound much better in a oiled wood hardwood cab than it did in tolex-covered MDF and/or plywood. I tend to agree. At the very least, your amp will look tops! His prices are awesome, especially based on the quality of his work. His two-tone Marshal head cab will knock your socks off!
 
I went with Sultone on Harry Straub's recommendation. Harry just cant keep up with the demands of making cabs along with amps...he simply isn't set up for the woodworking.  

[lbpesq]

Kevin:
 
  While I wouldn't charaterize those prices as dirt cheap, I have to admit it is a lot less than I expected.  Of course, if you get the sound you are chasing, it's worth whatever you can afford (& maybe a little more).  Thanks for the tip on Sultone.  It looks like they do some very nice work.  Now I have something else to start thinking about besides the custom Further that is perolating in my head.  (Hmmmm ... a new cab for my old pro reverb maybe?)
 
Bill, the guitar one

[kmh364]

Bill, TGO: I'm seriously thinking about transplanting my Silverface Twin into a Sultone Cab...ck the link below for details.
 
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