Alembic Guitarists... What amp are you playing through?

[7string_thing]

hey guys im a soon to be father of an alembic, and i was wondering what amps you guys are using your alembics through. anyone using a Two Rock,Koch,Allesandro, or Acoustic Image? tell me whats the best with your alembics?

[lbpesq]

Welcome to the joys of playing an Alembic!  I play through a Mesa Boogie Mark III with a Theile bottom.  I love it!
 
Bill, the guitar one

[kmh364]

Pat:
 
There are a few threads here on that very subject...I started a fairly lengthy one myself. Do a search.
 
Personally, while I currently have two Alembic basses, I haven't taken the plunge for an Alembic guitar. Having said that, I am a guitarist that dabbles in bass, so I have a bunch of (no-Alembic) guitars and some amps. You'll find it's the same relative answer as if you asked which amp goes with your Alembic bass: whichever one you like the sound of!  
 
FWIW, for dirty I have a custom, hand-made, hard-wired Straub Cantus 50W all-tube hot-rodded Plexi-style head with a matching 2X12 Cab with 25W Celestion Greenbacks (both in Sappelle/Mahogany with flame maple fronts) and for clean I use a modded Fender Silverface 135W Twin Reverb in a custom Mahogany/Maple cab with new Weber VST JBL D-120 clones in it.  
 
While I haven't played one, Two Rock's are great amps, but very pricey. Acoustic Image's are great clean amps and go great with Raezor's Edge cabs...the jazzer's choice and highly portable. Two completely different amps with two entirely different sounds.
 
Ultimately, whatever you choose to go with , remember this: You can make a clean amp play dirty, but you can't make a dirty amp play clean.
 
Cheers,
 
Kevin

[tom_z]

Pat - I play my Skylark through a Mesa Boogie Lonestar. It sounds super clean (Fender twin-like) with incredible headroom on the clean channel - and I can get a great saturated grind on the overdrive channel. I play it with 6L6s, but with EL34s it has a bit more of that British flavor and it overdrives a bit easier. I prefer it CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN - and in combination with my Alembic it is extremely touch-sensitive. It's a really fine mate for the Alembic.
 
I've also played the Alembic through a friend's Two Rock and it sounds amazing. It?s also exceedingly clean and touch-sensitive. If I could afford a Two Rock Custom Reverb Signature and a cab with a pair of Tone Tubbys I'd be in tone heaven. But with a custom Further under construction the Two Rock will have to wait.
 
I've been watching the development of your 7-string Balance K in the FTC - looks like a great project. Very nice cocobolo. My guitar is also fairly bright reddish-orange. What electronics are you getting?
 
Tom

[jalevinemd]

I'm playing mostly 70's AOR and some more modern non-heavy metal stuff. Run my Alembics through a Marshall DSL 100 with a 2x12 cab and love the sounds I can get. From squeaky clean to captain crunch, the Alembics can do it all!
 
Welcome.
 
Jonathan

[7string_thing]

im gettin the spectrum electronics with different switches, its going to have 3 on/off toggles for the 2 singles and the hum, and a q switch, then one volume and one tone.
 
i am really interested in buying a two rock, im looking for the ultimate chimey open clean with tons of headroom. i want it to be sensitive to touch, but not break up even at extreme levels. ive thought about a fender blackface, and ive played through a friends silverface, but i think its too bright and overly loud, almost rude. i think those are good blues amps and thats about that. ive played a koch multitone, and it stays clean on the first channel no matter what volume. the amp is amazing from super jazz to massive gain, but i like the 2 rocks dumble sounds and slightly john mayerish tone. i would buy an acoustic image focus 2R and a raezerz edge extended range 12 inch cab. but im hasty about the solid state tone, although it is purely a straight ahead jazz amp and could be a damn good PA system! I also saw the Allesandro Italian Bulldog, but i dont know if that would be a good match for my style. I like to play funk jazz with some cool rock tones in it. I also do alot of blues. Lets not forget the metal man in me also. Im in a bind, i think i need to but one of each and have some fun. right now i play through a mesa maverick class A with a 4x10 jensen filled cab, and a custom made 1X12 oak pyramid cab i made with a celestion neo. im starting to think my amp sucks because when i crank it up clean, it plays fairly clean but when i get into the bass notes, it just farts out and becomes so muddy. i know its not the celestion because its an 80 watt speaker on a 35 watt amp. what to do, what to do?

[jalevinemd]

Pat,
 
If you like the Dumble sound, but are less than thrilled with the sticker price on a Two Rock, have you considered the Fuchs Overdrive Supreme? Great amp with, perhaps, the exact tones you're looking for. Quite Dumbly, so to speak.
 
Regards,
 
Jonathan

[7string_thing]

ive played them, there clean is seriously lacking, it kinda farts out really fast, im looking for a chameleon with the ultimate tone. i sometimes think that the perfect tone just isnt out there, its the player, not the gear. Its hard to get too much guitar advice when everyone around here is focused on bass! rightfully so i suppose. i dont care about the price, as long as it does what i want it to do.  
Super Clean - Jazzy joe pass to super clean chickin pickin
Bluesy Crunch - john mayerish tone on the album TRY! and the song Wheel on the album heavier things/ dumble /srv tone
Mid-High Gain - Ranging from a cranked Plexi type sound to a Recto sound
 
I think im going to have to build the amp myself. Good thing i got an electrical engineer in the family!

[kmh364]

Pat:
 
I too am a picky PITA when it comes to tone. I'm never quite satisfied with anything. As such, I've found there is no such thing as something that can do multiple tasks equally as exceptional (try using a Leatherman or Swiss Army Knife to get my drift, LOL!). Amps are no different. I use multiple amps because I can't get everything I want in one amp.
 
Having said that, you would be surprised at how versatile my Straub amp is. Ever hear a plexi or plexi-style amp play clean and with headroom? My Straub does! Then you crank up the gain and look out...it's Angus without the additional stage in the circuit and EvH with the boost knob pulled! In a pinch, I could get by with just this amp...it's that good and that versatile. Harry Straub knows his stuff and is anal about tube tone. The clean minimalist design, coupled with meticulous attention to detail and high-tolerance premium parts has resulted in a winner, IMHO...and all for the price of a mass-market GC head!!!
 
Even still, I have my Twin for the clean stuff. BTW, don't sell Fender's short...they need a little tweaking to sound good. You'd be surprised what a good cab and speakers will do for an overly brite, tinny Silverface twin. Remember, Garcia used a Silverface as his pre-amp, and actually preferred it to his back-up blackface twin. Of course, he used a Mac S/S power amp and a trio of JBL D-120's to clean-up the sound, as it were. He took the same approach as Gilmour, just using different equipment: clean amp with hi-headroom and get your dirt using effects. He happened to use Hiwatts with Fanes, but he had an Alembic F-2B (moddded Fender Showman tube circuit)as a pre-amp. Oh yeah...and those Pete Cornish custom pedalboards he uses (TENS of thousands each!) contributed a little too, LOL!
 
Regardless, I write too much, LOL!  
 
The moral of the story:
 
Play EVERYTHING and make up your own mind! You may find one amp that is a good compromise for you. But if you're anal about tone, you may have to resign yourself to having to use multiple amps to get what you want. Just my $0.02
 
Cheers,
 
Kevin
 
BTW, SRV used multiple amps plus effects plus endless guitar tweaks and, oh yeah, he was a one-of-a-kind player with little, if any, equal. Also, ck out dozin.com for Jerry's rig and gilmourish.com for David's rig...you'll find they spent a LOT of time and money finding the MOUNTAINS of equipment it took to get their respective tones.
 
(Message edited by kmh364 on December 27, 2005)

[7string_thing]

tried the two rock custom reverb signature, and i hated it, i think it was broken actually, so i kind of lost some faith in the amp. But i tried the artist version that happens to  be 2 grand less and i loved it. it was super clean in the bass range on the clean channel. it did an awsome jazz tone and an great blues/rock tone. would be great with my fulltone pedals. i think i might get an artist in the 1x12 combo, nice and portable. the koch does those sounds too though and its 100 watts with a heavy channel too. i still have to try the acoustic image focus 2R with a raezer's edge cab all is well though, i just want a picture of my alembic being built, IM TOO EXCITED! i think ill be waitin a while considering is a 7 string, and from what i heard you can count on your hands how many 7 strings were made! im hyped!

[kmh364]

FWIW, Many years ago, Ted Nugent recounted a story (I think in Guitar Player Mag) where Van Halen and himself were on a bill together and he got a chance to try EVH's massive Bob Bradshaw-built guitar rig during the soundcheck. He figured that anyone could sound like EVH with all those electronics and speaker cabs (it MUST be the rig, right?) so he plugged in and started to wail....and sounded just like Ted Nugent!  
 
Just some food for thought.
 
Cheers,
 
Kevin

[David Houck]

LOL!!

[jalevinemd]

Along those same lines, here's a quote from Steve Lukather - truly one of the best out there:
 
Lukather (June 2001): I'm afraid with any gear you won't sound like me, really even if you DID have the exact gear you wouldn't. People think it's the amp and guitar that get the sound... Well, it is not. It HELPS to have great gear but we all sound the same thru any gear. I have played thru EVH's amps, I played Jeff Becks Strats... I still sound like me playing thru their gear! Hahaha, that's the way it is. Just groove and sound like yourself and have FUN!!!

[kmh364]

Ed Zachary, er, um Exactly! LOL!

[kmh364]

Jon:
 
BTW, there's a relatively new DVD out with Luke and Larry Carlton live from the New Morning in gay Paree that's worth ck'ing out. Good jamming and decent interviews with both. I've never been a huge Luke fan, but I respect his playing...he comes from that magical group of 70's LA Sessions guys that are one better than the other (LC is the cream of the crop, IMHO):
 
http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=MVD045379
 
Enjoy,
 
Kevin