Jazz amp

After you guys helped me out with my new guitar (which is great thanks BTW) I am know looking for a new amp as not all venues have them and my little Hiwatt is too quiet. I can spend anything between $500-1000USD for an amp that can play comfortably in a big band. Thanks!

I should also add that it needs to be easy-ish to take to gigs (eg not too heavy)

here are three that I am looking at, however I haven't done much research or any playing so please feel free to add more ideas:

• https://www.roland.com/global/products/blues_cube_hot/
• https://shop.fender.com/en/intl/guitar-amplifiers/vintage-pro-tube/gb-hot-rod-deluxe-112-enclosure/2231400000.html#start=1
• http://www.dvmark.it/product-detail/dv-jazz-212/

you cna play jazz through ANYTHING with some ehadroom

that said, the go to jazz amps of my jazz band days were tube Fender combos (old ones, blackface or silverface for the 60s, bluesy jazz guitar sound), Ampeg Geminis (tube, classic affordable combos that ahve huge headroom and just teh right volume for clean and warm ensemble playing,standard equipent ine ast coast studios for jazz guys who did studio dates but the gemini II will DEFINTIELY cut the biggest of abnds without breaking up much) Standels (solid state ones for the 60s hyper clean solid state sound, pretty loud), Polytones (these are all solid state, loud as hell, clean, warm, no drive to speak of, in a good way, the 70s standard for big band guys in NYC), Roland JC120 (the otehr JCs are also good at the roland 70s jazz sound... doubles as a ost-punk amp for your Cure/New Order needs), Yamaha G series and JX series amps (look like fenders, super clean, Gs very much a solid state version of the 60s/70s fender lyout, really clean sound, also used by the cure etc... JXs are their own thing, specifically designed for jazz and keybaord purposes as far as I know), and then my favorite jazz amps are the larger old 50s gibsons like the Rhythm King and GA50T.... totally unique tube sound. There's also the Gibson Lab amps designed by Bob Moog when Norline owned Gibson and Moog in the 70s. Highly udnerrated ecause they don't rock very well, but they supplied many a jazz guy with plenty of juice back then and were BB King's amp of choice for a long, long time....

the Yamahas can be ahd for VERY little money and are great when it coems to headroom and warmth versus a lot of today's soldis tate amps that sound colder to me unless they're modellers and then are maybe not so suitable for serious jazzing... the rest of the amps I mentioned are rpretty esteemed and will cost a little more or a whole lot more depending on the amp and the amrket on any given day... also consider a quilter. The Microblock pedalbaord amp is a 3 knob beast in an MXR pedal enclosure. does a solid 45 watts clean, does some good british rock sounds with gian up... its a knockout at only like 150 bucks US. Shockingly good sound and a huge range of versatility. Willd efintiely produce a plenty-loud big band tone warm and clean, and it may outperform your bedroom hiwatt in a rock setting. I was shocked by the quilter when i bought it. It holds its own with votnage tube amps that are more than 10 times more valuable and is one hell of an all-arounder. Not my favorite amp I own but I am not ashamed tot ake her to a jam session. Fits in your guitar case too... but you will need an extension cab. versus roland's blues cubes I prefer the quilters. The blues cubes sound good and amost like a tube amp but the quilter soudns ebtter and does more with less controls.

I think a fender hot rod will have the volume but not the clean headroom and probably not the right bas response for a big band and probably not even for a little quintet... even though its got twice the eprceived pwoer of the old fender pricneton i sue dto do big bands with the princeton has a ton of clean headroom while the hot rod seems tog et furry very early unless you fool around with the preamp tubes. I lso don't think the hot rods sound very good but msot people will disagree. If you're playing ajzz through a fender you pretty much want a blackface or silverface amp. I thinkmy favorite fender model Ie ver owned for playing ajzz with a humbucker guitar was the silverface pro reverb I owned briefly but I also really liekd my balckface bandmaster in that role, it was bitier than the similar pro reverb.... the Twin and Super Reverb are really the all time jazz greats of the fender line though.

so do you think like a 1x10 speaker is loud enough for a big band? thats what the princetons have. interetsing with the quilter and its pretty cheap over here too! any knowledge on the DV Mark Jazz amps it looks like a 2x12 at a really good price?

yes, if its a high efficiency speaker.... my princeton had an upgraded JBL in it, big and efficient K series, made the thing nearly twice as loud as if it ahd a stock oxford, utah or jensen... that speaker was also VERY clean and had 10 times the pweor handling I needed for the amp so it was a perfect jazz speaker, no speaker breakup whatsoever... it also ahd a darkish tone and a little comrpession from the big alnico amgnet that gave a stereotypical warm, sustaining jazz sort of sound to the whole setup regardless of how Is et the controls. When i used the amp for rock though it was less than satisfying unless I ahd the amp at 10 into pretty gnarly natural breakup. I was never totally happy with my sound through that amp for rock and vastly preferred the non-reverb princeton I alter aquired in that role. it was a non-reverb version which amde it punchier if not gainier, it was a bit brighter and the stock jensen broke up great. Worthless for a big band though ebcause at big band volume it was too dirty and it was very bright with that speaker (in a good rock way). My dad tells me that his 60s school jazz band rig of choice was a bassman setup. I beleive he originally had a jazzmaster but at the bandleaders behest picked up a gibson before graduating. They also asked him to play no louder than 2 because the rig was pretty loud and directional. He felt the setup never rocked, but was great for him because he's not a rock guy, just too loud. So that goes to show you any fender cna handle some jazz, and small might be best inf ender with the right speakers. That sub-40-watt range can really cut a band with the right speaker for the job. But enough about fenders, you probably cna't afford one.

I know nothing about DV Mark stuff... seems like a less versatile quilter? no idea really.... try it, elt your ears decide.... try a quilter... try a blues cube too.... I like the quilter... tis also spit ass cheap and tiny. Whyw ould i want a solid state combo amp that weighs as much as a tube amp of simialr size? seems silly, give me a decent cab and soemthing that fits in my guitar case... this was nto even an option when iw as a kid! everything was relatively heavy and solid state didn't usually sound good unelss you really spent on it. We live ina golden age

if I were you I would seriously drop 150 bucks on the Quilter pedal-sized microblock (return it if you don't dig it) and then put together two different cabs, an open backed 1x12 or 1x15 for the big band, maybe throw a weber California or EVM12L speaker in it... and then I would load up a closed back 2x12 with some decent celestions or clones. Maybe get a couple Warehouse Reaper 55s or a reaper 55 and their Veteran 30 or soemthing mix and match like that so you have a loud rock/blues band cabinet too. Your little Hiwatt (lowatt?) will probably benefit from being run into a decent 2x12 with good british speakers as well. I think that the little quilter will surprise you. For twice as much quilter makes more fully featured amps that are have two or three tiems the pwoer, but I have a microblock and its plenty loud for everyday gigging situations assuming you match it to the right cab and speakers for the job. lots of headroom but a very tube like drive when you gun the gain up... blah blah blah. I would go this route in your shoes. It'll give you some flexibility rather than ivnesting in a 1 trick pony amp just for your big band at school. I would probably get like a tweed cab so it looked like I ahd a hip tweed amp or maybe get an ac30 extension cab so you look cool and then secretly the amp you use is on the floor next to your stompboxes! If you wanna get really light look at neodynium magnet speakers. People really like the Jensen Neos. they're supposed to be loud and neutral sounding in a good way.

Couldnt find a tweed nearby but this looks quite good and cheap? https://shop.fender.com/en/intl/guitar-amplifiers/vintage-pro-tube/bassbreaker-bb-112-enclosure/2267000000.html#prefn1=subtype&prefv1=Cabinets&cgidx=amplifiers-series-bassbreaker&start=1

Im not sure I could afford a 1x12 and 2x12 but here is a 2x12 if you dont think the bassbreaker is good https://www.rockshop.co.nz/shop/guitars/amplifiers/amp-cabinets/dv-mark-neoclassic-2x12-2x12-300w-lightweight-guitar-speaker-cab.html

the fender link won't load, it just takes me to all their cabs... the DV Mark cab sounds like a winner for lightness and speakers, however they are not very forthcoming about cab materials. You don't want a particle board cab. Even though modern high density MDF doesn't fall apart like the silvertone particle board cabs of the past, its still not know for its good sound. Birch plywood or pine is well established for durability and musicality. Other woods will also have their own sound, but the marine grade plywood and solid pine favored by the brits and fender respectively will eb the msot readily available and affordable. youa re looking for at elast 3/4" sides and you also want to avoid a particle baord baffle in yme xerpience. Some folks swear particle baord makes a great baffle, but I don't hear it. Its good for studio speakers, but not for guitar cabs. And it doesn't save you all that much money. Better to just go with something classic int eh first place. now, in ply or pine cabs you will also runa cross different baffle types. There's thin floating baffles like tweed fender used and then tehre's the british style fixed baffles that tend to be as thick as the sides... let your ears decide. Both are good. You will mostly see fixed plywood baffles in affordable mass produced cabinets though. You get a mix frm new fender cabs,d epending on teh series.... a good thing to look at is Peavy cabs from the classic or delta series. They are generally very well made and pretty cheap. You might need to swap speakers. The speakers will be celestions or similar most of the time and they aren't terribly jazzy or lightweight even iwhen the wattage handling is high. Celestions tend to be brighter with an upper mid hump, lots of comrpession when working hard and early speaker breakup in relation to the amount of power hitting them, what we call 'agressive'... whereas you want something darker with late breakup. The high end american sound pretty much. JBL, Altec, some old CTS speakers and later EV were the whole jazz sound. In current speakers look at weber California, the venerable EV 12L or any of the Eminence Patriots that say they are mellow with alte breakup... also look at the Jensen Neo, its veryw ellr egarded by people looking for high pwoer handling and neutral tone. Pedlabaord guys, jazz guys? love that speaker. Its also the lightest high pwoer speaker I've ever tried that sounds really musical.

But this is just a guideline.... jazz guitar has a stereotypical sound, that ultra-clean west coast wes montgomery and lee ritenour thing. But lot sof great players have used whatever gear in any era. So if you wanna try some celestions of crusty jensen alnicos then go for it. They may not be that clean, smooth and open jazzbox tone though, you'll be getting into Grant Green territory. That ain't a abd thing but your band leader might not dig it.

great, thanks for the tips on the speakers. the bassbreaker is actually lighter than the dv mark probably because its a 1x12 rather than 2. the fender is made of birch plyand your right i couldnt foind the dv mark specs anywhere. the fender has a celestion speaker the dv mark has neodymium speakers. really imo the bassbreaker is a cheaper, lighter amp but its only 1x12, and the dv mark is a louder amp. i can also change the speakers over later. really what im asking is how important is 2x12? would a 1x12 have enough projection in a big band?

which bassbreaker is it again? those amps are probably too gainy for your jazz needs unless you get the biggest one. The 15 watt will have more apparent breakup at lower volumes then soemthing like a princeton even though tis in about the same wattage rating. The preamp design is all around gainier in those tweed derived amps and long-tailed pair phase inverters have gain versus the princeton's cathodyne that doesn't... also, EL84s actually have a little gain in voltage ebfore amplifying into wattage wheres 6V6es do not. So the signal is pretty hot and has some audible distortion of its own before it even gets to the pwoer tubes and the speaker in a bassbreaker whereas the blackface design was designed to reduce rpeamp distotion and give a wider frequency response than the tweeds that came before it. Comparing soemthing tweed/vox/marshall inspired to a princeton is a really unfair comparison even if they're both around 15 watts. Apples and oranges. A tweed deluxe has more in common with a abssbreaker then a princeton reverb or deluxe reverb which are descendents of the oddballs of the small tweeds, the tremolux and vibrolux. Firmer, fixed bias, pretty big headroom, the balckfaces gow ith an even leaner preamp and the result was small amps that do boe clean jazz really well, making great use of all 12 to 25 watts. Now, my personal preference is definitely an AC15 or 18 watt type of EL84 amp, but I enver play straight jazz anymore and I want the grunt.

the bassbreaker is just the 1x12 cab

i was just thiking the microblock into the bassbreaker or dv mark

i could get ac15 actually not too expensive although your right it probably isnt the classic jazz sound

oh! bassbreaker cab... I thought you were talking about an amp. I told you, your original link didn't go to the right item at the fender store for me so i didn't know what fender cab you were looking at. RIGHT! got it no, its a bassbreaker 1x12 extension cab. Good idea.

I would go with the fender cab if you can't look at the DV mark in person... even then if they painted the inside you can only guess at why. Usually a black painted interior means cheaper materials, but it doesn't mean its particle board, the thing might just be sub par plywood or something.... you never know. With a Fender you pretty much know that the cab is amde of exactly what it says on their website. If its got paint isndie its just out of a sense of tradition sicne a lot of the balckface cabs were paitned inside (and filled wth foam, don't do that unless you get a solid pine closed back LOL even then... NO). In your shoes I would do a Microblock and the fender cab to start and if the speaker is too rock n roll for you, pull it and flip it on ebay to recoup some of the money on a more jazzy speaker. like i said, can't go wrong with a Jensen Neo. if the Bassbreaker 1x12 is light with a ceramic magnet it'll be insanely light sporting a neo. Go Jensen if you wanna go with my experience. i know what they sound like and the Jensen Neo will probably work really well for your needs. People also really like Weber's Neo which is meant to sound kinda-sorta like a Vox 'blue bulldog' celestion (so maybe not great for a big band, more of a vitnage30 of Neos) and the Eminence Tonker-lite which is loosely based around the Hiwatt cast-frame Fane sound so a little more neutral but still pretty rock oriented and aggressive. I have some Fanes aorund, they are dark and loud, but they defintiely break up when you hit them with some power. Still very British. YMMV. Pretty much every other Neo out there gets panned by players of all styles. I remember being in a band with a guy who got some Neos and we just hated them in an avatar 2x12. Forget the model and brand now but god did they suck for guitar... then we put them in a 2x12 bass cab and they were great for bass LOL. Pint being, most Neos just aren't guitar voiced. jensen, Weber, Eminence or bust. I wouldn't foola round with anything else unless I ahd money to burn and wanted to evaluate every new neodynium magnet speaker on the market so i could edify the world.

So eyah, Microblock, Bassbreaker cab, maybe a Jensen Neo as a replacment speaker. problem solved. And if you use a epdalbaord you can justmount your amp on it. You'll be good for most situations with 45 watts of clean power and a speaker that weighs nothing and that won't grit up unless you pummel it witha REAL Hiwatt that does a conservative 100 watts!

if you want to know how a vox can sound for jazz I have a little chord melody thing ehre that's a 335 neck pickup into an ac30 normal channel set really clean but still at band level (basically where it comrpesses when you dig in but it doesn't actually distort, a fine line on voxes). There's a wonky effect but its a demo from the EDQ transmisser review I wrote:

I don't think a modern 15 will do this since its just a top boost channel if I'm not mistaken. The mids won't be there unless you really fidget with the tone controls turned way down. Plus the ac30's extra wattage really helps it hang clean when playing loud while a 15 tends to give up the dirt at band levels, great for rock and blues but maybe not ideal for jazz. But dig the sweet compression, the notes hang there for days even clean. If you can get a second hand ac30 it can do jazz and pretty much anything else. It will probably have just enough power to stay clean for you and the normal channel will be ultra jazzy. As with all thigns guitar, the higher end the mdoel the better the tone. I wanna say that the amp I used for this was either a handwired or a vintage one. Not sure which at this point. The article might say.

I also really like the bigger fender tweeds for jazz. My pro can sound really good with the big, smooth 15" speaker, but being about 30 watts its right on the edge of having enough clean headroom for big band, just like an ac30 and the osnet of distortion si way less subtle than a vox. For blues and country that's a good thing but for jazz it can be overbearing and that will be true of a lot of the amps thata re related it to it in teh fender line like the bassbreakers, hot rods etc. A tweed twin is a better choice for tweed flavored jazz being a bit louder and firmer. Anyway, there's your last abrage of info.

Great thanks for the advice, just confirming do you think that the Quitler and 1x12 will really be loud enough for a big band? Thanks

Beause my current amp only has one speaker and that the main resason i want a new one

2 speakers is not twice as loud as one. all thigns being equal it only has a perceived volume bump on stage, from teh audience the sound diffuses and as long as the speakers are the same efficiency then once you're a few meters out the sound will be about the same volume with one disconnected as both. 1 speaker will eb a tad more directional, aprticularly in a closed abck cab, but an open abck because it elaks sound out the back pretty much evens that out.

The problem you have with your amp is not the sinlge speaker, its the low wattage. you don't have enough headroom to drive that speaker with clean guitar sound. Before you're really getting the speaker pumping your amp will be dirting up. Youmay enver have ushed it that hard and if you have you may find a distorted sound gets swallowed by horns unless you have a ton of pwoer behind it. 5 watts of tube power is a lot as long as you are okay with having lots of power amp distortion and a classic rock sound. It great for playing rhythm in a small rock or blues group and I always advocate people in rock bands try a single ended 5 watt amp so they don't kill the audience with volume. For clean jazz playing it ain't enough. The little output transformer and 10" cone are not a great combo for high fidelity bass response. Can be nice for distortion but when you need clear articulation of allfundamentals then you're just not getting as much as you need off the low strings. playing in a big band and ina rock band are very different. I got away with a pricnetonr everb ebcause those old blackface fenders have great output tranformers with tons of iron 9the reissue transformers are a joke comparitively) and I ahd that very Hifi JBL speaker. Like i said, my backup princeton with a jensen was not grea tin a big ensemble for a clean jazz tone. Speaker.

here's what 2 speakers does give versus 1: DAMPING. This is a platying responsive high end attenuation you get when you wire 2 speakers in parallel (the norm for everyone but Vox). Its soothness, You also get some smoothing from phase cancellation sicne not 2 speakers are exactly the same and its impossible to mount them perfectly flush in the real world. Certain frequencies come out at a delay from one or other speaker and they will cancel as they cross. This is a helpful feature for playing distorted as it smooths some harshness. Its great for nasty british amps and fuzz pedals... 2 speakers also gives you the chance to mix and amtch different speakers to make a blended tone with the ebst of both worlds. Also good for ROCK. But the truth is there are lots of killer single speaker rigs that perform well for rock. Its a little detail. I happen to like 2x12s because I like to mix speakers, but my back ahtes them and I am thinking ofgetting anotehr 1x12. I also have a 1x15 Fender Pro. It soudns great. I don't wish it had a different speaker configuration. its loud at about 30 watts, hangs with an ac30 even though the ac30 'moves more air' as people who only sue multi-speaker cabs will say. The real air mover is a clsoed back. The speakers are pumping all their jjuice right out front, however those cabs are HIGHLY diretional and tend to be too loud for anyone in line with them (including you sometimes) but will need to be miced to be ehard from people off to the side unless you're blasting a ton of wattage. There's a reason you don't see a lot of amrshall rigs on bandstands and its not ebcause a superlead alcks ehadroom... the setup is directional and will drown out the band from some seats but will get swallowed from others... closed abcks also need to 'bloom'. With no sound diffusion out the back, when you stand close to your cab to erpform you will NOT be eharing what the audience is hearing. To get an idea how tos et the amp it helps to walk away from teh thing, off stage if needed. The sound waves need space to develop and half of them will go right past your ear at soundcheck if you stand right enxt to the thing.

I could eplain more but I'm tired of typing. You wanted a light cab and a 1x12 with a highly efficient neo-dynium speaker will fit the bill. It will be easy to tote around and your amp will be so small it can go in your guitar case. Its ideal for your needs as far as transportation. I really don't think there will eb a noticeable volume difference in the band, thoughs tanding next to the cab a 2x12 may seem a bit louder to you. You should get a book on electronics and acosutics for guitarists to get your head around some ideas about wattage, speaker sensitivity and the correlation of volume of moving air to decibel level. Its not linear. Its not intuitive.

great thanks a lot, ill try to finnd a quilter somewhere to play