jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

you get yourself a #1 yet Narcy?

So, I just realised my dad has an old blowtorch. I think you know what will happen soon.

everyone needs a blowtorch, I use mine all the time, sometimes just for crème brulee, but still....

I think the best relic job is one that time produces.

I agree entirely.... there are guitars I own that I've barely played out, some have light relicing from a previous owner, most are MINT as hell even though they are older than I am and I am okay with that. Maybe I will put play wear on them and maybe I won't. Then there's my strat that I played into the dirt in multiple bands for over a decade, got it in near mint condition and all the wear is authentic so I love it. Or my esquire with the giant dent in the lower bout where the previous owner knocked it into a floor wedge, I am okay with that too... but would I intentionally fuck a guitar up or let some dude put fake play wear on my new guitar? Not so much guys...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vox-AC4TV8-4w-Tube-1x6-Guitar-Combo-Amp-OS-4409-/301738060305?hash=item4640fd6a11

In case you want to spend $230 on verified tone. It's used, though, retail, that little beast is $320. Ouch, felt that one smack my wallet.

I remember a time when you could get great sounding vintage tube amps in good working order at yard sales for less than that, but these days under $250 is a steal!

here's one a little cheaper through my favorite online gear site: https://reverb.com/item/1078497-vox-ac4tv-4w-1x10-tube-guitar-combo-amp-cream

if you have a cab this is the way to go: https://reverb.com/item/1065391-vox-ac4tvh-cream-tolex

the ac4 REALLY excels through a celestion 12 for some reason (I really like 10 inches of various brands too, but this single ended el84 type amp really loves british 12 inchers)...

if it were me I would get the ac4tv head and a cheap 1x10 or 1x12 for the bedroom so I could use it with 2x12 loaded with blues later when I wanted to get my Brian May on at reasonable levels in the studio :-)

ah okay cheers bud, both ur replies have been really useful, ill probsbly end up getting that bone series one, looks like it does what im looking for!

I do my best. I am getting old and that means I am really experienced with a lot of gear in a lot of different stage and studio applications. As long as it wasn't released after my son was born, odds are I've tried it.

I have tried 'em all because I am an inveterate bi-amper and your answer is radial engineering, problem solved, end of story! I have a tonebone series 'switchbone' ABY, most transparent and useful splitter ever (most actives color your tone with their buffer while passive ones halve your guitar's output in Y mode), period. Its like a swiss army knife of utilitarian features too, look it up!

If you aren't worried about losing gain in Y mode and want to save a few bones off the entry price for a Switchbone then get their big shot series ABY. Its like a whirlwind/morely/fender passive design with properly isolated outputs, phase reverse and a ground lift. It delivers on all of the broken promises of those cheapo passive units, however it costs a bit more.

Some kind of hybrid of digital amplification and some tube technology as well as modelling tech. Not bad, Go try it out. If it sounds as good as it does on YouTube, expect a good tone as well as the option of different effects and such.

its similar to the fender previously mentioned.... I think vox's cheapo digital stuff sounds a smidge better than fender's, but its a rotten apples and rotten apples comparison! there are basically 4 legit vox amps currently in production and they all have blonde nubtex and 3 of them cost a lot per watt, even the ubiquitous custom classic AC series are pretty so-so, then again if you have never played a JMI era vox you don't have a ton of expectations and we ARE talking about a practice amp, STILL as a passionate vox-head I really think the only affordable vox amp with the real deal vox tone is the ac4tv

digitech just came out with a suboctave... its not stereo but if you have a splitter for your amps, problem solved... if you want suboctave fuzz the classic is the MXR blue box, I owned an old script logo one for a while (I sold it to the girl from Haelstorm while that band was in major label limbo), its cool in a velcroey, Atari kinda way

Nice choice! Again, if you haven't already made your purchase, I suggest you buy it on eBay for less and see if you can get both head and speaker for less.

I second that, why pay top dollar? consider an orange telexed brand X cab with a really good speaker in it, a great speaker will help the amp along. I am a dyed-in-the-wool celestion blue alnico and H-magnet ceramic speaker guy these days, I recommend them for any brit amp with nice top end. If you can swing the money the Blue is awesome though light on bass. Also, in the H magnet camp scumback and weber legacy series speakers are pretty good pre-rola celestion repros and I've had pre-rola S, M, and H greenbacks (still have some Ses and Ms). Warehouse guitar speakers makes a great H magnet clone, the reaper, I prefer the 55hz bass cone version in open backs or 4x12s....

I'd go for the telecaster. It might just be me, but I hate SG (And basically most Gibson) necks. For me It's Gibson or nothing in terms of Les Pauls. Fender is definitely the way forward: If I had £5-900 pounds to spend on a guitar I'd be getting a fender.

fender make an okay guitar to this day, it was really their design work that set them apart -- the tele is like Ford's Model T, but they charge a premium for the guitars that are built to the 50s standard that is unwarranted considering the limited craftsmanship required to build a good tele... hell, I did it

900 UK is like 1800 USD these days, even adjusting for your countries ludicrous import tariff you could do better than an American standard tele for that kinda scratch

The mustang sounded like one of those gimicky iPhone apps that changes your voice to sound like a robot.

I am going with the micro-terror.

I had a feeling.

I learned on my dad's espana classical that I now own, but my 1st guitar of my own was an early MIJ squire strat, black with a rosewood board.

I learned based on previous music experience along with a handful of chords my dad showed me as well as a major scale. I just kinda put it together from there. Being in jr high, highschool and a lil college jazz band helped a lot.

I can't remember what my 1st song was now.... it was probably a Beatles tune.

also, you may have noticed the Chinese made ac4tv on the equipboard practice amp roundup? these amps sound great and can be had for about $150 US on the used market so at the current exchange rate think about getting a used one for about £100 UK including shipping if you go the internet route. The ac4 custom classic they are pushing these days has the top-boost tonestack, ut doesn't sound half as good and the added circuitry makes it less reliable. If you want the features save your beans and get the handwired ac4 (its like the CC version with a better circuit, more useful features, bigger speaker, better parts and better build quality) , it is spectacular and can handle practice, jams and even smaller gigs. I have never been a single-ended amp guy, but my ac4 and my buddy's vintage champs and GA5s are becoming my go-to's when practicing or spending time noodling with friends. Many 5 watt, SE amps sound like boxy trash, but some are really great.

I'm just a fan of the feel I get from playing through headphones nor through an audio interface. It always sounds artificial to me.

Headphones are useful on an amp yes, but I don't want to forgo the ability to crank up the volume a bit and play out loud.

I hate playing through headphones too... in the studio I like to track live with the drummer when possible with my amp behind some gobos in the room or at least be playing along in the control room through the monitors with my amp blazing away in an ISO booth. Ideally I like to use a tweed deluxe, ac15, champ or ac4 in the room and split my signal to a larger amp in an ISO booth like a plexi or ac30. If you mike both amps up you have a lot of mixing options. Anyway, back to your question, I again suggest you build a champ kit as a 'lunchbox' head. It won't cost much, will provide wonderful tweed tone at neighbor friendly levels, loves effects pedals due to its no tonestack topology and can be mated with cabs of various sizes to produce different tones and create different degrees of projection. Do a 1x10 with a low efficiency Jensen-style speaker in the bedroom to practice and drive a 2x12 loaded with 100+dB efficiency celestions with the band when you need great vintage overdrive. Or look up the moonlight amp on google, its a great 1 watt all tube amp that can be built from a handful of parts using 2 dual triodes (anything you like will work in the preamp and you need a 12at7 to act as the pushpull poweramp, the 12at7 will self-phase-split in this circuit, its killer) or do a hi mu preamp pentode like a 58879 or ef86 in the preamp to get voxy... or you can do it all with octals too, I think a 6SJ7 and 6SL7 work in this circuit, I forget....

If your amp give you a dirty tone, is not necessary, unless you want a very heavy distortion. To play in amps whitout dirty tone, the pedals are great

all amps will give you a dirty tone if you push them beyond their operational limits, hence the term overdrive :-) but not all amps will produce a pleasing overdrive when gunned...

I'm looking to put a Leslie effects pedal and eq on my pedalboard. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

the best regarded one is the DLS effects rotosound (I think that's the name)... It gets pretty close, but its pricey

the hughes and kettner tube rotosphere sounds very good, Hammond/Leslie makes a simulator too but I don't know anyone who ahs tried it

though it is not exactly a Leslie effect, the Catalinbread Pareidiola is a great Leslie-like effect based on the Blonde/Brownface era Fender all-tube 'harmonic vibrato' circuit, the blonde and brown amps with this effect built in could produce a sound that was a mix of trem and phasing that colored the high and low frequencies differently very much like a big leslie with a crossover... the Catalinbread stompbox nails the sound of this forgotten Fender effect.

Multiband EQ pedals are lame, add lots of noise and waste space... don't waste your time and money. Check out the classic colorsound power boost (aka overdriver) pedal, it has great treble and bass controls, can provide clean boost, mild transistor compression and raunchy overdrive/fuzz tones to boot all in a low-noise package. If you just want to boost a specific frequency range sometimes like mids or highs consider a dedicated booster like a rangemaster treble booster or the fulltone fatboost. If you must have multiple bands in a complex circuit I believe there is a low-noise programmable digital parametric EQ pedal on the market but damned if I know who makes it since I am a 'keep it simple' player.

Most modulation pedals can work together, just get the rates and resonances working together otherwise it can sound a little like a rinse cycle. This list can expand into Phasers, vibrato and tremolo.

a slow and heavy phase into a tube amp with choppy trem set to accent the groove of the song is a really great thing sometimes, try the EHX small stone into a an old supro or an AC10 -- in a pinch get yourself a catalinbread semaphore trem pedal or maybe their new valcoder trem/pre.... or light chorusing with swampy, fender bias-vary trem and spring reverb? oh yeah! Try out an Ibanez CS9 into a fender Princeton reverb with a Stratocaster or Gretsch, get making with the whammy/bigbsy on some open minor chords and prepare to be pleasantly surprised.

short answer? of course not

sorry, that's the sort of joke Bryan, the bassist in my last serious band, was fond of making.... sometimes my inner Bryan comes out, I did after all spend 5 years on the road with that dude!

the tiny terror is a great modern amp but its probably out of your price range, on your budget you are looking at a vox ac4tv, used (though it might not pack the wattage punch you need

You need to scour ebay and get an older, less popular amp, UK manufacturers made tons of great little tube amps and not all of them have attained collector status

Agh that's a tough question to answer! The Orange Micro Terror gets some amazing reviews. It seems that's the practice amp to get for the tone snobs out there :) Then again, the Mustang seems more versatile, with the on-board effects (which you might not need) and the modeling.

neither sound spectacular, but neither sound bad, I would probably go micro terror... I was not knocked out with the one I tried, but it sounds pretty decent for the money.... the mustang does a lot, but at that price point I'll bet none of the myriad of sounds it does are particularly great... the micro terror is a traditional hybrid amp with all the benefits and drawbacks of that topology, I can get next to that being from generation valvestate!

I'm an engineering student so soldering and the likes are nothing new to me.

great, build a champ kit! you won't be let down

Coincidently I have actually been looking some Marshall JCM2000 DSL's on Ebay and I must say that they look great, and I'm sure they sound great too. I know I have asked a lot and I hope I am nit burdening you, but what tones could you get from one?

The DSL can sound quite good in classic gain mode for british cleans, edge of break-up and classic rock crunch, its no JCM800, but it gets in the ballpark. In modern mode it sounds similar to a JCM900SLX (the only really decent sounding 900 model)... BUT it is still a maintenance whore though. In marshall master volume amps I am a die-hard JCM800 single-channel 50 watt fan and for Marshall channel switchers I think the SilverJubilee is their finest offering. Its hard to get your hands on a Silver Jubilee and the RIs and slash amps are expensive, however Ceriatone builds a great, affordable clone that is 99% hand-assembled on vintage style turret boards (which are easy to service and modify as well as being very heat/shock resistant unlike most PCBs)

Just to be clear I have owned 2 different superlead plexis (one an early issue 80s RI, one vintage), a 50 watt JCM800, a dual channel JCM800, a JCM900SLX and have dealt with, rented or borrowed Metal Face 4 and 2 input models (including a rare 50 watt 4 input master volume combo that had a really unique sound, very Pat Benatar!), vintage, clone and RI 18 waters, JCM2000s of EVERY type and original and RI JTM45s. I really know my marshall tone. Cabs and speakers are key with Marshalls of any type. You need the right speakers and cab dimensions for your application.... jCM2000s excel through vintage 30s for instance, but earlier master volume amps really work well with G12M65s or those celestion modern lead speakers from the 80s and 90s depending if you are doing rock or metal.... anyway, I have owned a lot of Marshall.

I am loathe to admit this since rack systems are so hair-metal, but Marshall's JMP1 midi preamp from the 90s is LITERALLY their best sounding channel switching solution and I am often tempted to buy one when I see one for sale... but they are a smidge pricey and you still need a great, marshally power amp to get the classic early-80s Marshall sounds....

Boom and Jim are both right here. If we are talking bass amp, the greater the wattage (headroom), the more clean, undisturbed sound you are delivering to a crowd... If we are talking guitar, most amps reveal their signature sound at a higher level, where playing them softly delivers a thinner sound that lacks the presence of what the amp is capable of.

that's all I'm trying to say, I am just a bit preoccupied and not as articulate as usual, though it should also be said that bigger is not always better in all tube bass amps depending on what kind of sound you are shooting for...

anyway, this thread is not about the bass guitar, so who cares about solid-state bass gear? Not the OP who is a guitarist seeking a good 1st tube amp.

that's not a lot of cash, especially if you have been playing nice tube amps up until now... can you solder and read a wiring diagram?

either that or scour the internet for a used ac4tv, they sound pretty good and are cheap as all heck

They do come with volume knobs :)

I don't see how a 40w would work with a live drummer.

40 tube watts is LOUD AS HELL for guitar through anything larger than a single 10" speaker unless you are playing a big venue like the bowery ballroom or the electric factory. Even then it is eough because your sound will fill the stage easily, you will have floor wedges to boot and you will be miced up through the PA. In a small venue something like a super reverb will have more clean volume than you need at 3 and the sound man will be asking you to turn down and neuter your tone. You are a bassist and need about 3 to 4 times the wattage of the guitarist because you occupy a frequency range with long waves that are more difficult to reproduce. This is probably where you are getting your ideas. If you want a solid, clean tube bass sound in a small club, 100 watts is the lowest you can go and only if you have a really efficient speaker setup (though you will probably get extra reinforcement via DI through the PA if the venue is remotely good).

I look at amps like cars. In this case, the law in an area says the amp go beyond 80db for example or in car terms, the speed limit is 45 in town. I'm not willing to buy a car that can't go faster than 45mph because I MIGHT want to get out on the highway and go out of town. I have no plans for it now but I certainly don't want to be handicapped to the situation when it comes up. Turn the volume knob down and you are within legal limits just as you would be letting off the gas enough to stay within the speed limit.

they make microphones and incredibly efficient PAs for you to reach the cheap seats in a big venue and any big venue will have everything they need to get your sound out there in a balanced and musical way. As long as you have enough power to get your sound on the stage for yourself and any band members who wander away from their floor monitors you are fine. If you get yourself a 100 watt, fixed bias class AB tube amplifier in the fender/marshall mode, even with a master volume the amp is going to sound stiff unless it is getting a big preamp signal, that is the nature of fixed bias class AB amps. Cathode biased AB is more forgiving and true class A is more forgiving still, but those styles of tube amps can't be made much larger than 30 or 40 watts without running into efficiency issues and heat problems. Tube amplifiers are not cars, though it was a clever analogy. There are also other factors that contribute to loudness apart from wattage. In pure wattage-to volume terms 50 watts is NOT half of 100 watts, 50 watts and 100 watts through the same speaker system actually produces very similar sound pressure levels. 18 to 25 watts is closer to half of 100 watts in dB... oh man, I could go on with the science and also my years of personal experience playing thousands of shows with powerful amps in small venues debunking all the old wisdom put out by amp manufacturers during the volume wars of the 60s and 70s, but its all on the internet at this point or you can just go blast out the soundman at a small club and see if they invite you back! Just trust me, what you're saying makes sense if you are not in possession of the facts. There's stuff to talk about regarding wattage calculations for tbe and solid state, speaker efficiency, its overwhelming, but the long and short of it is that you do not need a ton of tube wattage unless you are the Beatles playing Shea Stadium through the crappy old house PA trying to be heard over 1000s of screaming girls! You can pay for the extra power, but most of the time you will not sue it and will not sound your best as a result. Solid state is a different animal, but I do not feel like explaining all the reasons why. You can look all this stuff up.

I am also quite taken by the Marshall 2000 TSL60 Head, which I have found a couple of second hand ones for sale online. Thoughts?

They are maintenance nightmares, the worst of the JCM2000 series. They will be similar in reliability to the Jet City but with the premium price tag of a UK-made brand name amplifier. The DSL is more reliable as is the big TSL100, but they all go down periodically and sit in the shop for weeks. They don't sound particularly good to my ear either, but YMMV. I would buy a jet city before I would invest in a JCM2000, the JCA50H is better voiced at least.

Try a channel switching Orange if you must have multiple channels, they are very well ventilated for the amount of tubes in them, feature off-board tube sockets, have a classic rock/metal sound and are built like tanks these days. Old ones were unreliable, but any built in the 21st century are serious road warriors.

I am loathe to say it because I am not a mesa guy, but certain mesas might fit your needs too. The dual caliber amps of the 90s can be had used for reasonable money and are very reliable. They give you a blackface fender clean channel and a rectifier-ish gain channel (and the recs are really drawn from the Soldano SLO100 electronically) and the series was available in 3 or 4 wattages so one is bound to meet your needs. They have way less features than a rectifier series head so you won't spend months trying to mine the tone out of them. If you can find one for a good price, the mesa electradyne heads are really nice 2 channel amps with just enough features to get a good sound without getting bogged down flipping switches and twiddling knobs.

I don't have a read on what your needs actually are, nor am I clear on what sound you want. The simpler the amp and the better the construction the better I like it. Less circuitry equals better tone much of the time and it also is less that can break. Simple amps are cheaper to build sturdily too. If you don't have a bunch of relays, voicing caps, switches and pointless knobs on an amp then you have time to wire leads to the tube sockets instead of gluing them to the PCB. All those features are a gimmick. While a few may be truly useful, they are not essential to make good music on the electric guitar.

I have no need for somebody else's hand.

I take it you are single then?!

What about the Bugera 1960 Infinium?

not a clue as to quality, its a behringer product made in their plant in China, its probably knocked off of the venerable marshall plexi superlead but bult on PCB. Never seen one in person.... I used to tour with a vintage superlead, it is loud as FUCK.... even in 300 seat venues I needed an attenuator sometimes to get my sound. 4 input marshalls can sound fantastic, but apart from volume issues the circuit is finicky about speakers, tubes and line voltage. This style of amp is for serious enthusiasts. They are a bear to set as the amp is not really designed to distort heavily. You need to coax them with the right settings for the room. JCM800 style amps are way more user friendly.

Save your beans a bit longer and invest in something used that's not made in china. Also try to keep it under 50 watts as you will probably never even use all 50!

I highly recommend Ceriatone's hand-wired import clones. Their marshall style circuits are great bang for buck.

Don't buy gear for only what you need it for now. Buy it for everything you may use it for.

I would disagree with statement entirely. Buy the best solution you can afford for the band you are in now. If you get a quality amplifier that fits your needs NOW just right when your needs change you can swap it for something that will suit the next project. Or you can just invest in a quality AC30, one of the fawn reissues (HW1 or HW2), which will take care of anything you need pretty much forever unless you are planning to join a modern metal band.

Thanks mate! A lot of helpful information there. When you say that it wouldn't be able to handle extended use, around how long are we talking?

It depends. To be safe I would put her into standby to cool off every 2 hours or run a fan and I would NEVER let an amp with this type construction idle in play mode. If you are not going to play for more than 10 minutes, put the amp in standby to reduce the internal temp, do not merely mute your guitar. If there is voltage on the plates at all they are producing extra heat. Remember that heat damage to copper traces is cumulative as is board-warpage. If the heat damages components but the amp is still running you DO NOT start with a clean slate next time you play the amp nonstop for 4 hours. while Jet City amps are affordable they are by no means cheap, so you will want to baby yours if you buy one since it is not designed to be a road warrior.

As a tech I have to advise anyone playing long sets or doing long rehearsals to stay away from amps with board-mounted tube sockets. This is not exclusively a problem in the cheap seats, starting with the JCM2000 series Marshall began board-mounting their tube sockets. I woulda thought that the high quality Marshall PCB material and thicker-than-average traces would hold up, but I was in a band with a guy who owned a 2000 and it went down due to heat-related board issues all the time until the problems became detrimental and he got a real amp. That band shared a rehearsal space with a guy who had a JCM2000 endorsement. His TSL's were constantly dying due to heat-related issues too, but Marshall just sent him new ones. While he had to pay for his 1st one, Marshall went above and beyond the warranty for this guy (who shall remain nameless) because they didn't want him complaining in the press. Conversely I have owned and toured with various older model PCB Marshall tube amps with off-board tube sockets and not a single one ever went down for ANY reason other than a dead power tube. Oh yeah! that's the other thing. If one of your tubes shorts and arcs before the fuse can blow then it will melt the whole board. If the sockets are off-board but near it this is a possibility, but board-mounted sockets are sure to take the whole amp out if a tube arcs. Be sure to use high-quality, well matched power tubes and have them biased correctly in any fixed bias amp, but particularly one built on a PCB.

I am looking to buy my first all tube gigging amp and was wondering if anybody had any thoughts on what wattage is required to play small clubs with an enthusiastic drummer. If you could suggest any amps, that would be helpful. Also I would prefer a pretty tough and rugged amp head which has a good build quality that can take a beating. Thanks.

what do you need it to do? If you don't need clean headroom and want wonderful, natural tube drive even a 5 watt, single ended amp through a quality cabinet will cut the mustard in most rock clubs, it will keep up with your drummer on stage as long as you hook it up to efficient/bigger/more speakers than small amps usually come with as combos (my vox ac4hw1 is a beast through a 2x12 loaded with 101dB efficiency celestions), but it will be quiet enough to allow the soundman to put you though the house PA and give the audience a solid mix even if he is inexperienced at sound reinforcement...

If you need headroom for a loud 'n tight clean sound that cuts the drums on stage, then consider a 15 to 40 watt amp. Any more will be overkill unless you are looking at channel switchers that deliver clean, crunch and solo in one package, however, these types of amps only sound good if you can invest major bucks.

Anyway, you need to explain your application better. Are you a pedal guy, do you play bone clean ever, do you want british overdrive or American, do you need tog et that OD from your amp,,, I could go on. without knowing what you are up to I can only tell you how I like to do things which is by no means the only way, nor is it the most cost effective or easiest.

Yeah! I want a Univox too but the cheapest I found it was around $600 and I don't feel like paying that much for a fuzz pedal so I found Behringer SF-300 for $25

I woulda sold you mine for $400, but I already sold it for that. I got bored with it and it was collecting dust.... anyway, I don't know about the behringer, but you might want to build your own superfuzz, BYOC makes a great kit -- OR there's a guyatone fuzz box that is 90% the same circuit, also I think one of visual sound's pedals is a knock on the superfuzz too, but don't quote me... if you want to shell out a little bit more dough MJM's China Fuzz is a really well made copy that's accurate enough to sound right, black cat makes a well-regarded clone too but I have never tried it... all your other options cost almost as much as a vintage one and a vintage one will retain its resale or even appreciate

Hello! I have two questions about octave shifting.

1. Does anyone have a good recommendation for a cheap but good octave shifter. Nothing fancy and not a harmony, just plain ol' octave shifting.

I am not a big effects guy, but if you are okay with digital effects then the standard Boss unit works very well with a good balance of cost versus reliability... I believe digitechahs a number of a budget friendly entries into this arena apart from their notorious whammy series, but I really don't know which one to recommend as I do not know what features you are seeking.... if you must have analog circuitry and true bypass then the FoxxRoxx Octron is the best octave pedal going, but it is very, very expensive

1. Would an octave pedal work with an electric violin? Would it work or would it just completely mess up the tone?

theoretically it should be just fine with electric violin, though I would need the output specs of the pickup on your violin to know for sure how well it would mate with an input tailored for a magnetic guitar pickup viz-a-viz peak voltage and impedance, however the odds are in your favor... the only other problem you might encounter is with the octave effect's ability to track frequencies in the upper register of the violin's range. The 2 instruments more-or-less overlap in the guitar's higher register, but octave effects are notorious for tracking 2nd & 3rd octave notes best on guitar particularly from the NECK pickup as that pickup produces a stronger fundamental for the octave circuit to transpose than the bridge pickup which due to the lesser degree of mechanical energy above it tends to capture more harmonics which confuse the octave effect. So depending on what you are playing on your violin and where the pickup is in relation to the neck joint and bridge your mileage may vary.... go to a store and try before you buy.

This is my first Equipboard Forum post, so let me know if I have done something wrong and I will do my best to rectify it.

WELCOME!

+1

thanks, I wish I knew which of my comments got the "+1", but again thanks

Does anybody have any information about this amp head. Look well built and reviews sound pretty damn good. But I was wondering what tones you could get from it? I usually play completely clean, or if I do add gain it is usually around half way or below on most amps. Would those tones be achievable with this head? Any help and advice would be much appreciated as I am thinking about buying this amp but am unable to five it a test run as no music stores in my area stock it.

I can tell you all about it. Jet City is Soldano's budget brand, made in china. This model is based on Mike S's Hot Rod 50+ model. The differences are in the transformers and circuit board construction. The transformers, choke and PCB are of inferior quality to that of a Soldano. I am sure some of the odds and sods parts like pots and caps are too, but that won't affect tone like transformers. The other difference is in the construction. In a real Soldano the jacks, pots and tube sockets are NOT board mounted and attach to the PCB via flying leads (like in early PCB Marshall amps like a vertical inputs JCM800) while the Jet City has board-mounted jacks, pots and tube sockets. This will not affect tone, however it is a reliability hazard, particularly the tube sockets. Tubes get hot and PCB traces (and cheaper PCB board themselves) don't like heat. The further you can get the tube sockets from that PCB the more air space there is for the tube heat to dissipate which prevents traces melting and the board warping during extended use. Board mounted jacks and pots are notoriously difficult to replace if they fail and any stress put on these components (and these are components that move a lot) can crack thinner PCBs damaging the traces that connect them to the rest of the circuit, which is bad. Tonally I will say that the only downgrades from a real Soldano are in the transformers and choke, but we are talking about diminishing returns here. The Hot Rod series of real Soldanos have lower quality transformers than the SLO100, but they do not sound lower quality, just a little less hifi, which I happen to prefer. My experience with the jet city stuff is that compared to a Soldano Hot Rod series amp it sounds even less hifi in that it has a little less treble and bass and that the treble that's there is a little grittier and harsher both clean and distorted and the bass has the murky quality that affordable, current production fender tube amps exhibit versus the well defined, punchy lows of a real Soldano or vintage blackface fender.

All in all the Jet City amps are a good value for a musician who plays hard rock in clubs once or twice a month, but they are NOT road amps unless you can afford at least one spare. The gain on the gain channel is WAY over the top for guys like you and I who think less is more, but when dialed back it can provide some convincing late 70s marshall tones, also, the clean channel has great 60s/70s crunch in the upper gain reaches as well as providing some great rock 'n roll cleans in the first few numbers on the dial. If you must switch channels I suggest running both gains somewhere between 2 and 4 for best results OR you can use the amp as it was intended and run the 1st channel as a semi-dirty sound and gun the gain channel up high enough for singing leads.

I suggest a nice closed-back cab to deliver this amp's authority loaded with 25 watt greenback type speakers (I like the WGS green beret and Emi private jack over celestion's current version) for a midrangey vintage growl or a mix of Vintage 30 and G12H30 bass cone speakers (I really like the WGS veteran30 and reaper55hz versions, bang for buck and better tones) for something with more authority and a little modern 'zing' and 'thump' with enough retro attitude to satisfy even a purist like me...those 65 watt celestions with the H domes they recently reissued would probably mate well with this amp (the vintage ones in my 80s JCM800 combo really worked well with this sort of sound) or you could try out some of those new creambacks.

A better budget soldano is the now discontinued Yamaha T series (the T50 and T100 if you want a head). Mike designed these for Yamaha and they are a lot like a SLO100 with independent controls for each channel. Thy have very good output tranformers and are even rack mountable. The only downside is that Yamaha omitted the choke and on an amp this size that is probably a mistake, however, there is a simple mod schematic available from Soldano to add a choke into your T50 or T100 and thus improve its sound and response to actual Soldano standards. A T50 can be had for $600 or less on the used market. Pre-modified ones can cost a little more depending on the day. They are extremely well made and I have never encountered a broken one.

Good luck.

Yeah of course! i definitely don't want to be a "Snakehips sound-alike",or make type beats for the rest of my life, but i've been practicing instruments for years now (15 years) and when i decided to produce my own music i thought by listening artists that i can relate to and being able to understand how their song were produced,could help me in creating my own style.

we've all got influences, no offence intended of course... just start accumulating gear, get a handheld recorder to sample sounds from the world around you, get a good technics turntable and a ton of obscure vinyl, buy some under-the-radar synthesizers to dicker with and maybe a couple old off-brand tube amplifiers from the 50s or 60s and a bunch of cheap 80s guitar effects too. Get a couple differently voiced microphones, a DI and a reamp too. Then write some tunes and go to town.

I guy in town here recently bought a Boss ODB-3 off of me to play Sabotage and said it didn't do the trick. I believe the tone he was after came out of an MXR Bass D.i. pedal.

I guarantee you sabotage is a 70s univox superfuzz

Wow thanks a lot^{^} i mean this will help me a lot,because i was afraid i had to buy a software in particular especially when some of them look really complicated like Pro Tools, just my opinion.

Any road,i'm off to buy a turntable perhaps a hundred of vinyl, do a lot of research and work hard until i get what i want!

Thank you^{^}

sure, any time... I am going to say this, before you spend any money think really hard about whether you want to be an imitator and an amature or if you have something unique to say with music, whether you are an aspiring professional and an originator... I remember growing up as a guitarist (I was a little jerk, by the way) I used to always say to people "Wow, that was a great Clapton impression, man. But I heard there's a guy who always does Clapton a little bit better and his name is Eric fucking Clapton. Now play something from the heart or stop wasting my time."

Narp. I rarely mess with tabs and haven't ever written them myself. Sounds simple enough to learn by ear though. The bass line repeats itself a lot.

I hear that, Boom! I can't even read TAB without getting all screwed up. Its way more confusing than standard notation for me. I'm not a fret counter at all, barely even use the position markers anymore, I think in terms of notes and classical hand positions and my hands just DO that now.

By the way, OP, get yourself a univox superfuzz if you don't already have one. I sued to own an old pink/blue one and putting it into mid-scoop mode with a bass was instant Beasties. it doesn't even matter what notes you play, it'll sound like one of their songs.