Do You Play or do You just Build?

[rexindigo]

Im wondering if all of You guys play the amps that You build or do You just build them? And what sort of music do You play with Your amps?

To be honest i play my homebrew amps in rehearsal but still use my Mesa/Musicman combination for gigging. (Probably Im afraid that what i cooked at home might break more easily, than the industrial stuff i bought once)
im very eager to hear Your statements, thnx

[hasserl]

I play in a Classic Rock band, we try to play out once a month average. I'm also the organizer of The Orange County Blues Players Meetup group, over 140 members, and I host a once a month blues jam for the members and their guests. I use my homebrew amps for a lot of these, especially the blues jams, but I also use my vintage Fenders and my not so vintage Carvin Nomad (which will hold it's own with any amp). I'm as confident in my homebrew amps as any other amp. They've never let me down yet. But anything can fail, any amp is just a mechanical device that is subject to failure. I usually take a Crate Powerblock as a backup amp. I haven't needed it yet, but if I did it would be easy to just set it up and plug the speakers in to it and finish the gig.

[TigerG]

Gigging with the homebrews is the most exciting part! I highly recommend that you take yours out to gigs, and bring along the "industrial" rig in case something does go wrong. Really, there's nothing more satisfying than hearing the sound of your own creation and sharing it with the audience. Mine have been seeing live action for over 10 years, at all kinds of gigs. Lately I'm doing instrumentals, a mix of blues and rock and surf guitar. (If you're interested in hearing samples of the music and a homebrew amp, there's stuff posted at my website, tigergagan.com)

[drewl]

yeah, I usually play once or twice a week and use at least two amps, so one of my own is usually on stage.
with over 15 or so amps, and just as many guitars the hardest part is deciding what to bring!
No better feeling than having someone compliment your sound when it's one of your own builds.

[Steve Conner]

I've always gigged with my own amps. I love the adrenalin buzz of not knowing whether they'll blow up. We rarely have room for a backup rig, so that makes it even more exciting.

It also lets you see how your creations compare with amps that other people brought, and get feedback from other musicians and the sound guy.

Another strange feeling is standing in the crowd with a beer and having your own amp played back at you by the other bands on the bill. You really don't want it to break down then. Since I mostly gig on bass, and nobody ever wants more than one bass rig at a gig, this happens quite a lot. Probably the best band that ever used my bass rig were the awesome Dr. Dog.

I remember one time the amp seemed to have failed completely, there was no bass at all and the bass player was looking pretty nervous. I feared the worst until I realised he was a newbie and had forgotten to flip the standby switch. I had to sneak up on the stage between numbers and flip it for him!

[rexindigo]

thank You, this is very encouraging, i will gig next time with my homebrew 18watt clone and take the mesa as a backup amp.

as we play 80s music with a reggea feel, i need a lot of clean sounds, probably thats another reason for taking the 50 watt factory amps, but this is why im working on a el34 PP amp right now. ( i ve quit the idea of builing a "high-wattage" SE amp, see the other thread i started: 20 Watt with a 6L6)

the maximum i can gig nowadays are 4-6 times a year, job and family taking toll you know.... but i rehearse every week.

it is cool to see that all of your nice build amps are played, cause music is the best thing to do!

[Manic]

well so far I have only built one amp. I built it in an effort to find the holy grail of tone (or at least I feel the holy grail is). Its been built about a year since I finished My first build and I have played an average of 2 gigs a week for the last year with it. Each time I make changes to it I go test it the next weekend at the show.
Ive found that the only way I know how the changes to the amp really sound is to take it to the show and try it out. Funny Ill think a mod or speaker change sounds great at the house, then Ill go to the show and with in 2 songs or less, sometime 2 bars, Ill know if its really going to work. I can NEVER tell from just playing around the house, it has to go to the show.
For instance I just put a JBL D120F in My 5e3x2 build
and I thought I was in love, based on how it sounded around the house. I just knew it. Well I was wrong again, I jumped the gun. I played it last night at the show and hated the JBL! LOL. I should have known better.

[Chuck H]

I'll second that. I've built and modded alot of amps and I can say for sure that the only way to KNOW how it sounds is to put it the mix. I've built amps I thought were really great and had ten people back it up, only to go to a practice and find it sounded awful in the mix. I'm getting alot more seasoned now and my ear for it is better. But even today, when I build a new design and someone tells me it sounds good, I just think "Yeh...There's still the acid test to run though."

Never take your ear at it's word.

Chuck

[rexindigo]

You are right, thats what i experienced, at home it sounds cool (for example a little princeton clone ive build) and in rehearsal its no good...

and its true gigging is still something else than rehearsal, but as i told, this is very rare for me nowadays...

Manic, one question regarding Your reply: What do You do when You gig and You dont like the sound of Your modification, do You have a extra Amp as a backup?

[Manic]

I do carry a back up on our trailer. Friday I almost did have to grab it, the JBL that I was tryin out in My 5e3x2 the night before last was crapping out during the show and I thought I might have to get the backup. It made it for the entire show, but barely. I thought I might lose the speaker and or the OT!. Generally I make small changes that I can live with it for one night. I havent had to grab My backup yet with the 5e3x2.

Now in the case of the 59 bassman RI I borrowed, I couldn't take it. I made it about 4 or 5 songs. It sounded so thin that I had to go to the trailer and get My back up. Which is nothing special, just a solid state Ultimate Chorus. I'm not saying that the Bassman is junk, just that with My tele it was paper thin sounding.

[hasserl]

I'll second that. I've built and modded alot of amps and I can say for sure that the only way to KNOW how it sounds is to put it the mix. I've built amps I thought were really great and had ten people back it up, only to go to a practice and find it sounded awful in the mix. I'm getting alot more seasoned now and my ear for it is better. But even today, when I build a new design and someone tells me it sounds good, I just think "Yeh...There's still the acid test to run though."

Never take your ear at it's word.

Chuck

And I've had the opposite happen, an amp that I struggled with and wasn't real happy with until trying it at a gig and being floored by how it cut through the mix and sounded incredibly great. That was the 5E5A Pro I built from a Weber kit. I really struggled with that amp, it seems dark with a lack of any real presence, very sensitive to pickup selection and volume control. It's blatty sounding and it gets muddy when driven hard with any bass applied, especially when using the neck pickup. I learned I had to work the guitar volume control much more than with any other amp, rolling it way back when using the neck pickup and only rolling it up when flipping back to the bridge.

Then I took it to a blues jam and it kicked ass! I mean it KICKED ASS!!! Effin incredible, it slayed everything else at the jam, just total domination. Wow. Back at the shop it sounds just the same as it did before, take it back out to another gig, it sounds bitchin! Wow! It wasn't just me, it was on the backline and several other players used it. I sat out front just listening and was amazed at how great it sounded. Everyone loved it, I got lot's of positive comments about it. Didn't matter what type guitar was plugged in, Tele, Strat, ES, they all work. All by itself I really don't like it that much, put it in the mix and I don't know if there is a better sounding amp.

[Jammin'John]

Double Deluxe

Manic,I have a weber 30w ceramic Blue Dog and a Weber 30w ceramic 1230-55 in my Double Tweed Deluxe that is fantastic sounding.

hasserl,My weber 5E5a Pro is now cathode bias and Ted made me a SWEET speaker.
It is a 15F150 with a british cone and an 80 ounce magnet.

The amp is like havin' a 5E3 with a lot more headroom.



JJ

[eruannu]

i currently trust my own stuff more than i trust the "store bought" amp i have ie; i have a 5e3 clone i built which i trust because it is tried true and i know what to fix if it breaks as i have a couple times but on the other hand i have a stromberg carlson pa which i have only lightly modded to resemble a ac30 in layout exept with 6l6s this suprisingly sounds very hiwatt esque in its best moments but has common issues at the worst possible moments i am seriously considering a major modification but have not brought myself to do that yet.....

[PRNDL]

I just sold one of my amps (a 6V6 PP with extra gain) to a guitarist in Austin that appears to be quite famous. Wouldn't it be cool to see my homemade tweed head on Austin City Limits?!!

As for me, the 1-watt Fanon is the main practice amp (I'm building a new cabinet for it), and I use an 18 watt EL84-PP is for jam sessions.

[eruannu]

found the problem all is good still puzzles me but what ever fixed now only issue is bad tone with feedback loop ingaged on channel 1 but is no big loss just will keepthat in mind