Ideal amp for pickup testing?

[Jeff Callahan]

Does anyone have any suggestions on what kind of amp to use to test pickups on? I'm looking for an amp that is unbiased to tone and will showcase the pickup (and guitar) with the least amount of effect on the total outcome. I'm sure there are many thing to consider, but I'm just starting to wander what to look for.

Thanks, Jeff

[automan]

I use a peavey bass amp. I would never gig with it, but I think it gives an honest representation of tone.

[Jeff Callahan]

Thanks, I'm not sure what I'm after, but my crate with tube preamp sure isn't it! It's not bad, but I thinking some sort of tube amp...Fender, Mashall, or one of those mojo kit amps? I want an accurate reading of both singles, and humbuckers alike. I'm just starting, and naturally want to reproduce those classic sounds, but don't want it to interfere with experiments either.

[Possum]

...

Oh man, that is a deep question. I would say what market are you shooting for? Humbuckers, single coils?
Everything? In my opinion you need to have one of everything, amps make pickups all sound different, there isn't any one best amp because they all have their own personalities. Here is an example, go to my page:
Silver Series Humbuckers: SD Pickups, Custom-Made, Hand-Wound Pickups by Dave Stephens, Stephens Design
On the left side down some look at the PF Stars, there are demos there in various amps, listen to how different they all sound, same pickups.

I don't have a real Marshall except a small Studio 15 from the 80's, so thats one handicap I have especially for the bucker crowd. I use a Princeton Reverb, Deluxe Reverb, Vibrolux, all from '73 and blackfaced, a Blues Junior and a Victoria Regal II. They all react differently to pickups. Thats the brutal truth unfortunately. When I started out all I had was the Blues Junior, a poor choice really, some of what sounded great on that thing sounded like crap at the jams where I had guys test things through better handwired vintage amps....

[SteveJ]

Marshall 18W. You can get a clone fairly cheap. Even one of the lite models would be fine. I can hear more difference in guitars and pickups through one of those than many other amps.

[chevalij]

I do single coils and the best I've found is a Twin. Clean, warm and beautiful..

[belwar]

I think I have a total of six amps now and I usually test on one of two.. I have a mesa 50 watt tube amp which I love to test on, and a Mark Sampson Gain Star which sounds really sweet. I also have a nice Carr and two Victorias but then tend to color the sound alot. The mesa is a surprisingly great for testing.

bel

[automan]

I love Mesa amps. I fell in love with them on the road. Most everyone I toured with played a dual rc for dirty A/B'd with a Fender Twin for clean. That would be my ideal setup. I am a bassist, though, so could never justify shelling out the cash for it.

[Jeff Callahan]

Mesa seems nice for buckers, but would it be appropriate for a single?

[Vihar]

A good pickup will sound good through a Roland JC-120.

[korinastratkyle]

I know a lot of purists are going to flame me for this, but what about a Line 6 POD modeler? Even better yet (and more expensive), a Fractal Axe-FX? That way you can get a decent but not perfect idea of what a pickup will sound like through just about any setup you can think of.

[Jeff Callahan]

Not a bad idea, I don't think I could go there, but is definitely worth considering.

[ab763]

My Son owns a guitar amp repair shop in Austin, TX (Austin Amplifier) which has given me the ability to test guitars and pickups on a large variety of amplifiers and speaker combinations. In your post you said “you want to reproduce those classic sounds, but don't want it to interfere with experiments either” in light of this I must agree with Possum and Chevalij on their choices and that you need an amplifier that is considered a standard. That would be like a Twin Reverb, a 59 Bassman (reissue) or a Marshall (with EL34’s). These can be found as “house amps” in most larger clubs.

Interestingly the actual electrical circuit design (schematic) for these amps is very similar except for transformers and speakers (and tubes in the case of some Marshalls). Marshall copied the 59 Bassman circuit as has may other amp builders.

I had only one amp to test with it would be a Fender with an AB763 circuit and 6L6 tubes of current Russian production. The one exception to this is a blackface Bassman AB165 into a pair of Celestin Vintage 30’s which is like wow! These amps use 6L6 tubes which don’t breakup early and at lower volumes give a classic warm, clean and clear tone (depending on speaker) to testing guitars and pickups.

The amps to look for are Fender Vibrolux, Pro, Twinreverb, Superreverb, Showman, Vibroverb, Bandmaster, and Tremolux. Any of these up to about 79 can be “blackfaced” or rewired to the original 60’s circuit which is where that standard classic tone is. Any good tube amp tech should be able to do this and if you lucky you might trade him out in pups. The result would be a professional quality amplifier that will last forever and have a standard tone.

One other comment to your post is that it is hard to experiment without a standard to go by for reference.

[Possum]

...

Consider this the expected "flame" on the POD
They can do good things but prototype pickups only using it I think would be a tragic mistake. The POD does real distorted tones great, where these things fail is trying to emulate a tube amp with just a touch of gain, it just can't do what a real amp does in my opinion. I use my Vibrolux alot for the PAFs I make, my deluxe reverb sounds totally different, it can get down to power tube types, 6L6's and 6V6's don't sound the same, EL34's and 84's are miles apart. I would stay with a bigger amp that has some head room yet can crank and get a good tone. An amp like the Blues Junior is a terrible test amp because of the power tubes making everything sound a little too "good," when in fact if you take the guitar to something like a deluxe reverb you'll suddenly hear all the flaws come out.

[korinastratkyle]

Yeah, you're basically right Possum. I must admit I enjoy my high gain tones and I like the clean tones out of the POD but I wasn't sure just how true the clean tones were to classic tube amps. The only tube amps any of my friends have are Peavey Valvekings and 5150 100 watt heads and IMO neither have very good cleans and getting power tube distortion is near impossible without going deaf. Basically I'm too poor to really afford a decent tube amp and pedals which is why I went the POD route. Not to mention it takes a lot of tweaking to really get the tone you want (I love tinkering though, thus messing around with winding pickups, etc.). I'm a n00b at all of this compared to these guys but I figure I'd mention the option.

edit: With that said, there's a program called Peavey Revalver amongst others where you can actually tweak the schematic of the amp it's emulating as well as the tubes, transformer characteristics, etc. and IMO sounds better than the POD, but again, how real it actually sounds is subjective, and you need a DAW as well as the program costing about $300. Might as well get a decent tube amp for the money you'd be spending.