Good amps for testing pickups that won't break the bank

[Pep]

Shit guys, the modelling amps aren't _that_ bad. I'm still cringing though, lol. Dave you got me jonesing for a vintage DR. I love the sound you guys get at Duff's with those little babies. DId you mod yours to blackface specs?

[Possum]

'73 Dr

Yes, blackfaced it, got one resistor wrong, Greg fixed that, I biased it hot and Greg nagged me about short power tube life but NOS Canadian military tubes 3 years old now and still sound better than anything I've ever heard. Vibrato disconnect switch, and negative feedback loop switch, both for added gain when needed. Weber speaker. I love that amp, I have a Vibrolux same year that was an Eaby steal (unbelievable) that has all the same mods plus has a blackface power transformer in it direct from the buyer. You can hear that amp in the Tone King samples on the bucker page. to heck with blackface amps, you mod them or mess with them you decrease their value, the silverfaces you can mess with, even they are going up in price but there's alot of them out there still for cheap.....

[Nic the Nerd]

I had a pro sonic

One amp I am curious about is the Fender ProSonic. Anyone played one?

I had a mate who lived 3 thousand miles away who tried to convince me over the phone a hundred times or more to buy one. I finally relented, it was the first and last time I ever bought an amp that I hadn't played through, never again, never. It seems a common gripe (with most/all? Fender amps that have a high gain channel) is that the gain channel is crap. Well in this case, I have to agree, not that I've played a lot of Fender amps, the clean channel was OK but I swear, every time I plugged into that POS it sounded different. I got rid of that thing fast and dropped a lot of dough on it. I'd say the Epi would have to be a better buy. Not so much to loose if you hate it. That's if you buy without trying first. Even if you do have a play through it first, you get the thing home and it's a different amp.

[David Schwab]

Shit guys, the modelling amps aren't _that_ bad. I'm still cringing though, lol.

Hey, it's worked out real well for recording in my home studio! Better than the last time I mic'd up an amp.

If I were a guitar player I would be using a real amp though. I hate those modeling things for bass!

[soundmasterg]

Dave, it was two resistors that were incorrect...you used the values for the bigger Fender amps instead of the Deluxe Reverb, but thats ok. We got it fixed and working great. It's biased a little on the hot side now (No I didn't change it) but its not as hot as you had it in the past (when I first fixed the resistors), so it sounds great and your tubes will last longer.

Pep, a really great choice on the cheap is the Epiphone Valve Junior as someone else mentioned. The head only is $99 at Guitar Center, and the combo is $139. No tone control...just a volume, and so your pickups really make a huge difference. There are tons of easy mods out there for these amps too, although they sound great stock, and are surprisingly loud with the right speaker cabinet.

[Possum]

Epi's

I'm not sure I'd use one of those epiphone amps for pickup testing though. They really aren't a typical amp at all, anymore than an old epiphone small amp is, I have one with no tone control real simple amp, sounds great but would never use it to test pickups in. what you really need is a middle of the road amp and I'm not real sure what the heck that would be. Or if there really is such a thing. Wish Lollar would post on this one, he has one of most kinds of amps. Amps are a huge part of the tone equation, so there's no ideal solution.

[Possum]

The Dave Mod

Yes I admit, Greg, I am an amp genius, my two resistor DR mod has never been done before and it makes any DR sound exactly like a super reverb :-) Seriously my goof wasn't that bad and that amp always got alot of compliments from anyone who played through it with my Dave mod. Using the new resistors its a bit more fat and dirty sounding which is better and I'm not blinded by white glowing power tube plates anymore, I miss that ....

[Pep]

Well guys, I just pulled the trigger on a Fender Prosonic. They aren't very common but it seems like a good amp for this kind of thing. It's got 3 settings on it. Class A, AB w/ tube rectifier, and AB w/ SS rectifier. 2 channels. Clean is supposed to be classic blackface and the OD channel has cascading gains to dial in a wide range of distortion. Hopefully it's all it's cracked up to be. If not, I got it for $725 and I see them going for $850+ on ebay so no harm, no foul. When it arrives I will let you guys know the verdict. If it sucks I see a silverface DR in my future. Too bad there isn't a poor man's JTM 45 out there too.

what you really need is a middle of the road amp and I'm not real sure what the heck that would be. Or if there really is such a thing.

Amen to that. Every amp I have ever played through has its own thing going on. I think the only solution is to win the lottery and buy everything under the sun. Of course my fat ass would probably be laying on a south pacific beach somewhere rather than worrying about this stuff.

Those epi amps sound like they could be good but I am kind of hesitant on purchasing one if they are retailing for $100. That must mean they have $60-$80 worth of components in them! Just a good transformer costs more than that! Who knows, I might be talking out of my ass.

[mkat]

Hey, it's worked out real well for recording in my home studio! Better than the last time I mic'd up an amp.

If I were a guitar player I would be using a real amp though. I hate those modeling things for bass!

Sure, for recording, you can save time, money, space and some headaches (sound wise) with a pod in a small home studio. But, there's nothing like the real thing. In a live situation, there's no comparison.

Regards,

Michael

[soundmasterg]

Yeah it was ok before Dave...its much better now though! Darvey really liked it's sound this last week. I think its because its so cold out the amp isn't running as hard and is cleaner.

Pep, you should go play one of those Epi Valve Juniors. I was skeptical myelf until I tried one out. For the price they are a steal, and they're all tube.

[Possum]

epi amp....

If you have a Vintage Guitar mag laying around one of the transformer companies is selling a kit for the $99 Epi to replace the transformers with their stuff, the kit is about $400 if I remember but they are supposed to make that little amp into a God-Tone recording amp. Some guy was putting their transformers into the Epis and anyone who heard them bought them on the spot, well at leat thats what their ad copy says....believable, those little amps do sound freaking vintage cool, I tried one at guitar center....fun toy to have.....

[Grindell]

ProSonic

Pep, I've got a Fender ProSonic, and it is an amazing amp. Think Fender Deluxe on the clean channel, and modded Mesa on the distortion channel. Nothing to do with your needs, but there is a mod that will take out the huge pop when channel switching.

Also, I use a cheap Fender Frontman 25r for testing pickups. I've played so many guitars through it, I've made it my basic reference. If I have any doubts, I'll take it up and play it through my ProSonic, the 5150 combo, or the Crate VC 5212. That gives me an idea what the pickup will sound through most types of amps.

[NightWinder]

Well on reflection it seems like a Mesa Boogie F50 is out of reach for most. But a straight valve amp with a 12" speaker is a must really. So here's the deal. It's made by Epiphone. It's good quality, cheap and you can rest assured that it's made in china.

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I have seen and heared a few of these; they're quite good and very cheap.

You could even get the lil 5 watt job, and plug it in a 4x12. Oh and change your ohms on the cab, otherwise boom boom accures at no extra cost!!

[Pep]

Grindell, that is really good news. I was hoping that I made a sound decision (lame pun intended). How difficult of a mod was it to get rid of the pop? I have a hunch that she might get used for some jams if I like what I hear.

[Possum]

market

one thing one ought to really consider is again who is your target market? If you're selling to blues guys, they like old amps, if you're selling to shred metal guys, Marshalls. So you'd need an amp for the kind of musicians you are targeting. I got chastised by some guy because I didn't have any heavy metal riff sound clips on my site, well just one by Jake E Lee that ought to be good enough. But those guys don't buy my pickups even with Jake there anyway, so its kinda pointless for me to get some shred guy to demo the pickups, even though they should kill for that stuff, EVH, Page, alot of those guys used vintage pickups that weren't wound to 300K worth of copper :-) They mostly don't believe me when I tell them that, its kinda funny actually....