Clapton's Amps

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Clapton's Amps

http://www.ericclaptonfaq.com/guitars_and_amps.htm

This link says on Layla Eric used a Champ and Duane used a Leslie cabinet.

Do you have a copy of the Cream of Clapton CD, the liner has a strat proped against a little Champ like amp. Is that the Laya amp?

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: Clapton's Amps

Cornell, not Cornford. Brand name crossing.

GB, sorry for the correction.

Gaahh! I even looked at the site before I posted the link! :blackeye:

As Karl the alien once said: "My bad, sorry."

 

[Bludave]

Re: Clapton's Amps

With Blind Faith, that Telecaster actually was a Strat neck on a Tele Custom body. All the live pictures I've seen of Blind Faith (like all 3 of them...) he's in front of a Marshall:

That not-Fender Tweed Twin was/is made by Cornford:
http://www.dc-developments.com/products-home.htm#custom 40&80

I'd never heard of Clapton playing with Tremoluxes live.
Here's a really killer site detailing early Clapton gear:
http://twtd.bluemountains.net.au/cream/loud_and_louder__then_silence.htm

I saw the goodbye show at The Fillnmore East. 335 and Tremolux......

 

[Skarekrough]

Re: Clapton's Amps

The problem with any non-Master Volume amp is getting the desired overdrive at a reasonable volume level. Attenuaters are cool because it allows the amp to get pushed from both the preamp and poweramp sections.

Eh....I'm a firm believer that there's something about leaning on the speaker to an extent. The whole chain exists and creates a sound. Seeing attenuators float through the local CraigsList and hearing from players on forums who weren't satisfied I wouldn't call them a perfect solution. They certainly do as they advertise, but it's important to mention that they alter an important part of the entire chain that creates an amplifiers tone.

Bottom line is that there is no perfect amp out there.

...and that's why I own five.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Clapton's Amps

I so hear you there.
^

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: Clapton's Amps

I saw the goodbye show at The Fillnmore East. 335 and Tremolux......

You learn something new every day!

It shows that Clapton was really leaning out of the Marshall stack thing by the end of Cream. I always assumed it was that "Let It Rain" period, as I'd seen pictures of Blind Faith with the Marshalls behind him. In that link I posted it shows pics of Showmans on top of Marshall cabs... Leaning away from the Marshalls...

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: Clapton's Amps

Eh....I'm a firm believer that there's something about leaning on the speaker to an extent. The whole chain exists and creates a sound. Seeing attenuators float through the local CraigsList and hearing from players on forums who weren't satisfied I wouldn't call them a perfect solution. They certainly do as they advertise, but it's important to mention that they alter an important part of the entire chain that creates an amplifiers tone.

Bottom line is that there is no perfect amp out there.

...and that's why I own five.

I completely agree with you on the speakers adding 'something' to the sound. Whether it's a pushed speaker adding those extra mids into the sound, or just a breathabilty to it.

However- when it comes to getting a usable sound in a smaller environment, or in an environment where you need to be quieter... a master volume or attenuator are leagues better than having a non master amp turned down, and losing any pre/power gain.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Clapton's Amps

Why didn't Fender run after Clapton to make the perfect amp for him (or did they)?
If I had been running Fender at any point in time, I would have said "Mr. Clapton What do you want in an amp?" We will make it for you. Why didn't Fender amps "Satisfy" Mr. Clapton? Was it simply cuz his buddy Knopfler was using Soldano, simply a word of mouth promo that ran him to Soldano? What is unique about the Soldano's that EC and MK were /are using?

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: Clapton's Amps

Why didn't Fender run after Clapton to make the perfect amp for him (or did they)?

My understanding is they did, and the amps that Clapton used at the Cream reunion shows were new Fenders made to Eric's specs.

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: Clapton's Amps

There was a great interview with Clapton's tech about the Custom Fender amps he has used over the last 7 years or so... They searched high and low to find all the right vintage transformers and other parts and made 3 Tweed covered custom Twins... It took 2 years to find all the parts and build them..

WhoFan

After re-reading the thread... I didn't know those have been in Eric's possession for that long!

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Clapton's Amps

My bad. I couldn't remember where I read that. My re-read through the thread was too fast.

Nevertheless, it's really interesting to me that he changed amps alot. He has used amps by Marshall, Fender, Cornell, Soldano and Pignose among others. Even his tone/tastes are always evolving/changing.

If EC the Master is always changing his tools, that provides enough fuel to allow us little guys to change alot. Then, who am I to think that I will be able to find one amp to suit my wide variety of tonal tastes. Rats!

Even EC is always searching for new gear. Wow. That blows my mind. :boggled:

 

[gripweed]

Re: Clapton's Amps

My bad. I couldn't remember where I read that. My re-
read through the thread was too fast.

Nevertheless, it's really interesting to me that he changed amps alot. He has used amps by Marshall, Fender, Cornell, Soldano and Pignose among others. Even his tone/tastes are always evolving/changing.

If EC the Master is always changing his tools, that provides enough fuel to allow us little guys to change alot. Then, who am I to think that I will be able to find one amp to suit my wide variety of tonal tastes. Rats!

Even EC is always searching for new gear. Wow. That blow my mind.

Its a disease really

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Clapton's Amps

What have you learned from EC regarding amps?

Is the point of his tonal quest simply: there is not one perfect amp? Or is it that your/our tastes change over time? or both?

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: Clapton's Amps

Much as anyone changes their image through new hairstyles or new more "stylish" clothes, even the man who's recorded some of the best guitar tones in rock history is still trying to reinvent his image, visually and sonically through changing gear and different styles of songwriting.

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: Clapton's Amps

I also have this theory that a lot of "guitar heroes" change their tone (usually for the worse- it usually gets really bright and high end-y) when they hit a certain age. As most people know, when you start losing your hearing, the high end is the first to go. So, if a guy is dialing in his sound and he's losing his hearing, he's going to dial up a lot more treble to make the guitar sound like it did, because he can't hear the "extra" treble he's adding. I know Clapton has said he permanently damaged his hearing during the multiple stack era of Cream. Figure Jimmy Page's tone took a nosedive after 1972, oddly enough right after he got his Marshalls modded.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Clapton's Amps

That's a great point GB. That kinda points new twist on the old Ted Nugent saying, "If it's too loud then your too old, turn around and get out of here then."

Watch the volume and save your ears.

Claptons amp changes aren't so much artistically motivated, rather physiologically driven. I don't want to go down that road. But, that another thread alltogether.

 

[Skarekrough]

Re: Clapton's Amps

I completely agree with you on the speakers adding 'something' to the sound. Whether it's a pushed speaker adding those extra mids into the sound, or just a breathabilty to it.

However- when it comes to getting a usable sound in a smaller environment, or in an environment where you need to be quieter... a master volume or attenuator are leagues better than having a non master amp turned down, and losing any pre/power gain.

I concur....

But the other half of the equation is if you're playing venues where you're using an attenuator, or need to rather, then maybe you ought to just look at a smaller amp.

I much prefer hauling around my modified Blues Junior and micing it if I need to.

It's funny....with the advent of pedals and them getting better so many players out there look at big amps just for headroom. It's funny to me because they need these huge honking amps to accomodate their pedalboards, of which the pedals are made to recreate the sound of a smaller amp being cranked up.

The smallest amp I have, a Trace Elliot Velocette 15 Watter is the loudest amp I own. It's so loud that I can't even gig with the thing in most places! I knowof cats who keep a Twin around for their outdoor gigs. Yet I've got this stupid little green amp that fulfills that function for me.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Clapton's Amps

gtrr
I much prefer hauling around my modified Blues Junior and micing it if I need to.

That requires a really good sound guy though right?

 

[gripweed]

Re: Clapton's Amps

What have you learned from EC regarding amps?

Is the point of his tonal quest simply: there is not one perfect amp? Or is it that your/our tastes change over time? or both?

Well for me anyway, I don't hear just one tone when I'm playing guitar. Sometimes I hear a bluesy single coil tone, sometimes I hear a more gainy humbucker sound. Sometimes I hear a Marshall type tone and sometimes I hear a Fender type tone. It depends on the song really. I think that happens throughout time too. Maybe a tone I didn't like twenty years ago works for me now. The only thing that is constant is change.

As for your question about the sound guy, the answer is yes!!! It really pays to find a sound guy that works and make him a member of the band (and pay him *well*.

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: Clapton's Amps

That requires a really good sound guy though right?

I've gigged out with my Gibson Falcon with a full on rock band. I heard that the sound was great out in the house, but I had to be right in front of the amp. Whether a better soundman than the usual mouth-breathers we used to have around here would have made a difference in the monitors in the crappy PAs that were in the clubs then...