Vintage amps rant

[gripweed]

Maybe I'm getting old, but I still prefer older amps with fewer knobs to twiddle. I used a Marshall Valvestate at a gig I did recently and it had way too many knobs for my taste. I much prefer my old Fender Champs, or my 1960's Gibson Invader which has three or four knobs. I can still get a great tone by just plugging in and cranking up.

So am I getting old and cranky, or is there some truth in what I'm saying?

 

[krankguitarist]

Re: Vintage amps rant

Well, im young and KRANKy, I still like havin a real simple setup

Some amps go all out with knobs and features, I like it more when all ya have to do is plug in, twiddle a little bit with the knobs, and rock out.

My Krank does the job for me. Not too many controls, but just enough to get the sound I want.

 

[flank]

Re: Vintage amps rant

i can dig what your saying...... i like either single channel, or two channel amps.....with the second channel just being a 2 or 3 knob overdrive control

one time, i turned on this Rivera combo amp.......and 50 lights start flashing, all different colours and sh!t!.....scared the beegeebees out of me......and once i got past that part, i couldn't even get the thing to work! LOL........ and im not a stupid person in general, or when it comes to amps either.......but that thing was like a spaceship or somethin HAHA

 

[V-Spot]

Re: Vintage amps rant

I'm the same. I wanna get rid of my FM 212R for a Deluxe 'Verb, even if it is only 3 less knobs to deal with. Or, like in my sig (and more realistic) a Traynor.

 

[Stringmachine]

Re: Vintage amps rant

I am with you on this one. I prefer an amp I can just plug in to, and get a good sound. I recently bought a Mesa Boogie Lonestar Special and that one has quite a few knobs and switches, but it (almost) sounds good no matter where the pots are.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Vintage amps rant

+1 Less knobs and more tone is what I want my amp to have. My old
Valvestate had a contour knob That I didn't know what exacty it did?
Turn it to the left it made the amp sound bad bassy, Turn it to the right
now the amp sounds bad trebley? Mesa treadplates are great amps.
But I go outta my mind trying to dial in my tone. That's why i love
my Princeton Reverb. Just turn it on(not even a standby switch)
and it just sounds right.

 

[Sprinter]

Re: Vintage amps rant

I too have discovered that less knobs is better. My '56 Fender, Princeton has two knobs. My '77 Fender, Deluxe Reverb has three on one channel, and six on the other. I never use the tremelo, on the Deluxe, and I'm not even sure if it works.

Sprinter

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Vintage amps rant

im a three knobber right now, (volume, treble, bass). In a bit, ill be upping it to 5 (volume, treble, bass, middle, and reverb) I also never touch the tremolo...but it's good to know that it's there....? HA

 

[RGN]

Re: Vintage amps rant

I am the opposite... I like a lot of knobs to twist and tweak. Lat weekend I messed with my VHT and dialed in all kinds of unusually sounds. I did this for hours! I ended up getting a great sound by setting it to class "A", 1/2 power, into the low sensitivity input. It was just ripping in class "A" mode....

 

[itbepopples]

Re: Vintage amps rant

well for me it depends on what im going for. If i want a cranked vintage amp sound a la good ole fashioned classic rock i dont want anything other than bass middle treble volume and reverb. no master volume, no preamp gain
sh!t...i just wanna go. but at the same time if i want to play modern music, say dream theater, i want to have something along the lines of a boogie mark IV since ill be trying to cover a lot more ground than what id be playing with the cranked rock amp.

 

[Guest]

Re: Vintage amps rant

I totally agree. the less knobs and features the smaller is the possibility to ruin your natural guitarsound also. I had a Marshall AVT100 as my main amp until I changed to a Bluesbreaker....that has about 1/3 of the knobs of a AVT.

But how simple do you guys keep the pedal/effects board?

After alot of thinking, I've decided that for now I'll go with raw dry Marshall tone :headbang: That will keep me learning playing the guitar more than becoming a effects guru. Nothing wrong with that either but for now I'd really like to improve playing rather than learn to master delay.

Still gonna have a wah and two overdrives and the Bluesbreakers tremolo pedal on my board. But nothing more than that. How about you?

 

[Mincer]

Re: Vintage amps rant

i don't really care how many knobs it has...i go from using a Mesa Blue Angel (5 knobs) to a full midi guitar/looping system that *does* look like a spaceship. Sometimes I don't want my guitar to sound like anything anyone has heard before.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Vintage amps rant

I guess I'm using two extremes. I love my '71 Bassman Export amp (3 knobs). I pretty much just plug and play but I also love the sounds and control I have over them that I get from my GT-8/Mesa rig.

With the GT-8, I have control over everything from compression, EQ, speaker size, preamp type, to even wave type on my chorus sounds.

 

[Biu]

Re: Vintage amps rant

I like a simple, clean tube amp with a super-tweakable floorboard.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Vintage amps rant

I like both. Basic plug in and play amps, and tweak monsters like my Bogner or rack gear.

My ears go right to the goods, no matter what. When Scott F came to my studio and was watching me fiddle with amps, the first thing he noticed was how my hands spin the knobs erradically, then stop at the sweet spots. I learned awhile back to let my ears do the deciding, not the numbers next to the knobs.

 

[rinse_master]

Re: Vintage amps rant

I like both, but I do tend to find myself playing with the fender champ model on my pod quite a bit...

 

[FPA_687]

Re: Vintage amps rant

I suck at tweaking controls, so I prefer it simple.

And then, a more simple set-up, with less EQ controls means purer tone.

I have just bought a Plexi combo with just 2 channels and a volume and tone control on each, just that. And I like it, it's just plug in and play.

But even with that simple config, you can still experiment different possibilities with it's inputs and controls.

"keep it simple", that's my motto.

 

[Forbes]

Re: Vintage amps rant

Less is defiantly more, both knobs on amps and guitars. I'll never own a guitar with more than two knobs.

 

[some_dude]

Re: Vintage amps rant

I played one of those 18w Marshall handwired combos the other day (the 1974X). It didn't have many knobs, but it had too many inputs.

Knobs I can understand, but I had to ask for help to figure out where to plug in.

 

[joelap]

Re: Vintage amps rant

Well, im kinda torn on this issue. While it's great to keep it simple, sometimes having too few knobs/channels is a sacrifice on versitility. And for a poor college student, you need all the versatility in one amp that you can get.