Re: What Tube Amp do you use?
I have:
'68 Princeton Reverb. All original except tubes, and the speaker has been re-coned once or twice. It was my dad's since '74 or so; I got it when he died about 10 years ago. It's my go-to amp for juicy vintage Fender tones, and it's one of the best sounding amps I've ever heard. But it's not a good live amp for a loud band. It just doesn't have enough headroom or move enough air.
'95 Ampeg J12-T. Great sounding "modern" Ampeg. 1x12, 15W with EL84's. This is what I'd call my overall "go-to" amp. Same sort of thing as the Princeton, but fills the room a bit better, and is a hair nastier. Not much tone control, but it makes pretty much any guitar sound great. It's what I plug in to if I just want to plug-n-play.
'63 Gibson Skylark. Little 4.5W beater, kind of like a Champ. It has two controls: on/off and volume. Has a great scrappy dirt sound when you dime it. It's a bit thin on the lower volume settings - really could use some reverb down there. Good amp for recording the odd part here or there (it has that one great dirt tone - very Mick Ralphsey), or for quiet jam sessions when playing with singers and acoustic instruments. It's extremely lightweight, and extremely beat up (I found it in an abandoned house in the desert and brought it back to life), so it's a great kick-around amp.
'12 Mesa Express Plus 5:25. This is the versatile "tweaker" amp in the arsenal. It can do anything. If I don't mind spending time dialing it in to perfection, this is the "main tool" amp of mine. If it was more reliable, I'd be more likely to gig with it, but it has a tendency to fry power tubes.
Ampeg V4/cab. The monster. Very versatile, very loud. I rarely use it, but if I was in a seriously loud and hard band, it would be the amp.
Ampeg Super Rocket. Channel switcher, but otherwise pretty much like a Twin Reverb. A powerful 100W, loud, clean, and heavy, 2x12 combo. I really rarely use it, as it is hard to tame, and not much else can keep up with it. It wants to run at full blast or not at all.
Ampeg Reverberocket Head (R-50H)/cab. In between the Jet II and the Super Rocket. I like having a powerful, but not too powerful, head that I can bring with and throw on a backline cab. This one I have gigged with quite a bit.
It would be interesting to see which brand is preferred by forum members.
