do you have a favourate guitar amp for recording?

[Chris H]

Pignose Amps are another option for small solid state.... here is one on eBay
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Pignose-Legendar ... dZViewItem

[mfdu]

i dream of a collection of speaker boxes and a couple of heads so i can mix and match. but slowly slowly - can't make everything happen at once.

i gotta go and try out an epiphone valve standard, a fender blues junior and a vox ac15 - i've pinpointed them (without hearing them) as being in the ballpark.

but yes - my ideal would be to start with a head and cab, and grow from there. back to the orange tiny terror. mmmm.
of course, anything from marshall is right outta my price range, as far as i can see.

right - back to work for me.

ps. a mate passed this site over to me - http://www.ozvalveamps.elands.com/index.htm
very cool - lotsa strange and bouncy australian valve amps from goldentone, vase etc . . .

chris.

[Chris H]

I'm scratching my head.!!Why dream about it? Just do it, as it is prolly your cheapest option. Last time i looked Melmusic in North Rd Ormond had some Rola speakers, but it doesn't take much searching in all the usual places to pick up old speakers that are easily driven by low powered valve amps..... or am i just lucky......
If you go the Epiphone.........
Here is a nice Epiphone amp 19 hrs to go and no bids yet at $499
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/P-Excellent-Epip ... dZViewItem

[anj]

theres a guy in broken hill that builds vox clones he sells them through derringers in SA.

Ive recorded one of his ac 15 clones and also used a real ac 30 on the same project and this thing came up realy nice, one of the best recorded sounds for that driving rock tone.

[peat]

ive used my mesa mark IV combo with a 12" celestion (black shadow( mesa's custom celestion)
and it sounds great
even just in my bedroom with a crappy mic

another amp i really enjoy is the marshall mg series
for a solid state amp the lead tone and dynamics you can get out if are amazing
i recorded this live in a garage once along with an 8 piece drum kit

[mfdu]

the marshall MG series? so, that would include the ministack (15W solid state head, 2 1x10" cabinets)? i'd been interested in that, except for the lack of footswitching b/w clean and dirty.

i was reading the current Tape Op last night, and there was a comment that it is best to stick to a single speaker, rather than dual or quad boxes. so i'm keeping that in mind, along with the differing characteristics of 6.5" speakers vs. 10" speakers vs. 12" speakers . . .

anyway, thanks ya'll.

chris.

[jkhuri44]

i was reading the current Tape Op last night, and there was a comment that it is best to stick to a single speaker, rather than dual or quad boxes. so i'm keeping that in mind, along with the differing characteristics of 6.5" speakers vs. 10" speakers vs. 12" speakers . . .

interesting....did Tape op give reason's for a single speaker being better than a quad?

[mfdu]

damn yeah they did - absence of phase discrepencies by maintaining a single point source.

think about it - a close-miced quad is going to have a direct signal, plus off-axis spill from the other three speakers. a single 12" cab is going to act like a single voice, or a single violin. you know - "noise comes out here". absolute simplicity.

remember your "drum micing 101" - the more mics, the more phase issues. the same for guitar cabs, but in reverse - the more speakers, the more phase issues.

you'll always have off-axis reflections (well, in my room i will), but at least they aren't at almost the same amplitude as the "source".

so then it would stand to reason that the best way to get the overall sound of a quad is to give it plenty of space. measure the distance from the mic to each of the speakers, and if you get that in line then phase should follow. . .

whereas a single speaker isn't going to have the problem of a different distance from transducer out (speaker) > transducer in (mic). like the highlander - there can be only one.

chris.

[jkhuri44]

a 100 W head pumping into a 100W 12"....is that possible? haha

[mfdu]

well, i'm sure a 100W head into a 100W single 12" cab is doable, but it's not what i'm on about.
100W on stage is one thing (my old bass rig was 400W), but i ain't interested in that when it comes to recording at my place.
however, if you're running the full 100W output, at least the speaker would be into it's non-linearities. i mean, that's where all the good stuff happens, innit?
but just try recording a 100W output with a ribbon. i haven't. wanna know why? i can't afford to replace the ribbon after each session. but maybe i'm just poorer than the average bear.

nah - the dragon i'm chasing is that of low-wattage class A tube amps [u]for recording[/u].

anything more than 30W would be a waste.

i keep returning to the Orange Tiny Terror. switchable 15W / 7W class A head. compared to everything else (in the sub-$1500 bracket), it's the bizz.

chris
(mfdu)

[Kurt]

I have an early Mesa 2:95 power amp that is switchable, from 30 watts class A to 95 watts AB (per side). I have no idea what that stuff means, but the 30 watt position has a very smooth sound driving my quad, AB has much more break up, but it's also an awful lot louder. I ran a solid state pre into the valve power amp, but I play death metal, too much gain is king ;) Got really nice rock/blues sounds using a Korg quasi-valve pre into it.

Best of both worlds in one massively heavy inconvenient 3 unit box!

Unfortunately it died and getting it fixed is expensive and therefore low on the list.

[philly]

Ive been very pleased with my THD Univalve which I put through a custom made 2 X 12 with Celestion Vintage 30's. I even tried recording a bass with it recently whilst trying a few different options and was knocked out with the sound.

Some people have been raving about these little Epiphone valve practice amps that can be modded easily. I heard one and it didnt really do much for me. Sometimes you have to differentiate between "Great for the money" and just "Great!!"

[mfdu]

[quote="philly"]Sometimes you have to differentiate between "Great for the money" and just "Great!!"[/quote]

(sigh) yeah, i'm hearing ya.

it's just a matter of "i want it now, but i can't afford the real thing right now - will i settle for second, or keep saving up?"

i'll keep saving.

so. you like the THD? hmmm. . . another one to consider.

c.mfdu.

[philly]

Yeah its VERY nice actually. There was one on ebay (aust) the other day and it didnt get any bids on a $900 start. I think theyre about 2k new. It does a decent plexi or fender depending on the valves used. Thats all I need really.

[Peter Knight]

think about it - a close-miced quad is going to have a direct signal, plus off-axis spill from the other three speakers. a single 12" cab is going to act like a single voice, or a single violin. you know - "noise comes out here". absolute simplicity.

But is this what we want?

remember your "drum micing 101" - the more mics, the more phase issues.

I'm addressing a separate issue here, but anyway: Automation will help with this problem, no? Give me all the mics you want on a kit - come mixtime if I don't need it I'll make it go away. Unless you're talking about a direct-to-stereo recording I guess. Or a live bounce to stereo.

[mfdu]

hi peter - i guess options at mix time depend on whether the project is going external for mixing, or if it is staying with me from go to whoa.
if i can, i try to picture (with the client) what they're after, and then i actually close off options that would give us too many choices down the track.

i have pretty much got everything sorted now, regarding amp sound.

i nipped out to the music swap shop and got a 12" speaker cab loaded with a 30" vintage Rola. while i'm waiting for my AX84 High Octane amp kit to arrive from ceraitone i pulled the 20W solid state amp out of my practice box and fitted it into its own case.
amazing, the difference running the amp through the 12" speaker compared to the stock 6" quacker.

i tried tracking the 12" speaker with an sm57, md421, shinybox 46 and 46C (ribbons) and a crunchy 70's 'realistic'. i tried close, i tried near - i can get pretty much any tone i want out of it (as long as it's solidstate!) and a huge wall-of-sound with a what is still effectively a cheap-arse practice amp.

really, from what i have already found, i highly recommend going down the path of a 12" speaker and a low watt head.

la la la.

chris.