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stratman
Silver Member
Australia
283 Posts |
 Posted - 03/12/2007 : 05:42:34
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Good choice, mattoqua.
Keep your pedals, save up for a good tube amp.
One recommendation I'd make for the amp would be a Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Re-Issue (DRRI).
One of the great clean amps around (although there's a lot of fantastic boutique ones too, but they cost a whole lot more).
The DRRI is ALL tube (including rectifier, reverb and tremolo (Fender calls it Vibrato)) Not many amps have a tube rectifier. This is really nice and spongy, saggy and natural tube compression.
The reverb is what reverb should sound like. Nothing comes close IMO. The "vibrato" is also classic.
It's the epitome of clean tone and it loves pedals too - so you can "colour" your sound with all the pedals. It's just so important, IMO, to have a perfect clean tone to start with. The DRRI is exactly that - pure clean tone.
Plus it's only 22 watts but it is still very loud. Ideal for home/jam and small club gigs. Gets nice powertube breakup (real overdrive) when pushed too. There's nothing like it IMO. |
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mattoqua
Silver Member
Canada
438 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 06:25:40
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thats interesting, because before I started looking at new amps, I was going to just buy the FDR-1 when it came out.
I dont think anyone knows how close it will sound to the original yet, but if you get a chance to try one out, i would love to hear your comments about it, stratman.
I wonder if it will act the same way. I won't be able to buy a new amp for a while (11 more semesters of college to go), so ill have to use that for a while. If i can find someone to buy my current amp and a guitar, I would definately buy one though. |
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stratman
Silver Member
Australia
283 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 09:11:52
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I haven't tried the FDR-1 yet 
But there's a video clip (linked from a topic on this forum somewhere - maybe search for FDR-1?) and there is definitely some similarity! I was pretty imressed |
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stratman
Silver Member
Australia
283 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 10:12:27
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Here 'tis...
http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=855
Under the "Video" button. There's two vids here. The second one from the NAMM booth compares the pedal to a real DRRI! That's what impressed me but it's so hard to really tell what the sound is really like - through PC speakers, what guitar was used, how the sound was actually recorded etc...etc...
Although, the whole "Gain" thing on the pedal is weird. The DRRI is a non-master volume amp. i.e. there's no "gain" level or master volume. Just turn the volume up to increase volume and, eventually, start power tube breakup. REAL overdrive!!! Maybe it is supposed to simulate the natural overdrive? |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 14:14:41
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quote:
Originally posted by stratman
Here 'tis...
http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=855
Under the "Video" button. There's two vids here. The second one from the NAMM booth compares the pedal to a real DRRI! That's what impressed me but it's so hard to really tell what the sound is really like - through PC speakers, what guitar was used, how the sound was actually recorded etc...etc...
Although, the whole "Gain" thing on the pedal is weird. The DRRI is a non-master volume amp. i.e. there's no "gain" level or master volume. Just turn the volume up to increase volume and, eventually, start power tube breakup. REAL overdrive!!! Maybe it is supposed to simulate the natural overdrive?
Hi Stratman & Guys
Thanks for the link
Stratman I have Nearfield's hooked up to my Computer.
The Comparisons of both the amp & the pedal are excellent.
Although I was unable to hear any changes during the section on tap tempo for the Vibrato.
I will admit, I think that it is really IMPORTANT to watch where he has the pickup selector switch set, you can see that he has changed it from neck to bridge, but that part was edited out of the demo video.
Still I'm impressed, I guess it's also important to actually hear how it responds to playing & picking dynamics.
Because a Tube amp is not only about TONE TONE & more TONE, it's about the massive change in volume, attributable to picking & playing dynamics.
My Fender 75 - surprises the "crap" out of some of my muso friends, when they try it out --- & then dig in,
"Shit this is loud!" is the usual comment.
All of you guys & girls, who have ever owned a tube amp, know exactly what I mean.
I had a pro muso (solid state amp guy) say to me,
"I would have to relearn how to play with this amp"
He was talking about the dynamics.
Regards Dr. Bob
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jack
Platinum Member
USA
1418 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 16:05:15
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I just wanted to mention that when considering buying a tube amp, make sure you test it out a bit as some tube amps don't like pedals as much as other tube amps. I don't know, but some tube amps just don't seem to like pedals.
Also, when buying an amp, consider how much gigging/playing with other people you plan to do, because if you are just going to stay and play alone at home, there is no reason to get an arena rock set-up. And when it comes to wattage, many guitarists think they need to get the most wattage, just in case they get called on short notice to do an arena rock show.
However, just get something that will do a decent job unmic'd if you're in a band situation...for tube amps, 15-30watt will be fine, in fact, sometimes the lower the wattage the better, because you can push the tubes easier. What many guitarists fail to realize is guitar amps are mic'd through the PA, and gone are the days when the guitarists amps were responsible for filling a venue with sound.
So as I explained to the other guitarist in the band I am in,"Right now, we are not playing anywhere, so there is no point in getting a 300watt Randall head and 2 4x12 cabs now. Then if we do start playing places, some of them will just mic the amp through the PA, so there's no point in a 300watt head and cabs then either. Then even if they didn't mic the amps, the sound man would have a hell of a time balancing out the sound cause of your amp having bout 200 or more watts than neccesary."
And realistically, 100 watts for solid state should be more than enough, but if you don't know how to set your EQ, it may not seem like enough, but don't get me going on the hollow sounding no-mids-at-all scoop some people use, where because of it you can read dumb reviews of people saying, "The 100+watt stack was not loud enough when I was playing with a drummer."....Yes, I still hate the no-mids scoop as I have ranted about before... |
Edited by - jack on 03/12/2007 16:07:24 |
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Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 16:57:25
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| I dont know if anyone mentioned it since I am too lazy to read most of this thread. But if you are dead-set on getting a tube amp. The Epiphone Valve Jr. is rather affordable. I can't comment on how loud it can get, as I've never cranked one, but I know during the last NAMM show Epiphone was showing matching cabinets to go with the Valve Jr. heads and I think they are only $99 as well, so for $200 you could have a pretty workable Tube Amp setup. |
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FRANZONI
Double Platinum Member
Ireland
3543 Posts |
Posted - 03/16/2007 : 23:27:42
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this question has plagued most guitar players since muddy waters invented electricity..... what would hendrix be using now if he was alive....?? or S.R.V...etc would they have gone back to basics like clapton...?? or like gilmour embrace pedals, i'm not big on rack effects but stompers are good for most ordinary muso's who don't have a soundman to put echo or flanger on you sound during a gig or drag a leslie cab around like clapton's roadies.. a chorus pedal is much easier after a few pints of the black stuff...!!.. sometimes i would like to just bring a amp and a couple of pedals to a gig,but that would limit what songs i could cover(and believe me folks there are young guys and gals out there that know their pink floyd...!!)also the downside of cranking an amp is most pubs,never mind soundmen would whinge...turn it down..recently i've been listening to country players i saw vince gill on the crossroads concert(excellent guitar player very underrated) and he had eight boss pedals on his board(not to mention the others)joe walsh has nine....check out the boss user group online...joe walsh the everlasting eagle.. to see his rig...he is also on the clapton crossroads gig and check out his tone on james taylors 'steamroller'... a class solo from a real rock n roll hero.........of course dingus has a good point as well the amp has a lot to do with the end product as well as the guitar (i assume your using boss pedals)so a good valve amp is in my opinion a must..i personally have got good results out of my musicman combo which is a very clean type amp with a solid state preamp valve output section and a marshall superbass head in stereo....both fairly cheap old valve amps with a very good build quality.... |
Edited by - FRANZONI on 03/16/2007 23:34:19 |
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Amp or pedals?
