# Octaves, Zouks, Citterns, Tenors and Electrics > Four, Five and Eight-String Electrics >  Amplification

## Daniel Nestlerode

What're y'all using out there?

I'm running my signal into an early 90's Ampeg J12T, 15 watt class A.  The more amps I play through, the more I like this little guy.  I bought an amp stand for it and now I'm even happier.  No need to bend way over to adjust things.

One thing I miss is a master volume control.  But I can have that installed, if I really want.  :Wink: 

I borrowed a Mesa/Boogie .22+ ("22 caliber" is what they called it, and this one had a graphic EQ) for a recent gig and fell in love with that too.  Different sound, but really nice!

Daniel

----------


## Christian McKee

I like Mesas a lot, especially in the lower power ratings.  The higher powered ones sound great, too, but I haven't yet met the mandolin that can really push them adequately to get that super-saturated sound.  I nearly picked up a 30w 1x12 combo the other day on a whim.

Honestly, I suffer from AAS more than MAS, currently I'm switching between a Fender Hot Rod, and a Laney LC 15r.  I prefer the circuitry of the Laney, but the speaker is a bit pinched, so I end up playing the Fender more these days.  I've also gotten *lots* of use out of a Fender Pro Jr. but I' don't use that much anymore because of the lack of an effects loop.  The Hot Rod is far from ideal, but it's a lot of amp for the money, and playing with the tubes and speaker a bit can make it a much better sounding amp, without getting into caps at all.

Christian

----------


## djweiss

I just got my first amp, a Fender Blues Jr NOS...so far, I like it a lot.

-DJW

----------


## CES

I recently bought a 30W Roland solid state...it was the best combination of effects, volume, and solid state tone I found locally, and the different amp options are cool (though not all sound as good as I'd hoped).  I tried an Epiphone 5W tube that had great tone, but was really bare bones and about the same $$ as the Roland, and funds limited me getting up into better quality tubes.  As this is my first foray into the plugged in world, I also didn't really know what I was looking for, but I played what I could and think I got a decent value...I can get a lot of different sounds out of the Roland with my Mandobird and Tele and change the tone completely with a simple dial turn or switch flip, so it's fun.  It also can be run through a PA.  I think if I were decent/playing for pay I'd consider upgrading purely to get that tube tone, but for what I do it's solid.

----------


## mandroid

I have a Roland AC-60.    stereo ,  so it's Chorus effect is better , [choir of one is not the same] 
and   I can leave  the magnetic pickup plugged in one channel,
and the soundboard acoustic pickup with its XLR plug , into the Mic channel.
Then swap is as easy as picking the other one up.
really like the padded gig bag that came with the amp , cord pockets hold the few cables , and under the lid of the case I stow the extension cord .
a nice grab it and go, .. hearing aide.

had an old tube amp, blacktop 'Vibro-Champ' , amp hated travel , often DNF when I took it anywhere.
old tube sockets, most likely,  sold it to a guitarist homebody.   :Coffee:

----------


## Ken Olmstead

I am using a copy of a 1953 Champ that I built. Very lush, harmonically rich sound. 

A friend has let me use his new Fender Vibro Champ XD and it is the cat's meow!! At $300 I can't think of a better value (except for below.) 

I am wanting the Super Champ XD for the extra power, 10 inch speaker and the push/pull configuration. It is basically a modern day Princeton with nice usable effects and various voiceings. At $349, it is no doubt what I would buy if I was in the market!

----------


## Gowanus

I have two tube amps that work great with my Schwab 5-string.  One is an old Music Man 210-Sixty-five from 1974 which I bought on Ebay, had recapped and retubed, and installed new Weber speakers.  It's bright and Fender-y, has low and high power settings, fantastic reverb.  Tons of clean headroom - a lot like a Twin Reverb (and almost as heavy!).  No usable overdrive in the amp, but pedals work fine.

My other favorite is a new Traynor YCV50.  The sound is a little darker and warmer, less chimey than the MM.  At around $700 new, it's one of the best deals out there.  Extremely well-made and great customer service.  A very nice overdrive channel and channel switching.  I mostly use the clean channel with various pedals.

My pedals of choice, in order from instrument to amp, are:  MXR Flanger, Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, Visual Sound Angry Fuzz, and Visual Sound H20 Delay/Chorus (not used all at once!).

----------


## vcalcaterra

Since I double on Violin and Mandolin (both electric), I play through an
Acoustic Image head into a small Fender Pro Jr speaker cabinet (amp removed).
I use an ART Tube MP before the AI amp to warm the signal a bit for both instruments. This is my main amp these days, though I also have a '69 Fender
Bandmaster head in a custom 2-10" combo cabinet. I really like the Fender sound
for both Violin and Mandolin, but the AI is cleaner and a lot lighter.
The Bandmaster gets old after 3-4 gigs...   :Frown: 

-vince

----------


## Mattg

My kid's 30 watt, one tube Vox sounds pretty good. It combines solid state effects with the smoothness of the tube.

----------


## Mike Bromley

Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with a hot bias adjustment.  These amps come from the factory biased 'cold' which means they break up and distort easily.  With the addition of some industrial-grade 5881 tubes and a re-bias to 69 mA, it sounds clean and not too brittle, and works great with a Schertler rig though a 5-band parametric EQ.

I used to have a Dean Markley B400 bass amp head, which was literally the cat's patoot for clean amplification, through a Black Widow 15" cabinet.  That rig got stolen.  Bah.  If I find another one I'm buying it NQA.

I also have a 1965 Super Reverb (a real blacktop) into which I put a 12AU7 preamp tube.  This tube has a fraction of the output of a 12AX7, resulting in a clean signal.  I put the tube in the Normal channel, but it could be used as easily in the Vibrato channel, so as to take advantage of the greater range of tone adjustments.  The Super is a bit bulky for continual moving about, but a good thing to use should one be gigging in place for a few days.

----------


## Christian McKee

Ah Mandoflash, man after my own heart...  I did some similar things with my Hot Rod, and really was glad: changed the speaker to a cheapie Celestion, had a good tech re-bias, and put in a 12AU7 in the first pre-amp position.  Totally different amp than it used to be, and much better at that.  One of these days I might get around to putting a speaker with higher power handling in there, I played one with a 75w speaker, and liked it more.  

What kind of sound are you looking for from an electric instrument?  I tend to do the electric guitar on an electric mandolin thing, so a little saturation is nice.

Christian

----------


## Mike Bromley

> What kind of sound are you looking for from an electric instrument?  I tend to do the electric guitar on an electric mandolin thing, so a little saturation is nice.
> 
> Christian


Well, the aforementioned rigs were tweaked to get maximum acoustic mando sound thru an amp.  I'm an occasional stand-in member of Amos Garrett's Eh? Team, and the  requirement is to be able to play at electric stage volume while still sounding like an F.  In that regard I really miss my DM.

As for electric sound, two words:  Humbuckers & Super.  Hence my hesitation to 12AU7 the Vibrato side of my super, 'cuz it sounds so juicy with a 335 and nuttin' else.  My Fender Dust Bunny Mando sounds interesting this way, but I simply prefer to do Acoustic tone if at all possible.  It is a MANDO after all....

 :Mandosmiley:  :Popcorn:

----------


## clem

For me, it depends on the gig.  I generally run a '64 transitional Princeton (6G2 circuit in a black top cabinet/white knobs) that has a 10" Tone Tubby Ceramic hemp cone speaker.  When i need a bit more I add the 50's Ampro speaker cabinet with 12" Jensen concert speaker.

For big/loud gigs, I have been using a 60's Standel 82L15, with a 15" JBL D-130.  Spectacular sounds...clean and loud (if need be).

I just bought (but have not yet received) a Burriss Royal Bluesman head and David Freda Power Sound cabinet. This rig is small, light and versatile (which is why I went for it). The BRB is 18 watts, EL 84 powered with reverb and vibrato on board and weighs less than 14 pounds.  

Can't wait to get the new rig and play my new (also in transit) Mann 5 string long scale through it.  Tom Petty is right...the waiting is the hardest part.

----------


## groveland

I had an older boogie .22 caliber for a while, and eventually traded it at a high-end shop for some other stuff - They were pretty excited to get it, actually. I thought it was okay, and I have been a Mesa fan.

But what I wanted to say was - For electrics you might try a Mesa 20/20 power amp, a couple Celestions, and use a Boss GT8 as a stereo preamp. I am not very sold on digital modeling, particularly the shredding stock models, but cut way back on the gain and distortion (in the GT8) and let the tubes in the Mesa power stage make all the difference. I get a great expressive 'vocal' quality from that simple rig, for days.  (Especially with the 25.5 scale, 6-string CGDAEG electric octave mando...  :Wink:  )

----------


## frankseanez

These days, I'm less likely to roll out the big Twin.  You can't beat the sound, but even in a rolling case, it's a beast.  I use a single tube Peavey that should have been part of a beginner's guitar combo, but sounds great when it's just a housejam.  I've got a G Major that I keep in a rack, but for little jams, I still like the Digitech GX or GX2.  It's got all the effects that a Cheesified Deadhead needs, and more.

----------


## mando.player

What's the Peavey that you're using?

I've been putting together my "beginner's rig" and quickly came to the realization that I didn't know enough about effects to go the stomp box route.  The guys at Guitar Center were getting irritated with all my returns.  LOL.  So I bit the bullet and ordered a Digitech RP500.  I think that will have enough options for me figure out what I'm looking for.

----------


## Mike Bromley

> These days, I'm less likely to roll out the big Twin.


Ain't that the truth.  Hernia in Tolex.  So sweet-sounding.  Yet so, er, HEAVY.

----------


## Christian McKee

I have a love/hate relationship with any guitarist bandmate who plays a Twin.  Love, because it sounds soooo good, and hate because if my back isn't sore from carrying the thing with them, then my ears are because they play it too loud.  I suppose I just have to get one of my own...

Christian

----------


## Ken Olmstead

Has anyone auditioned the Princeton Reissue yet? Not the "recording" just the regular reissue. Thoughts?

----------


## Mike Bromley

> Has anyone auditioned the Princeton Reissue yet? Not the "recording" just the regular reissue. Thoughts?


I'll have to run down the street and try one....I'll get back to ya!

----------


## Lee

Hey Groveland,  Have you tried matching up a Mesa V-Twin stereo pre-amp with the 20-20?  I've never had a chance to try mine through a 20-20.  Would seem the natural thing to do.

----------


## Treblemaker

I use an '86 Boogie Mark III.  It's convertible from 60 to 100 Watts - all class A....

My B plan for smaller rooms is a Polytone MegaBrute that I found on Craigslist for very cheap.  Its a screaming 100 watts of good sounding (but not tube based) power.

I recently put a Macintyre Feather in my Lawrence Smart F bluegrass mandolin - and it sounds nice and tranparent - but the output is not as potent as the Fishman Piezo Bridge pick up in my Flatiron Performer F...

My current rig is typically:
Intrument > LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI > Subdecay Quasar Phaser > TC Electronic Chorus > Dan Electro Fab Tone Distortion > Boss OC 2 Octave > Ibanez AF 9 Autofilter > Alesis Nanoverb > Amp.

I sometimes substitute a vintage Mutron III for the Ibanez Autofilter and a Proco Rat for the Distortion - gig dependent...

Finally, there's not much musical applicability to it - but I also occasionally screw around in my rig with an Digitech Whammy Pedal.

The more effects used - the more noise gets generated - so I tend to force myself to be judicious with this stuff...

-Treblemaker
SF, CA
www.WorldWideTed.com

----------


## groveland

> Hey Groveland,  Have you tried matching up a Mesa V-Twin stereo pre-amp with the 20-20?  I've never had a chance to try mine through a 20-20.  Would seem the natural thing to do.


Yes I have - The V-Twin rack mount. That was my main rig for a couple years - I ran it through the 20/20 and a Mesa stereo recto cabinet, and it sounded monstrous.

I rely more on the power-stage overdrive than preamp overdrive, so the V-Twin was a bit much, and I found myself using very little of the available gain. Pretty noisy, too with the higher gains.  I had it in the shop one too many times. The Boss GT-8 modeling gives me reliable control of the preamp characteristics.

That's just my take on it.  I sold the V-Twin and the new owner is very happy with it.

----------


## JimRichter

vintage Super Reverb, as it is my guitar rig as well.

For acoustic amplification, it's my Trace Elliot TA100 concert (2-5"s and a 12")

Jim

----------


## musicofanatic

Unless you're sitting in with Journey or some other mega-decible arena rock act, I think a fender Princeton might be _the_ ideal e-mando amp. Dunno 'bout any reissues, though (I wasn't even aware it had been reissued, but it sounds like a d@mn fine idea!). My solid bodies _love_ a 15" spkr, but I am generally too lazy to haul an amp that size. For a two-handed, one-trip-from-car-to-stage load in, the Princeton is the hands-down winner!

----------


## drooartz

I've tried all sorts of amps over the years, and found I was always comparing any of them to a Twin Reverb. So I bought another one (65 reissue) that I plan to keep permanently. I run a pair of tube screamers for the overdrive duties. For my ears, this is the sweet sound for my Tele or the electric mando. I'm not going for an acoustic sound, so it works for me. It's truly a beast (weighs more than my old 4x10 bass cabinet), but it's the sound.

I also have a Fender Studio 65 (solid state) for practice and smaller shows.

----------


## Daniel Nestlerode

I tried out a Fender Blues Jr at Watermelon Music in Davis CA last weekend.  A very nice amp for the price, and a little more versatile than my Ampeg J-12T.  AAS strikes.   :Smile: 

Daniel

----------


## wichitamando

I've got a Blues Junior that I'm found of.  Hot Rod Deluxe is also very nice.

----------


## frankseanez

Sorry for the delay!  I'll look for a model number on the Peavey.  It can't match the Twin, of course, but I can lift it without risking that Twin hernia!  I'm intrigued by the Dean Markley bass head with the 15" cab rig.  From time to time, I've used my sonny's Fender bass amp and it does sound real clean, in fact, cleaner than either of my cats' patoots.

----------


## frankseanez

That li'l Peavey that could is the Peavey Nano Valve.  Bundled with that useless guitar in the beginners pack, it apparently went for $89.99.  I got just the Nano Valve for $40.  CHEAP!

----------


## MandOz

I read Mike Bromley's postings with awe and wonder if Mike has forgotten more than most people will learn about tech issues on this mortal coil. Nevertheless here's something simple. I bought an Artec Tino 5 Watt amp. Pretty Walnut old-timey thing it is too. I played my Kentucky 300 through it with pleasing results. "Blackberry Blossom" (old style) on 'Clean'. "Here comes the Sun" on 'Hot Tube'. A Rockabilly "Blue Moon of Kentucky" on 'Over Driver' and an up-tempo "Divin' Duck Blues" on High Gain. If you were playing an acoustic gig this would carry you nicely. The perfectionist guitar shop owner said he didn't like selling 'toys' so he gave me a big discount. Tiny this Tino may be but it is no toy. - Regards Pat.

----------


## MandOz

PS - I have bigger Orange and Behringer amps for Bass and Guitar, Pocket Rockets for playing in the wee hours - more slimming than snacks. Boxes, Wahs etc. - but this Tino is very impressive.

Pat.

----------


## Chris Willingham

anybody have any experience with the roland cube line? I want something small, but with several effects. I played around with a cube rx at a guitar center, but playing through something while 30 other people are playing around you is tough. gracias!

----------


## Shelby Eicher

I like my blacktop vibrolux for the larger gigs and my black top princeton for the smaller venues. Not as much power as the twin but I'm a 10" speaker fan.

----------


## Daniel Nestlerode

Just recently picked up a Roland CM-30.  This is a sort of a PA amp rather than a guitar amp, but it does the trick anyway.  I ran it as the output #2 from my stereo chorus/flanger and it sounds great.

The 6.5" woofer gets warmer, deeper tones than my Ampeg J12T.  Next up is to try it solo.  

And the price is right.  This little thing cost less new a month ag than my Ampeg J12T did 15 years ago.

Daniel

----------


## foldedpath

> anybody have any experience with the roland cube line? I want something small, but with several effects. I played around with a cube rx at a guitar center, but playing through something while 30 other people are playing around you is tough. gracias!


I haven't tried the Roland cube, but if you're looking for high quality in a very small package, I think it's hard to beat the AER Alpha:

http://www.aer-amps.info/index.php?p...mart&Itemid=93

It's 40 watts in a 10" cube, one input for XLR mic or instrument with an additional instrument input, and it weighs just 14 lbs. The effects are limited to one digital reverb with a blend control. You could add a pedal effect or two, if you needed more FX. 

I got an Alpha recently for times when I want minimal sound reinforcement and don't want to drag a lot of stuff around. It works great for that application, and it's also a nice little stage monitor/DI for larger PA setups. It's more expensive than the Roland cubes and similar compact acoustic amps, but the construction seems solid and it should last a long time. 

My other "acoustic" amp is a Rivera Sedona, a wonderful all-tube amp that can do either distortion or clean acoustic reproduction (by kicking in a tweeter in addition to the main 12" speaker). That amp never leaves the house these days, mainly because it weighs a ton (well, 65 lbs. but that's enough!), and I don't need the tube drive/distortion side of the amp for what I'm doing now.

----------


## Chris Willingham

Thanks guys. I'll probably end up with one of the cubes. 

Really enjoyed your second blog post BTW, Daniel. Gonna have to break my guitar out of case jail.

----------

