Back to the beginning

I hadn't played much guitar for the last few months until
very recently when I finally finished building my amp.
This to power my very first electric guitar which has been
sitting impatiently in a closet since last June.

The amp is a patchwork of circuits from Fender : from the
brownface Bandmaster 6G7-A I took the preamps and the two
and a half triode tremolo, from the Blackface AB763 Deluxe
Reverb I took the reverb, and the output is two single-ended
6v6s in parallel like a couple of Champs. Tube complement
six Tung-Sol 12ax7s, one Jan Philips 12at7, two Tung-Sol 6v6s
and a NOS RCA 5U4GB rectifier.

I love the sound of this amp and the tremolo and reverb are
fantastic. But at the volumes I can stand in my living there's
no chance of any real distortion. I got a small taste of it
while playing through an old inefficient AR hi-fi speaker but
now with my 12" Eminence Red Fang and its 103db efficiency
things are really loud even at less than half volume.

So yesterday I bought a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal. Oh my God !
Suddenly I'm playing Smoke on the Water, Hell's Bells, Ironman !
And it sounds like the real thing ! (well, to you connaisseurs
it probably doesn't, but to me it does :-) I'm going to turn
into a power chord freak !

So now all I have to do is learn how to play, again. Once my
calouses have come back. I said recently that I'd have trouble
giving up my acoustic because of the richness and clarity of
its sound but now I find that the sound of my electric (a new
Heritage H535) is so rich with just a bit of tremolo and reverb
that it sounds way better than my acoustic. Full of all sorts
of harmonic stuff going on which changes as notes slowly decay.
It's mesmerizing. And with its big frets it's easier to play.
The distortion bit is just to go crazy once in a while, I'm
mainly planning on playing blues and maybe going a bit in the
direction of simple slow jazz.

So, all that to boast about my new equipment and to say that I'm
back to being a beginner guitar player.

Paul P
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Prototype "tube-like" solid-state amp circuit
    ... provides a damn decent input impedance for a guitar, ... cuz it's a bass amp I guess. ... Have you considered power MOSFETs? ... I don't care about DUPLICATING a tube stage overload. ...
    (alt.guitar.amps)
  • Recommend me a bass amp?
    ... and it seems likely that I may need to switch from guitar to bass. ... I'm wondering what kind of amp I might need. ... somehow I think I'd need a lot more power for a bass guitar. ...
    (alt.guitar.amps)
  • Re: Engineering question / power amp input -> line input
    ... I have a Peavey VTM-60 tube amplifier head, for guitar. ... It has several outputs on the back, power amp output, for driving 4ohm, ... line-level output or headphone output or anything. ...
    (rec.audio.pro)
  • Re: good cabinet match to 66 Bassman
    ... Best guitar amp Fender ever made, ... Brock used to play a Super Six Reverb and a/b to a twin reverb for clean. ... Bassman with the 2x12 cab. ...
    (alt.guitar.amps)
  • Re: Getting a good, modern jazz sound
    ... player won't be using a crummy amp from the get-go. ... already has a good guitar and amp. ... If the player uses a solid body, ... pedal and my reverb pedal in order to get a deep sound. ...
    (rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz)