Favourite amp...

[john]

Hi

I thought I'd canvas opinion on amps. I have had two very different amps I would recommend:

1970 Marshall 100w Head and 4 x 12 angle cab, and 4 x 12 normal cab. It was a wonderfully warm amp, without the gain conversion. Very loud, very heavy for gigs and it took up a lot of room.

Peavy Renown 400, 200w amp. Easy to use, great sound, especially for a transistor amp (at the time that took a lot of therapy for me to admit;)). The range of sounds the amp could create were fantastic. I could even get a decent acoustic sound, although I'm sure the ovation helped!

Just my thoughts...

Cheers

John

[Didier]

Hi John,

Amps are very much a question of personal taste.

I never dug too much Marshalls (but yours must have been different, I only know Marshalls from 80s and after). Not the kind of crunch I'm comfortable with.

I have (of course) to recommend my amp

It's called a Dakota, from 76. I believe it was some kind of Italian "copy" of Oranges. Mine is a supposed to be a Bass/Organ amp. The corresponding ones for guitars were called Brooklyns or Manhattans.

It's a full valve amp (preamp and amp), with no gain, only a volume. Which means, if you want to have a more distorted sound, you must play louder

On stage I produce the high distorted sounds with an effect. But, for recording, I do change the volume to obtain the level of crunch I want.

The cab is a separate 3 x 10 (or 12, I never measured).

I just love the sound of that amp. It has do to (I think) with the fact that it is supposed to be a bass amp, like guitarists playing Fender bass amps instead of the "normal" Twin reverb.

On stage, I use it both for the electric and the acoustic (but I'm using EQ correction from an effect, my Ovation has too much highs).

On the transistor kind, I never had one, but was always very impressed with the sound of the Roland Jazz Chorus 120. It's a single unit, enormous for a single unit, and really heavy.

Didier