Quiet That Guitar

The Jet City JetStream ISO is presumably only $300 (if you can find it). It's an isolation cabinet.
This video demonstrates about a 15dB SPL difference.



This video claims a 40dB SPL isolation.



I suppose my biggest concern is making a fairly "boxy" sound with it. Also the Eminence speaker is just never going to be quite as cool as my Celestion Alnico Blues.
But the price sure is right, isn't it? And if you need to rock out at home (I do) it could make a big difference.  (And again, the second video didn't post the first time. It just got deleted from the html when I pressed "publish". Sigh.)

New Trainwrecks

Did you know that new Trainwreck amps are being produced?
Trainwrecks sound great. But so do a lot of other boutique amps. Heck, there are some non-boutique amps that sound great too.

I love my Celtic Edana. Together with my Lil Dawg Mutt going through Celestion Alnico Blue 12" speakers they sound as good as the best amp I've ever played, the Blankenship Fatboy Supreme with Sour Cream.

Ethan on Bass Amps

What Ethan likes:

Ampeg - for "classic", tubby, slightly mid-heavy bass sounds of the 50s-70s.

Eden - for more modern sounds, but still able to do the classic thing if needed.

A note about Eden: There isn't actually a David Eden. Edens cabinets (and some early amps) were designed by David Nordschow, who also designed SWR's famous Goliath series a couple of years earlier. He later sold Eden out to a larger company and has recently started David Nordschow Amplification (DNA), which has a few cabinets out and is planning to release heads and combos soon. Rumour has it that Eden has gone downhill in quality and customer support since Nordschow's exit, but I don't know if that's really true.

Carvin - yeah, I know. Factory-direct only, so there's no way to try it first. Still, their stuff sounds good, works well and is very affordable.

SWR combos - some of them, anyway. More on this later.

Trace Elliot - if you can find their stuff used, it probably still works and sounds good.

What Ethan doesn't like:

SWR separates - their signature sound is too scooped for my taste. No mid push at all, just super-deep bass and treble. If the calander had stopped in 1989 these would be the best bass components in the world, but it didn't.

Berhenger - absolutely the worst quality you can get.

Ashdown - when Ashdown was British made their stuff was really good. Now it's dog shit. Doesn't sound good, either.

Hartke - get that crap away from me! Sure, it's reliable but it sounds like pooo!

Gallien-Kreuger and Genz-Benz - I put these together for the same complaint, which is that they're too sterile sounding and have too much mid-range bark. I also find myself wrestling with G-Ks EQ all the time to get any useful sounds out of 'em. Having said that, both brands have very good reputations for reliability and HUGE legions of fans, so my opinion on these must not be the only one out there. For their reliability alone, they'd be worth a test drive.

Okay, so let's look at some specifics:

There's an Eden Metro 2x10 combo at Sam Ash right now. It's a discontiniued model that sounds quite good, but it may be a bit big for the subway.

Sam Ash also has an old, early 70s Ampeg SB-12 flip-top. If you're not using a five-string and you like old-school thump, this is a GREAT amp. It, along with the Ampeg B-15, was a studio standard for about 20 years. BUT, it will have a little trouble keeping up with a drummer at anything other than the smallest of venues and old tube amps require a lot of care and feeding - even ones as reliable as an old SB-12.

Sam Ash also has a discontinued Aguilar combo - a tiny, little 1x12 that sounds nice. 500W, so no problem in the volume dept., but I did notice that the really low lows were a bit weak. Not much booty there.

I believe that Rudy's carries a little Mesa rig - I think it's called a Walkabout...? - that sounds really good and that thing is freakin' tiny. It might be a 1x10.

Markbass makes several really small combos that Guitar Center carries. Markbass is another company who's amps don't sound great to me, but loads of people love them, so what the Hell do I know?

Genz-Benz' Shuttle series is very, very highly regarded, and very lightweight and portable.  Personally, I hate the way they sound, but....

Carvin has a few very small combos in their catalog. The MB15 and MB12 are both well-liked by the internets and look pretty damn intriguing to me, too. Can't beat the prices, either! I would seriously look into these.

Used:

This is where things can get really interesting.

I just saw a Phil Jones Bass Pup "suitcase" amp on Craigslist for pretty cheap yesterday. I doubt it would be loud or deep enough for gigging, but it sure is portable. Might be worth looking into.

Rogue Music (30th Street) has two really little used combos in stock, as of last week. One Eden and one SWR. 1x10 or 1x12... I can't remember. Neither struck me as being very loud, but they were both cheap, in nice shape and VERY small and portable.

Other specific models to look for used would be:

SWR Workingman's 12 or 15 - The 15's a better all-around amp that could be used w/ a drummer in low-volume settings, the 12's much more portable and would work okay for coffee-house type gigs, but a drummer would bury it. Not much booty with the 12, either. I have a 12 that I bought used. I'm not in love with it, but it works. I see them used all the time.

SWR Baby Blue - I don't know if theses are made any more, but they're great for what they are. Not a whole lot of volume (2x8!), but they sound wonderful.

SWR Redhead - IMO, the best amp SWR ever made. A super-reliable, great sounding 2x10 combo. A little big for the subway, though. It's comparable to the Eden Metro. Carvin also made a knockoff called a Cyclops (I think) that was also killer.

Polytone, Roland Cube or G-K MB112 - these are all favorites with upright players who want just a little amplification. They're all very portable, super-reliable and very neutral-sounding. They're also pretty boring-sounding with electric bass, IMO. They all show up used quite a lot. They would be loud enough for a cabaret gig.

Peavy - the much-maligned Peavy has made a number of small, reliable combos. These guys will never get the respect they deserve.

I'm sure there's stuff I'm forgetting, but I've only had one cup of coffee.

Amps and Music

David Kronemyer on HiWatt Amplifiers. The dude David Kronemyer has a crazy resume, and in addition to everything else was an executive at Capitol and Atlantic records.

The Vintage Sound Classic is a pretty amplifier.

Sufjan Stephens sold 10,000 copies of the EP "All Delighted People" the first weekend it was available on Bandcamp. It debuted at #48 on the Billboard 200. He's on his own label. And his work is really interesting. The choir and orchestration are very tasteful and delicate. He's sold out two nights at the Beacon in November. Kind of reminds me of a cross between Donovan and Frank Zappa with that kind of modern indy-music vocal style.
His "record company" is Asthmatic Kitty Records.

You Know Who Makes A Pretty Amp?

Emery makes pretty amps.

Experimentation Day

Today I visited Ethan at his beautiful new house and played through a bunch of amps. Ethan has a gajillion* amplifiers and guitars.

I played through a Les Paul with P90's and a Les Paul with mini-humbuckers. They don't exactly sound like either of my guitars, but that's cool. We listened to amps. Lots of amps.

Ethan has fixed up a bunch of very cool guitar amplifiers. He's got an old Rickenbacker amp which is essentially the same as a Fender Deluxe. It was awesome 'cept for the tear in the speaker. He's got a '65 Ampeg which sounded amazing - all chime and... well it just sounded like 1965. And his '65 Vox Cambridge was exactly what you'd expect from a '65 Vox. (When I originally published this I thought the Cambridge was a '64 but it ain't, it's just exactly as old as I am. In better shape though.)

But the amp we were looking for was what we thought a second Tyrannosaurus Mouse amp should sound like. I have my Lil' Dawg Mutt, which is basically a Deluxe front-end with a Champ power section, and it sounds awesome. What I want is that second amp which would be cleaner - sounding and which I'd play at the same time.

Beverly Road "Q" - train stop.

Our final four were all amps from the early to mid-60's. They were a Fender Deluxe Reverb, a '62 Princeton, A '66 Princeton Reverb, and a '61 Tremolux. The Princeton and the Princeton Reverb were the amps which Ethan had done the most "fixing up" to. All the amps sounded simply awesome.

What I found most interesting is that my favorite amps had a very smooth response across the guitar and a sort of "three dimensional" sound. You could hear beyond the speaker like the sound came from a few feet behind the amplifier. The Princeton Reverb and the Tremolux were the most smooth and three dimensional. We cross-patched the channels in the Tremolux head, which seemed to give it an even better sound (even more "smoove" and 3D I felt).

My feeling was the Princeton Reverb was the best - sounding for my needs. Which didn't mean that there weren't a dozen more amazing freakin' amps, but they'd be #1 for different applications.

And one day I'll write what my thoughts are on touch sensitivity...

On the way home I took this picture of the unique Q/B train station at Beverly Road in Brooklyn.
+++++
*That's a bit of hyperbole, he only had a kabillion of 'em.

The Metroamp Store is Reopening

Yes! It is! Check it out. They are just reopening it so it's not complete -- in fact as of today there are no amplifiers -- but they are indeed reopening.