New 5W Tube Amps on a Rhodes?

[Int'l Feel]

I've got a 1977 Rhodes (Mark I, maybe. Not sure since it was pulled from an Amtrak lounge car and just says "Amtrak" and "Rhodes" on the front).

When I'm recording, I just go DI, but I was thinking about picking up one of those new small tube amps (ie. Vox AC4TV, Fender Champion, etc.) for apartment playing. Has anybody tried a Rhodes through one of those little amps?

Thanks in advance.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

I've used a Vox pathfinder with my Rhodes for club gigs.It sounds good and is loud enough to play with a drummer/band.
A 5w tube amp might sound nice but I'll bet it starts to fuzz out before you get it up to a reasonable level. Headroom is your friend with the Rhodes.

[jgimbel]

If when recording you're using a DI, I'd imagine you want a pretty clean sound? If so I don't know that all the great small tube amps (which I LOVE) would cut it. For that kind of sound anyway. I think it'd sound great, but not too clean. I use my Rhodes into my silverface Bassman 50, and even with that I can distort it a bit pretty easily (which is what I often use it for). Small amps would probably give you a really great and interesting sound, but like A.David.MacKinnon said, if you're looking for remotely clean, then like with slide guitar headroom is your friend.

[austin]

I love the sound of my Rhodes through my silverface Vibro Champ. Super clean is definitely not what I'm going for... But it's not like it's mega-fuzz territory, either. For "apartment playing" you wouldn't have to crank it to 10.

I say try it, especially if you can borrow one first to test it out.

[chorga1]

I run my stage 73 through an emerysound amp. 6-10watts pushing a small 10".


Clean or dirty depends upon the gain staging in the amp.



I think it sounds great!

[Int'l Feel]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

Ideally, it would be great to get something clean that can also break up pretty nicely too. I have an Orange Crush amp that I've been using in the interim, but I'm finding that colors the sound too much. I've also got an Ampeg VT-40, but I haven't been happy with the Rhodes through that either.

I do have a spare Fender PA speaker lying around. I suppose I could get just a pre-amp instead?

[tdbajus]

In my old band, our Rhodes player used my old, totally unreliable, but super awesome sounding Magnatone 213 combo- the one that Evil Robot modeled their amp after.

That vibrato on that amp was mind blowing. Just a hair too quiet for a loud drummer. Been lusting after one of those amps for a while, but I'm trying to narrow down my collection of thing I own for other people to play through.

[Int'l Feel]

That Evil Robot looks pretty neat too. I'm looking for something a little less expensive

Meanwhile..looks like you can change the output of the Vox AC4TV (4w, 1w, 1/4w) to get that desired head room or get nasty. Interesting...

[tdbajus]

Just went to their website. One of the guys responsible for this amp (he doesn't seem like the designer, but his name is on it) demoes it. Sounds a bit too much like he's playing open mike night though. After listening to him crack thru few seconds Sammy Hagar-esque hot licks, I gave up on trying to hear what their new import version of the amp sounds like.

Dude need to watch some of those totally ego-less demo videos that guy Andy does at PGS.

Anyway, their import is less than $900, or something lik that. My aversion to Hagar made me close the window pretty quickly. No disrespect.