Anyone using small guitar amps for recording?

[wardshorsehead]

i played through one of those carr amps at a shop here in town, and thought it was really cool. i think it actually had a few settings, with the lowest being about 1/2 watt (which is surprisingly louder than you think it might be). they seem really well made, and as far as boutique amps go, not too high priced...i think the one i was looking at was a bit under a grand, maybe 899? cool stuff though, and nice reverb.

frank

[timbaier]

The best smallish amp I've ever recorded is a Silverface Deluxe Reverb. And the weird thing is, it doesn't actually sound THAT great just to hear it in a room. But for some reason, its interaction with a microphone is quite nice. I have a Silverface Champ from the same era that doesn't sound half as good. Must be that dang 8" speaker in there....

[joel hamilton]

small amps. EVERY time i can.

I love small amps. AND small speakers.

We have a Movieola "squak box" that is an all tube, 4" combo amp.

It was originally used for on location movie editing. It wants to see a tape head input level, but with a humbucker, it is insane. So great. I love champs, princetons, and supro combo's.

Little amps translate SO big, with more texture and up front roar, without the boom and sizzle from a 12".

Now a 4X12 for bass? that is another story. Great growl...

[swingdoc]

I have an old Philco 4 watt(?) (I think) tube amp that has stereo speakers of ~3" and 4". Two power tubes, two preamp tubes and a rectifier.
The thing looks like an old brown shoebox radio. Its about the size of a toaster.
Its pretty fun to pull it out and have guys say...."huh?"
Then play on it a few minutes, and they'll say "huh!'

I think small amps translate so well onto recordings, cuz it aint about volume, but its about totally saturating the little amps' brains. Its like the most natural, complex and tonal compression. Then, you're not having to back off the gain on your preamp, the gain stages all the way to tape are perfect (kinda like recording a vocal track), and whammo! great sounding guitar.
This little Philco sounds completely amazing on archtops when your looking for a moderately saturated sound. Incredible response to dynamics. Playing lightly, its smooth, then with just a little push, instant brown.
Cant get a perfectly clean tone throughout unless the amp's volume is way down, but then its hard ro get a feel of the dynamics of the instrument at that level.
As we all like to say...its a one trick pony, but its a hell of a trick.
Probably one of the best $50 Ive spent.
If anyone will let me host a photo, would love to show it to you guys.

[andrew embassy]

I recently bought a silverface Vibro Champ and I love the thing to death. Sounds huge with the strat copy we've got, with the input level upped just a bit with a tube screamer. Wonderful crunchy tone and that vibrato is unstoppable. I've been running my wurlitzer 214 through it and it's made me fall in love with it all over again. The vibrato on the wurlitzer is nothing compared to the all tube vibrato on that champ. The thing sounds awesome.

If I wanted to build a quick 12" speaker extension cab for the Champ, how would I go about it? Any ideas? Are there stock cab sizes I might use? I'm assuming open back...

[flatrockmobile]

How is the Fender Blues Jr?

[jspartz]

I love my fender Blues Jr. Great tone in a small amp. Overall I love small amps. It seems that many guitar players think that the amp needs to be big and loud. It shocks me that they can't tell when it actually sounds good. I had a guy in and he kept turning up the volume "to get it to break up more". He liked it when it was muddy and loud. I backed it down so it had clarity/detail. Maybe that is the difference between recording and playing live?

My latest chain on the blues Jr has been a beyer m-500 into an OSA MP1-L. It beat out my 421 into the OSA and it also beat out a SM-57 into an HV-3.

Jason

[pscottm]

my favorite is a silvertone 1482 tube 1-10. sterling morrison all the way. actually i use it for trons and synths more than anything.

[djimbe]

How 'bout the Silvertone guitar case amps? I think there were 2 models, one for the single pickup (1448) and one for the double (1454? don't remember...). We have the 1448 here, and it has turned in some great lead guitar tracks recently. Such a simple design inside too; takes up very little room and is capable of producing this huge sound on tape. I thought the little speaker (it might be 5") was horribly band limited, but it comes out of a mic right where you'd like a lead guitar to be. It's another of those amps where people say "I'm not playing outa that POS...oh wait..."

[jdsowa]

some company should manufacture a 4" rotating leslie speaker cab for those of us short on cash. Er... I wonder if it would be sufficient, tho..

[joel hamilton]

We have a silvertone amp in case like that. Never use it. I always forget to.

The Fender blues Jr. doesnt sound as good as the PRO junior. The pro junior sounds like a tweed champ. Amazing. Barking, loud as hell, and amazing harmonically rich drive with just the right amount of speaker "flap".

We have a pro junior and a twin and a tweed bassman and a deluxe and a princeton and a black face showman and a silver dual showman and and.... (gasping)

And the little pro junior gets pulled out usually before any of thos other beautiful amps for some tone...

[soundguy]

I built a 5E3 deluxe a few months ago and I dont think another amp has worked on a session here since, everyone loves it to death. Little amps are cool, but it really all depends on what you are trying to do with the track and what kind of headroom you need, etc.

Those new oranges might sound cool, but hell do they suck. That was one thing they got right on the reissue, they built them with the shittiest parts they could find, so they are just as unreliable as the old ones...

dave

[cgarges]

Well, that doth sucketh. Same with the Matamp stuff?

Chris

[soundguy]

I cant recall if matamp was eventually combined under the orange moniker when gibson started importing them. I think the green amps are still their own entity though. All the new oranges I have used ALL had fucked up pots, and not only pots that were noisy, but pots that werent even screwed down the the chasis very well, just real shitty construction. Plastic switches, real crap. Of course, with a rolls royce price tag. The class A series they did sounded cool, but I think for what you gotta drop on one, it might be wiser to save up a bit more and just get a vox, I dont know how close their topology on the ad30 is to an ac30, but they sound REALLY similar, something tells me your AD30 aint gonna do so well on the resale as the AC30, assuming it never breaks down so you can sell it. I would have definitely gotten one if they were cheaper, shiity build and all, they sounded way cool. But of course, nothing to do with that "Orange sound" whatsoever. They never did an EL84 amp back in the day, it was all, I believe, EL34 amps with terrible bias supplies that caused the amps to catch on fire. Both of mine blew up that way. Good times.

dave

[drew w]

Fender Super Champ if you can get one...great tone, reverb, push/pull tube overdrive...amazing on tape!
DW