Simple amps

[theavondon]

But, most of them also have terribly ancient transformers. We had to replace the one in my friend's Bogen too.

[kosta]

Yeah man! Mine melted the eff DOWN in the 100+ degree heat last week. Hahahaha. Hopefully the amp is still ok.

[theavondon]

Ours just got increasingly awesomer and awesomer sounding until it stopped working completely.

[kosta]

Hahahahahaha. I like it.

[univalve]

Ibanez TSA15
(i know, it does not get much love here but it is imho a great amp for minimal money)

[CBGB]

I have an Alamo Ryder. Volume and tone. Three inputs. 1960s Fender Champ copy basically. Simple, nice, dirty tube amp sound. Love it.

[Jero]

Some times you can find old silvertone/sears/tiesco amps for cheap. I'd go that route.

[LaoWiz]

And nope, amp circuit is as is. He recapped it and cleaned it up a hair, but it's stock tone-wise. Tons of bass with that 15" speaker too. Really nice sweep on the tone control as well.

Man, i gotta try that. Projectors are such an easy find...

[soapbars]

My main gigging amp is a sound city concord.

Its an EL34 based amp, 30 to 40w ish 2 X 12.

Controls are: Volume, Treble, Bass.

Thats practically it. There are 2 channels, exactly the same tonally, the have seperate controls for volume, treble and bass and the second includes the reverb tank which has its own mix control.

Each channel has two inputs, (hi and lo) and a bright / normal switch. There is no master volume. there is a 'gain' switch on the back for give it come extra umph.

My absolute simplest amp is an ampeg jet, volume, tone and tremolo, job done.

[snipelfritz]

I feel the exact way man. I just like to set my amp at the edge of ODing and then either let the pedals or my volume pot do the rest. I guess I got spoiled by my Vox AC15.

I just went on a hunt for a decent gigging(as in LOUD) amp and couldn't find anything like that. I settled for a customized Carvin MTS3200 which is nice and I'm kind of warming up to the two channels(especially since the footswitch was included). Now I can get those chimey, clean, The Cure-like leads along with blues pure tube-driven sounds and anything in between, and that's before I consider the 7 pedals I have on my board right now. That's like some mathematically large number of options. Seriously, somebody figure that out. Two amp settings, 7 different pedals that can be on or off. Use exponents or something. I don't remember, I got 5's on my AP calc exams when I was 16, and I've never used math since(I'm a waste of a good brain)

Also, my budget was under $400 so...yeah. I also had the advantage of a Torn's Peaker to sell and the fact that I didn't need a cab.

This post is a jumbled stream of consciousness constantly revising itself in retrospect while getting rather drunk.

[Instant Dan]

Ampeg V&VT, Sunn, old-school Marshall, old-school Orange, etc.

[retinal orbita]

I have a JCM 900 and it's got treble, mids, bass and presence (what the fuck does that do anyway? I don't hear any difference l-r), two preamp controls and 2 master volumes - it's a two channel amp but the channels are exactly the same, you just set the master volumes differently for lead work I guess)....... anyway I guess that's too many knobs for you I just wanted to ask if anyone knows what a presence knob does......

I echo the sentiments here, if I ever see an amp with lots of knobs I'm like "no thanks" automatically...... same with pedals..... keep it simple, for me thanks.

[bobloblah]

sunn 200s. volume. bass. treble.

[D.o.S.]

I have a JCM 900 and it's got treble, mids, bass and presence (what the fuck does that do anyway? I don't hear any difference l-r), two preamp controls and 2 master volumes - it's a two channel amp but the channels are exactly the same, you just set the master volumes differently for lead work I guess)....... anyway I guess that's too many knobs for you I just wanted to ask if anyone knows what a presence knob does......

I echo the sentiments here, if I ever see an amp with lots of knobs I'm like "no thanks" automatically...... same with pedals..... keep it simple, for me thanks.

Presence explanation stolen from TGP:

In some amps it's more of an upper-mid EQ control, but in the classic Bassman-derived/Marshall circuit it's a negative feedback loop high frequency control. Turning the presence up takes highs out of the NFB loop.

What this means is that it doesn't so much control the amount of top-end - although it does to some extent - but that it controls the dynamics of the top end. NFB is like a 'regulator' - used to smooth and even out the response - so if you take some frequencies out of the loop, these become less restricted and 'peakier'.

Turning up the presence not only makes the amp brighter, it makes the brightness more spiky and dynamic than the rest of the sound too... which makes it very much more obvious and helps the amp cut better in a mix, and is why 'presence' is such a good name. It doesn't affect any particular frequency, since it's done with a single cap - it simply has more effect the higher the frequency.

The fact that it works on the NFB loop (which is part of the power stage) also explains why it doesn't seem to do all that much at lower volume when the power stage is clean, since the NFB loop is working on an undistorted sound with fairly even frequency balance, but once the power stage goes into clipping this generates a lot more highs, and the presence control become far more effective - on classic Marshalls, it basically becomes the only control that does much when the amp is fully cranked

As for simple, relatively cheap amps... Why not try to find an old off-brand slave?

[retinal orbita]

Huh..... well there's something I didn't know!!