Carr Sportsman amp

[sylnau]

Thanks all. I'll go try whatever Carr amp they have in store (only the Rambler according to their website).
I'm still a bit scared they won't sound that good at very low volume.

My Duende is supposed to be a dark amp. What I dislike the most from my tone at the moment is what I call a woody tone (something in the mids that is kind of flat).
I don't know if is the amp or if it's the tele. I guess I will need to try a few things and I might endup keeping the Duende.

[Tristan]

Your Duende is dark sounding?

Personally I'm not crazy about the Carr amps I played, I thought they all were a bit dull sounding and lacking character.
I'd rather get a Swart if I'd go that way.
Though if you think your Duende is dark then I would advise not to go the Fender Tweed direction really.

For complex, harmonically rich and chimey cleans, in my opinion, going from the classic circuits, the Vox style is still the one to beat.
Especially brands like Cornell, Matchless and Valvetech come to my mind.

[sylnau]

Your Duende is dark sounding?

It is described as dark fender style. Myself I don't think it is that dark. I wish it has a mid control in the EQ.

[sylnau]

I went to that store yesterday and tried the Rambler...

Not my thing... I still prefer my Duende.

[popvulture]

Out of curiosity, what aren't you liking about the Duende, and what are you looking to get out of another amp? And what kind of tubes does the Duende use (info seems limited on the Bogner site because it's a discontinued amp)? Just trying to get an idea of the character of your amp and what you think would suit you better tone-wise.

[sylnau]

V1: Input tube both channels a and b, 12ax7
V2: 2nd stage for Channel b and Reverb Return, 12ax7
V3: 3rd stage for Channel a and b, 12ax7
V4: FX Loop, Send and Return, 12ax7
V5: Phase Inverter, 12ax7
V6: Power Tube, 6V6
V7: Power Tube, 6V6
V8: Rectifier, 5AR4

I recently changed all the tubes.
V1 and V5: Genlax - Gold Lion ECC83/B759 (Prenium)
V2 to V4: Genalex - Gold Lion ECC83 (Standard)
V6 and V7: TAD 6V6GT-STR
V8: TAD

I like it... but I would like a mid knob (it lack a bit in the mids). And it is a bit dull at very low volume.
But I think all 15w amp might sound dull at bedroom level... that was also the case with tha Ramble.

I prefer the Duende to the Ramble, because it's darker.

I think my main problem is volume... I cannot play loud in here.

[Tristan]

Try some JJ preamp tubes maybe.
Plus TAD 6V6's tend to be quite dark too from what I recall.
The Duende might be 6V6 loaded but the ones I played sounded more like a Vox type amp than a Fender type amp to me.
If you're still looking for a different amp I'd again suggest you to try at least a few Vox type amps to see if you like them.

[popvulture]

Cool--I was going to say that an amp I was very surprised and impressed with recently was the Mesa Mark V 35. I'd never really had any strong feelings about Mesas before, always thinking they sounded good but weren't necessarily for me. This one, however, has a beautiful clean tone with lots of clarity and headroom, and the medium gain settings also sound really good. Beyond that there's high gain of course, which tends to be the thing I usually associate with Mesas and don't care too much about--not sure if you're into that kind of sound, but it's there if you want it.

Small size (I played the 1x12 combo), switchable down to 25 and 10 watts. I thought it sounded pretty great at low volume, although I didn't try super low. Conversely, it's capable of getting LOUD, should you ever need it. I'd give one a try if I were you; I know I'd be all over one if I didn't have my Carr.

Edit: forgot to add really nice EQ, so there are you're desired mids and more.

[rfurtkamp]

Thing that folks forget is Mesa started doing hot-rodded Fenders and that's the basic design still. They're generally very good clean amps at their core, but the 90s Rectifier silliness obscured that.

[popvulture]

Yep. I love their origin story, yet I indeed often forget about it and think of Dual Rectifiers.

[sylnau]

Same here... I always associate Mesa to Heavy Metal amp.
I might keep the Duende and try it with an attenuator (not sure it will help).

The amp had Sovetek LPS in the pre and the 6V6 where JJ.
It sound a lot better with the new tubes (TAD + Gold-Lion).