Well, it stands to reason with all them guitars I'd have an amp or two... here's a peek. This page has the most recent aquisitions, purchased because I decided to invoke a "house gear ONLY" rule for our annual Palm Jalms. I figured I'd better get some hipper stuff for the backline, if I wasn't gonna let anybody bring their own amp to play on.
Fender Princeton Chorus
Boy, what a neat little amp this is! I got this amp on the recommendation of Rob Wilson, who swears he'd trade his Boogie 22 for one. Although it is completely solid state, the tone has a wonderful tube-ish feel to it - even in the clean channel. The first time I plugged this thing in, I was transported all the way back to the early seventies and Doug Latislaw's HALF-SIZED Fender Super Reverb - his amp had been dropped out of back of the van and busted, and so he cut it down to a 210 box, loaded with JBL's, as I recall. He played it that way for YEARS...
With its two 10" speakers run on separate 25 watt poweramps, it has a lovely chorus effect that most of us identify as the "Roland JC120" chorus sound. But, unlike the big Roland, this little guy has two preamp channels, and one of them is set up as a killer overdrive with some cool controls, allowing you to dial in just about any amount of crunch and sustain.
I didn't feel this amp had quite enough volume as a stand-alone station for the jalms, so I reloaded it with some new Eminence speakers - a Red Coat Ramrod and a Patriot Ragin' Cajun. The perceived change in output volume wasn't as effective as I hoped, so I had my new pal Gerry Walker, from Stereo Steel, build me a one-of-a-kind stereo powerslave amp, which I mounted into a 212 cabinet. The amp Gerry built for me spec-ed out at about 100 watts per side at 4 ohms, and when I loaded up a pair of 4 ohm Peavey Scorpion 12" speakers, that slave cab absolutely ROCKED! Using the little Fender's stereo effects-loop outputs to drive that slave cabinet at our annual reunion demonstrated that the combination was a fire-breathing tone MONSTER - the great tone out of Fender's stereo preamp kicked up way LOUD! I think next on the adgenda is to try some 8 ohm (or even 16 ohm) speakers in the stereo slave cab, so that perhaps I can actually hear the 10" speakers of the amp working, too. They are just being drowned out by the 212 slave cab at this point.
UPDATE: Whiler I was gigging, I bought a second Princeton Chorus (which I also reloaded with Eminence speakers), and I left it at our rehearsal room - one amp is plenty loud enough for that. On stage, I played both Princeton Chorus amps, stacked or split, and slaved together. It was JUST enough power for small rooms, but if we played any place bigger than our typical gig, I used Gerry's custom-made 212 slave, which I DID reload with some 16-ohm speakers - didn't help/hurt, that thing is STILL loud!
Fender Stage 100 DSP
I bought this head simply because it fit the criteria I had decided on at the time - at least 100 watts, in the correct price range, a popular name brand other than Peavey (I have plenty of Peavey amps already).
Specs on this all-solid-state head say that it's 160 watts at 4 ohms (100 watts at 8 ohms), and I play it on top of one or two 8 ohm cabinets, loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s. It doesn't have quite the character in the clean channel that the Princeton Chorus has, but it's definitely a Fender voice. The overdrive channel has a master volume and similar controls to the Princeton Chorus (see above) so you can tailor the tone to your liking, and it sounds pretty cool - there's even a "MORE DRIVE" button for those who like it extra cunchy. What makes this amp really shine is the DSP - built-in Digital Signal Processing (I assume). It has TWO processors: a digital reverb and a digital-FX unit. The reverb offers sixteen different choices (all the typical digital reverb voices) - and of course, I like the ol' springy-sound. The FX unit has a pretty wide variety as well - tremelo, vibrato, phaser, flanger, chorus, and a digital delay. Heck, who needs stomp-boxes?
I was able to get the correct four-button footswitch from my friends at San Diego Sound and Music Repair - they ARE the good guys in this town, and the only shop I trust for my keyboard, amp, and signal processing repairs. The footswitch allows you to select channels, the MORE DRIVE option, reverb on/off, and FX on/off.
It's a nice head, and although I'm not sure that it will get a lot of use here with the other newbees in the arsenal, I like it.
Marshall Valvestate 8200 "Bi-Chorus 200"
Well, I figured I'd better have a Marshall in the backline, just to cover all the basses...
Marshall introduced the Valvestate models in 1991, and most were discontinued in 1996 (superceded by the Valvestate MkII). This model is one of the first series of Valvestates, a hybrid amp with a 12AX7/ECC83 tube in the preamp for the boost (overdrive) channel - the rest is all solid state. The specs on this beast boast a whopping 100 watts per side at 4 ohms - yes, that's 100 watts times TWO - it's a stereo amp (like the Roland JC120). It's shown here on an Avatar 412 slant cabinet that I rewired as stereo, loaded with Eminence V12s. This was the amp all the boys wanted to play with...
The surprising thing about this amp (to me) was in the amount of control they give you - there are TWO sets of chorus (speed and depth) controls - one for the clean channel and one for the boost channel - and there are TWO selectable chorus types. There is a pre- and post-gain control for the boost channel, and an OD1/OD2 button to make it really nasty. Heck, the clean channel even has a "crunch" button, so you can make it dirty, too (it IS a Marshall, after all)! And finally, there's a MASTER volume for the entire amp.
JUST before I quit gigging, I bought an empty Marshall 212 cab (from an 8280, I think). I loaded this head and a couple of Celestion V-30s into that cabinet, and was gonna try it as a gig-rig, but the gig went away...
AND SO, I have built the 2x100-watt stereo Marshall combo amp that never was!
Or, so I thought... Summer '08, I picked up a thrashed 8280 combo, sans speakers - but cheap! After inspecting it, puzzling over the similarities, I pulled the 8200 back out of the combo cab to compare the two chassis - HEY! These amps are identical! In fact, on closer inspection I found that the 8200 circuit board actually said "8280." So, what gives with the 2x100 watt head vs the 2x80 watt combo power rating?
Well, the answer was right there on the back of the chassis all the time, at the speaker jacks, which I now quote: "100 watts @ 4 ohms; 80 watts @ 8 ohms..." And there you have it. The combo, shipped with 8 ohm speakers, is rated 80 watts per side. With the head, they ASSume that you will load up the maximum number of speakers for the minimum load = 2x100 watts!
The only difference between the two amps (besides the paper label from Marshall) is that the combo chassis has some extra mounting bolts through the side of the cabinet, where the head is just mounted with the eight bolts through the top.
The thrashed 8280 was advertised as having a dead preamp - light comes on, powers up with a nice thump, but no sound comes out if you plug a guitar in. I had a similar issue with the 8200 head when it landed, which I "cured" by cleaning all the pots. Maybe that would work here as well, I'll be giving that a try. But to check the amp out, just for fun, I plugged the effects out of my Princeton Chorus into the effects returns on the 8280. WOW! Stereo slave! PLUS, the master volume still controls the output - AND, that makes these amps the slaves of my dreams: big power if needed, but they can be TURNED DOWN! One (or both) of these will definitely be part of my next gig rig - that is, if I ever get another gig...
NEXT: the ol' standbys and spare bedroom favorites...