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DV Mark Little 40 L34 – First Test Clips

February 25, 2012 by GoofyDawg

Wow! Is all I can say… This is simply a killer amp!

In my announcement that I made today about getting this lil’ bad boy, I promised some sound clips. So once got done with my gig this evening, I headed right to my studio to play around with the amp. For this first test, I didn’t want do the standard, here’s-how-it-sounds -clean or -dirty. What I wanted to test was the amp’s dynamics and expressiveness. So I did two tests that demonstrate a couple of different aspects of the Little 40.

One thing that I will mention before I get into the tests is that for a single-channel amp, the Little 40 has TONS of tonal options. Every knob has an affect on the tone, especially the very usable EQ’s. Plus if you hook up a mono foot switch, you can get a 10dB gain boost, so if you set up the amp properly, that boost can act like a second channel.

Dynamics

With this first clip, what I wanted to test was how the amp reacted to pick attack. So I set the amp to the edge of breakup. Master was set wide open, with the gain at about 10am. I set the EQ’s on the brighter side with the Treble cranked, Mid about 2pm and Bass at 11am. I also had the Continuous Power Control open all the way for maximum headroom. The clip is in three parts: First, I start on the “clean” side of the overdrive point. Then I dig in a little harder to get it past that point, then I engage the boost, which gets the amp into some serious crunch, and loads of sonic content (besides being dirty, with boost engaged, the amp grows some serious balls – even set to bright. I’m playing my R8 Les Paul with both pickups engaged and the volumes are both set to 5.

Continuous Power Control

A lot of the magic of this amp comes from the Continuous Power Control. This knob provides an output power sweep from 1 Watt all the way up to 40 Watts, allowing you to adjust the clean headroom of amp. This is an absolutely killer feature!

With this next clip, the amp is set clean, with the Master all the way up, the Gain at about 9am. EQ and Presence are all set at noon. I’m playing my R8 with both volume knobs at five. Again, the clip is in three parts. The first part is clean, bluesy riff. In the second part, I turn the CPC to noon (~20 Watts), and play the same riff. Finally, I engage the boost to demonstrate how over-the-top you can get with this amp. 🙂

Admittedly, I have a lot of dialing-in to do. The tonal possibilities with this amp are immense. Looks like I’ll be spending lots of time getting to know it. 🙂

Posted in Guitars | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments »

New Amp Day!!! Finally Got My DV Mark Little 40 L34!!!

February 24, 2012 by GoofyDawg

I can still recall the first time I ever saw and played this amp at my local Guitar Center. It sounded so damn good, and the price was absolutely excellent that I knew that getting it would be a no-brainer. Then after I got home that day, I looked the amp up on the DV Mark web site, and was astonished at the features for a sub-$800 amp! I’ve written about this amp before, and the two features that sold me on the amp (besides the great tone) were the Continuous Power Control (CPC) and the automatic and continuous biasing of the power tubes.

The auto-bias was a HUGE factor in my decision. As long as you get tubes that are matched within 20% of each other, the amp will automatically bias them to the optimal operating settings. Imagine not having to bias power tubes. Just get a matched set, plug them in, and you’re good to go! And you can use any socket-compatible tubes like 6L6’s and even 6V6’s as long as they can take the plate voltage. Freakin’ awesome!

The CPC was also a kicker for me in that I could lower the power output of the amp to control when I get breakup. But unlike other variable power controls I’ve heard or played with, there was little discernible difference in tone, whether I had the CPC all way up for maximum clean headroom, or dialed all the way back.

I know, I don’t have sound samples – yet. But they’re on their way. I just don’t have enough time before my gig this evening to get clips.

As far as dynamics are concerned, this amp is extremely expressive and super-responsive to pick attack and guitar gain. One thing I noticed when I had the master cranked, and the gain just past 2pm, when doing leads, this amp absolutely sings. I noticed some very very cool high-frequency artifacts that really added some complexity to the tone. I could’ve played this amp for hours, but alas, I had to turn it off so I could release this article and then get ready for my gig.

Check back to hear clips this weekend!

Posted in Guitars | Tagged , , | 5 Comments »

You Learn Something New Every Day

February 24, 2012 by GoofyDawg

Coil Splitting vs. Coil Tapping

My good buddy Phil sent me a link to an article that discussed coil splitting vs. coil tapping. For years, I thought they meant the exact same thing. But according to the article, which was written by a Fender tech, they’re completely different animals. Coil splitting is usually associated with humbuckers where a switch is used to turn off one of the coils. On the other hand, coil tapping “means taking the signal from somewhere within the coil of wire rather than from the end of it, thus reducing pickup output (more windings means higher output).” I never knew that.

Taming that Sonic Boom

After I read the article above, I perused other “Tech Talk” articles, and found one that discussed an issue that has been a real issue with my Hot Rod Deluxe: Low-end boom. The article stated that that boom is called floor coupling and is caused by an amp being close to a reflective surface such as a floor or a wall. The reactance can cause a 3dB boost to the low-end. The solutions to this are actually quite simple: Either elevate the amp, or tilt it back. Some Fender cabs, such as the VibroKing come with retractable legs to allow you to lean the amp back. I always thought it was meant to be able to hear your amp. I never realized that there was an actual purpose for this other than being able to hear your amp while the band is blasting. 🙂

 

Posted in Guitars | Tagged , | 1 Comment »

Reintroducing Aracom VRX22

February 20, 2012 by GoofyDawg

I make no secret about the fact that I play Aracom Amps. I’ve played TONS of different amps, and though many tickle my fancy, I’d consider buying a very select few; actually there are only two other amps that I want besides another Aracom, and that is an original Fender ProSonic and a DV Mark Little 40.

At this point in time, I have three Aracom amps: The PLX18-BB w/Trem, VRX18, and the VRX22. The PLX18 is Jeff Aragaki’s rendition of the venerable 18 Watt Marshall Plexi “Blues Breaker.” The VRX18 is a souped up version of the PLX18, with more modern circuitry, and it sports an extra gain stage so that its second channel is more aggressive. The VRX22 is the 6V6 version of the VRX18, though its second channel is even more aggressive than the VRX18. I use all three amps in both studio and stage, and I love ’em all. Each has a different character. But my VRX22 is hands-down my rock machine.

A couple of months ago, I tripped over a guitar cable that I had plugged into the VRX22, broke the darn tip off in the jack! Yikes! I tried taking it out myself, but Jeff used a fully-enclosed jack, and I didn’t have the right tools to dig it out, so I knew that I had to take it to Jeff. Turns out that he had to replace the entire jack altogether. Oh well, clumsy me…

While he had the amp, I asked him if he could adjust the second channel a bit. The last time I had him work on it, I asked to get a bit more gain out of the drive channel. Plus at the time, I had gotten a pair of nice 1959 RCA 6V6’s and had Jeff install them and he biased them a bit hot. The problem with my requests was that the distortion of the second channel was a little harsh, plus with that extra gain, I couldn’t get a clean tone out of the channel unless I turned the volume way down. So this time, I asked him to take the gain down a few notches. He also lowered the bias of the power tubes.

When he was done, he called me up, and told me what he did, and in his very understated manner, told me that the amp was sounding pretty good. When Jeff says something like that, I know he’s worked some magic on my equipment. This time was no exception.

I got the amp back this past Saturday, and finally got to play it for the first time in a couple of months last night. I was in the process of re-recording guitar parts on a song I wrote a few years ago, and was actually using the VRX18. But I wasn’t getting a tone that I wanted, as I needed more “oomph.” The VRX18 is pretty bright, and it has some great distortion, but I needed a “bigger” sound.

So I plugged in the VRX22, and was absolutely shocked at how it sounded. The aggressiveness was still there in the second channel, but it was much more tame and smooth. But overall, the tone was incredibly FAT! OMG!!! Jeff did something that completely transformed the amp, and I practically had a religious experience. It sounded so much bigger than it had previously; almost scooped, but not in a high-gain metal way. Could it be that the power tubes were working optimally? Who knows? All I do know is that the VRX22 was totally inspiring me!

I kind of got lost just noodling around, but I finally got down to the business of re-recording the guitar parts. At first, I was using my Les Paul ’58 Reissue, but that was just too fat. So I went with my Strat. After evaluating my takes, while I dug the Strat rhythm part, I wasn’t fully buying into the lead tone. So I went back to my R8. Then I realized that I had originally recorded the R8 on a predefined Logic track that had a lot of compression and rolled off the high EQ. So I created a raw track with no compression and EQ (though I did add a bit of compression – like 2.7 to 1 during mixdown). That made all the difference in the world as the those high-freq artifacts that I love were back. I still had to record the R8 doing rhythm part using the bridge pickup, but it definitely had the “oomph” for which I was looking.

So, here’s the song:

I replaced the right channel rhythm and the lead part with the R8. The left rhythm part is my Strat in the neck pickup plugged straight into the VRX22. Note that I didn’t use any effects save a touch of compression and some reverb in the channel strip. So the guitar sounds you hear are just the guitar plugged into the amp; no EQ. The natural fatness is amazing! 🙂 Also, the amp was plugged into my Aracom PRX150-Pro attenuator, and recorded at loud conversation levels, so there’s no speaker breakup adding to the tone. It’s all the amp.

While Jeff Aragaki and Aracom are best known for the PRX150 attenuator line, more people are discovering just how gifted Jeff is with amps. The man’s a genius, and yet so very humble. I really am very lucky to have Jeff as a friend.

For more information on Aracom Amps, drop by Jeff’s web site.

Posted in aracom amps | Tagged , | 7 Comments »

What? Modeling? You bet! As long as it’s Roland COSM…

February 18, 2012 by GoofyDawg


At my solo “acoustic” gig that I play every Friday night, I haven’t been playing an acoustic guitar, instead using my beloved Gretsch Electromatic. It sounds awesome plugged into the house board but admittedly, it only sounds good when I’m playing finger-style. Last night it became very apparent that with songs that require strumming, my Gretsch just didn’t sound all that good. On the other hand, when I use the guitar with my own PA (a Fishman SA220 SoloAmp), strumming is not an issue because I also have great effects that I run the guitar through which make strumming not an issue.

But plugged directly into a board, even if I’m running effects such as reverb and chorus, the Electromatic sounds like an electric guitar plugged into a PA when strummed. Kind of lifeless. So this morning, I plugged my guitar into my trusty Roland Cube 60, switched over to the Acoustic channel, and smiled. It sounded close enough to an acoustic that strumming wouldn’t be an issue. The amp is set set up to run right into a board as it has a recording out which defeats the speaker. I’ve used it in the past precisely for this purpose.

What is an issue is the limited space I have. I could make it work, but it’s not optimal. Besides, all I’d be using the amp for would be as a pedal. Then it hit me. Roland is notorious for offering its on-board effects as pedals and vice-versa. So I did a search to see if Roland or BOSS made an acoustic simulator similar to what is on my Cube 60, and I found the BOSS AC-3, which uses the COSM technology that they put into the Cube line. For modeling/simulation, I’ve found that the COSM tech works really well with my equipment. Others’ mileage may certainly vary, but in my years of using my Cube 60, it has never failed to deliver – at least for playing clean, which is how I’ve used that amp for years.

Here’s a great video from Andy at Pro Guitar Shops that demonstrates the pedal’s capabilities:

The cool thing for me is that I won’t have to lug my Cube 60 to get an acoustic sound. Admittedly, it won’t sound _exactly_ like an acoustic, but it’ll get me close enough, and close enough is good enough.

Posted in Guitars | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

Gear Review: Aracom Amps VRX18 1 X 12 Tweed Combo

February 17, 2012 by GoofyDawg

Aracom Amps VRX18 Tweed ComboSummary: No… Surprisingly enough, I didn’t buy this one, as I already have the VRX18 head. But my good friend and bandmate just bought this, and I tested it out for him so he could listen while he was making his decision. Anyway, this is classic Marshall 18 Watt Plexi tone, but with Jeff Aragaki’s tweaks and modifications. It’s such a sweet-sounding amp, clean or dirty.

Pros: Handmade, and hand-wired on turret board. The VRX18 brings out the best of what I love about EL84-powered amps, and combined with the custom Weber speaker that’s in the cabinet to balance out the natural highs of the amp, this amp is capable of producing some of the most gorgeous clean tones I’ve heard, plus some incredible vintage overdrive.

Cons: None.

Features

– Channel 1: Volume and Tone Controls
– Channel 2: Volume and Tone Controls
– Master Volume Control (PPIMV)
– On/Off Switch
– Indicator Lamp
– (2) EL84 Power Tubes
– (2) 12AX7 & (1) 12AT7 Preamp Tubes
– Cathode Biased Power Tubes
– S.S. Rectifier with “sag” circuit
– Custom Heavy Duty Aluminum Chassis
– ARACOM Power Transformer: hand-wound and interleaved
– ARACOM Output Transformer: hand-wound, interleaved on a paper bobbin
– 4, 8, 16 ohm Speaker Jacks
– Detachable Power Cord (IEC320-C13 Socket)
– External Fuse Holder
– Custom Turret Board (G-10/FR4 Flame Resistant)
– Handwired and Handcrafted in the USA.

Price: $1095 for Combo (see Pricing Schedule for complete options)

Tone Bone Score: 5.0 ~ Yeah, I’m biased towards Aracom Amps as I am a faithful customer, but this amp is yet another example and an affirmation of why I love Aracom amps so much!

As most know who read this blog with any regularity, I’m a faithful Aracom Amps customer. I play three of them: VRX22 (6V6), VRX18 (EL84), and the PLX18 (EL84); plus I have the venerable PRX150-Pro Attenuator. Can’t believe I’ve been playing Aracom equipment for almost four years now, but I can’t think of any other amp to play, except for, perhaps, the DV Mark Little 40, which I still intend to get eventually.

In any case, my bandmates have known my passion for Aracom equipment, but have purchased other amps in lieu of the fact that I’ve been raving about Aracom for years, and in lieu of them commenting on how great the Aracom tone is. It always puzzled me, but hey! To each, their own.

A few of weeks ago, my right-hand and cohort in the band Dave started looking into getting a new amp, and to my pleasant surprise started taking a look at the Aracom site and listening to the clips. He was actually considering buying a Carr Viceroy, but held back until he took some time to evaluate amps. Now he’s glad he did.

In any case, he contacted Jeff and set up a meeting to go out to Jeff’s shop, and asked if I wanted to tag along. Never one to turn down an invitation to hang out with Jeff if I can help it, I accepted and a couple of days later, we made the short trek out to Jeff’s shop.

The wonderful thing about working with a builder like Jeff is that because he’s a small operation, he can be fairly agile in the combinations of equipment that he offers. So on that day, we took a couple of hours to play through different cabinet/speaker combinations to find a combo that “fit.” After playing through the tweed cabinet with a custom Weber 1 X 12, it was clear that that combination was the best for the style that Dave plays, which is mostly clean.

Jeff told Dave that he should take the amp with him and play around with it before he made the decision, so we loaded the amp in Dave’s car. On the way home, I mentioned to Dave that he will probably not want to return the amp and left it that while we talked about other stuff.

A few hours after I had returned home, Dave called me. He wasn’t returning the amp. 🙂 I knew that would happen. That amp was magical. Earlier, I shared with Dave on the way home that he’d know if he found the right amp if he lost track of time. He did. Now he is the proud owner of the best amp he’s ever played.

Fit and Finish

I love the classic tweed finish of this amp. Jeff personally built the enclosure and covered it with tweed. It’s really beautiful to look at. He also used 1/2-inch ply to construct the cabinet, which is something I look for in cabinets. With 1/2-inch ply, I believe the wood provides a lot more resonance as opposed to cabs built with thicker boards. Compared side-by-side with my Avatar 1 X 12, which uses thicker wood, the Aracom cab sounds so much more deep and lush (I’m not knocking my Avatar – that cab is perfect for more aggressive tones).

How It Sounds

Unfortunately, I don’t have any clips to demonstrate, but Dave’s VRX18 sounds absolutely KILLER! I’ve played three of Dave’s guitars through the amp, which include a custom Carvin acoustic/electric, a custom Rick Turner Renaissance, and a Gibson ES-335. All three guitars sound absolutely gorgeous through the amp which, with the custom Weber and dynamite cabinet produce a very lush and deep clean tone, while retaining great note separation and definition. Note separation and definition are especially important with an amp that produces such deep cleans because it could become extremely muddy. Not so with the Aracom VRX18 combo.

It’s important to note also that in addition to such great cleans, the amp really projects the sound well, with a very three-dimensional quality about it that makes it sound as if it has a reverb tank. Jeff attributes a lot of this quality to the sag simulation circuit that he built into the amp. It provides just a touch of sustain to add depth to the sound.

Playing right next to Dave is another guitarist (another Dave) who has a Carr Mercury. Maybe the “higher end” Carr models sound better, but the Mercury’s tone pales in comparison to the VRX18. Where the VRX18 sounds three-dimensional, the Carr sounds brittle and hollow. I don’t like the tone of that amp at all, and constantly have to help the other Dave dial in his EQ to make it sound even halfway decent. Also, the reverb on that amp is horrible, and I always have him turning it WAY down. Amazing that that amp costs more than twice as much as the VRX18. Anyway, I don’t want to make this a Carr amp smack-down. Suffice it to say that the Aracom VRX18 simply outperforms the Carr hands-down.

Overall Impression

Jeff Aragaki makes killer amps. He’s not building near the amount of amps at this point in time as he has in the past because his attenuator business is so good. But when he does get amp orders, he takes extra-special care that it’s right; and that’s exactly what he did with this particular amp. In fact, this particular model of the VRX18 is much more simple than his other models in that it doesn’t have the 1/2 power switch, nor does it have a tube rectifier. But it sounds incredible as it is. And as I mentioned above, this amp is yet another example of why I will remain a faithful Aracom customer!

For more information, go to the Aracom Amps web site!

Posted in GAS, gear, gear reviews, guitar, guitar gear, guitar gear reviews, Guitars, Music, musicians | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

On Choosing a Drive Pedal…

February 17, 2012 by GoofyDawg

Awhile back, I posted an article discussing Overdrive vs. Distortion, discussing what I believed were the fundamental differences between the two, but also pointing out that the end result – no matter the source – will be distortion. The only difference between the two being how the signal is clipped to create the distortion sound. Overdrive pedals normally produce a soft-clipping distortion, whereas distortion and fuzz pedals create a hard-clipping distortion. Here’s a great diagram I found that describes the differences between soft and hard clipping:

As you can see from the diagram of the waveform above, soft clipping clips the peaks somewhat, while hard clipping pretty much lops of the peaks leaving a narrow dynamic range. This article describes clipping quite well. So what does this have to do with drive pedals? Well, let’s take stock of the types of drive pedals available to you.

First up is the booster pedal. Basically this is simply a gain boost that will add gain to your signal. It’s either used as volume boost or, if you’ve set your amp at edge of overdrive, the booster will take it over the edge into overdrive. Note that a booster is most effective with a tube amp. This will produce a soft-clipping waveform, and the distortion will come entirely from your amp.

Next we have overdrive pedals. These pedals come in LOTS of different flavors, but typically combine a gain boost plus a soft-clipping circuit. Most designs out there are based upon the venerable TubeScreamer design, though there are several that use proprietary approaches, such as the Paul Cochrane Tim and Timmy pedals (the Timmy is the best OD I have every played). Here, the distortion can come from both pedal and amp.

Then we have distortion and fuzz pedals. I’m lumping them together because they’re both hard-clipping devices, though fuzz really gets into that square-wave distortion where the signal gain is really amplified then severely clipped, with really aggressive emphasis on harmonics and overtones. You can get some pretty far-out sounds with a fuzz. Also, just like with overdrive pedals, many distortion pedals also provide a gain boost knob, though to produce distortion, they don’t really need it. Once you turn a distortion pedal on, it produces distortion right away with no help from the amp.

So which do you choose? Well the only good answer I can come up with is this: It’s the one that sounds most pleasing to you and fits your application, and notice I’m not putting on my normal smiley-face to indicate a “jk.” To come to my own “comfort zone” with drive pedals, I probably played a couple of hundred of them – maybe more – to finally arrive at the four drive pedals that I have on my board. I have 5 or six drive pedals that are actually collecting dust; a couple of which are worth a pretty penny, and I’m not using them at all – craigslist here I come!

In any case, I have all three types of drive pedals on my board: Timmy Ovedrive, Tone Freak Abunai 2 Overdrive, EWS “LBD” Little Brute Drive (distortion), and a Creation Audio Labs Mk.4.23 booster. I’ll describe how I use each so you may perhaps glean some insight on making a choice.

For my overdrive pedals, the Timmy and Abunai 2, I use them like an additional gain stage before my amp to soft-clip my signal before going into my amp. Typically, I have the amp at the edge of breakup and the combination of the overdrive pedal and the amp overdrive sounds are quite nice. The Timmy is a fairly transparent overdrive, whereas the Abunai 2 provides just a bit of color and compression, and it also includes a switch to choose the wave symmetry. I look at OD pedals as little “amps-in-a-box.”

When I want crunch; I mean rock crunch at any volume, I use my EWS Little Brute Drive. I look at this as a classic distortion pedal. It has a single knob to adjust the internal gain and can produce some pretty wicked distortion sounds. I use this typically with a purely clean amp, and let the LBD provide all the distortion.

With my booster pedal, I use it a few different ways. When I just want my amp tone alone and just want my distortion to come entirely from my amp, I’ll use my booster to take it into overdrive. I find it most useful when I’m playing a Strat and want to do a quick lead. But I also use it with my overdrive pedals and LBD. With my overdrive pedals, I use it to stack on top of my overdrives so I’m really slamming the front end of my amp. With my vintage Marshall-style amps, this gets the pre-amps totally saturated, and in turn drives my power tubes into saturation and compression. It’s a cool effect.

Used with my EWS Little Brute Drive, since the amp is clean, I use it for lead breaks to boost my volume just a tad so I can play over the rest of the band (and no, I don’t stomp on them, but it’s easy to get lost in the mix when we’re all together 🙂 ).

Please don’t take my mention of the pedals above necessarily as endorsements. I love ’em all, which is why they’re never leaving my board. But I arrived at this combination of pedals literally after years of evaluation. These are the pedals that I found work the best with my guitars and “go-to” amps (which are vintage Marshall-style amps made by Aracom Amps). YMMV… For my Fender amps, such as my Hot Rod Deluxe, I typically only use my LDB, especially with my Hot Rod Deluxe, which doesn’t have a very nice overdrive sound to my ears – it’s much better clean.

Just as I mentioned in my previous article about making your decision on a tube amp with respect to your particular application, the same holds true with drive pedals. You have to think about what you want to achieve before buying one. But here’s an extra piece of advice with respect to drive pedals: Because drive pedals generally run under $200, it’s easy to get them; and that’s the problem. You want to be extra careful in your buying process because you will end up like me, having a couple of grand worth of drive pedals that end up collecting dust.

I know it sounds rather mundane, but in order to rock, you have to do your homework! ROCK ON!

Posted in Guitars | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments »

The Tube Amp Buying Decision: What Power Tubes?

February 15, 2012 by GoofyDawg

Because I’ve had a lot of experience with lots of different amps, invariably people ask me for advice  – especially on what power tubes to go with. They ask, “Should I get EL34? 6L6? 6V6? EL84, etc.” My answer to that question is: Yes. 🙂 On a more serious note, I do tell them that they have to play several amps to find out what appeals to their sense of tone the most. After all, it’s what is pleasing to your ear that matters.

I used to drink the cool-aid and say something like this: “If you want real chimey clean tones, then you’ll get that with 6L6’s,” or some other rubbish like that. That’s all a bunch of crap because I’ve got EL84-based amps that have that kind of chimey clean tone as well. It’s all about how the builder voiced the EQ circuitry AND what guitar you play through the amp!

What I do see a difference between the different tubes is in how they distort once overdriven. This is NOT hard and fast, but in general, I’ve found that the ELx varieties tend to compress their signal a bit more when saturated as compared to their 6×6 brethren. The 6L6 and 6V6 amps that I’ve played usually have a more open and dynamic overdrive tone. But again, that is also affected by how the amp is wired. For instance, designs based upon Fender amps have fairly open distortion, while the Marshall-style amps have a more compressed, in-your-face distortion. And I’ll say it again: There are NO hard and fast rules here. So how do you decide?

Well, while power tubes do affect the tone, you shouldn’t make an amp decision based upon just that; though I shared a very general rule of thumb, wiring topology can strike that generalization down fairly quickly. What you probably should consider is the power rating and your application of the amp. EL84 and 6V6 tubes are generally used in lower wattage amps, anywhere from 5 Watts to 45 Watts. Generally, you’ll see numbers such as 5, 6, 10, 15, 22, 30, 36, and 40. For the top three, four tubes are usually used to achieve those wattage ratings.

On the other hand, 6L6 and EL34 power tubes are used for high-wattage applications from 40 Watts up to 200 Watts (40, 45, 50, 60, 75, 100, 150, 200), again with the top three employing four power tubes to achieve that wattage rating.

The rule-of-thumb with respect to wattage is that the higher the wattage, the more clean headroom you will have; that is, the amp will be totally clean at increasing volume levels (in decibels) before the amp goes into overdrive. For instance, taking a 5 Watt amp to the edge of breakup will be at a much lower volume level than a 100 Watt amp taken to the edge of breakup.

Another thing that I’ve found is that with high wattage amps, when they break up, their tone seems to be so much more “beefy” than their low-wattage brethren. When doing A/B tests at equivalent volumes with let’s say a 6L6-based amp versus a 6V6 amp, there is so much more sonic content through the EQ range with the higher-wattage amp versus the low wattage amp. For instance, my 22 Watt 6V6-based Aracom VRX22 sounds “bigger” than my 6 watt Fender Champ when played through the same speaker at the same volume. Conversely, that same 22 Watt amp sounds “smaller” at the same volume level than my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe at the same volume level. A lot of this has to do with the higher wattage amp producing more bottom-end by nature. This is especially evident when pushing the amps into power tube saturation.

Some may have caught the phrase, “equivalent volumes” in the previous paragraphs, and wondered how I could get equivalent volumes with a low-wattage and high-wattage amp breaking up. The only way you can get that is by using a power attenuator, of which there are many on the market, though I use the Aracom PRX150-Pro.

Finally, what advice do I have? It’s actually fairly simple:

  1. First, evaluate the average usage (i.e., the application). Will you need lots of clean headroom? Do you play large venues? Then a higher-wattage amp might make sense. On the other hand, if you play mostly small venues, in the studio, or in your room, a lower-wattage amp may make more sense. BUT, if you have a great attenuator like the PRX150-Pro (or DAG), my personal preference would be to go to the higher-wattage amp. While I love the tones that I get with my low-wattage amps, with the PRX, I don’t have the volume considerations to take in to account any longer that had me go with low wattage amps in the first place.
  2. Once you’ve determined your power needs, then you have to test amps – lots of ’em –  there’s no way around it.

Then once you’ve done the evaluation, you might throw that all out the window and go for what sounds good to you, regardless of your power needs. 🙂

Hey! No one said it was easy…

Posted in Guitars | Tagged | 6 Comments »

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

February 14, 2012 by GoofyDawg

Not really much of an article today, just something I recorded last night to commemorate the day… My Valentine by Paul McCartney

The guitar used was my trusty Yamaha APX900.

Posted in Guitars | 2 Comments »

Monday Meanderings…

February 6, 2012 by GoofyDawg

On Master Volumes, Variable Power, etc…

A friend of mine recently got a great tube amp, and one of the options he wanted to have added to the amp was a half-power switch. I spoke to him about it and said it really wasn’t necessary since he almost exclusively plays clean, so his main concern was to have maximum clean headroom. The only thing that half-power switch would do for him would be to help get his amp into breakup earlier as the lower power will saturate the tubes at a lower power point. I also mentioned that the half-power switch would only provide a 3dB drop in volume, which wasn’t significant. Then Jeff Aragaki followed up with something I thought I’d share: In order to get half-volume, you’d have to drop 10dB. That’s something a lot of people don’t realize when considering variable power.

If it sounds good, then it’s right…

I heard this a few months ago I believe from Keith Urban’s guitar tech, and I was reminded of it a couple of  weeks ago during a gig, and when I made the final demo recording for my song, “You Raise Me Up” where I used my EWS Little Brute Drive distortion pedal to get my crunch sound. For years, I had eschewed the use of distortion pedals and relied on my amp for distortion. But pedal sounds so damn good that I’m now using it all the time. It’s a perfect example of “If it sounds good, then it’s right.” It’s a great and humbling lesson that it doesn’t matter the make, model, or price of a piece of gear. If you feel it helps your sound, then it’s the right piece of gear.

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