billyguitar
07-04-2005, 11:41 AM
I have two Tom A Drop Top Ts. One is hollow and one is solid. They both have a humbucker at the neck and a single coil at the bridge. The solid has their own design single coil and the hollow has a Tele type. The Tom design sounds better, twangier. My new favorite amp is a new Dr. Z Maz 38 sr with one 12" Celestion and reverb. This amp only has one channel but cascaded tube lead channels don't impress me anyway. A good overdrive pedal like a Reverend Drivetrain can sound just as good or sometimes better than a lead channel on an amp so why not go that route for easy different sounding overdrives/distortions?
A preamp pushing the output section into overdrive is the most natural. This amp is what you want in an EL-84 amp. High treble like an AC/30, solid mids and strong bass like a blackface Fender. Being cathode bias it has a nice bloom to chords and single notes, a soft compression if you will. Also depending on how you set the treble, bass, mid and cut controls it can sound very much like a Bluesbreaker/JTM 45. Anywhere from about 9:00 this amp will give a very sweet overdrive, but back off on the volume control and it'll clean up enough for jazz. I usually play jump blues and jazz standards and this amp should work out great. I haven't gigged it yet but I have three gigs coming up quick and I expect to be very happy with this amp.
Anderson guitars with Anderson pickups have a very wide bandwidth even sound that best accentuated with an amp that has a very sweet treble that's best achieved with an amp with wide bandwidth, like a Dr.Z. This amp really compliments the guitar. If someone is considering an EL-84 amp such as a Bad Cat or Matchless, or even a Bogner Metropolis, they should try a Maz 38 or Maz 18. These amps sound great, probably just as good, and they are much less expensive. They are more money than the new AC/30 CCs but made much better and will probably last forever.
If you can spend more than $1,500 on an amp we are truly in a golden age of amps. All old amps were built as compromises for pricing but they were fortunate to have good parts to work with. Today even cheap amps can sound good and if you allow for their price and other limitations you can get good sounds. But for a great guitar like we all have a great amp should be used. Afterall, you wouldn't plug a $ 3,000 CD player into a boombox would you? I'd like to hear what others think about EL-84 amps. They're not for every style but they are definitely the sweetest/prettiest sounding.
A preamp pushing the output section into overdrive is the most natural. This amp is what you want in an EL-84 amp. High treble like an AC/30, solid mids and strong bass like a blackface Fender. Being cathode bias it has a nice bloom to chords and single notes, a soft compression if you will. Also depending on how you set the treble, bass, mid and cut controls it can sound very much like a Bluesbreaker/JTM 45. Anywhere from about 9:00 this amp will give a very sweet overdrive, but back off on the volume control and it'll clean up enough for jazz. I usually play jump blues and jazz standards and this amp should work out great. I haven't gigged it yet but I have three gigs coming up quick and I expect to be very happy with this amp.
Anderson guitars with Anderson pickups have a very wide bandwidth even sound that best accentuated with an amp that has a very sweet treble that's best achieved with an amp with wide bandwidth, like a Dr.Z. This amp really compliments the guitar. If someone is considering an EL-84 amp such as a Bad Cat or Matchless, or even a Bogner Metropolis, they should try a Maz 38 or Maz 18. These amps sound great, probably just as good, and they are much less expensive. They are more money than the new AC/30 CCs but made much better and will probably last forever.
If you can spend more than $1,500 on an amp we are truly in a golden age of amps. All old amps were built as compromises for pricing but they were fortunate to have good parts to work with. Today even cheap amps can sound good and if you allow for their price and other limitations you can get good sounds. But for a great guitar like we all have a great amp should be used. Afterall, you wouldn't plug a $ 3,000 CD player into a boombox would you? I'd like to hear what others think about EL-84 amps. They're not for every style but they are definitely the sweetest/prettiest sounding.