Who's playing their Andy through a Custom Built Amp?

[taylor714bce]

Well...this weekend was a great weekend to say the least. While trying out amps, my wife fell in love with an "Andy" and surprised me with my first Tom Anderson; a Burnished Orange Burst Hollow-T Classic Drop Top. :eek: Because of the finish I've already name it "The General" after the old Confederate flag/General Lee Duke's car. Holy cow, what an amazing guitar! I've been playing a Fender American Deluxe for about 4 years and had no clue what I was missing. The tone is sweeter, more focused, and more refined...without losing that "Tele" spank. This guitar with its SF pickup can rage on the blues, jazz, rock, and my favorite...country. :D

To the point of this forum, I am playing my guitar through a recently finished "Homebrew" Fender-esque 1x12 point-to-point hand wired Tweed Pro amp with a Tone Tubby HE1 speaker. I call it Vanessa (yeah, I like to name my guitars and amps) The amp is SO much better than the off-the-shelf stuff and just nails the sounds I love. It has the same grind as a 5e3 Tweed Deluxe, but with more headroom. I get great cleans, but crank her up (or push the button on the Boss BD-2) and she growls so purty! I've been using a PRS Custom 22 with her, but after the hearing the Andy, I'm a new man! I just keep thinking to myself, "That's it! That's my sound!"

So who else out there is running their TA through a custom amp? I'm just curious to hear your story.

[dannopelli]

Well, I use a few different amps by the good Dr Z, but to a different point...

New members are REQUIRED to post pics of your geetars under the new member section! If you do not you will never discover the secret hand shake. ;)

We're waiting!

Welcome to the forum! You'll like it here. :) :)

[tom]

i have an assortment of customish amps. divided by 13, fulton webb, egnater,bogner, samamp, dave schecter bassman, carr. all fun and different flavors.

[Babow2]

To your question, I play my TAG Hollow T with 3 P-90's and my Classic through a slightly custom/modded amp. It started life as a 1983 Fender Concert II, which is the Rivera era P2P two channel amp. However, Keith at the Amp Lab in Redwood City put his mojo into it. He "blackfaced" the clean channel. But that was the beginning. He added two push pull pots and about 4 switches in the back, all designed to create Marshall, Mesa and Soldano madness. This crazy amp kills.

[pipedwho]

I seem to be on the endless tone quest of late. My main 'reference' amp is a Mesa DC-2, but I have built a couple of 5-watters with EL-84s and 6V6s and am in the (slow going) process of fiddling resistor/capacitor values and slight topology adjustments to find the sound I'm after.

The main problem is the iterative process of working through amp/speaker combinations to get 'that' sound. It also helps if the amp is still versatile enough to work with other guitars besides the ones that I'm tuning it for.

Now I know why the 'boutique' amps are so sought after - the amount of effort and skill that goes in to get the sound just right is huge.

[samarshll]

I play through a Carr Rambler and a Sampson era Bad Cat Hot Cat 15.

It's hard to get a bad sound out of these.

Steve

[MapleGuitar]

I play through a Carr Rambler or Mercury, depending on the gig. In addition to good tone, I like the Carr combos because they are easy on the back and joints (i.e., lightweight). Also have boutique amps by Savage and Dr Z.

[theatomicjeff]

My latest joy is the Fargen Mighty Plex MK2.

[ConnemaraGuitar]

Hi, folks. Again, I've been bit by yet another bug...

On the forum I saw that some folks like the Bogner cube. So I bought a Celestion speaker on eBay. The idea is to build my own cabinet (among other things, I am a cabinet maker). It would be fun to get my hands on a Bogner cube to measure the sound ports but that would be too easy.

Then, I saw the reference to a home-built tube amp, and since things were slow at work at the hospital last weekend, I started researching amp kits. I turned up one that's a Tweed Deluxe Chassis Kit 5e3 with Mercury Magnetics transformers.

The combination will wind up costing about $550.00 (speaker at $80 and the amp at $400...I'll use good wood for the cabinets.

So...

In the opinion of the good folks on this forum, would this be a good combination for a mellow, "jazzy" sound? Or should I head in another direction with the amp?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

[hippdogs]

I love the spirit of your search. Here's a possibility for a cabinet design. John Suhr has just released a 1x12, closed back, ported, cube with a vintage 30 for $535. But you can get it unloaded for $325. The sound is spectacular, and the cabinet is fairly lightweight so it can be carried easily. Suhr claims nearly a year in R&D on this cabinet. It sounds perfect with my Andy Crowdster. Good luck.

[ConnemaraGuitar]

Thank you for your encouragement, Mr. Hippdogs!

My Tweed Deluxe amp is finished and sounds great. I had originally planned on building a separate head case for the amp and a closed/ported cabinet for the speaker. Looks like a better approach will be an integrated unit with the amp on top of the sealed speaker cabinet, as in the Suhr configuration. Thank you for the lead!

I'm on vacation for the next ten days and when I get home I'm gonna build the case using solid padouk for the back and sides and hardwood veneer plywood for the speaker mount. The cabinet ends & sides will be dovetailed at the corners. I'll post photos of the completed unit.

Incidentally, I'm on the island of Nantucket, where they don't have any guitar shops. Seems like a good buisness opportunity for an upscale guitar dealer.

Oh, and while I'm here, I will be on a hunt for synthetic bull seal tusks to use for nuts and bridges. Remember the BSTS?

[dannopelli]

.

Oh, and while I'm here, I will be on a hunt for synthetic bull seal tusks to use for nuts and bridges. Remember the BSTS?

LOL!!!

BTW, I think the Synthetic Bull Seals go into hibernation pretty soon. You might want to forgo the Whale Watching cruise and go up to Provincetown for a Synthetic Bull Seal cruise!

[Suriel Zayas]

LOL!!!

Provincetown

danno, i'd personally keep away from provincetown.:D :D :D

[dannopelli]

danno, i'd personally keep away from provincetown.:D :D :D

I know what you mean!

Well, it's OK as long as you leave before sundown. I learned that after one of my many trips to the Cape. We stayed there for dinner. Not a good idea.

One of the prettiest yet weirdest places I have been! A tourist town in the daytime, not so much at night!

[mdrs]

I play my Koa HDT and my Atom CT thru a custom shop Fuchs ODS 30 custom shop 2x12 combo. I asked Andy and Jack if they could make one, and they did;

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m114/mdrs1/FuchsODS30flamemaple2x12.jpg

Great tone, super smooth sustain. And, the Fuchs ODS amps seem to love every guitar I've plugged into them.

[Thoth105]

I just picked up a Metropolis to go with my XTC101B, Mk IIC, and Bad Cat Hot Cat. I was looking at a /13, but I couldn't justify that kind of $. (And it wasn't an RSA23, which might have made the difference).

The Metropolis is a great AC30 type amp with a little more hair if you need it (but not the EF86 kind of hair, a flavor I'm still missing.) Great great creamy OD and clean chime. Seems to love my Hollow Cobra S the best, but likes all of my guitars quite well (certainly better than the XTC which likes a lot of drive, IMO).

Not really custom, but put against my friend's custom EL84 30watter, it wasn't lacking anything, and seemed more flexible. Not especially loud though. I can actually crank it completely in my "iso booth" (a closet) and it doesn't move the mortar from the bricks in my house like all of my other amps do (you'd be surprised how loud that Bad Cat is. And the 101B is like standing behind a jet engine).

And the price! They're pretty cheap on the used market.

[ConnemaraGuitar]

Greetings from Nantucket!

Yesterday at breakfast my wife and I sat next to two gentlemen from Miami who were on a breakneck tour of the East coast. Their next stop was P'Town, and boy, were they excited. I wonder why?

My bride keeps saying she wants to go there, but for some reason I'm wary. Maybe it's because our car is a little long in the tooth and I'm afraid it will break down right before sundown.

It finally stopped raining and the weather is beautiful this afternoon. Very windy, however, as evidenced by some very green people getting off the ferry from the mainland.

Back to bull seals...

Nantucket has a new problem, in addition to being over-run by deer and Lyme's disease-bearing ticks. Last summer some charter boat captains thought it would be fun to show their customers the seals that hang out around the island and lured the seals up close by feeding them left over bluefish. The seals, being rather clever, figured out that where fishing poles were present, so would free food.

So now, if you go surf fishing on the island, you will see three or four seals hanging out just offshore. Get a fish on your line, and you'll be lucky to reel in a fish head. Last summer one seal actually chased a fisherman up onto the beach trying to get the just-caught fish. One island resident was quoted as saying "That's just WRONG!"

Meanwhile, in the late afternoon when I sit in the back yard practicing on my guitar, a huge buck shows up and starts snorting and grunting at me. Clearly my playing needs work.

Be well, all!