Jinder

I use D'Addario EXPs on 99% of my guitars, they're fabulous strings in my opinion... they last for ages and sound superb throughout the wear cycle. For brighter guitars that need to be mellowed down a little I use Martin Lifespans as they sound darker and warmer to my ears. In general I use 12s but my Maple AJ responds well to 13s, so I usually use the heavier option. It's set up in a really sweet spot which allows me to use either gauge without buzzing or excessive action. For my Hummingbird 12 string I use Martin Lifespan 10s tuned down half a step, which sound huge and lush. Absolutely love those strings on that guitar!

I reckon that we're seeing this sea change of string reworkings as a knock-on effect from Martin changing their line. I was never a fan of the previous Gibson line of strings so will try these with interest!

I reckon that we're seeing this sea change of string reworkings as a knock-on effect from Martin changing their line. I was never a fan of the previous Gibson line of strings so will try these with interest!

I've always loved and gravitated towards Gibson's maple guitars. I've played SJ200s and Doves for many years. Somewhere between those two is the Maple AJ which I absolutely adore. Mine has such remarkable articulation and responsiveness it's almost amusing. I love playing it and, if I had to live with one guitar for the rest of my days, I could settle happily for the Maple Advanced Jumbo.

Hi all, Sorry for the delay in updating this...the H&K is fantastic! By far the best acoustic amp I've ever used and head and shoulders above all the others I've tried in the last few weeks. After all my travails, the H&K was the last roll of the dice in the amp arena-I figured if it didn't work out, I'd give up the amp quest and buy a new pair of QSC 10.2s. However, I'm SO glad I stuck it out and rolled the dice on the H&K...it's an absolute beast. For an amp rated at 400w RMS/600w Peak, my initial impression of the H&K was that it isn't as loud as I expected when sitting next to it, but in reality (and in live situations) it has absolutely startling projection and dispersion. I've never had to turn the master past 1pm, and have spent the past weekend playing to rooms of 80-120 people. It's a very smooth amp which employs a type of subtle limiting compression which is more musical (to my ears) than the more squishy manner in which AER amps compress their output. It has superb dynamic range and headroom, and takes percussive playing and looping in its stride. For example, I regularly play a cover of 'The Weight', and for the solo section I loop up rhythm guitar, a percussive part and a pitch-shifted bass part, then solo over it with overdrive, delay and compression. The H&K handles this stuff with aplomb and sounds huge-it's designed to be capable of doubling as an upright bass combo, so it has a TON of bottom end on tap when required. Vocally it excels too-The Shape and EQ Shift switching along with the very musically voiced three band EQ offer enough shaping to accommodate for any difficult room acoustics and make both vocals and guitar sound distinct, crisp and yet warm and full at the same time. The main issue I had with my AER Compact XL was the vocal tone, the Domino was very good but the XL suffered from a thin, nasal vocal quality that had that "telephone" tone, especially when the amp was raised off the ground. The H&K is huge and lush sounding in comparison. I'd say the H&K is as close as I've heard to a high quality powered speaker with a very high quality and versatile mixer system onboard. Very similar tonally to the Schertler Roy, warm and lush but crisp and defined with great clarity and colour. At just over half the price of the Domino, I think the H&K represents superb VFM. It has a pole mount too (something I wasn't looking forward to DIYing into the Roy), and I may consider getting a second Era 2 to run as a pair of powered speakers for when I need to fill a very big space. Obviously reliability wise it's too early to call, but it feels solid as a rock and seems to be road tough. I'll certainly be putting it through its paces over the coming months so will report back, but in summary, at this stage it's an absolute winner.

I really enjoyed the little LG2 American Eagle I owned. Great small bodied guitar. I have a '94 Centenary L-00 Blues King which is very good but I haven't played it long enough to really bond with it, as I bought my Martin D18GE at the same time in a big trade deal and haven't been able to put the Martin down for long enough!

Funny to look back on this post from whilst I was still waiting to collect my Maple AJ. I absolutely love that guitar, just so, so good.

Largely a standard early '70s J200 with a few quirks. As always with Gibson, in the early '70s specs were all over the place. If it was a second, it would be stamped with a "2". The S likely denotes a special order, hence the French heel and unusual marquetry. I've seen the multi-piece backs on this era of J200 previously, such as this one: https://reverb.com/price-guide/guide/1223-gibson-j-200-1969-cherry-sunburst . The joint alignment you mentioned is the binding join at the heel that is slightly out, the centre seam of the back and the heel seem to line up well. I think it's a beauty. Grant Nicholas (former Feeder frontman and solo artist) has an almost identical one which he bought in a pawn shop on a US tour back in the '90s. I sat in on a jam with him a few years ago and it sounded absolutely gorgeous. Just warm and balanced and perfect. He said that every hit song he'd ever written had been penned with that J200 in his lap. If you like this one, go for it.

Well, to paraphrase what I said in the J200 amp thread, my Hughes & Kettner Era 2 arrived today! First impressions are very good. Great tone and a very musical EQ section, lovely FX, not devastatingly loud for a 400w amp but more than enough for most applications and projects mightily well. Easily the best acoustic amp for vocals I've used, and will handle my input gain levels even when I engage full lion's roar mode! Can't wait to try it at this weekend's gigs. It feels very well made, is solid (but SO much lighter than the Roy!) and comes with tilt stand and an excellent padded slip case. I really hope this is the one, especially as I narrowly cheated death this morning when returning the Roy! The box Thomann packaged it in was absolutely vast, and the bang shoot was so damn heavy that all 6'7" and 18st of me struggled to carry the box. I missed my footing on the post office steps and staggered off backwards, largely out of control, and just missed being hit by a moving car...not my most elegant moment 🤣

Unfortunately here in the UK (certainly in my area!) Music shops with a range of gear are vanishingly rare, to the point of being almost non-existent. I'd have loved to do as you suggested, but nowhere has the kit I'm after.

If you're just using it for acoustic guitar, the world is your oyster. There are a ton of great acoustic amps out there...I've owned most of them for brief periods on my quest to find an acoustic amp which works as well for vocals as it does for guitar. What I've used, and what I think of them: AER Compact 60 - An industry standard amp, very good guitar tone, light and compact. Can get a touch compressed and mushy at gig volumes if you want to use it for vocals too, but just for guitar it's hard to beat in terms of tone Vs convenience. AER Compact XL - The same, but more power and a different speaker configuration. Compresses later on the volume knob than the 60 as it has 200w under the hood. Not quite as sweet sounding as the 60, with more of a honk in the midrange, particularly for vocals. A bit bass light when elevated. AER Domino - More power (bi-amped at 2x100w), more spread, better sounding than the XL but still not quite as sweet as the 60. Great versatility with four channels, but still relatively bass-light. Percussive playing and looping sounded rather clattery, but superb clarity for vocals. A very sibilant amp for vocals though, so mic choice is critical. Schertler Roy - Bigger and VERY heavy. Superb tone for guitar and vocals, but I couldn't get the gain structure to do what I needed it to (all my mics overloaded the front end at gig volumes), so it went back. Realistically, I think over time the sheer heft of the beast would have worn me down a bit. DV Mark 101H - I didn't like this amp at all. Muddy, indistinct tone, not very inspiring at all. Didn't really cut it for guitar or vocals, for me. Two of them let me down embarrassingly at gigs before I gave up on the DV Mark brand. Fishman Loudbox Performer - This was fine sonically for both guitar and vocals, but compressed somewhat unpleasantly when really pushed. I was happy with it at moderate volumes, but in the end I had three of them let me down due to blown op-amps, and gave up on them. A good concept amp, but needed AER style attention to detail in the build to save them from reliability issues. Hughes & Kettner Era 2 - I'm a bit green with this one as it only arrived today! First impressions are very good, though. Great tone and a very musical EQ section, lovely FX, not devastatingly loud for a 400w amp but more than enough for most applications and projects mightily well. Easily the best acoustic amp for vocals I've used, and will handle my input gain levels even when I engage full lion's roar mode! Can't wait to try it at this weekend's gigs. It feels very well made, is solid (but SO much lighter than the Roy!) and comes with tilt stand and an excellent padded slip case. In summary, all the above (bar possibly the DV Mark) will work very well for just a guitar. For a true guitar and vocal amp, you may find yourself having to be more picky.

Thankyou! It's powerful, built in Germany and has a pad switch on both channels...it comes across as some sort of middle ground between an AER and a Schertler. I'm excited to try it, and have a good feeling about this one. My favourite setup is my SJ200 with a Sunrise, into my Boss AD10...that's my "A-Team", and I just need something equally brilliant and inspiring at the end of the chain. Hopefully the H&K will be the ticket, after all these travails!

Thanks BK! Alas the Roy doesn't have a gain control hidden anywhere other than the one on the mixer which doesn't turn down far enough. I'm returning the Roy as neither myself, Thomann or Schertler know what's wrong with it, and I'm not prepared to ship it back and forth to Germany for repair. Too much time and expense when I should be able to plug and play when spending this much money! I've gone for one more amp-shaped roll of the dice...the Hughes & Kettner Era 2. 400w RMS/600w Peak, similar layout to the Roy but three less channels and quite a lot lighter. Comes with a tilt stand and gig bag and is apparently very dynamic and great for vocals too. Should be here tomorrow. If the H&K isn't the ticket, I'll give up on the amp idea and buy another pair of powered speakers, although the prospect doesn't appeal anywhere near as much as an amp based solution.

Thankyou...I certainly hope so. I just want something that works properly and sounds good. I liked the Domino but when something doesn't work properly out of the box, I tend to worry that after a a year or two of gigging even a perfect example would cause trouble. The Domino is also astonishingly expensive, I bought the last one in the UK under £2000 (£1899 from GAK), but after I returned it I noticed they are now all around £2250, which seems a stratospherically high price for an amp.

Thanks all. I've checked everything with connections and setup, I'm using XLR cables with my mics, all is the same as I've been using with my previous rig for several years. I'm utterly perplexed that the gain stage is so hot-even with my passive Sunrise pickups I'm not having to turn the gain up very much at all before the clip light comes on. It seems odd that there is so little headroom. Either the minimum input gain level is too high or the OL light is coming on too early and giving a false reading. Either way, something isn't right. I've emailed Schertler so will await their reply, if there is nothing that can be done I'll have to send the amp back. Unfortunately because Schertler have no distribution in the UK I've had to order it from Germany, so returning it is likely to be an expensive and inconvenient process. Between the Mesa Rosette that couldn't handle vocals without the power amp section freaking out, the AER Domino that had a faulty pad switch on channel 3, the AER Compact XL that had such overpowering upper mid presence on the vocal channel (and no midrange control!) that it was barely useable and the Roy that can't handle a balanced mic signal, I'm starting to think my quest for a decent amplifier is going to be fruitless.

I had a 1990 Hummingbird that was finished with Fullerplast, had the paddle neck joint etc. Fabulous instrument, I wish I still had it. Unless you're planning a major repair sometime soon, If you already own the guitar I wouldn't worry about the finish.

Well the Roy wasn't the solution. Bizarrely, even with the gain fully turned down, singing at something approaching gig volume into a vocal mic causes the Overload light to come on and clipping to be induced. I've tried three mics, my live go-to Sennheiser E865, my backup AKG D7 and a Rode NT1A I had in the studio and all three suffered from the same issue on every channel. I wasn't put off by the fact it weighs roughly the same as the average family car, but was somewhat perplexed that whilst the cabinet was hewn from mighty Baltic ply, the grille fabric appeared to be made from the most fragile of sheer tights. My first thought was "I mustn't let the cat get anywhere near this!". It sounded great for guitar, though. Hugely disappointed that it won't do the job and totally dispirited in my search for an amp that might fit the bill. Back to awkward powered speakers on stands and fussy mixers I guess.

Is this guy asking or answering the question?!

Thanks, all! I went for the Roy because I figured that a little sacrifice in terms of weight is worth it in terms of tone. The AERs were small and convenient, but I felt like I was short changing the audience a little because I wanted a more convenient system to transport. As the audiences ultimately pay the bills and put food on the table, I figured that I should redress the balance a bit and go for something a little more geared towards tone and less towards convenience. If a little more weightlifting is required to give the audience maximum pleasure, then so be it! I still wanted a "PA in a box" solution, and the Roy definitely seems to tick all the boxes. The mixer section looks brilliantly specced, and as an audiophile and fussy listener, I appreciate the B&O connection. It should be here by Monday, so looking forward to trying it out prior to next week's shows and taking it out live!

My Back Pages! And I love the Dove. The best modern era Dove I've ever played was in Rudy's in Manhattan in 2006, a '60s Reissue with a Tune-O-Matic. Defied all logic, but that thing was just glorious sounding, with a bottom end like a grand piano and a treble end like fine golden bells.

I'm not a fan of the array/pole things from a visual standpoint, personally. They certainly sound great but are a little too visually "present" onstage for my taste. A former bandmate of mine tours with an EV Evolve pole array setup, which sounds GREAT but is white and 2m tall...it looks like he's sharing the stage with a robot as special guest! Amps just look and feel a little more organic for me. They are also very unimposing so don't goose an audience's expectations in the same way as seeing two cabs on stands...I find in that situation people often "see" the volume before a note is played. I spent the weekend gigging with the AER Compact XL and whilst it's very good, it's not quite right for me. It's VERY sensitive to the room and its location within it, and can sound wildly different from gig to gig. The lack of a mid control on the mic channel really limits the opportunity to dial the amp in according to the acoustics of its surroundings, So...the AER is going back, and I've decided to try the top of the line Schertler amp, the Roy. A lot of people have been raving about the Schertler gear, so I figured that would be the next in line to try. The demos online sound fantastic, so I'm looking forward to trying it.

Thanks for giving the song a listen! Oddly enough I wrote it the day after seeing RA play in Bournemouth back in 2017, in my head I wanted to write something that sounded like Tracy Chapman had written it for RA to cover (if that makes sense!), not that I would consider myself anything close to an equal of either of course. Amp wise, I play a lot of smaller shows and house concerts for which my Alto TS112 powered speakers are overkill at 800w a piece. They're also heavy and cumbersome, so for the smaller shows I find an amp is a good solution. I used Fishman Loudbox Performers for a couple of years but had issues with failing op-amps in them and managed to kill three before giving up on them and going back to my Altos. The thought of a light, powerful and compact amp has always appealed though, something a bit further up the ladder quality and durability wise than the Loudbox, that would be road tough and dependable. It's been a journey of trial and error but I think the AER Compact XL is the one. I've done two gigs with it now and it's a very good sounding unit. It's GREAT to sing through, with my Sennheiser condenser and the subtle and very musical compression that the amp has it's vocal heaven for me. Warm but with exceptional clarity, present but never harsh. The Domino I had before was more sibilant and less refined at the top end, probably due to the twin cone speakers of the Domino being fundamentally different to the driver/tweeter configuration of the XL. The XL works very well for guitar too, and has a surprising amount of headroom for looping and similar. It really puts out a great deal of high quality sound for such a small box. Projection and dispersion is remarkable too. It's early days but I like it a lot so far. Certainly more so than the Rosette and the Domino, although the latter was very good too.

Yes I do still play my '41 Reissue SJ100 and love it...I've owned two, the first I sold out of necessity back in 2017 when I had to pay for a car repair, and I was glad to replace it last year with my current one. Both were excellent but the current one is the better of the two by a hair. Very warm and silky but with a punchy dynamic range. I find mine to be very sensitive to pick attack, it can go from chordal wash to biting snarl with a subtle change of right hand technique. GREAT guitar!

This is my latest purchase...I've been round the houses somewhat seeking out the right amp, initially I bought a Mesa Rosette 300 1:10 which sounded great but couldn't handle my vocals at any meaningful volume, returned that for an AER Domino which sounded good but had a faulty channel, so that went back and now I have the Compact XL. 200W, more headroom than the Domino and sounds warmer too. It has a tweeter rather than dual cones so has a more defined and less sibilant top end and has more bass warmth than the Domino. First gig with it was last night, and I'm very impressed. Five more to go this weekend, so will know it inside out by Monday!

Hey Cunk!! Long time no speak, great to see you back here. Glad you've got a replacement on the way, I'm sure you'll love it even better than the first!