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jrsdws

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Your choice is simple--Buy any tube amp that is made in the US or Great Britain ONLY!--Stay away from Asian amps & Mexican amps (like the Fender deluxe & DeVille series) They are junk' date=' & the printed circuit board amps sound very glassy. Bottom line? buy a point to point wired tube amp thats at least 20 years old. Also,and THIS IS IMPORTANT: The MORE bells & whistles & features an amp has,the more it's just a TOY. The more professional the amp,the LESS it has in the way of bells & whistles & effects. Real pro amps like Matchless or Top Hat only have volume,treble,bass,middle, & ONE channel. Yes, you can hook up external speakers to any amp,as lond as the IMPEDANCE matches,even though you may have to do a little creative wiring if the amp doesn't have an external jack.[/quote']

 

 

 

[biggrin]

[angry]

 

W T F ? ? ? man... that's a lot to chew and even more to swalow.

 

 

 

Just sayin' :-$

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He also preferred the VOX sound over the Marshall Haze in the video reviews. Not surprising as he seems to lean toward the grittier British sound.

 

 

I thought both (Marshall and VOX) are "british" and represent that "british sound" compared to the sound from Fender?

 

I wanted to throw Hughes & Kettner in the discussion, but even the "Statesman" is out of the price range...

 

Good Luck...

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I believe the Jet City IS point to point, it has a volume, treble, middle, bass, gain and presence controls (I am 95% sure, don't quote me on that though) and, for the money, sounds fantastic!

 

You can truly go from a nice clean, you can almost get a vox like sound if you play with the knobs, you can get a nice crunch, and then crank it for a high gain stroke of madness. I am saving up to get one, then get an A/B switch to hook it up with my amp, since the Jet City is only one channel, keep that as my distortion amp, and the Sunn for my clean.

 

They are getting really good reviews and sound great

 

Let us know which one you and your son pick [biggrin]

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The GA40RVT is point to point, I wonder why we don't hear much about Gibson amps?

 

30W/15W Class A

2 - 6L6 Power Tubes

5 - 12AX7 PreAmp Tubes

Solid State Rectifier

Hand Built/Point to Point

Inputs - 1, 2 and Mix

Tube Driven Reverb

Tube Driven Tremolo

Pentode/Triode Switch

1 - 12" Eminence Legend Speaker, Asymmetrically Placed

Metal Film Resistors

DC Powered Filaments

Hand Wired Turret Board

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Only difference between printed circuit board amps (e.g. Fender Blues Deluxe/Deville) & handwired (e.g. Marshall 1962 Bluesbreaker) is that the handwired are easier to mod/repair. Oh, & the price ;-)

 

Sound wise they're pretty similar (I run a MIM '08 Blues Deluxe, 1977 Marshall 1959 Mark II Super Lead 100W head & a Marshall AVT100 combo through a switch). The old Marshall's cost me an arm & a leg to maintain (output transformers, anybody?).

 

Get a Blues Junior. Ya can't go wrong ;-)

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Only difference between printed circuit board amps (e.g. Fender Blues Deluxe/Deville) & handwired (e.g. Marshall 1962 Bluesbreaker) is that the handwired are easier to mod/repair. Oh' date=' & the price ;-)

 

Sound wise they're pretty similar (I run a MIM '08 Blues Deluxe, 1977 Marshall 1959 Mark II Super Lead 100W head & a Marshall AVT100 combo through a switch). The old Marshall's cost me an arm & a leg to maintain (output transformers, anybody?).

 

Get a Blues Junior. Ya can't go wrong ;-)[/quote']

 

I've known people who seem to be able to hear the grass grow and they could tell the difference in sound between circuit board and hand wired. So just becuase you and I cannot hear the difference doesn't mean nobody can.

 

Also, those output trannies usually last years under normal playing conditions. It's only when you put the wrong load on them that they blow unless something is wrong with them to begin which would normally be discovered within most warrantie time frame.

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The GA40RVT is point to point' date=' I wonder why we don't hear much about Gibson amps?

 

30W/15W Class A

2 - 6L6 Power Tubes

5 - 12AX7 PreAmp Tubes

Solid State Rectifier

Hand Built/Point to Point

Inputs - 1, 2 and Mix

Tube Driven Reverb

Tube Driven Tremolo

Pentode/Triode Switch

1 - 12" Eminence Legend Speaker, Asymmetrically Placed

Metal Film Resistors

DC Powered Filaments

Hand Wired Turret Board

 

 

[/quote']

The gibsons GA40rvt looks like a great amp i tryed the epiphone version and it was nice but made in China. Big turn off.

and about $575.00 the gibby is like $879.00 or so . I was looking for a smaller amp and bought a fender blues deluxe

40w 1x12 tonight. from MF. called them and got an extra 10% discount. free shipping to. total $675.00 .I have played this amp a lot at GC in wpb and it's got lots of power ,nice amp. and easy to get around .

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It's only when you put the wrong load on them that they blow unless something is wrong with them to begin which would normally be discovered within most warrantie time frame.

 

Sorry mate,gotta go side to side here with what dj mentioned. Though I'm sure you're not silly enough to couple it up with a 16 when it's dialled in for 8.

Though,still that shouldn't blow the transformers the way you're mentioning...mmm,something weird going on here methinks.

Did you ever discover the problem?:-k

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The gibsons GA40rvt looks like a great amp i tryed the epiphone version and it was nice but made in China. Big turn off.

and about $575.00 the gibby is like $879.00 or so . I was looking for a smaller amp and bought a fender blues deluxe

40w 1x12 tonight. from MF. called them and got an extra 10% discount. free shipping to. total $675.00 .I have played this amp a lot at GC in wpb and it's got lots of power ' date='nice amp. and easy to get around .[/quote']

 

I checked out user reviews on Harmony Central, most of the comments on the Gibson amps were positive. Few were happy with customer care, I'm shocked!

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I've known people who seem to be able to hear the grass grow and they could tell the difference in sound between circuit board and hand wired. So just becuase you and I cannot hear the difference doesn't mean nobody can.

 

Also' date=' those output trannies usually last years under normal playing conditions. It's only when you put the wrong load on them that they blow unless something is wrong with them to begin which would normally be discovered within most warrantie time frame.[/quote']

 

Hand wired combos as a rule come with better quality timber enclosures (I had a Tweed USA Pro Junior re-issuse which was made of low quality pine as opposed to the MIM Blues Deluxe blockboard box: sound difference? BD was twenty times louder ;-).

 

Those old Marshalls are notorious for transformer problems. I've talked to the guys at Marshall & they managed to source me an original replacement. Transformers, however, on the whole only blow when you plug the head in without a cab connected for any length of time. Not recommended...

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Hand wired combos as a rule come with better quality timber enclosures (I had a Tweed USA Pro Junior re-issuse which was made of low quality pine as opposed to the MIM Blues Deluxe blockboard box: sound difference? BD was twenty times louder ;-).

 

Those old Marshalls are notorious for transformer problems. I've talked to the guys at Marshall & they managed to source me an original replacement. Transformers' date=' however, on the whole only blow when you plug the head in without a cab connected for any length of time. Not recommended...

[/quote']

 

Yes & no. I've got a chip board quady here that blows just about every stock Marshall enclosure that it's gone up against,out of the water. But,does it "sound" better? No. Go figure...

 

But as I said previously,I'm sure you didn't do what you mentioned or I.

So...did you find out what the problem was?

Easy to blame it on the intermittent transformer problem,but surely(and as I said,I've seen 45's and the like loaded wrong etc. and still be forgiving)you must've tracked down the culprit no?

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The boy played on both the Night Train and the Jet City heads both being run through the Jet City 1x12 cabinet. I preferred the Night Train but he liked the JC better. He is the player and he's fronting half the cash so I guess it'll be the Jet City.

 

Now all he has to do is decide what and how much. I kind of think the combo amp with a 1x12 cabinet would be pretty awesome. He could just use the combo for most things then stack it on the cab when needing more.

 

One question though: Is it possible to stack the combo onto the cab and utilize both speakers? The combo has speaker outputs. In trying to learn all of this...I am assuming that instead of the 16ohm combo speaker, this would get split and each would become 8ohm?

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also you could check out "Blackheart Amps" Crates new tube amp series. there is a 15w combo that is killer!

 

i second the blackheart amps... however i'd go with the handsome devil head and the matching 1x12 cab rather than the combo.... i just prefer heads cuz you can buy one really nice speaker cab (like a marshall 1960 or a mesa cab) and then hook up any head you want into that.... its more versatile....

 

here's a link for the blackheart handsome devil 15 watt head:

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-BLA-BH15H-LIST

 

1x12 matching cab:

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-BLA-BH112-LIST

 

the head goes for around $350 and the cab around $150....

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Jet City is a very nice amp, The Vox is more 'classic' sounding, while the Jet City adds a modern distortion to it. Both are very nice, whatever he chooses will be great. I have to agree, heads are the way to go, very versatile so you only have to get one or two speaker cabinets, whereas you could keep buying combos.

 

Glad to see a parent supporting their child's musical interests.

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Heads are the way to go. I have the Orange Tiny Terror along with some

Marshall heads. The Orange is great little amp if you play rock or blues.

Even my tele sounds good through it. I get all my stuff off Craigslist. Most

of it looks like new and all at steals when it comes to price. The other nice

thing about CL is I can check everything out and not get any surprises.

One amp I haven't seen mentioned it the BlackStar. Check it out.

 

CW

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It appears as the Jet City head is the pick of the litter.

 

The head output states: Output Power: 20 watts into 16 ohm or 2x 8 ohm speaker outputs

 

1x12 cab info states: Inputs: 1×16ohm

 

http://www.jetcityamplif....com/amplifiers/jca12s/

 

This would mean we could only hook one of these up and be finished, right?

 

 

The 2x12 cab states: Inputs: 1×8ohm for mono or 2x 16ohm for stereo operation

 

http://www.jetcityamplif...om/amplifiers/jca24s-2/

 

I would assume then that we could in fact hook one up now....or 2 up in the future?

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Wow!! In a startling turn of events...we just ordered a new Orange Dual Terror amp. The kid decided to take full advantage of my offer to pay for half!!

 

He played on one of these a couple of days ago and was hooked. In order to "afford" it he sold off his old Epi SG and practice amp and is going to sell his Peavey Vypyr Modeling amp.

 

He is on his own for a speaker cabinet, though. I think the amp purchase was a good one and should last him a lifetime.

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