Comments on: Amplifiers: The Real Voice of the Electric Guitar

By: Kevin Spiers

Kevin Spiers — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 13:51:48 +0000

Regarding the AC30, there was not a lot of choice for British Bands in the early sixties. Fenders were unobtainable unless someone bought in Europe. I think Watkins and Selmer were the only other two majors until the middle decade. I read where George never really liked the sound of his Gretsch guitars. The Beatles became very Fender centric after giving up live work. I also read recently that the distorted glory of ‘Revolution’ was due to the ‘orrible solid state Vox Conqueror or Supreme models that are shown in film and photo’s of that period. George Martin has been quoted as saying “It was achieved by plugging straight into the desk and turning the gain up fully”. I’m not knocking Vox, but as soon as transistors were brought in, their sound went down the toilet. Hence Marshall, Hi-Watt, Sound City, Orange, Laney. And a host of lesser known valve beauty of the day like Simms Watts, Kelly, Impact, Carlsboro, Roost . Remeber that Vox sponsored most of the Mersey bands. To be British, and to touch and hear a Fender Twin in the late sixties was magical. The classy silver cloth ,and that reverb whoaaaa.It was comparing a Morris 1100 to.
a Cadillac

By: Cigaro

Cigaro — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 23:54:18 +0000

i’d add that any P-90 equipped guitar throgh a Fender Blackface Deluxe or bigger amp works really well, too. I like Teles and Strats through Tweed amps. For recording crunch rhythm parts, a 1960 or earlier Gibson GA-5 Skylark with a Jensen P8R speaker upgrade and either a Les Paul with split coils or a Tele or a Strat is just wonderful. Another one that works well is a Vox AC-4 TV10 with the Mercury Magnetics upgrade and a Celestion G10 Alnico gold speaker. It is great with either Fenders or a Les Paul. If you can’t cough up the cash for a Blackface Fender, a Savage 4X10 Blitz 50 or either a Macht 6 or Macht 12 are all world class hand wired amps and work with Fenders and Gibsons, too. ’60s era Vox AC-30s have way too much circuitry (70% of the circuit board is useless tremolo) and throw off enough heat combined with woefully inadequate ventilation that they often caught on fire, so I’d try one of the recently redesigned AC-30s if you like Vox.

By: Brett Stacy

Brett Stacy — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:05:27 +0000

And yet…there are soooo many amps out there that did not make the list…Matchless Lightning 15 watt,NR and an LP/SG/335. The toppy EL84 combo has more headroom than any Fender amp of similar wattage,and when you wind it out,and use your volume pot,it is a lot of fun!!!