TUBE amp for 2 bills?

When the 'reviewer' relies on pedals from the git-go, it makes it really hard to tell what the amp actually sounds like.
If ya want to convince me, show me how good it sounds clean and loud. If an amp won't do loud & clean, it ain't gonna sound good dirty, either...
Case in point-
Some years ago i bought a B52 AT112. The amp is essentially a 60 watt 1X12 Fender Twin. It can get viciously loud, yet remain clean up to just shy of full volume. Almost perfect Fender cleans, close but not perfect. Add pedals, presto; you're in sonic nirvana.
The weird part? The amp is generally panned for the distortion channel, which, like some Fenders, sounds like ass, imho.
More recently, i bought a used Bugera V22, because several forum members whose opinion i trust say great things about them, love theirs, etc... It doesn't sound bad, necessarily, it just doesn't sound good, either. Clean, or with pedals, no difference, just loud, lackluster, and essentially of no use to me.
 
Ghostwolf said:
When the 'reviewer' relies on pedals from the git-go, it makes it really hard to tell what the amp actually sounds like.
If ya want to convince me, show me how good it sounds clean and loud. If an amp won't do loud & clean, it ain't gonna sound good dirty, either...
Case in point-
Some years ago i bought a B52 AT112. The amp is essentially a 60 watt 1X12 Fender Twin. It can get viciously loud, yet remain clean up to just shy of full volume. Almost perfect Fender cleans, close but not perfect. Add pedals, presto; you're in sonic nirvana.
The weird part? The amp is generally panned for the distortion channel, which, like some Fenders, sounds like ass, imho.
More recently, i bought a used Bugera V22, because several forum members whose opinion i trust say great things about them, love theirs, etc... It doesn't sound bad, necessarily, it just doesn't sound good, either. Clean, or with pedals, no difference, just loud, lackluster, and essentially of no use to me.
Click to expand...


That’s right. You can always add dirt; you can never add clean.
 
smitty_p said:
Can you explain?
Click to expand...

Adding mud or reducing treble response (with the .047uf caps) seems to be the way Leo tried to offset the severe brightness in a Stratocaster circuit by adding a "mud control," but not to the bridge, where it was needed most.

I've always found the fascination with the "tradition" of the .047uf capacitor in a guitar tone circuit almost laughable.

(This is not the same as using a .047uf capacitor in series with a pickup to reduce low frequency response)

Like cloth covered wiring, the tradition is embraced largely because its traditional.

At far, far less than 180° of tone knob rotation, and you have just draped a wet comforter over the amp. I've never understood that.

@ivan H and I have both discussed this at length.

Even the Gibson .022uf produces useable response over most of the knob's range of motion.

I tend to use .012uf quite often on my bench as a "standard" replacement tone capacitor and people are shocked at how their tone circuit has suddenly become useable.

TBTH, I really like how .010uf works best of all.

I tend to keep a batch of Mullard .012 and .015uf on hand as they are cheap (and the fact that they look like a piece of candy from grandma's candy dish is cool too.)

I've used 0.01uf quite a bit in a number of builds and it's a great capacitor, giving full range of motion to the tone knob and useable tone even when rolled all the way off.

@ivan H conducted his own experiments with this vue and perhaps he too will chime in.

I favor the little box capacitors in this rating as they have long leads and fit nicely into small control cavities.

Even on brand new Stratocasters, that now feature a bridge tone control, it's just absolute mud after a few degrees of movement.

I like having the full sweep of the knob available in very linear fashion.
 
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