tbonesullivan

I run some through headphones when I use my little Yamaha amp, but when I had a Carvin stereo rig, I just never used it. I've never really had effects as a part of my sound. I pretty much just use overdrive and reverb. Since I also have so many combos, I think if I did decide to run stereo, I'd just use those, rather than using a stereo cab. Still, it's nice to have the ability to run stereo, if I want to.

I'm still going through my Jake E. Lee phase, and also my superstrat phase, so this should be no surprise. I have always wanted another SSH to replace the EBMM Luke III I had, or still have somewhere, but finding one that is set up so that the volumes aren't vastly different is hard. I remember @LucSulla saying that the pickup set was very balanced on his Jake E Lee in Lavender Pearl, and then I noticed that the Music Zoo in Long island (about 1.5 hours away) had one in stock that was "used excellent", so I went to check it out. The pickup set is slightly different on this guitar, being that the JB in the bridge has an Alnico II magnet instead of an A5, but the rest of the setup is the same. I'm not sure how the neck compares, but I like it, and it's got a nice shape. Now some may say "Dave, you hate guitars with gold hardware, so wtf?". Well the bridge and jack plate aren't gold, they are brass. The rest of the hardware is black, and the finish is just a beautiful color. Sure it's not translucent or sparkly, but this reminds me a lot of the old "blueburst" that EBMM used on some guitars in the late 80s, including the early Steve Morse guitars, before they switched to a translucent finish. It plays VERY well, I'm just on the fence about keeping the .009-.042 strings on it, or going to the .010-46 I usually use. The sound is great, and once I get the setup exactly where I want it, it's gonna be great. Now if only the weather had been great. Holy crap people do not know how to drive in heavy rain / almost whiteout conditions.

One of the options for the avatar 2x12s is the multi-jack plate like that. I'm mainly thinking about whether I want the overall impedance when using both speakers to be 16 or 8 ohms. I have two other Avatar cabinets, both open back. One is 8 ohms with two 16 ohm Texas Heats with a standard "through" jack, and the other is a Multi-jack with two 8 ohm speakers. I'm just thinking more of whether an 8 ohm cab or a 16 / 4 ohm cab would work better with my heads and combos. Almost all of my combos are set up with 8 ohm loads, so 8 ohms would work better if I wanted to stick them on top. On the other hand if I am just going to use this cabinet with heads, having 16 ohms available does add more possibilities, and also I could run it stereo... though I never run anything stereo. I just like the multi-jack due to the 4 / 16 ohm capability.

Ok, so I'm thinking about getting an Avatar G212 Contemporary, with the closed back. I have two Open Back 2x12s, but really wanted something for a bit harder stuff with more of a tight low end. Question is, what to put in it? Avatar has a bunch of "Avatar" branded stuff, probably made by Eminence, and probably very close to speakers they already make. They also have Fane speakers, which you don't see much over here, and they also still have the Avatar / Fane M65, which is supposed to pretty much be a tweaked Creamback 65 kind of sound. I'm kind of leaning towards those. Then I guess, I need to think about whether I want a 16 ohm cab loaded with 8 ohm speakers, or an 8 ohm cab loaded with 16 ohm speakers. I have heard that speakers of different impedance sound different. Some speaker makers, like Eminence, make mostly 8 ohm speakers, with some 16 ohm varieties, mostly depending on popularity. Then you have Mesa Boogie, who wants all of their enclosures to be 8 ohm total impedance, and simply uses whatever combination of speakers achieves that, like how Marshall seems to always wants 16 ohms.

Ted McCarty was a brilliant man, whose influence on the guitar industry can hardly be overstated. However, every great design stands on the shoulders of a bunch of bad ones. The Flying V was great, the Futura was ok but made much better with the Explorer. The Moderne... there's a reason they kept it on the drawing board for 25 years. This one should have stayed a drawing.

Ohhh please let us know how you like the Fane's. I keep seeing them and wanting to get a new closed back 2x12 with some inside.

I have this problem too, partly because I was a Carvin fan for a while, and the amps that I actually wanted to play were all 100 Watts. I could have searched and Searched for a 50 watt X-50B head or something similar, but they were much harder to find than the X-100B. When they reissued the X-100B, it was only in 100 Watts. Then I have some amps that were only ever made in a 100 watt version, like the Mesa Tremoverb, Mesa Royal Atlantic, and others. Add to that the annoying decision that for some reason many times the lower wattage version of amplifiers end up lacking features found on the higher wattage version, and the decision becomes pretty clear, especially if that amplifier has some type of power reduction ability. It also is going to depend a lot on the type of playing you do. I re-watched the 5 watt world Dumble story, and they go over how Robben Ford had a second ODS made in 50 watts, but had Dumble rebuild it at 100 watts because he was used to the extra head room for cleaner playing. So, if you like the amp, and don't really HAVE to sell it (and deal with shipping and all that insanity), I would just keep it.

I really like the solo. It has a great flow and sense of direction. I've always liked Slash's solos. I'm actually kinda pumped for this record now.

I was checking out the album, and it sounds like it's gonna be great, though it is being produced by the new "Gibson Records". I'm trying to figure out who the other guitarist in the video is. It says Gary Clark Jr. is on the record, but it doesn't quite look like him. I almost thought it was Lenny Kravitz, but he's been rocking his classic giant hair look lately. Though, it was recorded in 2023, so who knows. Other personnel I see listed: Johnny Griparic on bass guitar Teddy Andreadis on keys Michael Jermone on drums

The smoking, drinking, and AC/DC road life also can't have helped a lot. I was reading an article on Miley Cyrus, where she talked about her "new" voice and the surgery she had to have. It's not just the singing, it's what you do afterwards. Like staying up until 3 am talking also kills your vocal cords.

Nice!!! I keep wanting to get some more cabs.. even though I only have a few amp heads. I'm combo addicted. I was looking at Avatar 1x12s, but for some reason they all seem to have the HUGE handles on the top, which makes it a pain to put a head on top without some type of spacer.

Yeah, see that's always the problem. Of the 300 or so amps he made, most were for people who had a ton of money, and already had a billion amps. When they go into the studio they are always using a ton of amps, so it's not like a Angus or Malcolm Young sound, where there is a pretty well known "recipe" for getting close to "that sound". Robben Ford, by all accounts, used his original ODS on virtually all of his recordings since he got it, and used it on a lot of tours.

Robben Ford is probably the best example. I remember hearing that Dumble was actually inspired to create the Overdrive Special after having heard Robben Ford play. He gets a pretty damn magical sound, and that seems to be what a lot of people are going for when they look for one. But there are also variants that have a more aggressive sound. The problem is that Dumble would tweak the circuit for the player, especially if it was a big name pro player. You weren't just paying for an amp that was meticulously crafted, you were paying for Dumble to pretty much customize the circuit, just for you. It was all done by hand, by one man. Last night I had a guitar lesson, and dumble came up, and then we wondered, did Dumble also make the cabinets? I just checked, and he did. It was ALL HIM, and he had no interest in becoming any kind of company like Mesa and Rivera did. As a closing note, you have to think of how freaking in depth he must have known his own circuit, which evolved over the years. He knew exactly how to tweak the circuit for whatever the customer wanted. When he passed away unfortunately all of that experience and knowledge went with him. There are plenty of great techs that still do the classic mods and more on Fender amps, but I don't know if there will ever be another Dumble, as everything is so subtle.

Yeah, seriously. The bias adjustment stuff on the back of the amp is kinda insane. Right now I'm just perusing the one brand I forgot to mention: Ceriatone and their "Overtone" series. All 20 or so variants from basic to Robben Ford to HRM to SSS. Jeez.

Ahhhh! I always forget that the Dumble is built on the Fender design, so the tone stack is the first thing in the circuit, before the first Volume / Gain. That's a lot like the Mesa Mark Designs, and the "rhythm" channels on the Rivera amplifiers. So the HRM adds the type of Post gain EQ that you'd have in a Marshall, or I guess in a Mesa with a graphic EQ. That's definitely a lot to take in, and a lot to cram into a pedal. Jeez. I only just finally have gotten my head wrapped around the "basic" Dumble overdrive special concept, and of course have been stalking used 30 watt Fuchs Overdrive Supremes on Reverb. It seems like they used to be a lot more just "clones", and when they made the ODS classic they definitely made the design more their own.

Jeeez, those Ethos pedals look great, but damn so many buttons, switches, and knobs on them. Brain overload almost. Right now I'm trying to figure out what the purpose of the GAC and HRM are. It looks like the channels on the pedal are definitely more independent than they are on the OG ODS stuff, which had shared EQs and such. It's pretty amazing what they were able to do without tubes, and retain the very subtle "tweakability" of the Dumble type design. I will say though, that I have some preamp pedals, mainly the two that Carvin makes, and they are definitely a great way to get a sound you are looking for without having to get the whole dang amp. I run them sometimes into a CAB M+, and it's pretty much like having an amp, without using an amp. They are definitely not nearly as SUBTLE as an ODS type design, but they seem well designed.

As MPR said, it is a pretty unforgiving circuit, but it's also somewhat complicated to dial in. Lots of switches and push pull pots for voicing. This is the same reason why Mesa makes much more in terms of sales with their Rectifiers and entry level amps than their "Mark" series amps. They are much easier to dial in and the controls are also simpler. I have to admit that the controls on the ODS style amps are somewhat confusing and also intimidating.

There definitely seem to be more makers offering Dumble Type amps since his passing, or maybe I just didn't realize that they made them. Two-Rock, Fuchs, and Amplified Nation come to mind. The last one of those is now being sold by Sweetwater, and Fuchs used to be, but for some reason they stopped. In terms of control layout and appearance, Fuchs and Amplified Nation are closest to the "Modern" Dumble ODS, while the Two-Rock amps have a layout more like the early ones. Ceriatone also has a bunch of offerings. I went through a phase of looking up Dumble stuff on youtube, mainly because like many, I didn't really have much experience with guitarists who were known for that type of sound. There are a lot of "Dumble Shootouts" out there.

If you want to go on the cheap, I have heard good things about "The Dude" by Rockett. It's a bit simpler in design, made mainly to get you the D-style overdrive sound. It's got the "ratio" control type of design. If I recall the Dumble is kind of a parallel architecture, with the overdrive channel built on top of the clean channel. Both that and the Zen drive are probably the easiest way to get you that type of overdrive sound, and the cheapest.

Here's the Patents he has for intonation systems ans such: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8076559B2/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US8294011B2/en I would assume it is just a smaller version of his larger tremolo systems, which look to be cam / cantilever based. It apparently is supposed to just drop into a strat, and use the same springs? I guess it puts rollers / cams in the place where the block usually is. Yet for some reason they can't TAKE OFF THE DAMN BACK COVER so we can see what's going on.

I don't think I've ever swapped the pots in a guitar, though I know a lot of people do. I don't really use the controls on the guitar though, and tend to run everything at full. Yeah, I'm "one of those". When you run everything at 10, shouldn't there be little resistance from the pots? Or is there still enough on the grounds and such for it to matter?

And here we have the problem plaguing many parts of the business world today: they are still super busy so they don't give a crap about customer service or relations. Right now in the brass instrument world, there is a pretty huge company called Conn-Selmer, which aside from treating many of its workers like crap, decided to consolidate trombone manufacturing at one of its two factories. The company is itself made up of a ton of brand names like Conn, Bach, Selmer, Holton, King, Leblanc, Ludwig, along with quite a number of now defunct brands like Benge and Martin. Anyway, they had been building King and Conn professional trombones at their Eastlake, Ohio plant for decades, and had people who knew how to build them great. They also built tubas here. The company has another factory in Elkhart, Indiana, where they built Bach "Stradivarius" line Trombones, Trumpets, as well as Holton instruments. Well, they decided that they should move all the King and Conn trombone production to Elkhart, 259 miles and 4 hours away. The Elkhart factory quality was still recovering from a long workers strike, and now they had to set up and learn how to make different trombones, because the bean counters don't really count "experience" as an asset. Anyway, this was not long ago, and the QC and quality of instruments coming from the Elkhart factory is highly variable. The problem is that they are charging a premium price for many of them, close to the true boutique custom builders who have impeccable fit and finish and QC. However people are still buying these dodgy trombones, because there is a demand, and band programs need trombones and other instruments. Conn-Selmer has taken ZERO action to try to fix the rotten QC, because things are still selling. It's all about the Benjamins. So to end a lengthy post, we're in the age of "I'm not going to waste time being nice because I don't have to".

Very recently from what I read at AP news. Apparently it was about 5 years ago when Paul approached an exec at Hofner and said "you know I'd really appreciate it if you could find the bass". Then in 2022 a husband and wife journalist / researcher pair contacted the exec at Hofner, and really started publicizing the search. They got an email from the Roadie / Sound engineer detailing when it was stolen and where. Then they posted much more localized and/or targeted stuff in that area, and found someone who knew their dad had nicked it, then apparently sold it to the Landlord / Owner of a bar. There are definitely some different "takes" on it, but I trust the AP more than some of the other news sites. https://apnews.com/article/paul-mccartney-stolen-bass-recovered-beatles-e192765ddab258ac228be06268be9137

Others have answered, but for me Tweed amps are just that early Fender sound, lots of mids, and not really a lot of headroom before you get some nice grit. They are raw sounding, and they weren't really "designed' to be overdriven, they just overdrive easily. Part of this may be due to them being designed to work with Fender guitars like the Esquire, Telecaster, and Stratocaster, the last of which was released in 1954, right around the time of the classic "tweed" design amps from Fender. Les Pauls and other Gibson guitars had hotter pickups that were pretty quick to overdrive the preamps in the Tweed amps. Later amps such as the Brownface and Blackface had a much different tonal profile, with a lot less mids, and did not overdrive as easily. I mainly know about this as I have a bunch of Rivera amplifiers, and they have a "Notch" control on the mids of the "Fender" channel. It normally has the notch around 550hz, or "Tweed" style, but pulling it moves the mid control notch to 250hz, which is "Blackface". Also, this is a good primer: https://reverb.com/news/the-evolution-of-fender-amps

Thank god this isn't in New Jersey LOL. Also I'm currently on a guitar ban.