OK, my first amp was a Laney Lg12. SS, 12w, 6.5" speaker ($80). I use to play it whit the gain on 10, and the volume in 2-3 (feedback zone) whit a cheap Dinamic Vocal mic, and a few times whit a zoom 505 multiefect pedal. It was a fun time.
My first good amp was a Buguera V5 ($200). Since that I tested and owned a Vox Mini3 (great tone, and runs on batterys!), a Laney CUB 12r (way to much gain, but I love that 12" speaker), a SS Fender Frontman 25r (awesome for guitar, not good for harp) and my current Laney CUB 10 (really good amp for harp), but none of those can match the tone of the Buguera to my ears. I miss that amp.
Vox AC30 - Chassis and speakers were installed in a homemade cabinet with a blue cloth covering of unknown origin. Bought for 25 UK pounds and sold for 50. Great for guitar. Not as bad as one might think for harp if you set the controls just right, stood in just the right place, and consumed just the right amount of drugs and alcohol. ---------- LSC
Georgia Blues, I'd give just about anything to have another shot at the Ampeg B15 amp. I knew nothing of amps back then and when it stopped working I just gave up on it. It probably just needed a tube.
The tone was a little stiff and clean as I recall, but huge.
My first amp was a cheapie that kinda got dropped in my lap. A little 10W SS Marshall MG10CD. It was good for what it was, but it had pretty strict limitations.
First one I got that sounded good for harp was my Peavey Vypyr 15. I had my doubts about it when I first looked at it, but once I started toying with the settings and getting it figured out, it really did a good job. I wound up extensively modifying it. It always sounded better running through bass amp speakers.
I don't have either one of these any more. Traded them for equipment that was more useful to me. ----------
My first amp is a Silvertone Model 1484. 2 channels plus reverb with twin 12 inch speakers. I am in the process of recapping it, as well as recovering it. It is covered with a hideous "wood grain" contact paper at this time.
However, the amp sounds pretty good, and it was free. So...
My first amp was a 1966 Black Face Pro Reverb. It wasn't the best choice for harp but my guitar player loved it and I sold it to him to buy my second amp.
Felip, that's interesting. I have a Harley Benton GA5H which was my practice amp of choice before I modified it. Since then its a little loud for practice. Funnily enough, now I use the pignose 7-100 for practice, but not to play through. I plug my iPhone into it to play my practice tracks. The pignose I did use for performance 1 time, and I would again if I had to. It's ok if I don't turn up too far, and a little delay helps. The Harley Benton...actually mine is a Legacy Valve Head, but apart from the name it's exactly the same...and they are both really just Epiphone valve junior with a stupid EQ added...is a great harp amp IMHO, now that I tweaked it.
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Last Edited by SuperBee on Apr 30, 2013 6:10 PM
just got mine today :) a peavey windsor studio, 20 watts, class A valve, swapped the tube for a 6L6 plugged in my 545 and it sounds great, breaks up nicely,
My first was a 30watt 12" combo, 2x EL34, Ashton Viper. Ashton is an Australian company which sells a bunch of entry level musical instruments and accessories. This amp bears the legend "designed in Australia". It's made in china, the components are cheap. The viper set me back $500. That's pretty cheap in Australia for a valve amp this size. A fender HotRod deluxe retails around $1300 here. The Ashton stuff has zero street cred. I offered this amp for sale for $200 and there was zero interest. It's actually not that bad. For guitar it's actually pretty darn good. The clean sound is sparkling, very Marshall-ish. And I managed to get it plenty loud for harp in challenging circumstances. I replaced it with a 410 DeVille, which is better, but made me realise how good a job the Ashton had actually been doing. The drive channel is by all accounts pretty lame. I would never use it anyway. This channel draws some criticism based on solid state components. I really don't know about that, but i understand guitarists dont like it, and the concept of a single input amp with footswitch-able high gain channel and shared eq is kinda useless. If I played guitar I expect I'd just use the clean channel and use pedals . fwiw I think it's weird that people get antsy on principle about ss in the amp, and then plug in a ss pedal. The short tank spring reverb sounds pretty good. I replaced the speaker with a weber 12A150-O, but it has terrible cone-cry with harp. Not bad with guitar though. The main fair criticism of these amps is that they are unreliable. It's true the build quality is pretty slapdash. Early on, before I was gigging, it broke down. I'd just be playing and the amp would sound as though I'd flicked into standby mode. I had it serviced by Barry Young here in Hobart. Barry went through and addressed the soldering, balanced the bias, straightened up the trannies and cleaned the carbon smudge off the PCB he suspected of conducting under load. The amp has been 100% reliable since. As a harp amp, really I was never super happy with the sound but it was 'OK', was a bit brittle and tended to fart. But, I was on a steep learning curve too. These days I have amps I'd rather use but I maintain an irrational affection for this old thing
Anyone wanna buy it? ;0)
P.S. I just reviewed the schem. It's up on the lone wolf forum. Anyway, its a tad complex for me to follow...I recall Barry wasn't impressed with the circuit design. There is actually a fair bit more ss than I realised. Most of it seems to be involving the reverb and overdrive, but there's a foot switch and effects loop involved too...I'm too newbie at interpreting circuits and understanding how they work...a little knowledge etc
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Last Edited by SuperBee on May 01, 2013 7:50 PM
My first amp was a solid state 40W Roland cube. It had a good sound but was not loud enough.. The second amp was a 197? Fender Twin Reverb 135W!!! That was a loud amp!!! - But no good for harp.
Not necessarily. The Harley Benton/Legacy has a tone knob that might have circuitry that doesn't go along with his mods. I asked Randy a while back if his mods might be compatible with an EVJ Hot Rod. He said no...too many differences. Granted, the Hot Rod was kind of its own animal, but a lot of it was the same as the regular EVJ. ----------
@SuperBee many people claim that the GA5 is a good harp amp. I don't know why it never worked very well for me, maybe I didn't have a good cupping technique at that time or I didn't have the right mic. I like the Fender Champion 600 that I have now much.
I loved the Pignose 7 100, it is sad that I had to sell it. I'd like to get another one in the future.
Hawk, just discard the whole tone pot and associated mini pcb. It attached to the main board by two wires at either end of where R15 is located on an Epi model. So to do Randy's mod you would have to also replace R15. In a way, that's the only difference between this and an Epi head, they removed r15 and substituted this mini pcb and pot. And put a hole in the chassis. But I don't think the amp is still in production. After the Epi stopped being sold, we saw these Legacy brand amps for a couple years, but now they don't come up on a search. I paid $145 for this one. It was in a Melbourne recording studio. I put an alnicomagnet mod kit for Harley Benton GA5H (blues harp voice) through it. You can see the standby switch, fuse and line out jack on the rear panel. It was absolutely 100% identical to the GA5H, right down to the pcb having the words "epiphone valve junior" scratched out in a half hearted way, and the PT being wired for continental European supply (simple fix) ----------
My first rig was a Crate II ss amp- looked very cool! with a lapel mic. Later I put a Boss digi delay in to warm it up some. It always sucked up next to tube amps and decent mics.
My first GOOD harp amp was a '62 Princeton Tremolo. Single 10. Low powered but very sweet with a green bullet from back in the day. ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
Wife and I both use Silvertone 1482's currently. They are good small venue work horse amps. They were not free. ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
My first good harp amp: 1971 Fender silverface Champ. That big ol' Ampeg flip-top bass amp was cool but no crunch. My first Champ was a revelation. I still have it.
On your brownface Princeton....you say "Princeton Tremolo". Did the faceplate actually read "Princeton Tremolo" or just "Princeton"? I only ask because I've heard there were a few brownface Princetons that were labeled with the "Tremolo" attachment.
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