The other day this guy at Music-Go-Round gave me one of those little smokey amps for free, because the parts where it screws together had snapped off and it had to be taped shut, so he didn't think he could sell it. It wasn't a problem for me, I may even fit it into a cigarette box like the original Smokey amps were.
Anyways today I was trying it out with some different mics. There was one particular mic that when I plugged it in and start playing I started to hear music softly playing. I stopped playing and it took me a second to realise that the music was coming from the smokey amp. It was picking up a radio station, and quite clearly(not extremely loudly but you could hear it well enough). When I stopped playing and listened I could hear the song perfectly. I tried plugging in other mics and it didn't pick up the signal, it just happened with the one mic.
I mostly play acoustic, so I may not be an expert, and it may be a common thing, but I've never had this happen on my other ampliers. I just thought it was funny/strange.
Anyways, have any of you played around with one of these Smokey amps? The guy who makes the Bottle-O-Blues mics often sells the Smokey amps along with the mics. For what they are, I don't think they sound too bad. I think it's be a neat thing to throw into a small harp bag/case along with a small mic (like maybe the madcat shaker mic) and carry it around with you for impromptu jamming.
Here's a video I found of someone playing Adam's version of Crossroads Blues using a Smokey amp (he's also using a delay pedal). It looks like he might also be using the Bottle-O-Blues mic. I think it sounds pretty good for such a tiny cheap amp. Any thoughts?
EDIT: You can't actually see the Smokey amp in the video, but he said that's what he was using in the video description/info. on youtube.
Last Edited by on Feb 01, 2010 3:52 PM
i use the smokey and madcat as a rig i keep in my jeep. it is fun to jam with. a friend has a 9 volt marshall that he plays guitar thru. we've put on some impromptu shows at work this way.
I went to a music store once with my friend. He wanted to look at basses. The store didn't have any bass amps. We asked if there were any around. The store clerk told us just to plug into a Blonde guitar amp. We said we didn't think that was a good idea, but he insisted that it wouldn't be a problem. He then left that area of the store. My friend started playing. We smelled smoke. We looked around, and sure enough the amp was smoking. We unplugged the bass, put it back on the rack, made sure the amp wasn't going to burn the place down and quietly left. (If the clerk hadn't told us to do it I would have felt compelled to tell them what happened.)
My first mic was the Bottle 'O Blues (Jim McBride at http://www.geocities.com/bottle_o_blues/). I wrote a brief review of it for him and he sent me a Smokey Amp for the same purpose (I still have both). I picked up a cell-phone Universal Swivel Clip, stick-on belt clip thingy at the $1 store, attached it to the back, and can wear the amp on my belt and play through it. The sound is sort of a cartoon representation of what amplified blues would sound like. The 1.75" speaker is not going to render any sparkling highs or thumping bass notes, but for what it is it can be a lot of fun. The Smokey amp also has an output so you can use it as a sort of distortion preamp, but with a microphone it is only a way to create instant feedback. It would work better that way with a guitar. The output can be used to power a 4, 8, or 16 ohm speaker, and they report it will push a 4x12 cab! I don't think the Marshall company has anything to worry about, though!
