"The Chicago" from Mission Amps is ready. Master amp builder Bruce Collins designed it from the ground up to to be the most exceptional and economical mid-sized harp amp on the planet.
It is rated very conservatively at 30 watts. I've measured nearly 50 watts while playing. It is a 2x6L6 amp with a 50 watt power transformer. Here are some of the features:
-30 watts at only 34 lbs, in a Tweed Deluxe cab. -All hand wired point-to-point by master amp builder. Beautifully crafted. -Every finished amp rigorously tested by pro harp player. Guaranteed five years. -Cloth-covered solid core wiring. -NOS military-grade Paper in Oil capacitors. Dark, warm, lush tone. -DEEP Switch for fatter tone. -Switchable from Fixed Bias to Cathode Biased. -Beefy 50-watt power transformer. Powerful bottom end. -Optimized for bullet mics (including crystal) and Shure SM57 microphones. -Separate Bass and Treble controls. -Speakers broken in using custom harp-specific processes. Fat tone from the first note. -“True Tone” Line Out XLR jack with level control. Perfect for PA or recording. -One 12-inch Eminence Cannabis Rex speaker. -Tweed Deluxe cabinet, finger jointed, solid pine with a furniture grade birch plywood baffle board.
I've played this amp extensively, and it sounds sensational. It is LOUD, with a complex, organic tone that responds easily to the pressure you put on the harp and mic. Goes from Sweet to Nasty when you dig in.
The regular price for this amp will be $1200. For a limited time the introductory price will be only $999.00.
The amp is 20 in. wide, 16 in. tall, and about 8 1/2 in. deep at the top, from front to back. The exact weight is 33 pounds 12 ounces.
It sounds great at low volumes, particularly in the Cathode Biased mode. BTW, in that mode you can switch to 6V6 power tubes and a 5Y3 rectifier for the best sounding 15-watt harp amp you have ever heard.
Hemi, the amp ships with 6L6 power tubes. You don't have to change tubes to switch between Cathode Biased and Fixed Biased. But in the Cathode Biased mode you can change tubes without having to re-bias. Very easy.
But there is no need to change tubes if you don't want to. You get cool voicing variations just with the flip of the switch. The DEEP switch also changes the "fattness" of the tone. Lots of variations in this amp.
"Optimised for SM57s? Who uses them in a tweed amp?" SM57 or SM58 sound fine in a tweed (or any other) amp with an impedance transformer. Only a little cleaner, less drive than a typical true Hi-z mic (though comparable to some lower output dynamic mics, like some EVs), but definitely useable. I would think that the initial statement refers to a very Hi-Z input load (5M?).
Whether the amp is for you, or not, that's one thing, but Bruce Collins knows his stuff.
Bill Clark used a SM57, though into tolex Fenders (not sure how much difference the covering really makes regarding tone ;-) ) in the last year before he passed.
Harpaholic, when I gigged this amp Sunday night it started to ring a bit of feedback at 50 percent on the volume control. That is where the amp hits its rated power of 30 watts, and it was very loud. I was using my F&C crystal mic and my SM57 with Bulletizer.
Thanks Rick, but I'm going to wait until I see and hear some more reviews, better quality videos with some hot CR/CM's, Astatic crystals, etc: Basically all the mics I use.
I've made mistakes in the past buying boutique harp amps that didn't have what I wanted, and I ended up selling at a loss.
Harpaholic, the videos were made with a new Zoom Q3. It suffers a bit in low light, but its main feature is good audio: Stereo mics and PCM 44.1 24-bit recording. What you hear is what it sounded like in that room.
Studio recordings will be up soon in a new website, and Bruce hopes to have the amp at SPAH.
Rick/Bruce-I thought the 'ideal' speakers for harp amps were usually smooth coned. I see this one uses the Cannabis Rex(obvious substance reference by Eminence designers, I gather?), which is ribbed. Why was this the choice? Forgive me if you already explained this somewhere. ---------- Todd L Greene. V.P.
Last Edited by on Apr 14, 2010 2:48 PM
smooth cones break up sooner than ribbed cones, and are usually warmer. ribbed cones are typically louder, more bass, and can handle more wattage.
In most cases, I prefer a ribbed cone over a smooth cone in a single speaker amp, and I've owned well over 60 vintage and new amps for harp. A ribbed cone is punchier with more bottom end. IMO, the Double Trouble is an exception. The smooth cones work!
It can be good to mix the smooth and ribbed cones in mult speaker cabs, but there's no rule.
I'm sure Bruce experimented with many different speakers, as do most builders.
Thanks EV and Harpaholic. @Harpaholic-over 60 amps? And my wife gives me flack for owning three in the ten years we've been together. Thanks for making a brother look good! ;-)
Like everything else you'll ever read, the articles, blogs, etc. I've read on the subject of ribbed vs. smooth cones are opinions, and we all know about those. I have no doubt that many different speakers were tried-and from what I can hear on the videos, Bruce knocked it out of the park with the one he chose.
Over 60 amps? Is your last name Rockefeller? Wow... ---------- Todd L Greene. V.P.
My problem is, I don't buy amps, I rent them. I've slowed down in the last year. I have six now, but plan on selling three. I'm happy with the tone of my current amps, but I'm always looking for something new.
I've kept pics of all my amps, and regretted letting some go. I've learned a lot about vintage amps as far as harp tone, but it was still a big waste of time.
A friend of mine in NY (Ebay name Marktova) has owned well over 200 amps that he bought for harp.
Walterharp, perhaps you have an expectation of you think a harp amp should sound like, that the Chicago doesn't meet. Fair enough, but unless Bruce built it with you specifically in mind...that can happen.
I don't hear anything that sounds like a malfunction, or a failing. It sounds like a working amp...despite the effects of youtubing. Whether tonally it floats your boat...well you don't HAVE to buy one. My advice to anyone wanting to buy any amp is to try and hear it first hand, preferably A/B against your current rig...difficult in this case, where only a handful exist, I know.
"it might be just me, or the playing in the videos rick posted" Well, I'd want to be pretty sure that it wasn't "me" before I put anything negative down in type.
I wouldn't say sterile. I like the tone, but It definitely lacks punch. There's so many variables that could be the cause ? I'm thinking it may be tubed down, or it's the speaker choice. Looking at the tone chart of that speaker, it's not one I would have picked, but you never know until you try it.
5f6h, i really did not mean to be critical... without seeing the circuit it is hard to tell what the amp is, and without knowing the mic used or how the players that are recorded really sound it is difficult to say. I know that an amp can sound different in different rooms, and with different bands behind in addition to all that above, so a few sound clips really will never tell the whole story. Rick is a good player from what i have heard, and he really has spent lots of time with different amps. I listened to two other youtubes of the amp with different players and got roughly the same impression. Rick says the recording quality is pretty good. I acknowledge that personal taste is purely subjective, and the amp's tone on those recordings did not grab me. The question I was asking, knowing the amp builder has a good reputation as does Rick, was "is it just me?" The only way around subjective impression is to sum numerous responses and get closer to an objective consensus. That is all I was trying to do. I am withholding personal judgment finally till the studio recordings are posted, and probably jumped the gun on my comment.
on another topic, the inputs have a high and a low input. my guess is that what is meant by different optimization for two mic types, a high and a low impedance input
Fair enough, I'm probably a bit oversensitive to comments with the "it might be me" caveat...too much time spent with guys who say, "I think my amp might be broken but I don't know if it is just my ears...!". If their ears are broken nothing I, or anyone else, can do to an amp will fix that. :-) Apologies if I came on a bit strong.
"on another topic, the inputs have a high and a low input. my guess is that what is meant by different optimization for two mic types, a high and a low impedance input" There's not really much use for a Lo-Z input on a Hi-Z amp, ideally it would need an XLR connector & a built in impedance transformer. My guess is one input is very hi-Z (5Meg approx), the other a regular Hi-Z (CM/CR quote ideal impedances loads of 100K, so it might be closer to that), as it has been on other Collins designs - I'm sure Rick/Bruce will correct me if I'm off base. Typically any input load measured in thousands of ohms (K) is considered "Hi-Z".
Last Edited by on Apr 16, 2010 4:33 AM
I think above 10k is considered high Z and 600-10,000 is medium Z, with under 600 being low Z.
That's the way i've always heard it treated, at least regarding mics. In mixers and amps, i've never heard anyone really mention anything but the actual number in a spec sheet, although i've seen Hi and Low on amps I've never seen the sheet on. I bet they have it, as least as far as they are concerned for the amp itself. The actual number is enough to let you match a mic to it, 10 to one or so....with the mic being the lower of the two. (seems obvious, but you never know)
Last Edited by on Apr 16, 2010 7:03 AM
The lowest 1/4" input load that I have ever seen on a tube guitar/harp/instrument amp is 47K. Never seen an input as low as <10K...so admittedly I neglected to consider it. 51K & 68K are more common for a typical "low" input, but "low" here refers to gain, rather than impedance (as relates to Lo-Z/Hi-Z specifically). A "low" input on a Fender (2x68K in a voltage divider one being the load) attenuates to around 6dB compared to the 1Meg input, but it is still Hi-Z. Unless, you plug wires in to both Hi & Lo at the same time and 1M becomes the load for both inputs.
But, there's no hard & fast rule/standard as to what "High" & "low" mean with respect to guitar/harp amp 1/4" inputs...just the assumption that you'll get a stronger signal through the high, than the low. E.g. Laney LC15 has a 1Meg load for both Hi & Low inputs, selecting the Lo input just turns off a cathode bypass cap, reducing gain.
5F6H, you instincts about the inputs are correct. They have different impedances, one intended for crystal mics and the other for Shure CM/CR. I don't recall exactly the impedances... something like 50K ohms and 10 million ohms, but I'm not sure. I'll ask Bruce Collins.
We decided to not include an XLR input jack for low impedance mics for two reasons: lack of panel real estate, and to keep the costs as low as possible. I use the Audix impedance matching transformer with I play my Shure SM57.
BTW... tonight I am loaning the amp to Mojo Red, the harp player for the TeraBlu band in Colorado. They are playing Ziggies Saloon (where my band will play Saturday night). Mojo is pretty excited about the amp, and maybe we can get him to share his impressions.
And one more thing: A VERY well-known pro harp player -- a guy whose name you know and who has played with the very best for decades -- ordered a Chicago amp. I'm not ready to reveal his name yet; that will come later.
Walter, I have no problem with your comments. Even though the recorings are high quality, they cannot convey the "biggness" of the sound in the room.
Here is what I can tell you: I talked to Nic on Wednesday night at the Rick Estrin show at the Toad Tavern in Denver (Nic sat in with Estrin). He said he loved the amp even though several people told him it was too loud. The sound was huge. When was the last time you played a 34-pound harp amp that was too loud at a jam, sounded fat, and didn't feed back?
