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From: conru~mich.edu
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 09:56:24 -0400
Subject: digital equipment vs. vintage amps

Rev. Rich Lyons wrote:

>My question is about amps. I see that vintage amps or the
>sonny Jr. or Sonny Jr. II are popular, some more so than
>others. With the cost of these, it would be very easy to
>buy a super clean power amp, latch it to a studio clean
>speaker, and use digital equipment for distortion and the
>like. This way, you could tweak the distortion and feature
>mixes any way you want for any song you want, and always
>have "perfect" sound... Has anyone tried this approach, and
>what were the results.

This is the route I have taken and I'm very pleased with the results. I
recently purchased a Peavey Tube Fex pre-amp/effects processor and I think
it's great for harp. I run the output of the Tube Fex into a Crown D75
power amp (nice and clean) and drive a 12"JBL speaker.

The reason I find this route is superior to a vintage amp (or a boutique
amp) is that my rig can produce tones anywhere from ultra clean to
megacrunch. Also, the Tube Fex has 38 different digital effects which in
my book beats 2 effects: reverb and tremolo. Lots of these effects I'll
never use, but many of them are very nice on harp if used sparingly.

I love the sound of a Fender Bassman amp, but it has ONE sound, and I like
to be able to get more than just one sound.

B.B. Bean wrote:

>It has been tried, and there are players that do it. However, 20+
>years of experience with all sorts of rigs and studio effects have
>shown me that there's no escaping the difference between solid state
>and tube amplification.

The Peavey Tube Fex is all solid state except for two 12AX7 tubes, but
those 2 little tubes running at their full rated 250 volts do a great job
of warming up the sound.


Madcat
Ann Arbor, MI, USA