Here’s a typical email i get about amps. What would you tell him?
Hi Brad,
You run a business and you probably get a lot of stuff related to your YouTube channels, so I certainly understand if you don't have time for this.
After the tone experienced from a Ryan Adams show a couple of weeks ago, I've decided to go back to a tube amp. He was running a killer rig with two Benson Chimera heads with a Benson Tall Bird reverb unit for each head. Needless to say - that's way out of my price range,
I wanted to get some recommendations for a tube amp head. I've heard so many opinions. I'm on a tight budget because I really want to also pick up a Two Notes Captor X when playing live. I need to stay around $500 - $700 and I need an effects loop because I want to use my Helix for effects. I've looked at stuff like Marshall Origins, Hughes and Kettner Grandmeister 40 Deluxe, and even a Bassman (I was told by an amp repair guy in the shop that he could install an effects loop easily. He highly recommended a hand-wired amp (no shit).
The main reason I'm contacting you is to see if you have recommendations or, even more importantly, amps that I should stay away from because of negative experiences you've had on the bench. The Marshall Origins seem to be decent, but the web has mixed comments. Any help would be appreciated. I also have a quad cortex that can capture amps that are pretty much dead on accurate (Somebody uploaded a real Dumble recently), but I like old school knobs, etc and you end up endlessly fiddling with the options with a QC. So any help with suggestions would be appreciated if you have the time. I need a 30 w but could go 50w if necessary..
This was the full jam session on the Gibson L1 I did recently. As you probably know, I usually will jam for a while on something and then pick a few highlights to show in a final video. A ton of stuff got edited out. It's not all great, but it's not all bad either. I find it kind of soothing, this quiet acoustic stuff. I'm never sure where the mood will take me.
I made this quick video the other day for a friend and figured I'd post it here as well. He wants to get started in slide, so I was quickly showing him some open tuning concepts to make the transition to slide a bit easier. Kind of like learning slide without a slide.
I'm in the process of creating the demo for an upcoming video on a 1974 Fender Twin Reverb. This is the point where I'm editing the video and audio layers all together with green screening. The studio-captured audio is not added yet. This is just a rough video mix with the RAW camera guide audio for the drums and guitar ONLY! So this is what the drums and rhythm guitar are sounding like in the room by themselves with no close miking and no post processing (other than a bit of compression and EQ). I am actually kind of shocked how good this is sounding even though one of the camera mics (the one for the drums) is from a DJI Action Cam and the other (for the guitar) is a Panasonic camcorder mic. Usually when making this kind of demo, the raw camera mic audio acts as a guide when lining up video clips on the editing timeline and then gets deleted from the final timeline before publishing. In some cases, I will even mix in a hint of the raw camera microphones with the studio mix to give ...
This chick found the first electric piano, one of only 3 in existence, designed and built by Lloyd Loar in the late 1920s or early 1930s. Yes, THAT Lloyd Loar! So cool. There are still treasures out there guys. You just have to look.
This is my upcoming video, which should go live for everyone else on Saturday, but you guys on Locals get it early! I will be doing this more often for you guys. This will give you a chance to get stuff before they put the prices up also, which these companies do every time I post a video.
Oh and if you think you might want one of these little amps, you should probably grab one before they're gone. I don't think they'll last long once the video goes live. I can't tell everyone this, but this same amp comes under multiple brands. The Melonare sells for $65. But this one with a different brand sells for $30, although they don't have the drum machine built in like the Melonare does. https://amzn.to/4oAT7Ui
