January 17, 2001
January 17, 2001
There's lots of good choices for amps these days, and lots of potential solutions to the situation described above. All the solutions involve putting a bigger, more powerful amp on the stage; given that assumption, there's a couple of basic approaches:
1) Run the Crate into a keyboard amp. If you like the sound of the Crate, and you also want the option of a very clean, clear sound, consider picking up a keyboard amp or small PA, putting it on the stage next to you, and running a line out from the Crate to the keyboard amp or PA. (This is essentially my current setup, with the addition of a Boss OC-2 Octaver, a DOD FX25 envelope filter, a Boss BF-2 Flanger, an Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man set to echo, and an Akai Headrush delay pedal (in that order) between the Crate and the keyboard amp.)
The January, 2001 issue of Keyboard magazine has a terrific roundup review of a whole bunch of keyboard amps from Crate, Peavey, Roland, JBL, etc., ranging from list prices of about $400 all the way up to well over $1,000, with good-sounding, loud choices in every price range. Get a copy of that issue, and you'll be about as well-informed as a buyer can be.
The keyboard amp I use is a Peavey KB-100A, which has 65 watts of power. Keyboard amps are like small, self-contained PAs; they typically contain an amp with a small mixer, some kind of EQ, and a speaker setup that includes both a high-frequency horn and a woofer. I like the Peavey keyboard amps because:
1) they contain mic preamps that sound very clean and present, very nice for an acoustic sound; they're the same mic preamps Peavey uses in their PA heads and mixers,
2) they have 4-band EQ, which really makes it easy to dial in the right amount of bottom and midrange for the harp,
3) they are very durable,
4) they have multiple channels, so you can set them up for multiple mic (or amp) inputs with different sounds,
5) they're loud, and they reproduce whatever you pump into them very well, and
6) they're very reasonably priced. In general, you have to spend two or three times as much to get something that sounds noticeably better. Their relatively low price coupled with their high durability makes them a good choice for working musicians.
I like the Peavey, and it's worked well for me, but it's far from the only good choice available. As per my recommendation above, take a look at Keyboard's keyboard amp review in the January 2001 issue for a much more comprehensive review of what's available in keybaord amps. Check
the Musician's Friend website for latest prices.
2) The second approach is to buy a bigger, louder tube amp, and use it on stage instead of the Crate. Note that you will probably have to swap out one or more 12AX7 preamp tubes on the bigger amp, just as you did on the Crate, for a great blues harp sound.
There's lots of great tube amps out there in practically every price range. It happens that our friend David Barrett, who runs the Harmonica Masterclass Workshops, tested a whole bunch of tube amps at one of his recent workshops. Here's David's rundown of the results:
On Thursday night May 13th 1999 the Music Tree was the host for the Masterclass first A/B amp night. The goal was to listen to a broad spectrum of amplifiers that are known to have good tone. We categorized the amps into two classes:
Detailed below are all of the amps that we tested. This is not even close to a complete list of great harp amps, but for what we had it was a good test.
Harp King (6x10", 100 watts)
Sonny Jr. I (4x8", 20-30 watts depending on tube set-up)
Sonny Jr. I with extension cab (4x8")
Sonny Jr. II (6x8", 40 watts)
Fender Bassman reissue with tube rectifier and other lower gain
tubes (4x10", 45 watts)
Peavey Classic 50 (4x10", 50 watts)=20
Vibrolux (2x10" Oxford's, 35 watts)
Gibson GA-20 (1x10")
Fender Princeton Reverb (1x10")
National (Alnico 10")
Orange no name amp that looks like an old Valco (1x10")
Fender Blues Jr. (1x10")
Fender Champ (1x8")
Fender Super Champ (1x8")
Harmony H1618 (?)
All of the large amps were placed on the floor in a large semi-circle. I (David Barrett) first went through and quickly dialed out all of the amps. I set each amp to a moderate volume, not too loud but loud enough for good tone. Everybody stood back about 20 feet and listened as I played through each amp for about 30 seconds. I used a Bb harp and a Green Bullet mic with an R44D controlled magnetic cartridge, no resistor.
All of the amps sounded great, they all just had their own sound. Here were our initial thoughts of the amps at first run.
Sonny Jr. II: Good bass response with good cut. A very unique sounding
amplifier.
Harp King: Sounded good but we felt that it needed to be turned up
before we could judge.
Fender Bassman Reissue: We felt this amp sounded the best from the
entire group but we felt that it needed to be turned up.
Sonny Jr. I: Sounded good but we couldn't get as much volume out of the amp compared to the other three we just tried.
Peavey Classic 50: Sounded good but was a bit cleaner than the others.
Vibrolux: Sounded good but was under powered compared to other =
amps. Bass response wasn't very strong.
After this first quick run through, we went back and turned the amps up and tried some different microphones and harmonicas. Here is the general final response of the group.
The Fender Vibrolux and Sonny Jr. I were too under-powered for stage use without micing the amplifier and running it through a monitor system. This is OK, but we as a group wanted an amp that was loud enough to walk up to a gig and go without worrying about the quality of the monitor system or sound person's skill. The Peavey Classic 50 sounded good, but we felt it was just a bit too clean or transparent (remember we're talking VERY small differences) for our tastes.
Our first general response was that the Fender Bassman had the best over-all sound, but only sounded good at volume four or above. It had great bass response, presence, and cut on the high end without being to distorted. The Sonny Jr. II was plenty loud for gigging and had great bass response. The Sonny amps really have a unique tone and sound great at low volumes.
After bringing the power up on the Harp King it was very evident that it was the loudest harp amp on earth. We turned this amp up so loud that everything was shaking in the store. We had ZERO feed back when dialed in. For an amp that you never have to worry about if you're loud enough, this amp wins hands down. The tone was great. The EQing of this amp is not like the Sonny Jr. or Fender in that you turn the bass on ten and treble to zero; the amp has a much broader spectrum of tone that can be created.
The three winners were the Sonny Jr. II, the Harp King, and the Fender Reissue Bassman. Keep in mind that the Sonny Jr. I and the other amps also sounded very nice but they would need to me miced.
All of the small amps were placed on the stage in a large semi-circle. I first went through and quickly dialed out all of the amps. I set each amp as loud as they could go without too much breakup. I then mic'd each amp and ran it through a PA system so we could judge the tone quality through the PA.
The Fender Champ sounded good but had no bass response.
The Fender Super Champ sounded surprisingly bigger than it was; bass response was still lacking.
The Fender Blues Jr. sounded nice as well but could have broken up a bit more; it had better bass, in general a good sounding amp.
The National sounded really nice. It broke up very well sounding really
nice with the crystal mics.
The Orange no name amp sounded nice as well. All of these amps to this point broke up well, had good presence,
but were not adequate in bass response.
The Fender Princeton Reverb broke up well; had great presence and top end; and great bass response.
The Gibson was just as good as the Fender Princeton but had much more of a tubby bass.
The general consensus was that they all broke up well, but the Fender Princeton and Gibson sounded just as good as our favorite large amps.
David adds:
Here is my own personal opinion. I am a classic Chicago blues player in
the vein of Little Walter with a West Coast twist, like Rod Piazza. I
want warm bubbly bass response with strong presence and good breakup
without too much distortion. I like the Sonny Jr. tone but I feel it is
a bit too distorted for me, but I believe that a bit too much is a better than not enough. I like the Sonny Jr. II a lot. The Harp King is great because of its volume level and its different tone. The Bassman is my favorite general sounding amp when turned up; it doesn't sound good at low volume. The Sonny Jr. amps are nice because they sound good at any volume. My favorite amp out of the entire bunch is the Fender Princeton Reverb. It sound fantastic when miced.
Each and every amp sounded so nice, it's definitely a personal choice when it comes to these amps. The Harp King and Sonny Jr. are just different sounding amps, I would buy both. I love the Princeton but I don't want to fight feedback on stage. For the smaller more quiet gigs I will still use the Princeton. For the larger gigs I will use the Harp King or Sonny Jr. II. Since I don't have $3,500 to plop down on two amps, I will borrow my students when the need arises until I can buy them for myself. If cash is a factor (when isn't it) the Bassman was in the top three and a GREAT amp. If you purchase a Bassman you do have to change the tubes around to dial in the sound.
What can I recommend for the player who wants to buy an amp? I highly recommend the amps that we chose as the best amps. When at all possible taste test the amps before you buy them; the little differences in tone make a big difference.
Thanks, Dave!