Small(er) Tube Amps

chops wrote:

thanks mcreadyisgod.
the idea of getting a combo amp now, then adding another cabinet when the money/need arises sounds pretty appealing right now. it offers the flexibility to uprgrade in the future without spending *too* much money now.

and since i have no shame left in regards to lack of amp knowledge:
1) what is the difference in sound between a solid back and open back?
2) what exactly IS a half stack (is there a 'full stack')?
3) do different speakers offer different sounds, or just better/worse quality? that is to say, are some speakers/brands suited to different types of music? i once had someone try to convince me marshall cabinets didn't have marshall speakers in them per se, and it really the amp that was important. i guess what i mean, is picking a cabinet purely based on size and cost?

thanks again.

1.) Having an open back one allows the sound to be fuller and projected more openly. If there's a cover on the back, it's almost muffled. It's all about taste

2.) Half stack is a head with one speaker cab. Full is a head with two speaker cabs (either side by side or on top of eachother). I've seen some giant stacks with FOUR cabs.

3.) Different speakers are designed for different things. Blackwidows(Peavey) are used for Bass. You can swap speakers out of amps and cabs, too. I know many people do this and have been known to get a better sound. Try out different cabs. Like I said, my roc pro is going through an actual bass amp that I'm simply using as a cab. This allows me to get a HUGE low end and have the luxury of adjusting the EQ's on the cab itself. With a normal cab, you don't have this, instead you control everything from the head. (If you have two cabs and one head, the one head will EQ and control both cabs).

I hope this helps and you're not confused. I'm not as good as Paco, McCready, Ian, at explaining but I've learned a LOT from them so I'm trying to explain the best I can.

do try out an Orange Rockerverb if you get a shot too since you're shopping the Tiny Terror you might be more pleased with the RV Veddy nice.

I'm loving this amp discussion we haven't had a good one in a while.

Pacomc79 wrote:

do try out an Orange Rockerverb if you get a shot too since you're shopping the Tiny Terror you might be more pleased with the RV Veddy nice.

I'm loving this amp discussion we haven't had a good one in a while.

To me when "pushed" the Rockerverb is more useful then the tiny terror. Tiny Terror gets the typical EL84 fizz going when pushed hard.

Man, I wanna try out a Tiny Terror. Unfortunatley, I think I'm done buying gear for a while:(

I wanted an Orange cab for so long when I was in the market for a head but I wondered why they were so darn expensive...what's so great about them?

xtremehardy388 wrote:

I wanted an Orange cab for so long when I was in the market for a head but I wondered why they were so darn expensive...what's so great about them?

I'm with you, there... I would LOVE to have an Orange 2x12 cab with Greenbacks. VERY pretty, great sound.

There are two factors in the expense of the Orange cabs. First, they're incredibly well-built. In fact, they're probably over-built. Thick wood in the construction, finger-jointed. The orange tolex and the super-nice grillcloth are factors, as are the speakers, which aren't some blank-label Eminence, but real honest-to-mccready Celestions.

Factor two is the exclusivity. They charge that much because they can. Marshall cabs have the functional quality of the Orange cabs, but are slightly cheaper.

Avatar cabs are good enough for most of us, as are most other cabs out there. In fact, you can probably find some older Peavey and Crate cabs that are really well-built cabinets, and then load them with whatever speakers you want, for cheaper than getting a true Marshall or Orange cab.

As for Novawind... Paco answered your question as best anyone can already. Without taking off the back and having a peek, there's no great way to assess which speakers are in your cab. Unless they were swapped by a previous owner, they're almost certainly Celestions, but which model I couldn't say. If it was me, the curiosity would kill me... I'd be yanking the back off first thing.

The Rockerverb was a great amp the one time I plugged into it... I was trying out a really noisy Tele with P-90's, so I can't give it a full eval (and it was definitely the guitar, I plugged into a few different amps) but it had a great tone, good cleans and good drive. In fact, it was about the first EL-34 amp I've ever been interested in. And the drive channel was very usable, I thought (I'm normally a stompbox guy with single-channel amps). I still haven't found an EL-84 amp that I can get behind... there are some people who use them well, but they don't respond to my playing. 5881 or die! Sovtek to the end!