Are the big amps history?

[bluesblaster]

I wonder if sometime in the future there will be get together shows to show off your antique big rigs, just to marvel at and appreciate the olden ways in much the way they have old farm machinery or old car shows

 

[Michael Schreiber]

Wow, beeindruckt!! Thems' some incredible basses !

Thank you! \m/

Yes, Michael, but YOU can get a Glockenlang to use for your Marleaux, or the incredible BassLab, oran Amazing KRISTALL, an out-of-this World LeFay, maybe a Soulbrotha by OFFGuitar design.

BassLab's in my hometown! Cool that you know them. Marleaux is also just a stone's throw from here

 

[Joe Ty]

...in Germany, we drive small cars, but play through big amps

I like your priorities, but I do enjoy my not so small German sedan.

 

[Joe Ty]

Yes, Michael, but YOU can get a Glockenlang to use for your Marleaux, or the incredible BassLab, oran Amazing KRISTALL, an out-of-this World LeFay, maybe a Soulbrotha by OFFGuitar design.

Wow, beeindruckt!! Thems' some incredible basses !

Then -you can drive around with them in some of the World's best-engineered cars too!

Yes, and those cars have not been "dumbed down" like mine has to meet American standards.

 

[Joe Ty]

Big Cabs?
I got your big cabs right here..
Cream at Whiskey a Go-Go 1967 (The night club h

Big Cabs?
I got your big cabs right here..
Cream at Whiskey a Go-Go 1967 (The night club holds maybe 100 people tops)

View attachment 1172458

Ginger Baker is playing the drum kit in the foreground. Who the h3ll are they opening for?

 

[JimmyM]

I currently play with an artist who agrees with you.
Lectured me on the "professionalism" of the big rig, all the while opening for bigger names that have zero amps onstage.

If those headliner bands stuck their heads into a fire, would you do it, too?

I wonder if sometime in the future there will be get together shows to show off your antique big rigs, just to marvel at and appreciate the olden ways in much the way they have old farm machinery or old car shows

Heh...you say that, and yet I see lots of local bands all over the country still using lead sled SS/hybrid amps and tube amps, especially now that you can find smokin' used deals on lead sled SS/hybrid amps. But in all fairness, if we were to look at growth potential of the different topologies' markets, lead sled SS and hybrid amps probably have the least potential now that micros have gained more acceptance. Notice I said "more" acceptance and not "widespread" acceptance. I still know plenty of folks who wouldn't give you a plugged nickel for the tiny amps. But as far as tube amps, I'm seeing more tube amps on local stages than I ever have since I started playing clubs in the mid-70's. Of course they're not selling at the rate of the micro stuff and schlep factor certainly enters into it to a degree, but I believe it's more because less expensive stuff sells better than expensive stuff. But if they weren't selling, Fender and Mesa wouldn't have re-entered the tube amp game after years with no tube amp options.

Note the gradual acceptance of smaller rigs on TB and all the discussions ultralight cabs and Class D's get nowadays. And yes, sad to say, classifieds everywhere are filled with large Iron gear we old farts treasured and yearned for when we were young. And yet in most music stores you still see Ampeg SVT's, Marshal stacks, Mesa stacks. It's becoming a mixed world tubers have to share with Class D and ultralight cabs.

My collection certainly has shaken out that way. Tubers and micros. Every time I use a rented SVT 4 Pro, I threaten to get one because I love the sound, which is in the same family but different from the tube amps and micros, but then I think if I'm going to use a 40 lb head, I'll bring my V4B

 

[bluesblaster]

Quite Frankly I think the IEM's will be the way of the future in live sound, but ya know I never thought I would see the resurrection of the Muscle car either, so there ya go. I traded my micro rig for the big Kustom beast, so hows that for irony ?

No plans to dump the Class D/bag end set up though. Not that crazy or in any hurry for a hernia operation.

 

[bobyoung53]

And there are a lot of gigs for which going smaller than an SVT/810 for the stage rig is a better fit—tonally, aesthetically, and/or practically.

The ONLY drawback I've ever seen on just about any gig with SVT's and similar amps is that some band mates hear with their eyes and complain usually before you even start playing, (usually guitar players who see you as competition). I bring one or two Ampeg B-15T cabs into very small rooms once in a while but the SVT head is always there. I have never played a gig where a smaller amp would have been better tonally than an SVT and that's what I care about most on a gig.

 

[JimmyM]

A strange coincidence that this thread came up over the past couple days. Well not really, since it comes up every week or two But I've got an original prog-jam instrumental band that's on the verge of playing out, and I spent the afternoon trying to decide what rig to bring to our gigs, bearing in mind the way multi-band venues hustle you on and off stage. I'm not using any clean sounds at all and I'll be micing my amp with no DI, so I'm going to use a tube amp slightly pushing the power tubes into drive. And while I'm pretty sure I can get away with using my little PF50T instead of the V4B (pushing an SVT that hard is right out), I don't think I'm going to have as much luck with the cab(s). Now do I need an 810e? Probably not, but man, my H810e smoked my little cabs and still gave me a volume that wouldn't get us canned. The little cabs do sound great and will be perfect for recording, but a single 12" or a 210 (or even a 410) just isn't a match. Haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm leaning hard toward the H810e.

 

[bobyoung53]

I still wish I had an SVT or Marshall Major stack....Just to have..It would most likely be sitting in my living room.
The Ashdown can do the bigger gigs and I could probably get assistance to move it,but as a recovered cardiac patient, I am not going to do all that myself.

I had a Marshall Major back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and sold it (like an idiot of course) and have been pricing them lately. I can't believe what people are asking for those heads, they make vintage SVT heads look cheap.

 

[JimmyM]

Quite Frankly I think the IEM's will be the way of the future in live sound, but ya know I never thought I would see the resurrection of the Muscle car either, so there ya go. I traded my micro rig for the big Kustom beast, so hows that for irony ?

Alanis agrees:

Anyway, IEM's already have pretty widespread acceptance, especially with singers and musicians who sing. But I still see a lot of bands using IEM's AND full backline.

 

[bluesblaster]

remember the giant wall of Marshall amps in the Heavy Metal hair band days ? most of it was empty boxes, it looks impressive but not particularly necessary. Maybe one out of ten cabs actually functioned.

 

[B-line]

Thank you! \m/



BassLab's in my hometown! Cool that you know them. Marleaux is also just a stone's throw from here

I played a "SOUL' quite a while back, and it blew me away with its weight & sound. Talk about forward design at BassLab..!. Amazing!
Andreas Kristall's SOLID is KILLin' me, and there are many fine other German-builds that I recall.
Last but not least, my German Thumb BO that I once had & stupidly let go- Fabulous,; andtheir Custom Shop brings me to tears!

 

[bobyoung53]

Indeed, I remember opening for Iron Butterfly - like in 1972-73. We walked into the hall and the backline had already been set up. I literally had the breath taken out of me....There, stage left was two 360/361 rigs....Oh my God!!!! Yeah, there were also Marshall guitar cabs as well, but who cares!?!?!

But remember, back then - the PA's were crap - But God!! Did we sound good that night!!!

I was a 16 year old kid, saw Ten Years After and The Stooges who opened for them in 1969 at a place called The Boston Tea Party. The stage was all Marshall heads and cabs, don't know how many each had but there were many little red lights on, I'd say conservatively each member had 4 heads and probably double that many cabs. Those bands sounded GOOD, it was probably the best sounding concert I've ever been to in my life. There are certainly a lot of advantages to the way sound is done nowadays but when a band really used those walls of sound back then, the sound was very clear and you really knew you were listening to a band not a big giant muddy stereo with everything mixed into the same speakers, talk about separation.

 

[JimmyM]

I was a 16 year old kid, saw Ten Years After and The Stooges who opened for them in 1969 at a place called The Boston Tea Party. The stage was all Marshall heads and cabs, don't know how many each had but there were many little red lights on, I'd say conservatively each member had 4 heads and probably double that many cabs. Those bands sounded GOOD, it was probably the best sounding concert I've ever been to in my life. There are certainly a lot of advantages to the way sound is done nowadays but when a band really used those walls of sound back then, the sound was very clear and you really knew you were listening to a band not a big giant muddy stereo with everything mixed into the same speakers, talk about separation.

Hey man, I've done occasional gigs recently where we all used amps and a vocals only PA and I think they're some of the best sounding gigs we've ever had.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Why? Because it's part of "the show". It's part of the draw.

You mean like these ridiculous.

Is your computer then made of 0's and 1's by 0's and 1's?

What good would you have of a bunch of something and nothing ordered in specific patterns without some kind of analog media to store and represent them to you in a meaningful way?

And finally, is time continuous to you or made up by a series of points in between which there is absolutely nothing?

There I a lot of space between atoms in a molecular structure too. What in the name of God is your point?

 

[jkalads]

As long as someone else has to lug it around I'm all for it. Otherwise I used IEM's and let the PA do all of the work.

View attachment 1172252

Look over your shoulder..

 

[Razman]

I wonder if sometime in the future there will be get together shows to show off your antique big rigs, just to marvel at and appreciate the olden ways in much the way they have old farm machinery or old car shows

Doesn't this describe a TB GTG?

 

[JimmyM]

Doesn't this describe a TB GTG?

You might get lucky if there's one vintage rig at those GTG's. They all seem to me like they're about micros and lightweight neo cabs.

 

[Buster Brown]

Big Cabs?
I got your big cabs right here..
Cream at Whiskey a Go-Go 1967 (The night club holds maybe 100 people tops)

View attachment 1172458

I actually believe that I was at that show.......