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Do amps ever come back in style?

#44
el murdoque said:
Attention, controversial opinion:
I think amps in general are on the way out.



The future will hold a lot more pedalboard / modeler setups straight into FOH, with FRFR monitor systems in the rehearsal room for those who don't want to go down the IEM route.
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ive been reading this opinion consistently for many years now and I still doubt it.
 
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#45
As a 50 yr veteran of bass playing. Things have gone from low power/big and heavy to higher power/small and light weight to IEM ampless. The only amp I've seen come and go and come back in style is the SVT. I don't see amps like classic SWR or TRACE coming back into style because smaller and lighter current amps can do exactly what they did.

The only person in the band that gives a crap about any of this is the bass player. (jmho)
 
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#48
Not this one. ARB solid state 150w covered in red flocked material into a Sound City folded 18 cab. Now, those boot cut corduroys, cowhide belt, velour shirt and suit vest? Never out of style.
JB danny Bonaduce.jpg
 
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#49
scowboy said:
I still use an Eden Navigator as my primary IEM preamp. The EQ and the compressor are worth its weight. I also add a touch of drive for some light dirt.
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So do I. One of these days when I get a good price ( read, steal) on a good class D stereo head, I’ve going to replace that WT-1250 40lb stereo power amp in the same rack. Great amp, rock solid headroom for days, buttttt..it’s a beast.
 
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#50
matti777 said:
For the most part I think it is nostalgia with the exception of a few amps. If we are honest many of these amps would do the job as they did back in the day. That said I would love to have the Aguilar DB680/728 combo just because :)
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This is sort of how I think about this - my first combo was an Acoustic 136 - 110 watts RMS, 15", folded horn, two channels, came with casters, a very nice vinyl cover, and weighed 75 lbs. However, it was underpowered for my band needs, so I bought a 4-12" extension cab, plus it was miked. Fast forward to today, I'm 64, and recently bought a Rumble 500, which replaced my heavy, Ampeg combo. You all know the specs, plus at 36 lbs, half the weight of the old Acoustic. Do I miss the old Acoustic, not really, but do I think it could hold up at a specific gig? Absolutely. Did it serve me well - hell yes! After the 136, I eventually played through a 370 head, SVT bottom, so yeah, probably a bit of a different perspective for us "old timers."
 
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#52
Benj-jammin said:
My guess, is that there are a lot of us old time Acoustic Control owners who would respectfully disagree with your premise that these rigs are "over-inflated" into a cult status. There's a reason why so many of us owned them, and there were countless of pro's, in particular, who used the 371 and 360/361 on stage. My personal favorite rig that I played through was a 370 head paired with an SVT 8-10." As much as I liked the 301 bottom, I just found that this combo kicked royal ass. I couldn't afford the SVT head at the time, pus, the 370 head was close to 4X lighter. Now if you want to compare the "old stuff" to todays technology, lighter heads, cabs, circuitry, etc., well, that's another story...…….but, some things never go out of style. Now byacey, I do have a question - you're saying that you own one (I'm assuming an Acoustic?), but you don't find anything special about it. How come you do, in fact, own one? Just curious.
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The price was right. When I was about 18, I bought it from a technician that wasn't able to fix it, for the princely sum of $25.00. It sat in my basement for a year or two before I got around to rebuilding it. I then used it for playing jobs for the next 30 years or so. My personal experience was that it sounded fine and was reliable, but I was never enamored by the sound. There were many other amps that I played through that sounded just as good, or better. Having worked on hundreds of amps, I didn't find anything special about it inside, or out, or soundwise.
 
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#53
Sunn is the best example. At one point in the late 80s early 90s it was dirt cheap and it seemed like everybody’s Uncle who played back in the day had a solid state Sunn amp in their garage. A lot of cool bands picked up on them because they were big/loud/cheap at the time, and now they are changing hands for far more money than they should.
 
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#55
Benj-jammin said:
This is sort of how I think about this - my first combo was an Acoustic 136 - 110 watts RMS, 15", folded horn, two channels, came with casters, a very nice vinyl cover, and weighed 75 lbs. However, it was underpowered for my band needs, so I bought a 4-12" extension cab, plus it was miked. Fast forward to today, I'm 64, and recently bought a Rumble 500, which replaced my heavy, Ampeg combo. You all know the specs, plus at 36 lbs, half the weight of the old Acoustic. Do I miss the old Acoustic, not really, but do I think it could hold up at a specific gig? Absolutely. Did it serve me well - hell yes! After the 136, I eventually played through a 370 head, SVT bottom, so yeah, probably a bit of a different perspective for us "old timers."
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i agree. I guess you have to grow up with the stuff to understand it, and that goes for with what is available now that we didn’t grow up with. I think that “home sound” is engrained in all of us.

One of the big questions I have, if size and weight wasn’t such an important factor as it is today (and not discount the obvious significant advantages) would have things have changed much?
 
#59
el murdoque said:
Attention, controversial opinion:
I think amps in general are on the way out.



The future will hold a lot more pedalboard / modeler setups straight into FOH, with FRFR monitor systems in the rehearsal room for those who don't want to go down the IEM route.
Click to expand...

I know conceptually how this works (IEM's) and have seen big touring bands using them who have extensive monitor mixing (like a dedicated guy with a dedicated console just mixing monitors) but in a more casual/smaller setting exactly how do you hear the drums when you are going straight into the PA using IEM's?

Analogeezer
 

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