Since many of us have nothing better to do except dreaming of gear because of “social distancing”.......If money was no object, (and neither was carrying your own amps and gear,) would you rather play a vintage amplifier (possibly large, heavy, and possibly less reliable with fragile tubes) OR a modern amplifier (probably smaller, lighter weight, and more reliable)? Or, do you have a thing for early vintage solid state amps? Which model would you choose. And WHY?
I searched and could not find an earlier post about this. (But, I’m kind of new here.) Please don’t insult anyone else for their choices - Just explain yours, and why you like it. I’ll go first....I like an old vintage Marshall Major 200 watt with a Marshall 8 x10” cabinet, or Ampeg SVT with 8 x10”s. I have the Marshall rig - but I am still dreaming of the Ampeg.
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The first amp I had was a 1966 Fender Bassman (50-watt all tube blackface amp). I bought it new in 1966. Was a great amp in the day, but when I started playing in a touring nightclub group playing 5-nights a week, 50-weeks a year, it just couldn't keep up with the rest of the group. Guitarist and keys both bought Vox Super Beatle amps and effectively buried my poor Bassman.
Then, while we were playing in Lincoln, Nebraska for two weeks, I traded in my Bassman and bought a Standel piggy-back amp MCIIB/SAM30B. That amp was crazy loud and I was never asked to turn up ever again. Like the acoustic 360/361 the head of the Standel was just the preamp and the amplifiers were in the speaker cab. Yes, I said amplifiers plural. That cab was a bass reflex design where the sound coming out the back of the speakers was channeled around to the 4 round ports vertically stacked next to the speakers. Come to find out each CTS 15" speaker was in its own compartment and powered by its own 100-watt amp. How's that for different? - two 100-watt amps each driving a 15" CTS speaker. Speakers were perfectly matched to the amps and that amp was actually louder than the acoustic 360/361 and the Ampeg SVT of the time.
Here's a shot where you can see a good part of that Standel amp behind me and next to the guitar player's Super Beatle. It was a heavy amp but it had coasters and I typically had to move it just once every two weeks. And yes that is the '65 Jazz that I bought in '66. I believe this shot is from 1972:
And the bad news is that all my musical gear including my '65 Jazz Bass, my Standel amp, my two Shure mics, and one of my heavy mic stands were all stolen when our house was burglarized in 1976. I really liked that amp and I would love to have it again. Because to the reflex design and the porting, it was easily twice as deep or more than that Super Beatle amp next to it. You should have seen me load it into my 1969 VW bug!
Since then I've gone through a lot of different amps and cabs and I've finally arrived at something that I really like and that cures my GAS...well may still have amplifier GAS...
Below is my current set up. I am using an Eden WT500/800 driving either a DNS-210, which I use for indoor venues, or a DNS-410, which I use for outdoor and outdoor festivals. I have never used both at once although this picture is from the first gig that I played with my DNS-210. Stacked it on top of my DNS-410 because I wasn't sure the 210 would cover a venue of that size (not quite large but bordering on it) and I could unplug the 210 and plug in the 410 in a matter of seconds. The 210 was more than enough. In fact it was so loud in my ears that I had to move it over almost 3-feet and forwards a bit to get out of its 60° cone of dispersion. I now use a $20 amp stand instead of a $1,000 cab to hold that 210 up.
The combination of that Eden amp with David's new DNA cabs is spectacular. It's super clear, clean, full, articulate and LOUD! Using just the DNS-410 on the bottom, I get asked at Outdoor Festivals to turn down if I run the master up to 10:30. The amp will put out 800-watts, but I've never come close using either cab.
I must confess though that I do have GAS for David's DNA-800 amp. It has the same amount of power than my Eden amp does along with a much better compressor, but it weighs only 4.8-lbs instead of the 36-lbs. my Eden amp weighs in its rack.
