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Post subject: Re: Help Me Pick a Portable Clean Amp.
Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2019 8:22 pm
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What about a Bassman?

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If it's too heavy, you're back to a unicorn hunt. :D


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Post subject: Re: Help Me Pick a Portable Clean Amp.
Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 11:15 am
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Bassman is WAY too big and I'm not going to spend that kind of cash just to stay in clean land. My Orange amps cover the dirt side for me.

Anyway. I picked up the Pro Jr today and for it sounds even better at home than it did in the store. I ran my each of my guitars through it and don't think I've ever heard an amp that represents each guitar so well. I also discovered that my LPS isn't my hottest guitar :) It's my old Washburn with a P94 in it.

I'm really digging it. Quite a surprise TBH. Walk in to buy a Princeton, walk out with a Pro Jr :D


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Post subject: Re: Help Me Pick a Portable Clean Amp.
Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 2:07 pm
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Pro Jr has a single tone knob right? That's a very cool choice. Doubt you will ever be disappointed. If you need more bottom in one venue or another, the best solution might be a mic to put it through a PA and add EQ there.


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Post subject: Re: Help Me Pick a Portable Clean Amp.
Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 6:30 pm
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ghost_of_strings wrote:
I'm probably going to get tomatoes thrown at me here, but .... have you considered a Hot Rod Deluxe?
:lol: :lol:
I like the picture you paint.

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Post subject: Re: Help Me Pick a Portable Clean Amp.
Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 10:13 pm
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Yea single tone and volume. It was the most open sounding (imo) of the amps infested.

For anything louder than weighting or noodling I mic it through a Bose L1M2, and all the venues in my area have systems so I'm good on that front.


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Post subject: Re: Help Me Pick a Portable Clean Amp.
Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 9:00 am
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Here is an amplifier that is not widely known.
It's light and it does have a good clean sound.
It is a channel switching amp so it does more than just clean but it is also inexpensive.
It's a head and cab style amp but the cab has a cool feature that may interest you; a built in attenuator.

Panama Shaman Amplifier

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Post subject: Re: Help Me Pick a Portable Clean Amp.
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 8:45 am
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Just wanted to report in.

I played the amp for around 2 hours yesterday and it's sounding wonderful. With the volume set to 3, it's still clean and at the point where it's too loud for solo practice. I also had it running after midnight set down around 1 and it sounded great. I'm shocked at the tone coming out of this little amp, not to mention how much low end it puts out. It's funny that I've been chasing high headroom amps for so long and didn't even think to look at this one. Can you believe I almost bought a twin... TWICE? :)

Thank you for listening.

Remain Joyful.


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Post subject: Re: Help Me Pick a Portable Clean Amp.
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2019 8:25 am
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Quite a rollercoaster. I'm a different name on the Orange forum, where I first encountered your Quixotic quest for clean to pair with your OTT.

So the Duncan PowerStage 170 didn't get it, but a 15W Pro Jr does?

I never would have thought of suggesting the PJr. I really thought you'd need a Grateful Dead class multikilowatt MacIntosh/JBL rig to get the sounds you were describing.

The PJr is a criminally overlooked amp. Super simple direct signal path -- great cleans and screams when cranked.

But since the quest never really ends -- if that's the type of clean you've actually been looking for, Marshall JTM45's and JMP's are wonderful clean platforms. Their cranked sounds get all the attention, but their cleans are lusciously clear. I would have suggested them last year if I had known a PJr had the sound you were looking for.

(Some people say the Pro Jr is the most Marshall-ish sounding Fender.)

SRV just about always had at least one Marshall on stage. Either a Club&Country combo, or a Major 200W head with a 412 (EVM12Ls in both). But he used them for their cleans.

As I recall, we all thought you wanted a hifi sort of clean. So probably didn't suggest tweed Fenders. The early Marshalls were pretty tweed-ish in many ways, as is the PJr. The tweed Bandmaster 3x10 combo might blow your mind.

8)


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Post subject: Re: Help Me Pick a Portable Clean Amp.
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2019 11:15 pm
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Fellow Orange lurker hey? Figured I would quit harassing them for a spell.

The 170 didn't have enough sparkle. The best I tried was the ISP Stealth, but the power supply noise issue ruined it.

I didn't expect the pro either. It has some mojo that's for sure. Decided going for a beauty lower volume sound is way easier than high headroom high weight.

I had the guitar player in our band test it out last jam. He usually plays a blues jr, with a OCD and spark. Literally our jaws dropped when he cranked it to 5 and kicked in both pedals. Super punchy and present. His amp has more low end of course, but nowhere near the punch. I'm only using it for cleans but nice to know it can roar.


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Post subject: Re: Help Me Pick a Portable Clean Amp.
Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2019 8:07 am
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if you ever do want to get to that "warm and fuzzy" territory, you can still probably achieve that with a good compressor and a Klon Centaur (clone).

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Post subject: Re: Help Me Pick a Portable Clean Amp.
Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2019 1:30 pm
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ghost_of_strings wrote:
if you ever do want to get to that "warm and fuzzy" territory, you can still probably achieve that with a good compressor and a Klon Centaur (clone).

Image

I'm very keen to know how you use a compressor with a Klon clone. I have a Fredric Effects Golden Eagle which is, supposedly an exact copy of the Klon circuit. I find it lives up to the Klon reputation but only when there is at least a little bit of tube breakup on the amp. On a completely clean amp I think it is what I call a lifeless hard tone. Can a compressor overcome this? My amp is a DRRI.


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Post subject: Re: Help Me Pick a Portable Clean Amp.
Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2019 7:52 pm
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The compressor sits early in the signal chain. A compressor limits volume above the specified threshold. So if, for example, your low E strings kind of takes over whenever you play an open note, the compressor will limit that overly loud note so you can hear the other notes in an open E chord. Just one example.

The klon can be used as a clean boost. You have a 15 watt amp. Yes it sounds clean now, but if you throw enough volume at the input, most tube amps will break up at least a little. Especially low wattage amps. What you're doing is using up all the clean headroom until it's gone. So the sound wave gets lopped off at the top and bottom. The result is a square sound wave which is what causes natural distortion.

By combining a clean boost and a compressor, you push a nice volume-balanced signal into that clean headroom area.

Or at least that is my understanding of how it works. I know for sure the combination of a Klon, a tube amp and a compressor is magical to my ear. If you already have these things lying around, you can always experiment some rainy afternoon.


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Post subject: Re: Help Me Pick a Portable Clean Amp.
Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2019 12:51 am
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ghost_of_strings wrote:
So the sound wave gets lopped off at the top and bottom. The result is a square sound wave which is what causes natural distortion.


This aural phenomenon is known as "clipping" and it's not particularly pleasing to the ear.

The best-sounding "natural distortion" is produced by cascaded gain stages, each on the *verge* of overdrive. The input signal becomes compressed and saturated with each increase in amplitude, producing a plethora of over-driven harmonics. Thus was coined the term "harmonic distortion". Beware of IM (intermodulation) distortion though -- like clipping, it's not very musical.

Arjay

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