Got a special treat for you guys. I asked Rick Brantley of "All These Sounds" studio to write a tone blog for me on the four amps most used at his studio. He was telling me how these four can do most of what he ever needs.... so here is him talking about it in his own words... this is brilliant... in my humble opinion.
Jim Z
Now... Here is Rick
One “disclaimer”… as has been said before, using words to describe “sound” is somewhat akin to describing what you see to a person born blind. It falls VERY short of the actual experience. I’m definitely NOT the most knowledgeable or “ linguistically articulate” (can I even SAY that???!!!) authority on amps, guitars, and tone, but I’m the one given the job this time around, so I’ll do the best I can! I’ve tried to include info. as accurately as possible, but I’ll certainly defer to those more knowledgeable on the subject than I, where they offer corrections to my misinformation!
So, my buddy Jimmy Z. has asked me to write about the 4 amps that get the most “mileage” here at the studio (AllTheseSounds Music, www.atsounds.com). Well, then, let’s get to it!
My “fav four” are the following: A Marshall DSL 201 with a 25 watt- 12 inch “Greenback” speaker, a Vox AC15 from the 80’s with a 12” bulldog speaker, a 1968 Fender Princeton Reverb with a 10” Jensen blue-label speaker, and lastly, an Orange ad10 also with a 10” Jensen blue-label.
Why are THESE particular amps my favorites, you ask? Well, we’ll get to that, but first maybe I should shed some background on amps in general…
All four of these amps are low-wattage combo amps. As a studio engineer (and mediocre guitar player), I’m a big believer in the whole “Small amp = Big Sound” school of thought. What that means is the following:
1) most amps have a “sweet spot” where they sound best.
2) in the VAST majority of cases, that sweet spot is found when you run the amp fairly LOUD.
3) that being the case, if you crank a 50 watt or 100 watt amp up to achieve it’s “sweet spot”, you are likely to
a. lose your hearing,
b. piss off your neighbors/wife/parents/etc, and
c. have a REALLY hard time locating where to put a microphone in order to capture that sound because the amp is so freaking loud!
4) Unless you have a REALLY BIG room to track in, a high wattage amp is also going to overdrive the room. What that means is that your microphone, unless placed RIGHT ON THE GRILL, is going to pick up too much of the reflected sound from the walls, floor, and ceiling, TOO SOON, as opposed to the direct sound from the amp’s speakers. A concept called “early reflections” in recording. If these early reflections are too many/too soon, it will yield a muddy, or incoherent “tone”. Don’t get me wrong, you WANT some of the room tone, but a lot of smaller rooms found in “consumer studios” sound BAD. A bad sounding room doesn’t really beneficially effect a great sounding guitar and amp combo.
So… one of the “secrets” to recording great gtr. tones is to use quieter amps that don’t overdrive the room. The 4 amps mentioned have the following wattages:
1) Marshall DSL 201- 20 watt
2) Vox AC15- 15 watts
3) Princeton Reverb- 12 watts
4) Orange ad10- 15 watts
Don’t get me wrong, a 12-20 watt amp can get pretty stinking loud. If the amp’s circuitry is even reasonably efficient, the amp will get loud. That’s why The Edge uses a 30 Watt amp (Vox AC 30) (actually a few of them!) to play hundred-thousand seat stadiums!
OK, on to specifics about the individual amps…
1) Marshall DSL 201:
a. I love this amp! Marshall is known for it’s Rock N’ Roll tone. The amp you always hear about is the plexi. It was a late 1960’s 100 watt (and there was a 50 watt version as well) BEAST that is instantly recognizable on various Hendrix, Van Halen, AC/DC, Foreigner, etc… records from the 60’s-80’s. My main problem with the plexi is that it was (and is) TOO FREAKING LOUD !! It sounds wonderful, but they’ll make you deaf in a heartbeat. I know because I used to own one. 1970 with only a single volume control.
The DSL 201’s clean channel has a good bit of the plexi’s grit and bite when driven hard, WITHOUT THE HARSH TOP END that so many Marshall amps are plagued with.
It’s clean tones are (when compared to the other 3 amps I’ll mention here ) a little thin and generic, but are also uncharacteristically (for Marshall) “chimey”. They also preserve the guitar’s detail fairly well. Again, NOT harsh like so many Marshalls that I’ve played over the years.
The DSL also (again, unlike the other 3 amps listed here) has a 2nd, more modern, “gain” channel. It’s way over the top from the start for any type of “vintage” tones, but if you’re doing heavy rock/punk/or metal, it’s WAAAYYY useful right from the get-go. It’s my go-to amp for distorted tones for pop-punk tunes.
2) Vox AC15 (circa 1980’s)
a. OK, I love this amp also!!! My buddy Dave Eberhardt musta’ been hittin’ the rock too hard when he sold me this amp!! (just kidding! Dave is completely drug-free!)
These things sound beefier and punchier than Marshall amps. They have a more prominent low mid range to them that REALLY sounds great when you start to open them up. They GROWL….That’s the best way I can describe their overdriven tone!
Their clean tones are also very “bell-like and warm”. The classic examples of the Vox AC series amps are U2 and the Beatles. Listen to the CD “ The Joshua Tree” by U2. Probably one of the greatest examples of Vox AC amp sounds ever recorded. Many of the early Beatles clean tones (“Saw Her Standing There”) are a Vox AC 50 head… (the 50 watt version of the AC series). These amps, for whatever reason, sound particularly great when using electric 12 string guitars, BTW.
One other thing that deserves mentioning is that the AC series amps have (arguably) the best tremolo circuit of any amplifier ever made. It’s fantastic, and though different in character than a Fender tremolo, is equally useful and musical.
3) Fender Princeton Reverb –1968
a. Maybe I should stop saying “I love this amp!”, huh? ‘Cause guess what?? Yep, you got it! This thing sounds great.
What vintage Fender amps are renowned for is their clean tone. (Think Jimi Hendrix/Stevie Ray Vaughn/ Eric Johnson/Lynyrd Skynyrd/John Mayer/etc….). “Glassy”, “Chimey”, “bell-like” are a few adjectives that I’d use to describe it. Very clean, yet VERY warm and natural sounding. Very articulate.
When overdriven, it’s my experience that Fender amps produce a very “loose” sounding distortion. Almost “sloppy” sounding, but in a good way! These are NOT the amps you’d choose for tight, palm-muted, “Chugga’, Chugga’” rhythm parts! But if you like silky smooth “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!!” distorted solos and rhythms, this is definitely an amp lineage that you’ll want to try.
One of the things I’ve gotten to do over the years is play a LOT of different Fender amps. I definitely love the Tweeds (50’s) and Black-Faces (Late 50s-early 60s), but they’re VERY expensive. In ’68, the first production year after CBS bought Fender, word has it that they were still using the excess parts that FMI/FEI had been using, and the circuit topology of the Princeton Reverb didn’t change, therefore the PR’s that were made that year were essentially “black-face” models, with a silver grill-cloth and aluminum trim piping (only found on the 1968 models). I’ve had the opportunity to A/B this amp against earlier “black-face” Princeton Reverbs, and they sound remarkably similar. (as similar as 2 different amps of the same model are going to sound!) Fortunately, they are a good deal less expensive than their tweed and black-face counterparts!
Lastly, the PR’s have a very useful tremolo (think the “James Bond” theme, or any of the classic 60’s “surf-music”), as well as the best spring reverb, IMO, of any of the “standard” amp lines.
4) Orange ad10
a. OK, yep, love it too!
This is a pretty unique little amp. The ad series were usually built as 15 or 30 watt combo, with one or two 12 “ speakers. This amp was previously owned by Robbie Reider, and is one of a few “ad” amps built with a 10” speaker instead of a 12”. The cabinet dimensions are a touch smaller than the ad15, and, overall, it is a slightly brighter sounding amp.
What these amps do extremely well is give you articulation in your tone. Be it clean or overdriven. That means that it is very sensitive to your playing dynamics, and allows for a lot of the “pick” sound to come through in your tone.
The clean tone of this amp is difficult for me to put into words. It has the natural quality of a Fender amp, yet has a much more pronounced mid-range. Not a “honk-ey” tone, and certainly not a nasal tone. Just very “in-your-face” without being harsh or strident. I LOVE it, personally. It stands out in a dense mix effortlessly, and responds to adding delay/modulation/etc… excellently. The best example of this amp’s tone (both clean and overdriven) is on the Fray’s 1st CD release. The song “Over My Head (cable car)” comes to mind.
The character of the distorted tones of this amp are at the heart of a lot of Indy Pop Cds that have been released in the last 5 years or so. This amp has a very “edgy” sounding overdrive to it. Somewhat reminiscent of a Marshall with a little more “fizzy” top end. I find it REALLY unpleasant when the amp begins to distort heavily, but when you JUST get the amp to start “grinding”, it sounds fantastic! It definitely takes some gentle “tickling/tweaking” of the controls to find the sweet spot of these amps. Again, the best recent recording of this amp’s distorted character is on the Fray’s 1st CD.
Last thing I’ll mention about this amp is that it is a great amp to use for layering guitar sounds. Because of it’s unique voicing, I find that it “stacks” well with either a Marshall or Fender amp when you’re going for the “wall-of-sound” guitar thang! It can also work well with a Vox, but sometimes shares some of the same midrange frequencies, so you have to proceed with a little bit of caution. I realize that most of this applies to recording, but, as a guitar player who (fortunately) has regular access to these amps, I frequently will play in stereo when I play live. I will choose a pair of amps that compliment each other tonally, while still sounding different. This tends to give you a much more interesting tone, and really reacts well when used with stereo effects devices. Of course, it’s a lot more to carry, a lot more to trouble-shoot if something goes wrong, AND, if you’re not playing through a stereo PA system, it negates the “cool factor” of stereo delay/choruses/verb/etc…. for the audience. But once you’ve played that way, it’s really hard to go back to mono. It’s somewhat akin to giving up the ability to see in color, and accepting only seeing in black & white, I’d imagine!
Well, OK, that’s all I got! I hope that something here helps someone at some point to express what God’s placed uniquely in their heart. After all, THAT’S what music is all about. Bringing a “Unique Beauty” to this world. Cheers!
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