Finding The PERFECT Guitar Amp | What You NEED To Know

okay so we're back here at righteous guitars today my friend Ben Calhoun la do you guys really liked the how to find the perfect guitar video we did a few weeks ago so I thought a good follow up to that would be how to find the perfect amp and I actually think this is quite a bit more difficult than finding the perfect guitar because just a lot more complicated what wattage do you need what type of circuit are you looking for do you need master volume and effects loop the head versus a combo I mean there's a lot to consider here this is something that took me a really long time to figure out and I'm still learning and Ben has sold a lot of amps he knows a lot about amps so today we're gonna walk through and teach you how to find the perfect now where do we start well we start with trying to find out much like in the guitar video what kind of things you're doing with this and are you playing at home are you playing with the band how loud is your band kind of music does your band play what kind of features set do you need so we'll we'll look into those kind of things again asking a bunch of questions and what we're trying to discover is what kind of power is going to be suitable for example if you play in a really heavy band like in your drummer is just crushing it and you're playing with a lot of gain you're going to need more power just for headroom sake right so that you can hang with that situation as opposed if you're playing in americana bath finally as much power and you need it to be able to compress give away a little bit we break amps up into three main categories so even though there's a bunch of subcategories it really comes down to there are American amplifiers these are gonna be most notably like your fenders your boogie would technically fall into that typically that's gonna be six L 6 6 B six power tube amps right then you'll have your high power British amps most notably Marshall I watt known for their higher power and amplifiers almost always el34 2 again there's exceptions to that but those are pretty pretty much the common tab you can see there and then you have your lower power British amps which almost all this is to think like an AC style head like a box or a box is really the main one that pops - it pops to mine so if we can figure out what kind of voice you like then we can pretty easily take this room of a zillion amps and narrow down pretty quick much like we did with the guitars every amp out there that exists really does have its basis set in one of those three main categories so when I was first starting out when I was in music school at a m-- and I was looking for my first tube amp I wanted something to start digging with and to be able to use but I didn't know anything about amplifiers and I didn't have anyone to teach me so I did my own research and settled on a mesa triple rectifier with a 412 cab I thought that was the amp that I needed it took my friend Ben forehand to talk me out of that and ended up going with a fender style amp a port city pearl just a clean pedal platform and but I did the same thing a dual rectifier full stacks I went to for 12 gallons and it was yeah it was a practical it didn't suit what I was doing at all it was insanely heavy I actually bought a station wagon so that I could that was the reasoning behind alright so american-style amps most people think offenders was good reasonable the offender really did have a lot to do with the development of electric guitar amp and when you think offenders almost everybody thinks of like Deluxe's whether between or black-faced Deluxe's Princeton's twins by Rolexes your black face era amps which are going to be made in the 60s this was fenders answer to try to clean up and get a higher power out of their amplifiers as opposed to the tweed amp so they took that circuit and changed it in a way to give it more Headroom and stay cleaner and that is where the black bass sound kind of came from so when you're looking at those amps you can look at like a Princeton this is a very small it's a perfect bedroom aunt takes pedal as well it's a something like these guys it's got a 10-inch speaker and a next up you'd have your Deluxe's which those amps have a 66 tube and what you can expect out of that 66 too is it's a little squishy er it has some compression meaning that it's great for things like country and Americana and some kind of alt rock a little bit type of stuff Oh [Music] if you're looking for really tight super punchy cleans not so much that's when you're gonna get into your higher powered apps like pro reverbs and 20 you know the twin the venerable 90 pound monster that is a twin reverb those are 6l6 they're much higher powered amplifier so you also have your tweeds which we've got one of there for you to check out the difference between a tweeting of blackface from a player's perspective his tweets are more touch sensitive so as you play you have a more dynamic range they tend to break up way earlier because of the class of operation that they're in and in general they're just a more kind of rootsy raw kind of sound they're definitely fine [Music] [Applause] [Music] I can tell the walks outside oh yeah it's more aggressive I'm definitely more of a tweed guy than a standard deluxe guy I mean that milkman is amazing it sounds fantastic it just depends on what you're doing with it and if I didn't play any pedals in tour just like drive only yeah mocking of the to the milkman which is basically just a deluxe reverb right like a blackface deluxe yeah it's like a blacks placed two locks it's over built it's quieter the reverb nicer that's subjective in my opinion it's a better sounding deluxe with the option for the 6l6 ascent if you want to take up to 35 for right I think that milkman sort of blackface deluxe is more for the cleaner player somebody wants a little bit more Headroom maybe you like the real pristine clean sounds with the pretty reverbs and delays and you're getting some overdrive from pedals personally I'm a tweed guy I like the raunchy sort of overdrive that really mid-range II sort of hawkish kind of thing that tweeze do I love and I like the interactive volume controls which is kind of unique to the tweet deluxe circuit like that so low powered British most of us think of vlogs but other things you might think about as well or along the bad cat stuff matchless a lot of the Z dr. Z amps typically el84 power amplifiers characteristics these amplifiers the low-end response is drastically different it's way tighter there's not much compression on the bottom end mid range is much more peeps and the top end has with a lot of people called shiny so if you hear the word Chinese people are talking an AC style sound that's gonna be like the stones stuff have that kind of box type of thing going obviously like the edge the u2 thing that was all almost all box Brian May was like an AC 30 just cranked to 10 you know just falling apart sound awesome but it's a very different type of sound a lot of these amps will also use a different style of preamp too than any of the other amps that we look at that's the EF 86 the way that two reacts it has a lot more gain and I don't mean distortion that has a lot more gain available so it takes pedals in a way that's really nice right into the front of the amp you'll see that the Vox style and for the low powered British amp is kind of the generic go to like a praise and worship bands that's pretty much what most most praise worship positions are thought to use anyway because it has a great sound that cuts through and it doesn't invade any other areas of the mix and if you crank them they overdrive beautiful [Music] [Applause] [Music] can you hear what are you good yeah what's up should have brought earplugs man that was loud it was no way that amp is 23 was yeah no way broader than AC 20 which is a it's a classic AC style amp very very simple just a couple knobs couple switches it does incorporate power scaling this is a perfect example of an amplifier that's great if you practice at your house you can turn that power level way down get the tone you like everything turn power go all the way down set your pedal board up whatever get it sound how you want then when you get to the gate turn the power level up boom very easy solution for a player like that ii am is kind of the opposite that like it is not bedroom friendly at all that's what we're in here going but boy it's going to play that's a divided by 13 BTR 23 it's purportedly 23 watts yeah right no way no way that's 23 watts and this is a good example of an amplifier that does have a master volume it doesn't help it watch it this is not an app that you're gonna be dialing in at your house and then going to the gig this isn't one where you need to have a rehearsal area that you can play in a full volume to really get the full enjoyment out of it unless using the attenuator which obviously that would be a great solution for the samples to put one of those iron bands on it this is undeniably a see it has the chiming thing going on and then you plug into this and it's like Brian May just walked in the room which is funny because its prime rate is an incredible AC it's when we all wanted will do the Zeppelin thing really really well it'll do Tom Petty it'll do the stones all that kind of stuff incredibly well but that's a good example of two sides of the AC world and two different types of amps that for Rhett I'm not worried about you I know that you can play loud if you can put it the Box if you need to you've got the attenuator I'm not there's not any chance that I would show you in AC 20 even though that I have it it's a great am fantastic but for you I would absolutely show you some wannabe TR or maybe even a matchless something like that that would be more of the vibe that I'll go so high-powered British we think of things like Marshall you know a lot of modern versions might be like sirs SL series or freedman germino but all of them kind of share one thing in common these are amps they just kick you in the stomach I mean they're typically pretty powerful amplifiers a lot of times they're paired to a closed back or two for 12 cabinet or even two for foes like my first ridiculous experiment and they are known more for the driving kind of tones and this is where you get into pretty much any classic rock hero you have whether it's Hendrix Irv Zeppelin live now they did use boxes and some other stuff in studio but it's kind of personified with the big Marshalls ACDC you know list goes on and on and you go to high watts with like Pink Floyd guys like that it's a very distinct sound that we all know and if you want to rock honestly that's kind of the sound you know it's it's powerful it's punchy the bottom ends tight mid ranges is a little less pronounced toppings got a nice little sizzle to it but it hits really hard I mean it's a very distinct sound and it's pretty easy to tell if someone's into that because that that sound is evolved over the years starting with those other bands as I mentioned and then you get into van Halen famously as Marshalls Smashing Pumpkins if you move forward even more of that was jcm800 's and just keep going I mean the list just goes on long it's a very well known amp they're usually larger format usually very powerful amplifiers with a few exceptions that's the marshall they're the high-powered british [Music] all right all right we're going to the second channel then for this [Music] [Music] okay so we've covered the three basic types of amps now another thing to consider are different features and there's some common features that a lot of amps have nowadays that are useful things to look at things like master volume power scaling effects loops all that kind of stuff so then the feature set oftentimes is what can help us determine what the right amp is once we nail down the core tone once we figure those things out that will lead us in the right direction of a feature set and by that I mean for somebody like you read I know your sound like I know what you try to get for the way that we're playing effects loops aren't really as necessary as they would be for somebody so if I have somebody come in at a guy last night that came in it plays like 80s rock that's his thing so he wants his big pristine reverbs and delays that are really tight and clean sounding he definitely is gonna want effects so that's one area that we can look at effects loops would work differently depending on the amp manufacturer you go with companies like third power for example that's honest that's probably the best effects live backwards if you want that pristine polish to produce sound that's how you're gonna get it probably one of the base things comes to play for us to master volumes unless you're just somewhere where volume doesn't matter you know maybe you're playing it somewhere where they're putting your amplifier in an isolation box master rod it doesn't matter at all right you just crank it to ten to go to town for other people though maybe you're playing like the bar scene or maybe you're playing your bedroom and you can crank sometimes but sometimes you can't something like a master volume comes in handy and there's there's not that many ways to attenuate the volume of an amplifier and they all do different things so Master Wong is probably the most simple one that you'll see most often and master volume is simply turning down the back end of the amp right so you can push it get the front of the drive and sound nice but at a lower volume it's more manageable another approach is the power scaling method and there's several ways to do that to Morgan for example Joe's approach to that is pretty brilliant I think that their power scaling sounds really good and they're able to hold down the overall volume of the amp but still it still feels right this still has the chunk it still feels good okay so like we did in the guitar video I'm gonna have been I pick a couple of amps for me I have a feeling actually you already did before I got here I told him we were shooting this video today and I walked in and there's this whole room is set up so I was seven yeah so with Rett since I know red and hopefully your local shop - you have someone there who knows what you're into I know Reds got the fender thing covered it's got an F TR which is the most glorious huge fender and you could get awesome he's also got a tweed deluxe that he built just kind of depth the fender side of things pretty well covered I know he has an AC 20 so I know he's kind of got the box thing going as well but I also really does have a high watt but it's an L 84 hiwatt right and he has a few other things I'm sure that I don't know about but I do know one thing he doesn't have which is a high-power British camp and I also know with the guitar video we did playing it through the p90 and everything that's a sound that he needs having his arsenal it's fun it's rocking and it's kind of a next level type of type of deal so yeah I have picked out a couple amps of course let's go and check it out yeah it's a divided by 13 MW 39 this is his Fred's version of a Marshall style amp 39 watts it's beautiful I mean I love to look at just look at it oh my god yeah we call this ace in the hole total ex guerrilla combo it's gorgeous I love it this is like I want this in my house right now like really bad what's really unique about the AMW to me is the EQ section is fully subtractive if we turn the amp on right now in play you would hear really nothing until I turned it up a little bit so you can really tweak it since you're fully subtractive I can do this and get like that classic 70s kind of you know zap kind of tone that's not a normal way that you would set an amp to sound good right I can also turn the treble completely down crank the mids up and nail ac/dc again not the way that you would normally run an amp but however that EQ is set up it's really interactive and I love it I think that you'll really enjoy this amp and it's got just enough gain on tap to get into like the late 70s it'll get that far this video is gonna get expensive I should know by now that for money coming here make one of these videos it's gonna [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] you [Music] Wow I granted it's way more fun with it loud yeah that's just because it sounds really dare okay so like this this is a great example of two amps that sound wonderful one of which this amp will appeal is more usable for people that do need to be able to really suck that volume back you know and enjoy it that way whereas or maybe they play in a couple bands maybe one of them is it crazy loud would be one who's ripping right this will handle all that yeah that's definitely more Giga Bowl like I would I would put that towards a working musician actually someone like myself explained with a couple different artists somebody that's in another different situation it's different sized rooms recording studios and you need the variable volume that's for somebody maybe even like I'm a church gay where you've got a an ISO cabinet where you're playing in the same places consistently and you know you can handle the volume I think you're just trying to justify the same to your so I am yeah I am cuz just it sounds incredible and for whatever feel that that looks really good my god it's pretty stuff you

Channel: Rhett Shull

Views: 692,330

Keywords: Guitar Amp, Rhett Shull, Righteous Guitars, Marshall Plexi, morgan ac20 deluxe, morgan ac20 combo, morgan ac20 worship, friedman amplification, friedman amp demo, friedman amp, divided by 13 amps, divided by 13 btr 23, plexi, boutique amps, boutique amp shootout, boutique amplifier, boutique amp heads, guitar tone, marshall amp, how to find the perfect guitar amp, guitar tone comparison, guitar tones explained, guitar tone tips, guitar tone tutorial

Id: TOyXZLnNqes

Length: 23min 30sec (1410 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 23 2019