Going on an Amp Safari this Weekend.

blueruins

blueruins

Country Gent
May 28, 2013
4,443
Savannah, GA
If it hasn’t sold by Saturday I’ll be driving 2.5 hours to check out a Silverface Bandmaster Reverb with JBL’s.

The thing is massive and I know it’s going to make my wife’s eyes roll back in her head🤭

Been wanting this amp for ages now even though I have no real use for it😬 I’ve gotten so much experience dialing in my little Champ that I hardly have any need for another Fender. 40 watts is surely overkill for my living room but I’ve got a craving for real spring reverb and just something new to kick around.

It would probably make more sense for me and my wallet to pick up a Vox AC-15 or 30? Never owned a Vox.
 
wabash slim

wabash slim

I Bleed Orange
Feb 10, 2010
17,732
lafayette in
AC15 would be enough (maybe too much) for a living room.
There's a special magic when you run a Gretsch thru a Vox.
You'd be better served with a Princeton or Deluxe Reverb for the Fender flavor.
You'll never get that Bandmaster past 2 in a living room.
 
audept

audept

Senior Gretsch-Talker
Dec 1, 2010
29,504
Sydney, Australia
blueruins said:
If it hasn’t sold by Saturday I’ll be driving 2.5 hours to check out a Silverface Bandmaster Reverb with JBL’s.

The thing is massive and I know it’s going to make my wife’s eyes roll back in her head🤭

Been wanting this amp for ages now even though I have no real use for it😬 I’ve gotten so much experience dialing in my little Champ that I hardly have any need for another Fender. 40 watts is surely overkill for my living room but I’ve got a craving for real spring reverb and just something new to kick around.

It would probably make more sense for me and my wallet to pick up a Vox AC-15 or 30? Never owned a Vox.
Click to expand...
I hope you have a good chiropractor nearby..........
 
blueruins

blueruins

Country Gent
May 28, 2013
4,443
Savannah, GA
This amp will rarely move.

The church uses virtual amps and I no longer play out otherwise. I really can’t afford the vintage Deluxe or Princeton that would make more sense, plus I’m stubborn and won’t consider a new one.

Really reconsidering if another Fender is even wanted after stumbling on the mic pre trick last week. Still feeling like I’ve never had a better sound. Right now I’m able to dial in everything I was missing.

I’m really just looking for a new thrill.

Vox amps were coming up cheap and often locally last year. With the downturn maybe we’ll -again see some great opportunities soon for bargain amps?
 
Baba Joe

Baba Joe

Gretschie
Feb 17, 2010
249
new jersey
It’s a dilemma if the Bandmaster is a holy grail. Otherwise, I agree with wabash above. My Vox experience is limited to a Pathfinder 15R and I have been more of a Fender fan, but recently find myself liking the Vox magic more with my Gretsches. Good luck.
 
blueruins

blueruins

Country Gent
May 28, 2013
4,443
Savannah, GA
Ricochet said:
Happy for you. IMO once you get over 5W for the living room everything is basically overkill so you might as well. Don’t give it a second thought, and enjoy.

Did I miss a post? What mic pre trick?
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Not sure.

Last week I was messing with the amp modeling in my Antelope Audio interface and discovered that tape emulation made the models really sit in the mix while playing along with backing tracks.

That led to trying to figure a way to route signal to my Champ with the tape emulation after my pedalboard. I failed to figure that out because during that experiment I found that the gain from my mic preamp made a huge improvement on the sound of the Champ.

Already loved my Champ but this has made it unbelievable! The tones I’m getting right now are blowing my mind.
 
pmac11

pmac11

Country Gent
Mar 4, 2018
3,666
Toronto, Ontario
Get it. If it scratches and itch, great. If not, so what? Just sell it. It's not like it's going to depreciate.
Of course, you may need an attenuator to help turn it to a living room amp...
 
Falconetti

Falconetti

Gretschie
Sep 18, 2012
392
Bagsville, Oxford UK
Buying a different amp has been a great way to re-connect with and freshen up my playing recently. I have been a Fender Blues Junior and Blues Deluxe player forever. A couple of pedals and a basic looper and that’s it. Played a mates Mustang GTX 100 a week ago and couldn’t believe what was possible or how good it was. 24h later I owned one and am enjoying my first real foray into modelling. It’s like my new secret guilty pleasure. These things have come a long way since I last looked. Sounds like the Bandmaster might be a teeny bit too much of a gorilla for rocking out in a living room though. If you can’t really let it rip and get all the complex harmonics going then it is a shame to constrain it. Of course, having said that you should buy it anyway because we all know that resistance is futile.
 
Ricochet

Ricochet

Senior Gretsch-Talker
Nov 13, 2009
21,925
Monkey Island
blueruins said:
I found that the gain from my mic preamp made a huge improvement on the sound of the Champ.

Already loved my Champ but this has made it unbelievable! The tones I’m getting right now are blowing my mind.
Click to expand...

If you could find the schematic of this magical mic pre-amp and stuff it in a 1590B I'll put the first order in! ;-)
 
Bertotti

Bertotti

Friend of Fred
Jul 20, 2017
9,547
South Dakota
blueruins said:
If it hasn’t sold by Saturday I’ll be driving 2.5 hours to check out a Silverface Bandmaster Reverb with JBL’s.

The thing is massive and I know it’s going to make my wife’s eyes roll back in her head🤭

Been wanting this amp for ages now even though I have no real use for it😬 I’ve gotten so much experience dialing in my little Champ that I hardly have any need for another Fender. 40 watts is surely overkill for my living room but I’ve got a craving for real spring reverb and just something new to kick around.

It would probably make more sense for me and my wallet to pick up a Vox AC-15 or 30? Never owned a Vox.
Click to expand...
Many amps 5-120 watts in my house the 120 is next to my bed as is the next biggest at 20 watts! I still fire them up. Sometimes you just have to go for it! I have been known to move both around as well the 120 watt head is 100 lbs as is the 4x12, the 40 watt is about 50lbs. I figure at some point there will be a permanent place for them but as long as I can carry them they will go where I want and when I can’t carry them I will wrestle them onto carts with Wheels and once Im unable to do that they will stay on the wheels and I’ll build a moto for the cart! Hahahahaha

But everything else is small. I have a weird drive to own lunch box or small amp heads.

which Antelope Audio are you using? I have a Zen Tour one of the first batch released. Loved it but haven’t really used it in a couple years.
 
DougWheeler74

DougWheeler74

Synchromatic
Jul 10, 2019
680
NE Wisconsin, US
Need? Want? You gave it away at "I’m really just looking for a new thrill." A 2.5 hour road trip to check it out is a fun thing unto itself. Make the drive, play it, and go from there. As said before, you can always sell it. Mind you, this is from a guy with multiple guitars that periodically wonders if her should sell some of them. :p
 
blueruins

blueruins

Country Gent
May 28, 2013
4,443
Savannah, GA
RagnarHairybreeks said:
Not the highest ticket amp being discussed, but I bloody love the sound from this, models many different valve amps through electrotrickery;

View attachment 186466
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That looks cool and I like that color too. Is it digital or something else?

I’ve got my Egnater Tweaker that I really enjoy for different flavors. Could (and have) honestly get by with just the Tweaker tho I prefer my Champ.

My plan is to eventually maintain at least 1 of each of the major food groups…Fender, Marshall and Vox😋
 
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