Amps with Mojo!

[rkopald]

Originally Posted by Mad John

+1 on the Bruno Amps...PURE GENIUS!!

I've been drooling for a Bruno for years...

Edit: Good God I want a Bruno so bad I can taste it. Those are Bee-yoo-tee-full!

[InstituteOfNoise]

I was just over at 65 Amps shop today visiting Dan Boul and he demo'd the new Little Elvis for me. May be one of the best 15-18w EL84 amps I've heard in years. It does it differently than anything else I've heard, plus with their new master voltage design where he dialed it down to roughly 2 watts and it still sounded great! The headroom stays constantly proportional to the output level. Great design! The tube bias tremolo was very cool too! Need one of these now!

Plus I just picked up yesterday a 65 Ampeg Revererocket in flawless condition. Everything works, pedal and all. Got a real vibe! Cross that one off the list now.

EDIT: pic added...

[Mad John]

Originally Posted by rkopald

I've been drooling for a Bruno for years...

Edit: Good God I want a Bruno so bad I can taste it. Those are Bee-yoo-tee-full!

LOL

My favorite amp to date!

I would recommend them quite highly!

Cheers!

[FFTT]

Originally Posted by InstituteOfNoise

I was just over at 65 Amps shop today visiting Dan Boul and he demo'd the new Little Elvis for me. May be one of the best 15-18w EL84 amps I've heard in years. It does it differently than anything else I've heard, plus with their new master voltage design where he dialed it down to roughly 2 watts and it still sounded great! The headroom stays constantly proportional to the output level. Great design! The tube bias tremolo was very cool too! Need one of these now!

Plus I just picked up yesterday a 65 Ampeg Revererocket in flawless condition. Got a real vibe! Cross that one off the list now.

Congratulations on the Ampeg score!

[FFTT]

If your idea of Mojo is EVH's early tones, check
out the new Reeves Super 78 EVH build.
50 or 100 watt versions.
Exceptional hand wired build quality.

Reeves Amplification Super '78



If you prefer Townshend or Gilmour, they have you covered too.

[rkopald]

Originally Posted by InstituteOfNoise

Plus I just picked up yesterday a 65 Ampeg Revererocket in flawless condition. Got a real vibe! Cross that one off the list now.

Ampegs are practically invisible to most guitarists. One of my closest friends has this Ampeg head from the 80's(?) that has an illuminated panel, and a key lockout! It looks SO cheesey, and his had 6550's in it, which I'm not that familiar with, but it sounded great. He got it for a song too. Less than 500 bones. Honestly it's a really good sounding amp.

[teleharmonium]

Personally when I think of an amp with mojo, that means an old amp with a saggy tube rectifier, or a single ended amp with negligible sag, and a vintage speaker that distorts a fair amount when then amp is turned up. Preferably the amp should have between one and three knobs total and 50's cosmetics with frayed covering at the edges and a leather handle that is falling or fallen apart. You need an amp that is displaying entropy in order to get the implication of infinity and natural decay into the guitar sound.

Wabi-sabi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I don't think you get it from fabulously expensive new amps, boutique or otherwise. Maybe dollars are inversely proportional to mojo. You might have it within yourself and your music and channel it through such an amp, but those amps themselves leave me cold compared to the old stuff.

Whereas, everybody that plugs into my old Watkins Dominator or Selmer Zodiac or Noble Super or Grampian Vibromajor or Stentor Super 12 or Vox 710 or AC15 or Gibson GA-8 (parallel single ended dual 6V6 version), has wide eyes, and shuts up and plays for a while, differently than they normally play. Then they talk about the experience the next several times I see them.

I'm not saying everybody should feel this way. YMMV and it's no problem for either of us if it does. My main point is that depending on what it is that you like about old amps, new reproduction or tribute versions may in fact be completely missing the point.

[thetain]

I'm a big fan of Framus. I don't own one but I've tried and loved, and heard records it's been used on, and I still love it.

[FFTT]

Originally Posted by teleharmonium

Personally when I think of an amp with mojo, that means an old amp with a saggy tube rectifier, or a single ended amp with negligible sag, and a vintage speaker that distorts a fair amount when then amp is turned up. Preferably the amp should have between one and three knobs total and 50's cosmetics with frayed covering at the edges and a leather handle that is falling or fallen apart. You need an amp that is displaying entropy in order to get the implication of infinity and natural decay into the guitar sound.

Wabi-sabi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I don't think you get it from fabulously expensive new amps, boutique or otherwise. Maybe dollars are inversely proportional to mojo. You might have it within yourself and your music and channel it through such an amp, but those amps themselves leave me cold compared to the old stuff.

Whereas, everybody that plugs into my old Watkins Dominator or Selmer Zodiac or Noble Super or Grampian Vibromajor or Stentor Super 12 or Vox 710 or AC15 or Gibson GA-8 (parallel single ended dual 6V6 version), has wide eyes, and shuts up and plays for a while, differently than they normally play. Then they talk about the experience the next several times I see them.

I'm not saying everybody should feel this way. YMMV and it's no problem for either of us if it does. My main point is that depending on what it is that you like about old amps, new reproduction or tribute versions may in fact be completely missing the point.

The old Selmers are gold for mojo from everything I've heard and really hard to find.

It took a while for me hunt down the amps I've gathered so far, but each one
is special in it's own way .

We may hear these amp in less than ideal conditions and not realise how great
they can sound with a proper studio signal chain, the right mic, the right guitar
and the right speaker, all variables that can make you sound great or downright
awful.

When I first tried out my '64 R12R, the original low efficiency CTS speaker made
this 21 watt amp sound like a very cool 10 watt amp, underpowered but still
offering all kinds of mojo when recorded.
Drop in a good high efficiency driver and the amp was perfectly capable of
holding it's own in a live club setting.

Some amps also simply sound better with Single Coils vs HB's and the reverse,
so though shalt not judge an amp by just one guitar.

The best advice I can offer is to locate a well respected local amp tech, so that any vintage amp you consider is nothing to worry about, because you know your tech can
correct any problems it may have.

[t0rbad]

The Fender Pro Junior is an amp that I picked up that I do believe has some mojo.


Incredibly simple just has two knobs (Volume and Tone) but it has an amazing crunch and great cleans as well.

[Gary Ladd]

Originally Posted by Unclenny

1979 Carvin VT112.......mojo.

Blues Jr. .......................mojo.

Oh yeah, Crapvin brings the mojo

Uh...NOPE! tutt

[Gary Ladd]

P.S. Carlson Turbo Pup = Pure Mojo!

Sold my Bruno Cowtipper after I picked on up

[Fretbored]

I'm the guy that usually drops $2500 for an amp when I should be working on chops, but lately I've been stretching my dollar a bit. You can get some killer sounds out of cheaper amps:
Used AC 15 with a Fargen Hot Mod
Fender Deluxe with THD Yellowjackets
If money is no issue, 65 amps. Oh yeah. Talk about feel.

[Audio Enginerd]

Anyone recorded older Fender Stage 100 amps? What did you think? I just bought the head only version because of the pretty darn good tones I was able to get out of it while recording a bands record. It is solid state too! I wouldn't have guessed it could rock this much for the price tag. The more drive channel is noisy though, but you can edit out that junk if need be...

[softwareguy]

Ampeg V4.

That thing is made out of mojo. I can't say that it's my "favorite" amp because I can't use it all the time, personally. I've been looking for the little 15 to 30 watt amps that I can open up with more regularity. The V4 will make you pay dearly for getting it into the zone. That amp will kick the living crap out of you and you just can't do that all the time. But when you do go there . . . OH MY GOD!

[Piedpiper]

No mention of Swart yet?

I was enjoying my modded Gibson Les Paul Jr reissue, then I got an original from the early fifties. Totally different beast, weeny little thing with a 6 inch oval speaker, but soooo warm and sweet. nothing clean about it, and only at quiet living room volumes but...

[12ax7]

Originally Posted by Piedpiper

No mention of Swart yet?

Those ARE very sweet.

...A little pricey for some, but a GREAT value, nonetheless!

(They are also very helpful and pleasant people to deal with.)

thumbsup

[ben_allison]

Most mojo in an amp so far?



66' Bassman, converted to a 2x10 combo. I've since changed to cream knobs and a blue jewel light. Best cleans ever. Really deep, nice fat transients, and takes pedals amazingly well.

Here's my demo of the Suhr Riot into the 66 Bman. I NEVER thought a 2x10 openback Fender could sound this good for modern rawk!



I'll be modding the Bass channel to be a JTM45. Easily the highest "mojo-to-dollar" ratio.

[alexamk]

In order of most mojo
1. Bogner Metropolis Combo 2x12
2. Bogner Duende
3. Bogner Ecstacy
4. Bogner Shiva
5. Mesa Boogie Mark IV