Cornell Romany plus gigging upgrade?

chris45

Hi all, I've started gigging again (every 6 weeks or so) after a long lay off. My amp is a Cornell Romany Plus which I love, but it doesn't have enough clean headroom for me as my back line. I wouldn't want to get rid of the Romany as its great for home use but 2 nights ago I could barely hear myself. Music in classic 70s pop rock area. Cheers in advance.

svejk

I've gigged a Romany a lot (not the plus) with a 4x12. It had Eminence Private Jacks in it, which are pretty efficient. It did sound good, but I got sick of lugging the cabinet around. However, I still didn't get much clean (and I didn't need or want it for my band). Don't think cabs are the answer for you. My only thought is some kind of power amp - eg a Badcat Unleash.

But then you get into spending quite a bit of money.... FWIW I kept the Romany for recording, but bought a 20w amp for gigging, which is I think a much better bet.

chris45

Hi svejk thanks for responding. I think you are correct in that I'm not going to be able to enhance the Romany. I'm just reluctant to buy a "gigging only" amp that isn't going to see nearly as much use and that tone wise will not compare unless I really shell out. What 20w did you get?

shaunm

A very interesting thread to me because I was going to buy the Romany plus but I was concerned that I would not be able to gig the amp.

jellybelly

Their's a Bad Cat Unleash in the classifieds section. Reamps any amplifier, along with it's output stage, as a 100-watt fire breather. Never tried one but good reviews etc. Make sure your speaker can take that (it very well might not, but lots of aftermarket ones will), place it on top, hook up and you'll be able to gig with anything you like, including the 10-watt Romany!

jellybelly

I would add that speaker sensitivity is very important - some of the Emminence speakers are obscenely loud. My 15-watt MJW is never short of headroom with the Eminence Cannabis Rex I have in there. Look for speakers with a sensitivity over 100db. The Cannabis Rex is 103db I think and works well with Fender-style circuits...

Heartfeltdawn

I've played with a Romany Plus, usually with a microphone in front of it, but have gigged with it on its own as well as hooking it up to a 2x12" and a 4x12" for a couple of practice sessions (monster!)

Definitely go with a higher headroom speaker. I like the Jensen MOD 12/70 speaker that Denis puts in there but it isn't particularly efficient. As Jellybean says, something like the Cannabis Rex has a bit more power to it. You will hear a noticeable increase in volume. 

If you dig the Romany, then the Romany Pro and Romany TR20 would be right up your street. 

chris45

Thanks for responses - I will post how I get on with this.

english_bob

chris45;37854" said:

Hi all,

I've started gigging again (every 6 weeks or so) after a long lay off. My amp is a Cornell Romany Plus which I love, but it doesn't have enough clean headroom for me as my back line. I wouldn't want to get rid of the Romany as its great for home use but 2 nights ago I could barely hear myself. Music in classic 70s pop rock area. Cheers in advance.

I'm slightly confused by what you say- you describe the problem as a lack of clean headroom, which to me suggests adequate volume, but only possible with more distortion than you want, but then say you couldn't hear yourself, which suggests that it's just good old fashioned volume that you haven't got enough of.

Agree with the suggestions that a more efficient speaker might fix the problem if it's purely a matter of insufficient volume, but it's a lot of coin to drop without being sure it's the correct solution to the correctly diagnosed problem. All the volume in the world won't solve your problem if your problem stems from, say, a heavily mid-scooped tone, or a bass player whose sound is intruding on "your" frequencies- you'll just end up in volume wars that make you hurt the punters' ears and lose gigs.

So what's your guitar rig? How's the Cornell set? Where's the speaker pointing? What's the band lineup?

Full disclosure: I've also gigged with a Romany Plus for many years and never had an issue with the amp not being loud enough, but I don't play heavy rock with two other electric guitar players and a drummer who thinks that not hitting every drum as hard as possible every time is some sort of negative comment on his manhood.

chris45

Hi Bob,

Setting the scene:

Playing 70s / 80s pop / rock covers.  Guitar tone ideally from clean to at most early Zeppelin type OD. I usually play an SG with stock pickups.  Drummer and other band members pretty restrained.

Typically sound sources are lined up Left to Right:

PA 1 - Keyboard - Gtr 1 (Me) - Drums - Gtr 2 - Bass - PA 2

Amp projecting directly front; I'm standing 6 ft in front of it.

Amp settings:  Output - full; Treble / Bass both at 5/10 / EQ not cut.

I was trying to set the Volume to be both as loud as possible and just starting to distort when I dig a chord - I found this to be 5 for the Volume.

With this setting I was struggling to hear myself over drums, keys and bass even before other guitar kicked in.

Any tips appreciated.

Majorscale

Keyboard, bass and two guitars can very easily eat up all frequencies and so its easy to disappear in a mix with a low wattage amp. I'd suggest playing with your tone controls (and the other members if you can persuade them) as what sounds killer in isolation sounds awful with a band and vice versa.

Also do you play with stage monitors? They help too if your desk can send a mix to you. We use them and my "wedge" is sent a flat mix with my part boosted so I can hear what I'm doing clearly.

p90fool

If the PA is unknown I chuck a Mackie Thump and a mic in the car. It means I can gig my 12w Princeton anywhere at any volume with my own private 300w wedge.

jellybelly

Might be a silly question, but is your amp on the floor?

If so, stick it on a stool/chair/amp stand. You'd be surprised how much energy is lost to the floor from a 1x12 - your amp hasn't got the energy to spare!

crunchman

I had one of these for a while.  The stock speaker is not efficient all.  You could more than double the volume if you put a more sensitive speaker in there.  It will change the tone though.  I ended up going back to the stock speaker as I think it just suits the amp.

shaunm

At the risk of sounding flippant but isn't it a case of picking the right tool for the job?

No doubt a few extra db's can be eeked out of an amp but does that mean that the amp is the right one for the job?

This amp is so close to being perfect for me. If only it was 20watts as then I would be confident that this amp would be perfect.

english_bob

shaunm said:

At the risk of sounding flippant but isn't it a case of picking the right tool for the job?

No doubt a few extra db's can be eeked out of an amp but does that mean that the amp is the right one for the job?

This amp is so close to being perfect for me. If only it was 20watts as then I would be confident that this amp would be perfect.

By the same token, is an amp with a single shortcoming with a clear remedy really not the right tool for the job?

Single-ended amps sound different to push-pull amps, so if that's the sound you want and you need to make it louder, switching to a more efficient speaker is a reasonable approach to take. It seems more sensible to eke out a few more dBs from a similarly-voiced but more efficient speaker than to start with a completely different amplifier if all you want is the same sound you had before, only louder.

Heartfeltdawn

crunchman said:

I had one of these for a while.  The stock speaker is not efficient all.  You could more than double the volume if you put a more sensitive speaker in there.  It will change the tone though.  I ended up going back to the stock speaker as I think it just suits the amp.

Absolutely. I hated the Cannabis Rex in there. It made the amp sound way too 'in your face' for me. I like inefficient speakers, some of the old crappy Oxfords sound great to me. 

chris45

Thanks again to all v useful comments:
Btw amp is always on chair or equivalent - I understand issues with putting the amp directly on the floor.

I'm aware that I may we'll be asking for a non existent holy grail, a non master volume amp with great tone suitable for home and gigging. After all comments I see it as:

- Leave amp as is (no speaker change) as better to leave in best state for home use where it will get most of its use
- get myself an extension cab for gigging or look for a gigging amp.

crunchman

chris45 said:

I'm aware that I may we'll be asking for a non existent holy grail, a non master volume amp with great tone suitable for home and gigging.

The Lazy J I replaced my Cornell with is the closest I've found.  Even with power scaling though it's not great at home volumes though.  I normally use my Kemper for low volume home playing these days.

smigeon

chris45 said:

I'm aware that I may we'll be asking for a non existent holy grail, a non master volume amp with great tone suitable for home and gigging. 

I think such amps do exist. I have a Carr Viceroy (formerly "Vincent"). It's a 33 watt, 2x6L6, single channel, non-MV, 1x12 combo with an Eminence Wizard and reverb. It sounds utterly fantastic at home. For gigging it's just as fantastic (even better if anything), and I've never remotely struggled for volume. Our band (pub rockish, covers) is 2xguitars + keys, bass, drums. We don't play super-loud but we are no shrinking violets. We mic everything through the PA, but for the Carr this is not motivated by lack of volume, it's just for a nicer mix. I don't need much/any guitar through the monitors to hear clearly. I rely on pedals for dirty sounds, as the Carr only gets dirty at volumes higher than I need. OK, it's an expensive amp, but if it's the only one you'll need, the cost seems less important...

chris45

Nice looking amp - but that's probably a net cost of 1400