Just wanted to share this. I've been lucky enough to always having a decent amp. They've just got better and better with each iteration I've had. The thing is I think we can forget how good they are though. Last night I plugged into a crap solid state studio amp and cab and it just sounded crap compared to my valve amp.
Ok it was old and I'm not saying valves are better than solid state etc but it just made me realise that we sometimes search for the next best thing but we probably have it already with the kit we already own and may have taken it for granted. Just made me appreciate my setup even more after that session.
Any one else had that experience?
Comments
In my opinion part of being a good musician is being able to get a half-decent sound out of something less than ideal when you have to - but there does come a point where it can’t really be done. It is true that one of the main differences between valve, solid-state and modelling is how easy it is to find that sound, and how naturally (or not) it then responds to playing changes - most valve amps do it well, most non-valve ones don’t as much... which is why players find them hard work or don’t ‘cut through’ when you dig into the strings.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
It's not that I think they are the best sounding/playing amp/guitar in the world, don't get me wrong. I know there are stuff out there that sound even better. But since I've always aspired to own them, I wouldn't want to replace them for anything else.
While I don't think it sounds as good as a high quality (and well-voiced, unlike my opinion of the Mesa) valve amp, I do think that if you can't get a usable sound out of something like the Studio Pro, the problem isn't the amp.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
If you get that with a cheap SS, then great.
If its a £1000+ valve amp then again, great.
I always think of the SS Deacy amp of Brian May back in the 70's when topics like this crop up. No valves, found in a skip and used on some of the most iconic albums of all time.
If any amp gives you the sound YOU want, then happy days
Mine happens to be a Blackheart Handsome devil with BOSS pedals. How crap do I sound
You could compare a Blues Junior to your Bad Cat and made the same point. Some amps are just good - not good relative to something else, but just good as an absolute. Your Bad Cat being one of them.
As someone who started playing forty years ago I must say that modern gear is hands down better across the board, from beginner amps and guitars through to top of the range stuff, and I wish I could have had some of the gear available today for new players when I started, as well as the fantastic teaching material available these days. Yes the starter amps from back there and back then were bad - the first decent amp I bought was a 15w Fender Sidekick Reverb. When I got that it was so much better than the very first amp I had which was thrown in when I bought my Hondo Les Paul. I thought I was blessed to have it! But against modern amps, allowing for inflation, I am sure I could get something like a Bugera V5 for the same money, which would blow my little Sidekick out of the water.
You haven't said what the old SS amp was, but I'm sure when it was new, it would have been a good amp for the money. It's just that things have got so much better in general, and sometimes there are things that are great regardless of the time they were developed, such as your Bad Cat.
Mind you, not everything great - even your Bad Cat - is guaranteed to become a classic. My old NMV AC30 for example was a dog. I used it throughout the 80's and 90's because it was what I had and it was cheap (I bought it off my uncle who bought it new in about 1970). I heard better AC30's and worse. But it was a classic amp. It is the kind of amp you get in modelers - which is about as good a definition of what constitutes a classic amp as I can think of - and your Bad Cat might be in the modelers in a decade hence or it might not. I don't know. I know my AC30 is and Matchless are. So sounding good isn't enough to guarantee "classic" status.
I bet no modeler in existence has a Fender sidekick in it's list of models though!
I still have my Sidekick by the way. It's in my garage and I use it when I fettle my guitars. If anyone wishes to profile it for their Kemper, PM me!
There is no 'H' in Aych, you know that don't you? ~ Wife
Turns out there is an H in Haych! ~ Sporky
Bit of trading feedback here.
The biggest eye-opener to me over the years has been the realisation that anything smaller than 12" in a single-speaker cab is generally useless, but a 2x or 4x cab is better than a 1x