Favorite Music Played With Your 18 Watt

[Jason]

All,

Well, I like to talk about what I like to listen to and play--so here goes. Please don't make too much fun of me for my tastes...

18 Watt does a lot of different styles for me personally. First, I performed a few "clean up" type of mods on mine. Well, I dig John Squire's playing in the Stone Roses. This amp pretty much nails the "Second Coming" tones well. BTW, if you haven't checked out these guys, you are missing out on some killer tones! Their earlier stuff is a bit harsh sounding from an engineering standpoint, but their material is brilliant IMO.

Next would be Edge's tones. Man, I love these guys. I play and pretty much most of his tones using the 18 Watt. Especially Achtung Baby sounds. Killer!This amp does the breathy and swirly sound exceptionally well. I think that now this is one of the most "British of British" sounding amps I have ever played or heard. Great harmonics for playing suspended chords--does not mud up like your standard Marshall for playing funky chords with weird harmonic ratios--you know, your not so standard chords.

Keith! Mick Taylor! Hell yes. I have been learning and playing Sticky Fingers a lot lately. "Can't you hear me knocking" is almost perfection through this amp. Sister Morphine electric chops are fat as fat can be. Who needs tweed?!

J. Mascis--Dinosaur Jr--Where You Been? A killer guitar orgy album. All grit and dirt--but brilliant. Start Choppin double stops galore from the 18. Killer as well. When I saw them in the early 90's, they had a **** of 100W Plexi's/"100" 4X12's onstage. My eardrums were hurtin for certain. Well, I could see that tone shrunk down inside the studio--and I could definitely hear him using a tortured 18 Watt for his sounds--possibly with some gain boost as well.

Robben Ford: Yes, this little Brit Amp when set clean w/humbuckers can get pretty close believe it or not. Just don't nail the first stage too hard and you can get "almost Dumble like tone" from this beast. Unusual, yes. Possible, I know it.

James: Seven. A very clean album. Set clean using the middle strat pickup I get the nice clean linear sound when using slight chorus. A sad album in some ways--depressing. But still one of my favorites. Since Daives uses Burns guitars, I figure the Strat middle PU sounds closest to his sounds on this album. About the only time I plug a pedal in front of this amp.

New Order: Substance--Ceremony. Killer funk, sterile, phasey sounds--especially with a little short delay/slight phase shift.

Beatles: Let it Be, Abbey Road. Revolver. Killer arpeggiated choursed runs on Abbey Road--Sun King, Heavy, etc. Great for the rhythms as well. Leads sting like Harrison's sound. Great sound--and almost accurate as well. I did the PI mod to clean up the amp so I could more easily get closer to a Fender clean/vox swirl.

Free: Fire and Water. Cranked w/buckers. Close to Kossof grind and clarity. Love these guys.

Just a few of my tastes and what I play with this amp. I didn't even mention Clapton or Townshend. My two favorites of all time. Obviously, this amp is well suited for this...And I didn't even mention the Blues yet! The amp can be very versatile if is is EQ'ed and tricked out.

Jason

[Plexi]

Quote= Free: Fire and Water. Cranked w/buckers. Close to Kossof grind and clarity. Love these guys.


I built a version of the 18,but useing 6v6s so it has a bit more output..
And have let a friend of mine use it playing there gigs..So i get to really listen to it out front..plus to see how it holds up. These guys play alot..like 4 hours a night.. But they do many old tunesd..and that causght my eye..or ear what you posted.. the Bad company tunes they played, the tone was fanstastic.. He was useing a Les paul..and every now and then an old rat pedal for some songs. It also sounds great on alot of other tunes. They do old CCR,and the trem was amazing..
Richie

[Jason]

Plexi,

Oh yes. The trem. I forgot about the trem. Swampy as hell. When I first built the amp, I screwed up my faceplate. I graciously recieved an extra faceplate from Graydon with the TMB tone stack holes. Well, I have not built the tone stack version yet because I [thankfully] discovered that I actually love and sometimes use the trem. GREAT Fogerty tones. I have slowed it down a bit by adding a .022uF to the .01 first phase shift cap from the 12AX7 plate. Man, it almost gets you sick from dizziness...I like it. I call it "headswirl". I also refer to it as "going Los Lobos on your ass". Ever see Tarantino's "From Dusk Till Dawn & the "vampire" band...I'd like to cover that one.

Jason

[BibFortuna]

Jase,

great call with Dino Jr. my band recently did "The Wagon" from Green Mind, complete with flute intro/solo.

and yea, kinda wished Mascis would catch wind of the ol' 18 watter, cause i'm sick of leaving his shows with a bad hangover.

my favs?

so many, but currently, i'm really diggin' doin' the straight up punk covers here and there with my trusty refin'ed '55 LP Jr. Misfits' "Search and Destroy", how can ya beat that? a little Minor Threat, and hell, even the oldie but a goodie "London Calling". soo nice.

[BibFortuna]

ooops, i meant "Thumb" off of Green Mind, tho "The Wagon" rocks, too.

btw, another great call with Stone Roses. but hey dont forget the Verve! i love doin' "New Decade" off of Northern Soul.

[Jason]

Death,

Oh man, don't let my depressing English Art-Rock throw you off...Metal is always welcome as ear candy. Depends on how you like to classify metal--that could get interesting. I always thought of it as the "Classical" music of Rock if that makes sense. You probably won't get a good Dimebag tone from this amp [try SS Randalls or other such beasts], but you could get an STP [DeLeo] or AIC [Cantrell] type of tone. These guys usually used Demeter, Marshall, Bogner, Boogie amps, but DeLeo especially was keen on Vox, Kustom, Fender and some older vintage amps. Personally, Cantrell is a guitar/songwriting GOD, IMO. I love the pitch-shifting/harmonizers--I'd love to get one someday. AIC means a lot to me personally--incredible music IMO. If you want to go back to the 70's and 80's, you could definitely get a good British Steel type of rhythm tone [Priest, Sabbath, Maiden, Slade, etc.]. Metallica--probably not on the 18 Watt. Maybe some of Kirk's bluesier leads and arpeggios, but definitely not Hetfield tight, pounding rhythm/chords. At low volumes with the right pedal--possibly. When cranked up, the 18 Watt does not have enough damping and enough control of the lower mids/bass frequencies to do a true heart stopping power chord--especially in funky time signatures/rests. Malcolm and Angus--no problem. Go get yerself a nice TV cutaway Les Paul Jr. and wail ala Malcolm.

Well, you could also entertain the idea of using the 18 Watt in conjunction with other amps to change the sonic flavor around to suit a tighter or more aggressive style. Try a very tightly damped and crunchy solid state amp [like a Marshall Valvestate--I like these to some extent--just don't use the reverb!!!] used in conjunction with the sweeter 18 Watt. Go nuts--you would probably have no problem finding a combination that would give you super tight and fat tones. Of course, if you want to stick with tubes, that's no problem either. I would pair up the 18 Watt with a linear and tight fixed bias EL-34 or KT-88 type of amp. Maybe run the big amp through a 2X12 and the 18 Watt on the side...

Jason

[whiteboyblues2001]

Jason,

I saw Cantrell open up for Nickleback in Baltimore. It was general admission. I got there about the time that the gates opened up, and I ended up 11 rows back dead center. It was a great show. What was funny was, the croud was people who were either there to see Cantrell and never heard of Nickleback, or Nickleback fans who had neaver heard of Cantrell (I guess they didn't know he was from Alice in Chains.) But both bands rocked, so it didn't matter who you came to see.

Joe

[BirdZeye]

Plexi,
I have slowed it down a bit by adding a .022uF to the .01 first phase shift cap from the 12AX7 plate.
Jason

So you added to the C8 .01? Is there any problem using a 1M Audio for
the speed? Having trouble locating the 2M. Wouldn't that just reduce the
top end speed of trem?

Thanks,

Tom

[zaphod_phil]

Now are these using a regular 18watter, or one with your special Voxish PI/PSU mods?

[quote="Jason"]All,

Well, I like to talk about what I like to listen to and play--so here goes. Please don't make too much fun of me for my tastes...

18 Watt does a lot of different styles for me personally. .......

[Jason]

[quote="zaphod_phil"]Now are these using a regular 18watter, or one with your special Voxish PI/PSU mods?


ZP,

That would definitely be the modded version...I don't really think I am too crazy about [not that I hate it or anything] the 18 circuit all that much. Stock has lots of crunchy distortion...but that it IMO. Plus, the stock circuit [at least the way I built it--totally according to the pedalmonkey schematic] is not as loud as the modded version. The amp really opened up, got a bit louder, cleaner, and smoother with the mods--which is why I posted them. I figured there are others here like me who like the original, but aren't really "In Love" with it--like myself! Anyway, the amp is more versatile and a higher performer in my eyes. Others may disagree though. All I can say is that I like things my own way--and this amp is now comparable to most of my own creations--which kick ass.

BTW, this is my second "clone" of an amp--ever. First was a 5E3 Deluxe. These were both built within the last year or so. I started building my own stuff about 8 years ago. I started out by wanting to build my own circuits--since nothing I played gave me exactly everythign that I wanted. I guess my learning curve would have been a lot easier and more complete early on if I built a few copies first...

Jason

[Jason]

Tom,

Well, I really like the 1M control for the trem. Give it a shot--along with the cap value--it works well for me. One of the reasons I did this is because I am addicted to PEC 2 Watt sealed carbon comp pots--and they don't come in 2 meg values. These pots are incredible sounding, have nice tapers and aren't jumpy, are very quiet [noise], are built like tanks, and for the quality are amazing value--about $5.00 each. Not bad for an incredible pot IMO. you can get these from Digikey. So are the Clarostat RV4N series as well [the PEC's are also RV4N spec]. I bought a bunch of the Claros form Randall Aiken a couple years ago and became hooked--along with Hogy and Ken Fischer's choice to use these in the Komet. BTW, the Komet is titties as far as build quality--really turned me on to see the incredible layout and parts quality when I saw the gutties of this amp. I try [and come fairly close sometimes!] to getting as nice of an internal construction--but that's damn hard! Haha!

BTW, you should try out the 18 Watt in conjunction with a nice 5E3 [ similar power level]. I plug the guitar into the 5E3 #1 brite, run a cord into the 5E2 #2 brite and into the trem #1` brite of the 18 Watt--turn both amps up according to taste. Just that little bit of swirl from teh trem reminds me of a Univibe. Amazing--since it does not dominate the sound too much since you have a "dry" signal from the 5E3. Smokin!

Jason