New amp for my X500T

As discussed in the archtop section I finally bought an X500T. It is currently crossing the Atlantic from its origin in Reno.

Now I thinking of buying an amplifier to complement it. Currently I have Mesa Nomad 45, a nice amp, but a bit generic and also a bit too loud for home studio use. I don't gig anymore, haven't for 20 years...

So I am thinking of something along the lines of a Princeton Reverb Reissue, or maybe one of the Victoria amps. I usually buy my amps locally, to make sure I get the correct voltage and local service options, so that might limit the selection a bit. But any suggestion for a suitable amp is welcome. It needs to break at neighbour-friendly levels (I do live in a house, not an appartment), and have a bit of raunchy soul and rock in it. The Mesa does nice reverb clean and wild metal overdrive, so that is taken care of, this is for the stuff in between, if you know what I mean. I will probably used it with my Gretsch and my Teles too...

Also, is there any "must have" effects for this guitar? (Depending in part on whatever amp I end up with, of course.) I have the usual overdrives: Tube Screamer, Blues Driver and Super Overdrive, and a DD-7 delay, an old Korg Chorus, a TC phaser, a CryBaby and assorted other pedals. Edit: I realise that the kind of music I intend to play is a factor here as well, so lets just assume anything that an X500T is good for, probably roots oriented though.

Also, I recently upgraded my home studio Mac to Logic Studio 9, which comes with amp and stomp box modelling, but haven't really tried that out yet. I am an analog kind of guy.

Geir

Hey Geir,
Hard to say - do you want to be able to crank the amp for a little bit of grit? How loud can you/do you want to get at home?
A Princeton Reverb RI is not a super-loud amp, but still pretty damn loud at home if you want to crank it! Maybe a fancy overdrive pedal or an attenuator would do the trick for that.

I love Princeton Reverbs though - it'll sound beautiful with your new guitar. You've seen and heard my band - I did pretty much a whole CD with a silverface PR some years ago, with the built in speaker, or with a 4X10 cab on some tunes for more headroom.
You might want to look out for a "vintage" Princeton Reverb though - the silverface ones are just fine and not much different (if any) from the blackface ones, and any well-maintained vintage Fender amp is plain better than the reissue, if even just from a technical/reliability standpoint.

If you like a little more raunch, a slightly less trebly and woodier tone than a Princeton Reverb has to offer, and you don't need the built-in reverb and tremolo or have access to good outboard versions of those, consider a tweed Deluxe or one of the many boutique variations of the 5E3 circuit. With a 12AX7 in V1 and a "not too efficient" alnico speaker, a tweed Deluxe starts "giving up the goods" at a fairly manageable volume level (though still not exactly "quiet" at all!), and is a lot of fun - and P90's and tweed amps are a great match too.

Champ amps or other single-ended small amps sound great too, are less loud, and will overdrive a little earlier, but I feel you give up a little bit of clean shimmer and "body" with a single-ended amp, compared to something like a Princeton or a Deluxe. Still, a great sound too, and still plenty loud at home!

Effects....with that guitar, your mention of fairly classic amps, and rootsy tones - I like the "traditional" effects, like spring reverb, tremolo, slap-back echo, and a little amp- or amp-like overdrive.

Hi Geir and congratulations on you new guitar; I'm sure it will meet all your expectations and them some. I agree with Walter's remarks and would only stress that vintage single-ended designs like the Silvertone 1471/1481 and Gibson GA5 will give it up pretty early ... at volumes low enough to talk over ... the Champ will hold out a little longer. Walter's description of loss of body and shimmer is accurate and an unavoidable trade-off with SE designs but the upside is the smokey, crunchy tone. These all run on 110V requiring a step-down transformer or a Euro-PT from someone like Weber Model W022772INT. Again, congratulations on your new guitar and good luck with your amp choice. CJ

Thanks for the replies. I know that a Princeton is more han loud enough. Usually when people are arguing about the kind of amp they "need", I plug in my microcube and show them how loud 2 watts can be...

I do need a bit of dynamics though, and I don't play crunchy all the time, so I guess there has to be some headroom.

I live in vertically split house, so I only have one neighbour to really worry about. That neighbour has a son that has played guitar for hours a day while living home (he is now in LA studying guitar), so I have a little untapped credit with them in that respect.

Also, I work from a home office most of the time, which allows me to play the loud stuff in the late mornings when they are all at work anyway.

Geir

In that case, it sounds like the Princeton will be just fine for your needs! If you're going for a reissue - consider changing out the speaker. The stock Jensen C10R is...well.....adequate at best.. :wink:

Walter Broes said:

In that case, it sounds like the Princeton will be just fine for your needs! If you're going for a reissue - consider changing out the speaker. The stock Jensen C10R is...well.....adequate at best.. :wink:

Click to expand...

What would be the replacement of choice, then?

Edit: There is a used one for sale her in Norway with a Celestion G12H30. (Apparently with a replacement cabinet to fit the 12".) Is that a good combination?

Edit 2: It also has new tubes: "JJ6V6, RCA 5UG4 + Jan Philips 5751 & 12AT7WC and JJ ECC83SJJ". No idea whether that is good stuff either...

Geir

I don't have one, so I don't know how much room there is, but I guess without the bell a lot of Alnicos should fit, and most ceramics would probably too. Kind of depends on what you want of the amp too - on a budget, I think an Eminence Copperhead could be cool for a single speaker setup in an amp like that, an eminence Alnico could be cool if you want a little less headroom and a little more speaker breakup.

A Celestion V10 would work if you want the amp to get quite a bit louder and more agressive, and then there's a lot of options from Weber too, of course. A JBL D110F or a Weber clone is nice if you want maximum clean volume and headroom, a nice Alnico that doesn't crap out at too low a volume and is a little smoother than typical P10R-alikes is Weber's version of a P10Q, their 10A125.
The ceramic equivalent of that speaker is cool if you want an unusual amount of volume and typical Blackface Fender voiced clean - quite a bit more agressive than say, a JBL.

I posted my reply before you edited your post - yes, that seems like a nice amp! A 12 in a Princeton reverb is a popular mod, and it will get you a little more bass and headroom. A G12H is probably my favourite Celestion 12" speaker for open-back Blackface Fenders - the top end and upper midrange are quite a bit smoother than their popular V30 and Greenback (G12M) speakers. (which I think perform their best in closed back cabs)

Those tubes are cool, especially the NOS ones - JJ 6V6's are more like a mini-6L6 that will get you a bit more volume and clean headroom with a typical 6V6 amp.

The way that amp is set up though, makes it a good deal louder than stock - a G12H has an efficiency rating of 100dB, and that's LOUD - the stock Jensen in there is around 95dB - I used to have a closed back extension cab with a 70's G12H in it, and believe it or not, it would overpower a 4X10 cab with four ceramic jensens in it!!!
I think with the JJ's and the G12H, that amp could probably hang with a drummer if he's not of the heavy metal persuasion.

telegeir said:

... Edit 2: It also has new tubes: "JJ6V6, RCA 5UG4 + Jan Philips 5751 & 12AT7WC and JJ ECC83SJJ". No idea whether that is good stuff either...

Click to expand...

The JJ 6V6 will sound more like a modern 6L6 ... intentionally designed for clean tone ... if a very late model, can tolerate up to 500 volts on the plate. The 5UG4 is a medium-duty rectifier, good enough for your use. The others are preamp tubes and each has a different amplification factor ... by how much do they increase the strength of the signal and all three have the same function and pinouts; can be substituted each for the other in the preamp;

JAN Phillips 12AT7; workhorse-type tube, AF = 60; least gain, most headroom.
JAN Phillips 5751. If old, AF is 70. If new, AF is 100 same as a 12AX7; many bought and sold under the belief that all have the lower AF but that's not the case. If old, gain / headroom in between the 12AT7 and the 12AX7. If new, might not be much different than a 12AX7.
JJ EC83 / 12AX7 AF 100, bright and clean.

Hmmm... I was planning on selling a guitar (the orange 90s Thinline) to finance this amp, but maybe I will have to buy this one. Gotta keep the credit card companies afloat in these hard times...

So, how much (in rough % of the stock price) is a mod like that one (speaker, cab and tubes.)

Thanks Walter and capnjuan! Tubes are among life's mysteries to me, easily admired, but hard to understand...

Geir

I don't know exactly, you can look up the price of those tubes, and a Celestion like that is usually around a hundred Euros (don't know in NOK.... ), and the amp probably has a custom baffle to accomodate the 12, or the stock one got modified.

If you'd want to put the icing on the cake for the way that amp is modded, have one of your US buddies order the 2X6V6 Heyboer output transformer from Allen Amps, and your Princeton will be able to compete with the average Deluxe reverb!

If that means compete in output volume, I'd probably better not...

Geir

I don't know how tolerant your neighbors are but with my 77 PR, I usually keep the volume between 2 and 3 for playing at home and was plenty loud at 6 in a small club.

I haven't really tested how tolerant they are.

But my hope is that at least at civilized hours of the day I can experiment with volumes where the clean sound starts breaking.

Geir

The silverface era Princeton Reverb was a great suggestion. Just to compare prices on those vs. the reissues (in addition to the superior quality IMO), I got a '79 a few months ago for $700/shipped. I'm just going through the process of re-tubing it, but these are wonderful amps for recording & even lower volume gigs.

A bit harder to get one with a European power supply.

Just saw a story on another forum about how Neil Youngs guitar tech Larry Bragg claimed that they could not get the same sound out of their amps when running in Europe on transformers as they got when running them in the US.

Geir