Eric Clapton amps

[abalone at last]

Plug your Bakersfield or RS into one of these and you  should have tone nirvana.....

http://www.fender.com/en-CA/products/clapton

Slow hand made....

[unclrob]

Looks cool but the first thing I'd do is dump those Groove Tube's for some nice Russian made one's.I go with either the Tremux  or the Twinlux.

[cke]

Looks cool but the first thing I'd do is dump those Groove Tube's for some nice Russian made one's.I go with either the Tremux  or the Twinlux.

Agree on the Russian tubes. I use them in my tube stereo equipment. So much better than the Chinese

[Favata5]

Too pricey for me!! I spent a whopping 100.00 2 months back and got a super clean 81 all tube Fender vibrochamp changed the speaker to a Weber and whammo!! GREAT TONE for cheap!!

[PM33AUD]

Some russian tubes are meh too - particularly on the reliability front... SEDs are where it's at.

[fritferret]

i'd by-pass this altogether.  for the price fender is asking for these you could get a brilliant boutique builder to build you your dream tweed amp.  and you likely save a bit of money, too....money you could use for your next larrivee purchase!

[abalone at last]

Don't confuse retail with street price.......EVERY band on Austin City Limits, SNL, Letterman, Leno, studio session, Eric Johnson, JP, Dylan, Petty, Dallas Green, Killers, Clash ,POD ,Puddle of Mud, etc., etc., etc, is playing a similar spec Fender amp as part of their rig......think of it as money well spent..but buy you Larri first...

[fritferret]

Don't confuse retail with street price.......EVERY band on Austin City Limits, SNL, Letterman, Leno, studio session, Eric Johnson, JP, Dylan, Petty, Dallas Green, Killers, Clash ,POD ,Puddle of Mud, etc., etc., etc, is playing a similar spec Fender amp as part of their rig......think of it as money well spent..but buy you Larri first...

even at retail thse amps are way overpriced.  you can get a boutique builder to make you a better made and sounding amp than this and still have hundreds of dollars left over.  just because lots of famous acts use fenders doesn't mean it's the best buy for the money.  one factor when making gear choices if you're a touring act is product availability.  you can get a fender just about anywhere on earth.  if you have some guy building you an amp by head in the midwest somewhere and something goes wrong in europe....you can just go pickup another.

for my money, i'd go boutique.

[PM33AUD]

I think these are all hand-made and 'better sounding' is relative to who's listenin'.  The prices really aren't out of line IMO.  I think it's cool that Fender realizes that their old classics are valuable enough to remake them properly.  That being said, some of my production PCB amps sound just as good if not better than the vintage point to point ones.

[fritferret]

I think these are all hand-made and 'better sounding' is relative to who's listenin'.  The prices really aren't out of line IMO.  I think it's cool that Fender realizes that their old classics are valuable enough to remake them properly.  That being said, some of my production PCB amps sound just as good if not better than the vintage point to point ones.

i agree.  if you're willing to buy and you like it, who am i to say it wasn't worth it?  my personal preference would be to hire a boutique builder.  resale value is never a factor me.  i buy what sounds good w/out regard for how much i'll make or loose on the purchase if i decide to sell it.

for similar reasons i'll never buy a gibson again.  i think their waaaaayyy overpriced.  that's just me, though.

[PM33AUD]

for similar reasons i'll never buy a gibson again.  i think their waaaaayyy overpriced.  that's just me, though.

Yea, I almost ended up going with a Gibson despite not liking the 24.75 scale.  The deal fell through, which is how I ended up with an RS4.  It is so much nicer than any Gibson I've played I've no interest whatsoever grabbing one.

[abalone at last]

Yeah...I know ...I can see your point about the boutique thing...it does make alot of sense (cents) haha.......I just wanted to see if anyone would make the leap to the Gibson Guitar thing....and a few did........

[PM33AUD]

I was scouring the LP forum when I was looking for a Gibson and someone posted the RS4.  Some of the threads weren't pretty.  If one were to go directly from that, they would likely be turned off by the RS4.  Someone even asked why these weren't as popular and many members thought the shape was the turnoff and bashed it b/c it wasn't the same shape as a Gibson LP.  When I saw the RS4 I fell in love with the design and shape.  To me, it looks way sexier than any LP I've seen and when you play and hear it, it is just one of those things you immediately realize you've made the right decision.  That hasn't happened to me of any Gibson I've played (except a '54 J45 that I am too poor to afford).  You also realize it's not a LP knock-off by any means.  You realize this when you experience it.  Just an awesome guitar.

Back to the amp thing... I've built many amps, including some Fender based stuff.  There are so many nuances that the engineer side of me say shouldn't make a difference but end up realizable by anyone with an ear.  Any amp is like this, cheap or expensive, hand-made or production.  Just gotta try it and see if it's a perfect fit.  Hell, I was playing for the longest time on a POS (subjective) Crate amp someone left at my house because the lead channel rocked.  It was even solid-state.  End of the day, who cares!  Just gotta try.  I've tried other boutique amps and never was blown away enough.  The amp I play now is a PCB tube modular by Egnater I got for a steal.  Love it.  No clue if it's boutique or not but was the only thing that ended up outdoing my freebie Crate's lead channel for what I do.  The other thing I've noticed is that many guitarist play an amp by itself.  If you are recording solo guitar, great, but most play in bands.  I know for me to fit in with the other instruments and not be a greedy -CENSORED-, I have to cut and notch the EQ in several spots.  Sounds 'weird' when playing alone but fits like a glove when the other instruments fill up the spectrum - this is essential to me.  Some amps are better at being versatile like this than others.

[Switch]

I know this is an old thread but here's my 2 cents:

For those prices you can buy a real vintage amp.. Example : I have a 1965 Fender Pro Reverb Blackface, 2 - 12's, all original.. You can't have mine , but they can be bought for less that the EC models or most of the RI models... I use mine with my Strat, 1990 Gibson LesPaul Standard(which may be for sale soon), and my (on the way), 1973 Fender Tele.. Doesn't get much better than a blackface Fender. And even in this economy, they seem to be appreciating....

bc

 

[tuffythepug]

I think I'll just keep the $250 yard sale Blues Deluxe tweed that I bought a few years back.   It's way better than it needs to be for my talent level