Scott Henderson Discussion

[countandduke]

Scott,

Ted Greene is one of my favorite chord melody players and he played lots of different amps as well as guitars. He often liked to play solid state amps like Peavey Bandits, Renown's, Special 130's etc. Some of these amps have effects loops as well as parametric mid eq's which I could see being really useful. I did some quick searching in the index section and didn't see any info under Peavey amps or solid state amps so I wondered your input on these amps.

For instance, would you change out the 12" speaker in a solid state amp like a Peavey Bandit? My first "Real" amp was a Peavey Renown and looking back, I can remember the "solid state" feeling of the amp. There was no "tube sag" but there was an immediacy to the attack which I could see being a useful trait to some guitar players. I guess Ted also liked amps with 15" speakers which no doubt would help fill out the low end of a guitar.

Did you ever have to use one of those solid state amps back in the day? There are so many options these days but I could see 2 solid state amps running in stereo being a fairly useful and lightweight option these days. Maybe running a line 5 M9 in the loop for a nice stereo spread? Those PV amps can be had for around $135 or so vs a Hot Rod more like $450 or so...

Thanks for your imput as always. You have such a good ear but also more experience so your opinion holds a lot of merit and as always, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and opinions...

Best,
Chris

[Scott Henderson]

Back in the Jean-Luc Ponty days, I was using the preamp of a Peavy Special 130, and a tube power amp. I thought the amp by itself sounded a bit cold, but the tube power amp helped warm up the sound. I think in general, solid state amps are better for cleaner tones than distortion. Albert King used solid state amps and got a great tone from them, but his sound was fairly clean. I'm still a big fan of tubes - the sweet harmonics and the way they make the amp breath.

[countandduke]

I definitely agree that solid state amps are much better for clean tones. Roland JC-120 comes to mind. Lab Series... In your opinion would changing the speaker in a solid state amp help much for either clean tones or with a tube based overdrive pedal. Not that there are a ton if them out there...

Chris

[Scott Henderson]

A better speaker makes any amp sound better, tube or solid state. Maybe if the speaker was bit darker than the one that comes in the amp, it might help it sound a bit more like a tube amp, but nothing is going to give you a real tube sound other than real tubes.