Yikes, this thread has been dormant for over 4 years...
I'm still just a ham-fisted monkey of a player, but I noodle around most every night. I have added to my amp collection in the last 4 years and found a guitar I've always had a soft spot for. It's an early (1973ish) Yamaha SG1500. Solid mahogany body and set neck, ebony fingerboard. It's no lightweight at about 11 pounds, but it rings and sustains like a Spinal Tap Les Paul
...unfortunately, someone removed the finish off the top and it came to me with some weird, red pickups with huge magnets. I had some Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickups installed and the wiring gone through. It plays so nicely and really stays in tune.
Found this unobtanium Fender Princeton in an obscure online auction last year. Apparently, no one else was noticing it and I got it for a song. My amp guy was so excited to work on it. These Fender amps of 1963-64 are referred to as "tuxedo" models with blackface panels and white knobs. (word is that Leo Fender was so cheap that he insisted they use up the stock of white knobs from the earlier brownface amps when they went to the blackface panels. Only after they used up the white knobs did they go to the black, top hat knobs. The speaker was bad and I sent it off to Weber to be re-coned. ...it got awfully dark with the re-coned speaker I may put a creamback in it...
Also found a nice Silverface Champ last summer. I'm mostly playing through that at the moment. Great tones at bedroom levels. I get my reverb from a Strymon Blue Sky pedal...that was my Christmas present to myself last year.
Lastly, I picked up a Silverface Bassman. It's still with the amp tech and he is planning to tweak the bass channel with some Dumble-style mods. It's a 50 watt head and I found a 2x12 cabinet for it with the matching dripedge trim. I bought a Bergara attenuator some time ago to bring the volume of these bigger amps down to a manageable level (keeps the neighbors happy)
That's all I have to add. I wish I was a more accomplished player, but I still get some lush tones from these vintage amps; fortunately, I have a good tech who knows how to care for them.
Ed Z
I'm still just a ham-fisted monkey of a player, but I noodle around most every night. I have added to my amp collection in the last 4 years and found a guitar I've always had a soft spot for. It's an early (1973ish) Yamaha SG1500. Solid mahogany body and set neck, ebony fingerboard. It's no lightweight at about 11 pounds, but it rings and sustains like a Spinal Tap Les Paul
...unfortunately, someone removed the finish off the top and it came to me with some weird, red pickups with huge magnets. I had some Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickups installed and the wiring gone through. It plays so nicely and really stays in tune. Found this unobtanium Fender Princeton in an obscure online auction last year. Apparently, no one else was noticing it and I got it for a song. My amp guy was so excited to work on it. These Fender amps of 1963-64 are referred to as "tuxedo" models with blackface panels and white knobs. (word is that Leo Fender was so cheap that he insisted they use up the stock of white knobs from the earlier brownface amps when they went to the blackface panels. Only after they used up the white knobs did they go to the black, top hat knobs. The speaker was bad and I sent it off to Weber to be re-coned. ...it got awfully dark with the re-coned speaker
I may put a creamback in it...Also found a nice Silverface Champ last summer. I'm mostly playing through that at the moment. Great tones at bedroom levels. I get my reverb from a Strymon Blue Sky pedal...that was my Christmas present to myself last year.
Lastly, I picked up a Silverface Bassman. It's still with the amp tech and he is planning to tweak the bass channel with some Dumble-style mods. It's a 50 watt head and I found a 2x12 cabinet for it with the matching dripedge trim. I bought a Bergara attenuator some time ago to bring the volume of these bigger amps down to a manageable level (keeps the neighbors happy)
That's all I have to add. I wish I was a more accomplished player, but I still get some lush tones from these vintage amps; fortunately, I have a good tech who knows how to care for them.
Ed Z