Guitar Amp Blog

There are a huge number of Line 6 amplifier for sale on eBay, so I had to add quite a few sub categories to break it down. For starters, I ended up with 8 categories, including Line6 AX2, Line6 Duoverb, Line6 Flextone, Line6 Pod, Line6 Spider, Line6 Vetta and two general categories for Line6 Cabinets and Cases.

Ever wondered how Line 6 got it’s name, well here’s the skinny. Originally a research and engineering firm, the company designed musical products for the likes of companies such as Alesis. After perfecting a technique to digitally model the sound characteristics of a guitar amplifier, the company decided to develop products around the technology themselves. Since this was the sixth major product line they had developed (the first five were all sold or contracted by other companies), they decided to call the new company Line 6.

Although many tube purists look down on solid-state technology for guitar amps, there are a ton of mainstream artists who tour and record with Line 6 products. What they lack in tone, they certain make up for in versatility and convenience.

One of the great British amplifiers, used by the legendary guitarist, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath.  I’ve broken down Laney Amps into 3 subs including cabs, heads and combos.  Here’s some quotes I found from Tony about his use of Laney amps:

“I’ve tried different amplifiers over the years. I started out using Marshall amplifiers and then I switched to Laney – we were both using Laneys then. I used Laneys for quite a while and then started trying others, like a Boogie 300-watt head, which I didn’t like because it was too large-sounding. Then I went back to Marshalls again, then back to Laneys.”

“The Laneys I use now are designed the way I would want to have an amplifier sound. They’re my own model Laney amp and they’re a bit different from the regular models they do. We worked on getting the sound right where I wanted it, so they’ve got a lot more highs and they’re very loud. While my sound used to be a bit fuzzy, it’s not quite so fuzzy now. I want a sound that’s solid and powerful. I like a cleaner sound, not a fuzzy one. There are a few other changes from the original amps, including the way it’s wired up.”

I added six subcategories to the Kustom Amplifier category today including breakdowns for combos, heads, vintage amps and cases.  I’ve always thought these amps were just for bass players, but I’ve recently seen there is much more to the story.

When Kustom® amplifiers first burst onto the American music scene in 1966, no one had ever seen anything like it. Covering its amps in eye-popping automotive upholstery, Kustom instantly created the most visually distinctive amplification products of the era.

Being seen with players such as legendary Motown bassist James Jamerson, revolutionary rockers The MC5 and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty, Kustom amps earned respect on concert stages and in recording studios and rehearsal spaces across the country. This was due to their punchy tones, rugged dependability and one-of-a-kind appearance.

The concept behind Kustom came from the mind of a young entrepeneur named Bud Ross in Chanute, Kansas. Through the years that followed, Ross and his team developed a wide range of products, from classic guitar amps to high-powered bass models and flexible P.A. systems.

By the spring of 1981, I was really getting into progressive rock with such bands as King Crimson, UK and Ultravox.  I had joined a new band in January with the best musicians I ever played with - a great drummer and keyboardist along with a decent singer.  I was listening to a lot of Robert Fripp and Al Dimeola at that time, and decided to go for a smaller amp with more gain - I chose the Music Man 112RD-65 amplifier - another fantastic Music Man Amp.

I bought this at McCord’s Music in Valley View mall, my favorite hangout, sometime in the early spring of ‘81.  About an hour after I picked it up, I played a gig with it at a small in club in Dallas’ Deep Ellum - it sounded great that night and I knew I had a gem.

This amp really ushered in my love for small amps.  Even though it had plenty of power, 65 watts, the single speaker really cut down the weight and made it a breeze to gig with.  Some people knock this amp for having a solid state preamp, but it gave it tightly compressed lead tone (ala early Boogie Mesa MK I) that I really liked.  The dual 6L6GC power tubes made it a seriously loud amp with lots of warmth when playing clean and some dirt when you cranked it up.

To improve the sound, I installed a Peavey Black Widow speaker with a much larger magnet that what came with the stock speaker.  Even though the Peavey was rated for higher wattage, I still managed to blow it out - oops!

I loved this amp and took it to college with me for a couple of years before I sold it to my girlfriend’s brother.  In hindsight, I should have kept the amp and got rid of the girlfriend, but such is life…

Here’s a pic of a truly great amp -

I added a few subcategories to the Gibson Amp line today - entries for Gibson Goldtone, Gibson GA Series and Gibson Vintage Amps.  I also added some more search terms to the main Gibson page to filter out entires now covered in the new subs.

I still scratch my head to this day why I sold my Music Man HD-130 2×12, but I did, sometime in the summer of 1980. I remember trading it in for a fairly new Fender Twin that someone had stripped all the Tolex off of and painted white - call me crazy, but I thought it was cool. Tone wise at least, it’s hard to go wrong with a Twin… and it did sound good.

At the time, I was kind of evolving away from hard rock to more of a Police-ish and rockabilly style, which the Fender Twin fit perfectly. Shortly after getting the Twin, I got my first chorus pedal - a classic Boss CE-2 Chorus - and it sounded amazing coupled with that Fender sparkle. To be fair, my Music Man HD-130 probably would have sounded as good (if not better), but I wasn’t complaining…I was tone happy.

Our band did some demos at a studio in downtown Dallas in the late summer of 1980. I remember the engineer just shoved a SM57 in front of the Twin and we started the session. It sounded great. Although I used a Boss OD-1 for some overdrive and a little of the CE-2 Chorus pedal, most of those tracks were just my Ibanez AS200 plugged straight into the Twin with a little reverb on the amp - life was simple back then.

I gigged a lot with that Twin and pushed it pretty hard, but it never let me down once. As my choice in musical styles started to shift again in early ‘81, the Twin was on it’s way out, but it was a great ride while it lasted.

This isn’t the actual picture, but it looks pretty close to what I had…

Following the demise of my Marshall, I picked up a Music Man HD-130 2×12 at McCord’s Music in downtown Dallas sometime in early January 1979. Although this is a very Fender-ish type amp, it had a fantastic overdrive tone even at low volumes. A lot of great players defected to Music Man in the late 70s, Eric Clapton and Mark Knofler to name a few, but they never really caught on - I’ve always wondered why…

Along with great tone, this amp had a nice reverb tank, a very cool tremelo and a dual power switch to run at half-power when you needed a little less volume. This amp was built like a tank and was easily one of the loudest amps I’ve ever owned, played or heard - I mean scary loud! Most of the volume came from the incredibly efficient 2×12 custom speakers that were fitted with enormous magnets - and it made the amp weigh a ton.

My beloved guitar teacher in my early years, the master guitarist Mike Ellis, got one of these amps in the late seventies too…and he still has it…and still loves it. Of all the amps I’ve had, I can’t believe I let this one slip through my fingers.

I only had this amp about a year, here’s a pic:

In December 1978, I stumbled into McCord’s Music in downtown Dallas after finishing up my finals for the semester. I was playing in a good band at the time and felt I needed a “hotter” amp to gig with - yes, I needed a Marshall - or at least I thought I did.

At the back of the music store, I found a used 50-watt Marshall 2040 “Artiste” 2×12 amp that was in good condition and priced to move. After plugging in and convincing myself it sounded good (which it really didn’t), I put down a 5$ deposit and set out to finance this beast.

I had the amp on layaway for about a month and finally got it home in the first few days of January, 1979. Within the first 30 minutes of trialing my new amp, I knew I had made a big mistake - it sounded terrible. To my dismay, the tone was thin and brittle without a hint of dirt unless you had it full up - this was my first lesson in buyer’s remorse - it was truly awful.

Luckily, fate stepped-in and saved me from this “tone” disaster. A few days after taking the amp my band’s practice hall, our drummer called me with some bad news - the other guitarist had plugged into my amp after I left, turned it full up and exploded the transformer all over the practice room…it was complete toast. Not sure what to do, I took the amp back to the music store and they gave me a full credit toward another amp - I couldn’t believe it! I’ll talk more about the next amp I got in a later post, but in the mean time, here’s a pic of the short-lived “Artiste” - RIP, baby.

Since we’re on firsts, I thought it only fitting to talk about my first guitar amp. It was the fall of 1977 and I was still waiting to get my first electric. At the time, I was playing an acoustic Alvarez fitted with a in-the-soundhole Bill Lawerence pickup.

The pickup came before the amp - a friend of mine had restored an old guitar amp his dad picked up a garage sale - we played our acoustics through that for quite a while. So in the fall ‘77, I put a 50-watt Peavey Classic on layaway at the Melody Shop in Dallas - I think it was $250 at the time.

Once I got the money together and got the amp home, I was entering a whole new world - reverb, distortion and most importantly, volume! Although my plunky electrified acoustic sounded pretty lousy through this amp, I couldn’t have been happier with it - I’d turn off all lights and play in the dim illumination of the amp’s red jewel lamp (as the sweet smell of tubes wafted through the air…)

All in all, the old Peavey Classic was a great all-tube amp with a great clean sound and a fair amount of dirt when you pushed it. This model had 2×12s in it and seemed to weighed a ton - I was only 14 at the time, so it probably did…

My Peavey Classic served me well as I started playing in a bunch of rock bands at high school dances and private parties. I got my first electric about a year later, a black Gibson Les Paul Pro, and it really sounded great through that amp, especially with the P90s. Here’s a picture of that great amp :

I’ve been thinking about putting this site up for some time, but everything takes longer than you expect, right? This year marks my 30th year playing guitar and I can safely say I’ve enjoyed every second of it. Throughout those 30 years, I’ve become engrossed with everything connected to the art, including of course, guitar amps.

Originally I was just going to do another amplifer info site, but that’s been done to death - why not build something that’s at least useful. So I tapped into a little of my programming skills to reach into the vast database of guitar amps over at eBay - easily the largest cache of new and used amps on the planet.

With a little perseverance, I finally got the basic frame put up, but I plan to expand it greatly in the future. This blog will chronical each step along the way.

At the moment, the site only captures general brands of amps, but in the future I will expand each category to include any and all models for each brand - Fender alone might take 3 months, but it’ll be fun…stay tuned!