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Topic: My New BooTeek Amp |
Jon Light
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 19 Aug 2005 11:20 am |
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I've got a new rig coming--don't have it yet. I love the sound of my steel through my SF Deluxe Reverb but it is way underpowered for all but quiet small room gigs.
I have coming a Tone King Comet 40B. This is an earlier incarnation from Tone King, two generations old by now. This is a 2 x 12" 40 watt two channel amp that runs on 4 6V6's. Channel one is basically Fender black face. Channel two is described as tweed voiced. It has a bunch of features such as a half power switch in the lead (tweed) channel that cuts out two tubes and cuts out one speaker to maintain proper impedance and presumably to keep overdriven sounds in volume balance with the rhythm settings. Which may see little use since I don't play guitar.
The sound of this amp has been described as the tone of a Deluxe with the punch of a Twin. If this is accurate, well, I couldn't better describe my idea of a dream amp (one of many). Plus the idea of having essentially a tweed....what? bassman? super? low power twin? Man oh man.
Oh, sure, this will be underpowered for some gigs. Still got my Dual Showman Reverb. But this could be sweeeeeeet. |
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chuck lemasters
From:
Jacksonburg, WV
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Posted 19 Aug 2005 12:13 pm
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Jon, I recently bought one of Mark Bartel's latest amps, The Tone King Meteor II. I was looking for a light weight guitar amplifier and after visiting Mark's shop and hearing the Meteor II, I was floored by the huge warm sound from a single twelve-forty watt amp. It is pure Blackface Fender on the clean channel and ranges from a reasonable tweed tone to a mid rangey screamer on the lead channel.It does not have enough clean power for a very loud steel gig, but for low volume jobs and recording, it is more even sounding across the spectrum, with a more full tone than my old Twin. Beautiful tone. The amp will run 6V6's, 6L6's or EL34's, having posts for a multimeter and individual pots for each tube to adjust the bias. It is now my main guitar amp and will be my recording amp for the steel guitar. I think the two-twelve model would be better for steel guitar, maybe giving you a bit more headroom.
chuck |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 19 Aug 2005 12:42 pm
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| Quote: |
| The sound of this amp has been described as the tone of a Deluxe with the punch of a Twin. |
A Twin what? Twin Reverb? I don't think so.
Four 6V6's might get up to 40 watts (with about 325v on the plates), but even then, they'd be hard pressed to keep up with a Twin Reverb, which has from 80-135 watts. So, yes, it'll sound like a nice medium-powered tube amp, maybe even like a Deluxe. It'd be great for your non-pedal guitars.
But it won't "rock" like a Twin when you hook up that U12!  |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 19 Aug 2005 1:28 pm
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I owned a very early Tone King Imperial (2-6V6 into 1 x 12"), seafoam-green/white two-tone naugahyde, one of the first 10-20 he made. One of my best friends still uses it as his main amp (mostly coffeeshop type gigs), but I found the clean channel didn't have oomph for loud gigs, and the tweed channel was loud enough but too distorted for me. Probably the best clean recording amp I ever used, for guitar, and the tremelo was as good as the best white-tolex Tremoluxes I have ever heard. I've played a bunch of Comets. The ones I've heard have more of a BF-style tremelo sound, but I heard that he will put the white-tolex style tremolo on if desired.
I loved the weight on that Imperial - size like a Tweed Tremolux, but weight more like a Princeton Reverb. Probably should have kept it, but I found that, on clean, it had a lot less guts than my BF Deluxe Reverb. I know that the plate voltage on my Imperial was like Donny says, around 325-350 V. A Deluxe Reverb runs 'em real hot, like 420 or 430 V. Gives 'em lots of juice, but also burns up 6V6s like crazy - I have to use NOS ones. I think 4-6V6 run at a lower voltage makes a lot of sense. One can use the current production tubes with no problem.
IMO, his newer amps have at least partially addressed the oomph issue, but don't have the silky glass quality of this Imperial. My old guitar shop was (still is?, I'm not sure - I'm no longer involved) a dealer for these. I've played a bunch - there's no arguing the quality, IMO.
I cannot imagine that a 4-6V6 amp will have the kick of a Twin Reverb either, but these are some great sounding amps, IMO. How useful you'll find this Tone King will depend largely on how loud your stage volume is. I never could use mine on a large stage at all, but most clubs I play in these days insist on keeping the volume reasonable, it might work now. But a Dual Showman Rev. should cover all bases, I have one too, my favorite sound for jazz guitar or steel. |
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