Amp Showdown
Sat, 05/22/2010 - 19:08
I went to the Harmonica Masterclass Amp Showdown Thursday night. There were a ton of amps. Dennis Gruenling, Gary Smith, and Dave ran through each amp playing both a crystal and CR/CM mic. The three top amps in my opinion were the HarpKing 6x10, Sonny Jr. Cruncher, and the Fender Bassman Reissue from 1990 (not the LTD). My Favorite was the Bassman and that was a surprise. There were a lot of other amps there. Of the small to medium amps the Kalamazoo, Sonny Jr. 1, Fender Princeton (both a tweed 59' and a 70's Silverface) and a Masco were clearly the best amps. The Meteor and SJ 410 performed very poorly, especially since they get such nice compliments from people. I hope I haven't offended anyone, these are just my opinions.
Wow! I wish I could have been there for that.
I'm quite surprised that the SJ 410 and the Meteor didn't perform well. Simply because as you say they get so many compliments from people.
I'm not surprised that the Bassman came out top. It's a real workhorse amp and has a wonderful tone with some tube swaps. The Bassman is pretty much the amp of choice for so many pro players and has been for years.
Again I'm not surprised that the Princeton was in the top ranks again either. It's a wonderful amp for harp.
I have a '65 BF Princeton Reverb Reissue and a Bassman LTD and for me they are the perfect harp amps.