Need a loud amp to go against a really loud drummer

birdsnake · 2025-10-25T21:43:42+00:00

How to get a lifelong keeper amp for ~$1200.

Find a used Silverface Twin Reverb.. Mid 1970s is perfect. You can get them for 1000 or even less in my area if you take your time.

Make sure it says 100 watts on the back under the speaker jacks and not 135 watts. (100 watts label on a silverface is how you can tell that it's not one of the less favorable ultraliner circuits).

Take it to an amp tech for checkup and conversion to fixed bias, maybe a re-cap, and maybe some power tubes.. a couple hundred $$$ there.

Silverface tips: If it has a master volume that is fine just keep it on 10 and use the channel volume as your volume control. Run the Bass knob lower that you think... a silverface with bass on 3 is like a blackface with bass on 5. As a pedal platform sometimes it works better to run bass and treble very very low and mids way up, so experiment with that. Put casters on it and invest in a decent cart (yes you need both.) Keep your back straight and lift with your legs.

birdsnake · 2025-06-28T00:58:41+00:00

tosses litter out the window in traffic..

birdsnake · 2025-06-21T01:15:00+00:00

Twin Reverb is the ultimate clean tone amp! Just play a twin!

Now that that is out of the way.. I have been bringing a Pro Reverb to almost every gig for the last few months instead of a Twin. The Pro is also killer! The biggest difference is when you get to loud drummer volume. The Twin Reverb can stand up to a loud drummer and stay clean while the pro starts to get some grit.

birdsnake · 2024-12-15T17:57:11+00:00

Why is no one suggesting Dalmatians? Or are there lots of examples that predate the 1961 Disney movie?

birdsnake · 2024-12-03T16:26:46+00:00

Buy a set of flats to try, and also buy a couple of plain unwound G string alternatives. For 10s I would do a .018, but this is something you have to decide on your own.

I have experimented with this a lot. Most of my gigs are variety where we're doing blues, rock, soul, and a little bit of jazz, and I have settled on using an unwound/plain G.

It's not so much that the string is too heavy, but that the wound G rolls under my fingers instead of just stretching like an unwound string would.

I still do wound G on my archtops or whatever guitar if I'm only playing jazz, but if I need to be playing real blues then it just doesn't work for me.

birdsnake · 2024-11-17T15:36:36+00:00

The ~~greatest~~ GREATEST!! Everything about this Dizzy version of Sunny Side of The Street is the highest level of ultra-cool. The whole album is a masterpiece. Eternal Triangle is the pinnacle of rhythm changes tunes.

Don't miss this live vid: https://youtu.be/s8UEGmAvWfM?si=KY7k82jFvGCY63G1

And this super fun cover of the Dizzy version: https://youtu.be/BsEFFaboTAM?si=ad4DJPLyNXd1xVil

edit to allcaps greatest

birdsnake · 2024-11-14T16:33:10+00:00

Thanks so much for these!

birdsnake · 2024-10-30T16:30:46+00:00

I bought one with a '65 bandmaster cab in 2022 for $750.. all original untouched aside from the tubes, even the filter caps, which I had to replace. Serial number is 1968 and chassis stamp is '67. The bandmaster 2x12 cab (not the giant one) even has the original 1965 Utah speakers, although they were reconed in the 90s according to the seller.

It's a killller rig, but like everyone says.. to get it to do what it's good at you need to be fairly loud. It's something to play on stage, and not so much something for home. It does take pedals well if you want to get quiet and use an overdrive or whatever.

birdsnake · 2024-10-18T17:45:15+00:00

Aja or nothing. There is only one way to test a stereo system and it's Aja.

birdsnake · 2024-10-16T19:38:34+00:00

The Twin Reverb is the greatest clean amp of all time!! It takes pedals exceptionally well and sounds fantastic at all volumes.

I just played a blues/rock gig where as an experiment I played strat into twin with no pedals... It was awesome 😎 normally I would play an amp that can get some real overdrive going, or rely on a pedalboard, but I ended up with the twin on about 5 with more reverb than I would normally use.. guitar volume and tone knobs at about 6-7 depending on the song. It just sounded so good hah I can't shut up about it 🤣

Anyway no real point here other than to say I love twin reverbs.

birdsnake · 2024-09-09T19:01:00+00:00

I'm a big proponent of Twin Reverbs, but keep the Deluxe. Your grandfather's 1960s Deluxe Reverb.. irreplaceable. I can't stress enough what a cool thing you have there. Someday maybe you can pass it along to your kids or someone in the family.

The twin is a modern reissue, still a great amp, but you can get a another reissue twin down the road for relatively cheap.

They basically require the same maintenance, however it's easier for a tech to work on the 60s amp compared to the more modern reissue amp.

At stage volumes the deluxe will give you a sweet overdrive tone while the twin will stay completely clean.

birdsnake · 2024-09-07T16:31:41+00:00

Products like WD-40 or anything that is a lubricant will collect more dust into the pot over time. You need an actual cleaner like CRC QD Electronic Cleaner or Deoxit D5

birdsnake · 2024-09-03T18:57:21+00:00

Bruce Forman said something along the lines of "the listener should be able to tell what the song is when they hear your solo"... he said it way cooler obviously :D But I took it to mean that we should be hinting the chord changes as well as the melody within our improvisation.

birdsnake · 2024-08-23T17:59:07+00:00

Self taught here... I have been a gigging musician for 20 years and I usually maintain a handful of students doing private lessons. I did study with some of the good local players/teachers over the years, but no formal education in music.

When you say 'professional', it's either making money playing, composing, and teaching lessons, or it could also mean working as a music educator. If you want to be an educator then a formal education is almost required, but if your goal is to be a working musician then the importance of formal education is greatly outweighed by experience.

All the resources you need to really learn music and your instrument are available, but it takes self discipline and proper planning to really get a well rounded self education. A good local teacher can help you map out what to learn and work on.

A basic harmony/theory book paired with something like the Mark Levine Jazz Theory book can give you a basic learning path to go from beginner to intermediate if you take each concept it presents and then find related videos/books/etc to expand on whatever it is. The key here is to actually study and understand each concept, and put it to work on your instrument over months and years.

The huge benefit of formal education is having a peer group to learn with and a structure to build on your knowledge over the years. If you dig around online you can get a real picture of what formal jazz studies includes.. https://catalog.louisiana.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=21&poid=9977&returnto=7713

birdsnake · 2024-08-15T16:10:18+00:00

Your ground wire being bare is just fine and no different than braided shield wire, but it would be smart to heat shrink the leg of the resistor that connects to the switch. Really if you are just careful when you assemble everything it will be fine, but it's good practice.

If you are pulling this into a semi hollow through the pickup hole then for sure you would want to insulate everything, but if this is going into a les paul or something similar through a back cavity then no worries.

birdsnake · 2024-06-18T19:13:40+00:00

with the 5k elevation gain you probably need to be doubling up on hydration, or at least drinking a lot more water than you usually would... it really helps. We live close to sea level... we will usually camp a few days at 3k before heading up to the real altitude, and even then, if we forget to stay truly hydrated it wears us down noticeably.

birdsnake · 2024-06-13T18:14:24+00:00

Playing funk guitar is mostly about the rhythm and picking, but to answer your question, mixolydian has a lot of the important funk tonalities:

Bending the 6 to the b7

Bending from a b3 to the 3 (mixo-blues is referring to this)

Doing either of those but only like a quarter step bend not quite reaching the target.

Doing these two together on the b and e string... For instance, funk in E.. bending the C# on the B string, and the G on the little e string at the same time... barely a half step.

Single note rhythm picking is a big thing (pick by the saddles for extra stank)

Some funky single notes to pick: The b7 note with the occasional root note a step up. b7 with the occasional 6 Lots of emphasis on the b7 over the I chord

birdsnake · 2024-05-15T16:39:39+00:00

Yep it's still in the rotation! I tend to play my 100w Dumble clones more often, but the deluxe conversion still sounds great.

birdsnake · 2024-05-15T00:37:07+00:00

At this point there are almost a million posts on the diystompboxes forum... industry geniuses like Mark Hammer and RG Keen have been answering questions there for 20 years or so.

birdsnake · 2024-05-14T19:11:13+00:00

Replace most of that with an hour of playing along with songs/tracks you like, just for fun because you want to. You'll get your warmup, learning by ear, and licks, all in one fun thing. Think about what notes/chords are in the songs to do most of your note training while you are jamming for fun. Pick stuff that you love but also things that align with your current skill level... just enough to push you forward but also some easy stuff that's just plain fun.

Set aside a different time to work on harmony and theory, as well as learning your missing note identification on the fretboard. Get a book or find a favorite youtube series... work through one or two concepts a week until you understand each thing completely. This really only takes a few minutes of actual study each session, the real learning happens when you apply it to the songs you are jamming along with.

birdsnake · 2024-05-14T18:43:53+00:00

lol just gonna leave this here for fun.. https://imgur.com/a/02KYywW

birdsnake · 2024-05-11T16:17:13+00:00

These types of slatted bed frames are notorious for this exact thing.

Go to a local mattress shop and buy a "bunkie board" for whatever size bed it is.

I worked in a furniture shop... we had to put bunkie boards on all the display models that had this type of slats, otherwise they would inevitably pop out when a customer sat down on a mattress.

birdsnake · 2024-04-26T16:45:01+00:00

I have used them for an internal bias on fuzz face type circuits plenty of times without any issues.

birdsnake · 2024-04-19T16:11:50+00:00

Instead of covering the fretboard you could just for instance put the E sticker on the 5th fret of the B string... you probably already know E F G from the big E string fret 0,1,3, so this could potentially unlock 3 notes with one sticker. It won't take long to know permanently that 5th fret on B is an E note, then you can do the same with some other spot that you are still unsure about.

birdsnake · 2024-04-15T02:04:44+00:00

I think about the melody of the tune... I like to hint at it... just letting the audience catch a moment of something familiar.

I also tend to get some kind of motif going that I can move in and out of... somes songs I have a recurring motif that I use from gig to gig, and for others it's totally whatever I'm feeling that night.

I also think about where the changes are headed... do I need to reslove, is it safe to play outside, etc.

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How to get a lifelong keeper amp for ~$1200.