Re: Typical Country amp?

Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2003 18:57:52 -0500
Newsgroups: alt.guitar.amps
Size: 2,563 bytes

For high volume a BF/SF Twin Reverb with JBLs is hard to beat. For lower
volume, almost any BF Fender Reverb amp or late Tweed(Bassman, Twin,
Bandmaster) will work. For recording, Deluxe Reverbs and Tweed Deluxes
are very common and are also sometimes used mic'ed where low stage
volume is desired.
Back when grunge became popular, a shiney new Tele plus a beat up old
Marshall meant a "new" country convert ;-) I agree that for some of the
stuff that passes for country today, anything is fair game but for the
older classic stuff, there are some good reasons why a Tele thru a
Fender just works.
First off, country bands will usually have acoustic guitars, steel
guitars, fiddles, pianos or keyboards, etc. Country lead playing also
includes little licks against the lyrics. This all means you need
something that will cut thru without crapping all over everyone else.
While an LP thru a Marshall stack is an almost ideal weapon of choice in
a power rock trio where you want to fill a lot of sonic space, it's a
bit much in a country band. A Tele or Strat with a smaller amp works
much better for this.
Non country pickers often make two incorrect assumptions - that the key
to country leads is a bright plain string sound and if I EQ the amp, an
LP or one with P90s can do that. The second is that the sound is
pristine clean with no distortion. If you listen close to some good
country Tele solos, the magic of the Tele lead sound is in the
hoarse/smokey sound of the wound strings in contrast with the bright
snap of the plain ones. Fender amps, especially the BF/SF reverb models
have a little too much bottom end built into their tone shaping and the
wound strings will typically distort first. Pushed too far the amps will
fart out, but right on the edge this extra fatness helps a Tele or Strat
with a single coil bridge PUP sound thicker on the wound strings while
still playing clean on the plain ones - all without getting too boomy or
muddy like what happens with an LP into a Fender. The tone shaping in
most Marshalls is setup to distort everywhere at about the same time, so
what you end up with there or with a clean SS amp is a sound that's too
thin.
In article <email-address-deleted>,
email-address-deleted says...
> Hey,
>
> I've been listening to some Jerry Reed lately
> (don't laugh), and I was wondering what - besides
> a good Tele - would "countrybute" (haha) to that
> typical, clean Country lead guitar sound?
>
> What would be a "typical" Country amp?
>
> Cheers,
> Phil
>