Topic: i've finally learned something that i should have known!
Ok, i'm just going to be wide open here since i don't know any of you cats personally. I'm 46 and have been playing a very long time. I've had many guitar heroes along the way and have spent both a ton of time and money trying to learn the style of my heroes and replicate their rigs. In the 80s it was EVH and Georgre Lynch. In the 90s it was, well, no one really lol. In 2000 i got into blues and blues rock and worked on Cream-era clapton. Then it was SRV, Mayer and KWS (i know, late to the SRV party).
In 2009 i really got into Joe's playing for all the same reasons that are well established and not the point of this post. Over the years i learned his licks and worked on seeing if i could replicate that tone.
Now just to head this off before someone says it, please just keep the "why duplicate someone else when you should be yourself" thing to yourself. Seeing if i could play in the style and have a similar sounding rig to my heroes along the way has been one of the things that I love about playing guitar. Telling me to be myself is really not relevant to this post. I will never sound exactly like these guys anyhow and as John Mayer famously said "it's my failure to sound like my heroes that's allowed me to sound like me".
So here's the deal. I had Joe's rig down: Black Jubilee head. Fuchs head to approximate the dumble side of his rig. One 2X12 cab loaded with EV12Ls and one 2x12 loaded with Eminence Legend EM12. The rig sounded great. I play in a local group and got high marks for the sound of my rig.
The thing is, something didn't feel right. The bottom line was i just had WAY too much rig for any of the clubs we play. The tone was good but the notes just sort of laid there since there was no way at all i could push these amps to their sweet spot. I had similar experiences with other rig types and other bands in prior years.
Two days ago i decided i was going to get a new practice amp. I was just fooling around at guitar center trying out things and ended up playing a tweed blues deluxe reissue. I loved it and bought in on the spot. I figured it would be perfect for practicing. I took it home and jammed for a couple hours on it and could not believe what i was hearing. Yes, it's a tweed and yes it caught my eye because he's playing tweeds. BUT the point is, i was finally able to crank an amp to its proper sweet spot in volume with killing everyone around me.
If i was going to try to chase Joe's current rig i'd go get a Victoria tweed twin. I have the money to do that so i just would if i wanted to go there. But, what i've finally realized is that would just be repeating what i did with the last rig. A tweed twin cranked to the volume to get it's proper tone is just too much for a club. This little blues deluxe is the cheapest amp i've ever bought and i really like it. (I expect i'll replace the speaker soon - i live near the eminence factory and will go up and try some different options)
A couple of morals to this long and rambling story: the proper sized amp for your gig really is a critical thing. Just because something is expensive doesn't make it great or the right thing for you. Chasing your heroes tone and style is fun, but will only take you so far if you aren't able to apply the rig the same way as your hero (in Joe's case wide open). A couple of my buddies are going to fall over when i show up at the next gig with this little tweed amp. My guess is that they will be blown away as soon as they hear this thing.
As you were gentlemen (and ladies if you're out there). Thanks for reading!!
