Poor Man's Joe Bonamassa Rig (Page 3 of 7)

I thought the Super sonic was ok. If you are looking for a fender sound for under 1000 you have lots of options. I love my twin,  100 watts, very nice clean channel. Also you have the Super which is known for great cleans, even the bassman. I'd go with one of those before I went with the super sonic. But the super sonic has overdrive which isnt horrible. Good luck.

I think I have a really simple Bluesrock setup.

-Stratocaster hot rod 62 reissue ( the main one)
-Stratocaster 83 modified to get the second tone button ( there was only the volume and
                           one tone on that strat edition) and modified to get the standard input jack
                           
-Texas special pickups for the 83 and stock pickups for the hot rod 62

-Rivera fandango 2x12 combo with celestion vintage 30 and modified to get a volume knob   
for the boost on each channel.
-Tubescreamer Ts9
-Vox wah
-Boss Tu-2
-Banzai fireball overdrive (Don't really use it anymore)
-Boss Super Chorus Ch-1 (not really use it)
-Jim Dunlop Jazz III ......and lots of my fingers for the picking.
-Dean Markley BLuesteel 10-46 strings for the 62, but it will be 11-52 soon
-Daddario 11-49 for the 83

I'm always looking to get new stuff but do my best with that setup for today.

If you don't mind my asking, why the mix of a higher powered amp with a lower one?  I'm sure it'll sound killer, and in the true spirit of the thread a video of your rig in action would be even better!  Thanks for reviving this thread BTW.  It was such a thrill to have Joe check out my rig and validate my existence!  I am going to be doing a couple of new videos soon of some more recently aquired amps and toys .  Just got a house so I can finally crank those puppies!

The 50 watt Ceriatone Overtone of course!   Cool thing about the Dumble type amps the magic comes from the preamp instead of the power amp.  Of course they sound better when cranked too but their power section is a lot like a Fender Twin Reverb, just tons of headroom.  If you are a Joe fanatic like the rest of us that's what I would do.

PS please report back on the Class 5.  It has no master volume so maybe it's still loud???  I have yet to see one in stores and I hear it's like a 'mini-Bluesbreaker'.  If it sounds really good and is built to last I may have to pick on up on the cheap.  Good luck making your "mini-bonamassa" rig man!

Very cool, can't wait until the stores around here start stocking them.  How would you describe the tone?

I think I have the cheapest poor man's Bonamassa setup ever!  I have a Fender Princeton Chorus Amp.  I have a Digitech RP150 set up for a Marshall Amp, also a Sparkle Drive Boost pedal, and then the second channel on the Fender amp set on some heavier distortion.  All going to an Epiphone Les Paul.  It sounds good, definately not an exact Bonamassa sound, but it's fairly good.  I may be getting a Marshall Amp for Christmas, but I can't spend more than $400.  Thinking about a Class 5.  what do you guys think?

I promised a follow up on the Class 5:
Sold it

Point is that I wanted a small combo for playing while the family sleeps. Not possible with the C5 if you want decent sound.
It is a great amp though, as soon as tubes are replaced and rattle eliminated (seems to ba an issue with most of them).
I also discovered that half tje JJ tubes I received from my local dealer was microphonic. Seems like JJ have a quality control issue...

On the "Poor Man's JB Rig" side though, things have gotten extremely much better (and more expensive):

Amps: Ceriatone 2550 and OTS HRM 50. What a duo!!! The 2550 runs through an UA attenuator.

Cab: Bought a cheap (but actually quite good) 2x12 Laney cab and replaced the seventy 80 elements with Celestion Heritage G12-65 (for the OTS HRM) and Heritage G12M (for the 2550).

Pedals: TS-808 RI, Fulltone OCD, Boss tuner, TC Nova Repeater delay, Hardwire Reverb and a Radial Bigshot ABY box.
A Fuchs Verbrator for the HRM is on it's way (if the polish seller can be trusted :-)).
Overdrive and tuner placed before both amps, and the reverb + delay is in the 2550 fx loop.

Cabling is George L, except for the guitar cable (Planet Waves with Neutrik Silent plugs).

Guitars are JB LP #157 (w/Lux BB caps and RS pots), R9 (w/SD Antiquity, RS kit and Tonepros bridge) and collecting dust, a US Strat from '05 (w/Lace Holy Grails and RS kit),

This is a fantastic sounding rig, but offcourse still leaves me wanting a small combo that gives me a hint of the good sound at whisper level

You're all so lucky, haha Its not always about trying to copy Joe's rig to get his tone, I've experimented with quite a few amps in the shops I know locally, and some even over the country, and none have really got me that close to Joe's tone. However, I do have a Marshall DS1401, which is not TOO different from the DSL100 head, and after trying around with it for a few months, I've found what I call 'my tone', but recently, I've tried the JAZZ III picks, and honestly, it makes such a difference in giving you the similar shimmer that Joe's tone has. Just an piece of advice I've picked up.
But several weeks after finding this very close tone, I'm still not going to use it as my own at gigs. It's not that I don't want to copy Joe, it's that I want to be myself, which at the end of the day, isn't that better than forking out thousands on a replica rig?
Rus