New amps for Joe tone (Page 1 of 2)

Hi boys, I love a Joe sound but I don't a lot of money to buy a new amp. Also I live in Italy, and here many amps cost very much. A new Fender hot rod deluxe cost about 700 € (1050 $), a blackface-silverface cost 1500-2000 $...
I can spend only 400-500 € (600-750 $).

I play at home (for now) and i'd buy a good clean amps and use pedal for overdrive. What do you think of Fender Hot Rod deluxe (used) or Fender Blues Junior (used)? I can change a speaker with celestion V30 for mitigate the high end...

And for pedal a Ibanez TS9...

TNX

Im not a great fan of the new hotrod deluxes, however the older fender blues amps (pre 95) are quite nice realisitically speaking though the hotrod deluxe / blues deluxe are very big amps and dont sound any good until you have (on the clean channel) cranked the volume to 7-8 and the drive channel is very fizzy and quite unpleasantly at times..... You cant really go wrong with a blues jnr though they are nice amps to work with and the volume is easy to manage...

If your looking for a cheap amp thats good for home use, look at solid states as valves need to be worked to make them sound good, for price / quality a fender champ xd is a very good amp also (I gig with it at smaller gigs and its my main practise amp because its light weight and easy to get a good sound with )

Welcome to the forum Marco!  Here's what I would do.  I personally think that the Hot Rod amps sound fantastic, especially on the clean channel.  I have a '68 Super Reverb that is just phenominal and can get some very Joe-like tones from it with some pedals.  I also owned a first year Blues Jr.  The thing with the Fender amps is that you can set them clean/slightly broken up and goose them with pedals for great tones.  It's a classic formula that has worked for countless people.

I personally think that if you find a used HRD amp you should jump on it.  I've heard people claim that the cleans on those amps are in the ballpark of some very respected boutique amplifiers.  The gain channels do not get the same respect however ( I personally like the first overdrive channel set very lightly and boosted with a tubescreamer).

For my "Tubescreamer" duties i prefer a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 because it has the boost feature that can turn any amp into a high gain blues machine.

With a good clean platform, decent overdrive pedals, the amp's reverb, and a little echo it should get you into Joe-territory in a hurry!

Is it hard getting a Marshall by you.  I'd look into a used Bluesbreaker.  Rolls off nice and with a TS you can boost the gain and mids for a lead sound.

Ben

hi boyz, I bought a Fender HRD on e-bay at good price.

I'd change a speaker, i read in this forum that Joe advice to use a EV-12 with the fender amp. In Italy I can buy it only new for 300 $ (too much). What kind of speaker is similar to ev-12L but more cheap?

Id try the amp first, no point swapping a speakr before you've tried the old one

Slow down little fella. The EV12L is a not a match for all amps, and a really bad match for a 40 watt (read: about 36 watts in reality for actual PV)  In fact you will find a fair amount on the used market...Why? Because these are best suited for High powered Amps running at RMS levels and folks figure this out and HATE the way these things sound.

I agree that they are great speakers and happen to like them but wouldn't use them on a 40watt combo set up like an HRD. Sort of like putting Pirelli P Zeros on a Prius.

Don't dismiss the Emmy speakers as there are several killer speakers to choose from. That's rubbish about them "trying and failing"...Failing what??  David Hidalgo begs to differ with his RWB Emmys.

Also- Plan on a good deal of serious, continuous high volume break-in on a speaker like a 12L which on a 40 watt amp (like the HRD) you won't get there...Not close.

This is simply not a good match up. I have 2 12Ls sitting here in my studio that I wouldn't sell you if you lived next door as it simply not a fit for that platform.

Play the amp. Make small adjustments if you even need to.

Tone Tubby has a great set of Alnicos and Ceramics that will kill in that set up.

Find a good tech in you region if you can and look through some tech posts on TGP who can help you with some smaller tune ups.

Marco78 wrote:

hi boyz, I bought a Fender HRD on e-bay at good price.

I'd change a speaker, i read in this forum that Joe advice to use a EV-12 with the fender amp. In Italy I can buy it only new for 300 $ (too much). What kind of speaker is similar to ev-12L but more cheap?

Nothing compares to the EV.  Eminance tried and failed.  I'd look for a used one on eBay, or save up your money.  Whatever you choose, don't settle, always buy what you want.  If it means waiting and saving your money, then so be it.  You'll be happier that way knowing you got what you wanted and earned it.

Ben