Re: Premier Purchase

[Mike Curtis <wd6ehr@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> Now, I went back to the music store and the amp was still sitting in the
> corner. The owner said that he had played guitar through it that morning and he
> at least knew it was working. I then plugged my Sure Silver Bullet in and let
> some Little Walter fly...Wow, this amp has a great tone. It was exactly what I
> was looking for - a good practice amp that could also be used for acoustic
> acts/coffee house gigs and an amp that distorted at low volumes.

And you can always mic it into the PA, too.  A cheap omnidirectional mic
should be fine for this.  (Omnis are better quality per dollar - I've seen
good sonic quality omnis as cheap as $10.) If you put the mic inside a
large plastic funnel, feedback will most likely be minimized.  You may end
up lining the funnel with carpet, or???  Experiment and see what sounds
best to your ear. 

> The owner had done some homework and discovered the amp was from 1956. The
> model is a Premier 110. I believe it has a 12" speaker and standard tubes
> (meaning, the owner said they were easily replaced).

What tubes does it have?  If it's a single 6V6 power amp, it's probably a
6 watt RMS amp.  But 6 watts isn't as bad as you might think; our ears
perceive it as half volume compared to 60 watts! We hear logarithmically,
a scale based upon increments of square and square root rather than 
multiply/divide.

> Since the amp does not
> have reverb, I was wondering if anyone would reccomend an INexpensive delay
> pedal or reverb unit. Maybe I don't even need it, however, I am used to my
> Fender Super Reverb and have been spoiled. Do any of you play amplified blues
> without an delay or reverb?

I often play "dry", especially when doing faster licks.  Many places have 
large, hard floors, ceilings, and walls, giving very echoey acoustics, and 
you don't want any reverb or echo for these places.

While reverb is nice, it does tend to muddy the sound.  I've found that a
little delay, with no "feedback", gives me the sound I like best.  But it
is VERY easy to overdo this.  Chris M pointed this out to me, and I've
been running a much drier sound since - and it DOES sound better!  I've
been using it mostly on my very slow tunes. 

> P.S. Oh yeah, I ended up paying 50 dollars for the amp. I think that was 
> a fair price...

I think you probably got a very good deal.

 -- mike