by barbequebob » Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:17 pm
The tube amps from the 50's used a far simpler circuitry, plus the input jack impedance tended to be much higher than amps from the mid 60's and later. Most of those older tube amps used what was called passive tone controls, meaning that when the tone was turned all the way up, it was the flat sound already preshaped form the factory. Many amps from the mid to late 60's began using active controls, where either side of half way you really boosted and cut, much like a keyboard amp or a PA works, and often the input jacks have a lower impedance. Crystals and ceramic mikes work better with the tweed amps because the impedances match (being ultra high-Z), and on Fender amps from the black faced period of the 60's matched the GB's better because the impedances are lower.
The bottom line is your own personal ACOUSTIC TONE AND CHOPS, because if the tone ain't there acoustically, it'll never be there amplified regardless of the gear you get, and that ALWAYS gonna be the cold, hard, brutal truth!!!!!
I've never bought or used any overdrive pedals or used the master volume controls because they may get the sound distorted, but you lose tons of dynamics, tone control, and articulation. Some of my favorite amps didn't even have a tone control at all. Many of the greats during the 50's used an amp because. as a general rule, PA systems as we know it today didn't exist (other than a Bogen PA, which was basically the same circuitry as most guitar amps of the day) and a mike going into a guitar amp WAS the PA!!! From meeting several of the greats over the years, many of them would be rolling on the ground laughing at how so many players are so gear obsessed because, truth be told, most of them could give a crap what it was, so long as their sound got across, which bursts the bubble on many gear freaks. Bottom line: if the chops and tone ain't there acoustically, there's NO amount of gear in the world that'll give it to you or hide anything deemed to be a weakness!!