[Harp-L] Re: Harp-L Digest, Vol 18, Issue 1

[BradKava@xxxxxxx]

ALL this amp talk, and always something new....Does anyone share this one, or 
am I nuts?

I have two nice expensive amps, a Sonny 4X10 (the model before the current 
one, that at the time he thought would be the end of the line....)..   it's a 
great amp for rock and blues loud. I also have a Juke 810, that is deep, rich, 
with a tone that gets me compliments whenever I play it. It's tone is rich and 
smooth, makes me think of JJ Cale, whose harp player, Jimmy Gordon uses one. 
But it has no growl....For gigs lately with a too loud band, I've been using 
both together.

but my favorite amp? My $90 Danelectro Nifty Fifty I use at quieter band 
practices....It breaks all the rules for supposed great harp amps: solid state, 8 
inch speaker....but sounds great in a way that neither of the other two hits. 
It picks of the sublteties: you can hear intonations from the back of my 
throat, degrees of chokes and articulations that the others miss. It is incredibly 
responsive...it plays clean and has a great Texas growl when I crank up the 
gain.

I suppose thats all from driving the one small speaker hard and being in a 
small room and not playing at tremendous volume? I don't know.

My quest is this: is there a larger tube amp that can match that? Danelectro 
no longer makes amps, but even if they did, I don't know that a bigger version 
would sound the same.   I tried out Mark Hummel's Meteor last week, which 
from the descriptions sounded like it might do it....but i didn't have enough 
time on it to really judge.

My Sonny plays great clean...but I haven't found anything that gave it that 
growl and didn't feedback like a mother.   I like that gain that is like a 
punch in the face...you have to shake it off...you know what I mean?

what have you guys found you loved like that?