Gear advice

I've got a somewhat unique set of needs for my amplification solution (although I suspect many others on this site may have similar ones).  I'm a multi-instrumentalist who plays accordion, mandolin, and bouzouki in one band, and trombone and electric guitar in another.  We typically play in pretty small venues (bars), but occasionally in medium-sized clubs to a couple hundred people.  I'm trying to find a solution that meets the following criteria:

light/portable (maybe under 35 pounds?)
able to handle a variety of instrument types with different gain/eq profiles
loud enough for a mid-sized club
moderately high fidelity (has to sound really good, but doesn't need to be audiophile level)
ideally under a grand

I'm not sure this actually exists, but any suggestions for amps and/or pre-amp/DI and amp combo options would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks,

Fred

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Permalink Reply by Rob Cargnelli on February 9, 2010 at 12:29pm
Hey Fred - I'm a pretty dedicated guitar player and am a self-confessed electric gear hound. I'm a 100% tried and true devotee of TopHat amplifiers. You can check them out online. Just fantastic. For whatever reason, they don't hold their value particularly well on the used market (I honestly have no idea why). If you're a bit diligent, you can find a really nice TopHat Club Royale for about, or a bit less, than $1000. This amp is based on a Vox / Marshall circuit, but it's is super flexible. The keys player in my band uses one for his Nord (organ) and will switch play electric through it without making any adjustments. It's about 20 watts, but it's plenty powerful, has lots of headroom, and will get some dirt on it really well.

You can go to my band's myspace page (www.myspace.com/littlejackiewright) and all those tunes were recorded with TopHats (not the Club Royale, mind you, but it would sound equally good).

Hope this helps.
Rob
Permalink Reply by Fred Studier on February 9, 2010 at 1:02pm
Thanks Rob. I'm not sure if that's going to be powerful enough to amplify the accordion. I'll look around to see if there's one I can "test drive." Any accordion players out there who also play acoustic string instruments?
Permalink Reply by Kit Kellison on February 9, 2010 at 8:20pm
You can get a Fender Deluxe re-issue for about $750. It's 42 lbs. though. I can't think of a tube amp you can get for less...you probably don't want to sacrifice tubes for weight, though...

The Hot Rod Deluxe is 45 lbs, nice amp too...lots of people like the old one or the re-issue better.
Permalink Reply by Kit Kellison on February 9, 2010 at 8:22pm
BTW, Fred's right about a clean 20 watts... it's all about the headroom (what's leftover at top wattage to be pushed, for peaks).

The Deluxe is only 22 watts, the way it's rated. Some amps over-rate their power so you get a dirty 50 watts which would be a clean 20 watts.
Permalink Reply by Elvis Fontenot on February 18, 2010 at 5:26pm
All the fiddle players I've played with swear by using a bass amp to play fiddle through....
Permalink Reply by Allan M. Kaufman on February 19, 2010 at 1:52pm
I'm kinda late to the party on this, but a bass amp or keyboard amp would work well. Keyboard would work best. They usually have more than one input, usually have at least on xlr/mic input and can get loud and clean. The electric guitar would need something between it and the amp to make it sound a little nicer, (a distortion pedal of some sort or a POD type device) but keyboard amps have served me well for pedal steal, acoustic guitar and mando at different times.
Permalink Reply by Erin Frisby on February 24, 2010 at 1:47pm
hey fred,

I play guitar and several other instruments in my group, Miss Shevaughn & Yuma Wray and I absolutely love love love my Ampeg Jet 12T. It has an accordion input and a nice warm sound at very low volumes. Ampeg released tons of copies of these and similar ones with no tremelo or Reverb, the original being about 1966 I think and mine being from the 90's sometime. They are easy to find and relatively cheap as they're not super collectible, but all the same, I think they're a well kept secret, I constantly get compliments on it and every once in awhile a wink from a fellow owner in the know. It's small, sounds good at 2 and can get pretty darn loud too.

you can hear mine at www.myspace.com/missshevaughnyumawray I also play a harmonium through a harmonica mic through it

Miss Shevaughn
Permalink Reply by Fred Studier on February 24, 2010 at 1:57pm
Thanks Erin, I'll definitely check it out!
Permalink Reply by R Baker on March 10, 2010 at 7:28pm
I'm a bit late to the party for this one too Fred but here's my two cents.....

In my band we've been using an AER Domino 2 for two acoustic guitars & vocals....it's a bit more expensive than the price range you find ideal but it's quite versatile & is "expandable" with additional powered components (subs, monitors, FOH). Audio fidelity is much better than what you'll get with most any conventional guitar amp.

If you're looking for pickups/preamps/etc. for the instruments you mentioned I'd also give a plug for K&K Sound. Dieter has a set-up for most everything under the sun.

Cheers!
Permalink Reply by Jim Moulton on March 24, 2010 at 9:49pm
I agree with allen about a keyboard amp for your situation or a small Pa system.
Here is an example of a Peavey with 3 Channels.
http://www.andysmusiconline.com/products/peavey_kb3.html

Jim
Permalink Reply by mojobone on April 14, 2010 at 10:21am
Check out Fishman's Loudbox Pro; it's just about ideal for everything short of trombone. (odds are, that'll be miked, if necessary) It's designed to be loud, clean and portable, so you'd probably need additional processing for the electric guitar, if you like to play dirty. (I use Line6's POD X3Live, it's built into a footswitch controller, and includes bass amp models, has an extra input and can run two amp sims side-by-side, but requires a power amp/speakers) Just about any full-range amplification system designed for keys or bass would do, but bass amps might be a bit limited in their ability to tailor the sound to acoustic stringed instruments that aren't basses. Keyboard amps are more likely to feature multiple inputs, too, so you're less likely to need an addirional mixer
Permalink Reply by Adela & Jude on April 20, 2010 at 9:39am
hey there -

I use to work at Fishman - the acoustic ampification people, and I'd either give them a call, or try out some of there gear - the loudbox 100 for example, it's small, powerful and designed for acoustic instruments - you could call them and talk to Frank or Joe B for advice on which pickups you would want to use.

I also play a variety of acoustic instruments; autoharp, banjo, mando, 4 & 6 string guitars, and genreally get by with a sm58/57 run thru our own mixer with a feed to the house. we play smaller venues, and have no amplication for any of the instruments, so might be apples to oranges - but worth a call just to pick there brains.

Jude

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