Last week I talked about the guitars I play most. That made me think that I don’t think I’ve ever talked amps. I’ve been through a few. In fact, I think there were 5 that were sold or traded away in the Great Gear Purge of 2020. In that purge, I got rid of a Fender Super Champ x2, a Vox AC4, and a Fender Hot Rod along with a couple of others.
I mention those because of the first amp that I’m going to mention below. Here are the ones that I use the most now.
Fender Super Champ X2
Yes, I sold one in 2020. It was the combo. I always liked that amp. I’m still not sure why I got rid of it except that I was trying to create some room in my little music room. I sold it to a buddy with the caveat that, if he ever sold it, he gave me first option to it. I liked that amp. Truth to tell, it was probably the one that I played most while I had it.
Channel 2 on it has amp models, so I was always playing around with those because I could get the really boxy sound of a tweed Champ or switch over and get an AC30 tone or switch around and get what’s probably always been my favorite amp, the Bassman. Or I could switch over to Channel 1 and get those super clean Fender goodness.
After about a year of not having it, I started trolling Reverb for one. I never could find another combo at a price I wanted, but, in the fall of 2023, I finally spotted the head version for a price I liked. And it was at a store across town. So I went and bit. I ran it through a cab that I had been using for another amp for probably a year. That’s when I finally found a matching Fender cab for the head. So I finally had the set.
I use it pretty often. I still think that the cleans on Channel 1 are really nice. And, on Channel 2, I almost always am switching between the Bassman and Princeton models. In fact, the wireless receiver is currently stuck in this one’s input.
Postivie Grid Spark 40
The amp that I probably use the most is my Spark 40. After I got it, I got familiar with the app, and really like what I can do with it. Only these days, really all I use the phone for is to play music through the amp to play along with. For a couple of months after I got the amp, I was always monkeying with the app and changing the amps and the setting. I finally settled on the 4 that I have. Even then, I only use 3 of them, and they’re the only ones I remember at the moment.
One of the models that I use is a super clean something. I think it might be a Fender, but, honestly, I don’t remember. It’s super clean, a little dark, and I will sometimes use it when I’m playing with that jazz sound. The one I use a little more than that is a driven AC30 top boost model. The one that I use the vast majority of the time is a Dumble model. The clean on the Dumble model is really nice, and the drive is too. I can see what they are legendary amps.
The Spark 40 is the amp that I use the most. Since it’s solid state, it’s just so convenient. And it’s kind of nice to be able to pump whatever I’m listening to through it. I got it for Christmas like 3 years ago, and my experience has been that it’s a great amp.
The Blackhearts
Then there are the Blackhearts. I’m going to keep this as short as I can because, although I have never been affiliated with Blackheart, Crate, LOUD, or anyone else in their sphere, I have always tried to collect everything I could surrounding Blackheart, and consider myself an armchair Blackheart historian since more and more people have never heard of them. As it is, although I don’t own any of the combos, I have at least one of every head and cab that they made. Yes, I’m a bit of a Blackheart collector.
At the moment, the amp that I use the most of these is the 7/15-watt Handsome Devil in the 7-watt mode. It’s at the top in the middle of my Wall of Blackheart. This one isn’t a Master Volume amp, but it a Gain and Volume control, so it has a little more versatility than the others. These amps sound very Marshall-y. They have a very classic rock sound. I run this one through 1-10″ Blackheart cab and 1-12″ Blackheart cab.
Behind that one, I occassionally use the 1-watt Little Ant. It’s currently running through one of the 10″ Blackheart cabs. Up until the last time I rearranged the room, I ran that 1-watt amp through a 4×12 Blackheart slant cab. Through that 4×12, that 1-watt of guitar goodness could still get obnoxious and rattle the walls. That Little Ant is probably my favorite amp. Its only downside, and the reason that I don’t use it often is it only has a Volume control, and, if I’m going to keep things reasonable in the house, I can never turn it up more than about a quarter of the way.
The 3/5-watt Little Giant doesn’t get used that much because, although it has more versatility than the Little Ant, it doesn’t have as much as the Handsome Devil. It running through a 12″ Blackheart cab.
I’ve also got the 100-watt Hot Head. I got it to say I had each of the amps. I turned it on after I bought it to be sure that it worked, and that’s the last time I’ve had it on. It has 4 modes. They’re 30, 60, 50, and 100-watts respectively. Channel one is called Loud, and Channel 2 is called F’n Loud. It is bigger than every 100-watt head I’ve seen. And it’s heavy. So it is currently sitting on top of the 4×12 over in the corner. I didn’t have the Les Paul when I bought the amp, but some day, I’m going to plug that one in on 100-watt mode and feel my pants leg wave in the breeze when I hit a chord.
Conclusion
Those are the amps I use…well use most of them. I’ve got others too. From where I sit, I see an old Fender G-DEC and an even older Danelectro Nifty Fifty, and I know in the closet there’s, among others, a PG Spark Go and a PigNose. The Spark 40 is the one that I use most. It’s just so convenient. And, from a playing at home perspective, convenience ranks as high as what it sounds like. But then that may also be because the convenient amp also sounds pretty dang good.