#1 resource for Cigar Box Guitars, Free Plans, How-To, Parts & More!

Amps to give that Swampy delta feeling

Hi all, I've been out of pocket, now retired and volunteering at various State and Federal parks, many without internet. Now working on my 18th build, and learning more with each new one. Must be doing sumthin' right, people are placing repeat orders. I have a question, can those of you "in-the-know", point me in the direction of a decent amplifier preferably under $150. I travel in a motor home with my wife, so space and weight are at a premium. I have been using a Gitty CBG amp, but looking for a little more. I long to get a sound like John McNair, but afraid to ask (as the saying goes, "if you can't afford it, don't ask"). Hopefully I'll be connected for a while, so I look forward to some suggestions. Also look forward to posting completed shots of my latest two builds.

2 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on January 4, 2015 at 7:05am

Hi second hand micro cube are great or
The fender with fuse software

The vox mini 3 or 5 some also have a mic input
All run on batteries which may be handy...
If found the vox buzzes so 2 above seem good to me

I got a microcube for about £30 on eBay
Second hand
Local pickup are cheaper

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on January 4, 2015 at 7:09am

We had the fender mustang mini up against a bug rat amp
And with JM's settings we recon it sounds as good as a valve amp.
But if you don't want to fiddle with software buy the microcube

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on January 4, 2015 at 7:17am

Swampy delta sounds is a mix of distortion reverb and maybe some tremolo

Swampwitch guitar has a mini humbucker
(Firebird pickups from memory) sound very swampy with the right settings
.
Alternatively you could use a pedal into a reverb amp to emulate
Line pod 6 unit can be tweaked with software
I keep meaning to up load "bug tone " into the Internet
As this is pretty close

Combination of tube style simulated amps setting
Noise gate and cavernous reverb
With mild distortion

Hope this helps..

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dick Mott on January 4, 2015 at 1:44pm

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this post. I started building a couple of years ago and I realized I needed to concentrate on getting good clean sound along with good sustain and tone. Many of the individuals that have purchased my gits have paced orders for additional builds. At this point all of my builds have been three and four string models. I realized the only way to get the real sound that I wanted out of them was to amplify the sound. All of my gits have had single piezo pickups, and I am looking into building my own single pole and maybe something beyond. Even with my customers telling me how good the gits sounded, i was blown away when one of them sent a recording he made exclusively with the build he named "Rascal" . The singer is a south Louisiana Cajun boy that goes under the stage name of "Josh Drifter". Here is a link to the picture of the git and the recording he sent me!

http://dickmott.wix.com/dick-mott-photographics

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on January 4, 2015 at 1:59pm

that sounds real good !!!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on January 4, 2015 at 5:21pm

Dick,

The "swampy delta sound" is subjective. In my opinion, it requires relatively lo-fi equipment:

A CBG, or old beat up six stringed acoustic
A piezo pickup, or very cheap mic
A lo-wattage amp that can easily be pushed into light distortion (Crunch, say, as opposed to Overdrive). It can be tube based, or solid-state based.

The amp bit can easily be achieved by tapping an old AM / FM radio. John McNair shows how to do this in his posts and Group dedicated to such.

I can tell you how each of my amps sound. Let's start with

1) Grey Amps of Chicago LM 386 9V-powered amp in a CAO cigar box. It has a clean and overdrive circuit, switchable, through a 3.5" speaker. It sounds growly and kewl using a piezo, but the harmonics are definitely solid-state. $100 custom job.

2) Another LM 386 9-V amp, the Kegblaster from Cactus Amp Works. Also switchable from Clean to Overdrive, but through a 2.5" speaker, inside an aluminum beer can. Again kewl and growly, again odd solid-state harmonics. $55.

3) Fender Tweed Mini-Twin. Yet another LM 386 9-V amp, through dual 2.5" speakers. The distortion on this is probably the harshest, odd-harmonic of the lot, but it looks really retro kewl. $45 at GC.

4) Zinky Li'l Smokey. Another LM 386 powered by a 9-V, designed by Bruce Zinky, former Fender head amp designer. Belt clippable, can drive a Marshall 4x12 cab for about 3 minutes. Lots of fun, has reasonable crunch disto.

5) Pignose 7-100. The first mini solid-state amp circuit, 5 watts through a 5" speaker, using either 6 AA batts or a wall wart. Nice clean, can be pushed into a reasonable crunch disto as you crank the pig nose shaped Volume knob. Favored by harp players. $75-100 new.

6) ZT Lunchbox. 200 watts of solid state power into a 6" speaker. Very very LOUD. My main stage amp, can keep up with a Marshall half stack. Messing with the Vol and Gain gives a more tube-like crunch, but this thing truly shines when coupled with stomp boxes like a Tube Screamer, or a multi-effects box like my Digidesign GNX-1. ZZ Top has been known to use 3 of these onstage, with dummy amp stacks. $269 retail.

7) Roland Stereo Mobile Cube. A cousin of the Roland Micro Cube, but without the amp models available on the latest generation of MicroCubes. Has Clean, Crunch, Overdrive, Chorus, Delay, Reverb, and two volumes controls for separate channel but simultaneous mic and instrument use. Dual 3.5" speakers, which can give you nice tube emulations, good stereo separation, my main practice amp which I've also used live. If I was gonna buy another, I'd look at the latest MicroCubes. $170-180 new.

8) old ('92) Crate G-20 20w solid state, with a blown 8" speaker. Wouldn't recommend this unless you really like metal thrash distortion, not very swampy. Need to replace the speaker one of these days.

9) Fender 600 Champ reissue. 8" speaker, 1 vol knob, 1 12 AX7 tube. Loads of fun clean, can be pushed into a nice crunch near top volume, by also dropping the vol knob on the git, if it has one. Can get pretty swampy with a piezo, as it has both Low and high impedance input jacks. Currently $149 @ GC.

10) Crate V-16 Palomino. My other favorite stage amp, that doesn't like pedals. Just plug the git in, dial in lotsa gain, back off on the level, and Zoom! Variation on the Fender Bassman circuit, easy to get 70's ZZ Top or AC / DC tones out of it. 15 watts through a single 12" Celestion speaker. You can swamp the delta with this one, but it is no longer available retail, and not very often on eBay, either.

11) Fender Princeton 110 Solid State. Not tubes, but a good gigging amp. Likes stomp boxes. Could swamp it that way. Got it used for around $175 from a friend, needs a new jack. Actually, it's my son's amp, but he's away at school, so...

There's a number of other factors, other than the amp, that lead to that delta tone. String gauge (Mediums, growlier), tuning (Open G, usually), slide (glass, brass, copper, chromed steel, ceramic), technique...buncha others.