Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Cool Amps


At Ronnie Shellist's blues harp workshop last Sunday I got to play a couple of very cool amps. Ronnie's Harmony 420 is a 2x6L6 amp with a big ole 15-inch Jensen speaker. Kind of like a 1959 Fender narrow panel Pro, but two thousand dollars less in current price! This amp sounded Excellent, with a deep smooth tone. Not a lot of breakup, but FAT, ya know what I'm sayin'? Ronnie mentioned that this amp *MIGHT* be for sale. I already made a bid on it.


This is a Blues Box amp. I've been seeing them on eBay for years and always wanted to try one. As soon as Ronnie heard it, he said, "Chicken grease!" The amp has a cool sizzling quality to the tone, lots of crunch and grit. LOTS of character. The guts of the amp are a rebuilt Bogen tube PA amp from the '60s. A very fun amp, but it might be a one-trick pony... which is not necessarily a bad thing.


This is my two of my amps makin' friends with the Harmony 420.

1 comment:

Rick Davis said...

I heard Ronnie Shellist sold that Harmony 420 amp to Nic Clark. Lucky Nic! He's ready to rock now...

[For those of you who don't know, Nic Clark is a 14-year old blues harp phenom. Dude has mad skillz. You'll be hearing about him soon enough.]