TiPiMods said:
@ mark2boogie: yes, great idea, you could call it the "Brunolater" :wink:
Some time ago I thought about buying one of this "Dumbleater" kind of thing. I think somebody in this forum wrote about the one from Ceriatone. But the longer I play (and the older I get, haha) the more I like the pure sound of an amp with maybe some pedals in front and a little reverb. In the 90ties I had this huge rack with a drawer for all the pedals, a 19" looper and the 19" delays and reverbs with a Bradshaw switching so you could have a different reverb and delay for each amp channel...sounded great, but a lot to carry, a lot of cables and a lot of things which could go wrong. Now I have a small case with some pedals and take whatever amp I need for the venue and thats it.
@gitapik: I had once a boogie 1x12 open cab with an EV12, which sounded great, I sold it, cause I didnt have a boogie at that time and I rarely used it with other amps. As I remember the size was like the thiele, so you can staple it and it looks good.
I think, this must be a gorgeous sounding solution: the MK II head with one open back and one Thiele.
I usually bring both the Thiele and the combo to shows. It's a noticeable improvement over the combo (on it's own) when playing at low to mid volume. But when you crank it, the combo's a
monster on it's own. In either channel, though you really don't need the Lead channel in those situations.
I used to have a lot of outboard stuff, too. I'd sit the Boogie on a rack in a very durable anvil case, connect that to the floor pedals, etc. It was fun. Great sounds but a pain to lug around and, as you said: lots of things could go wrong.
I almost sold the Boogie, recently, in my search for a lighter, great amp. What I ended up discovering was that, at 3x the price that I could get for the Mark IIB
and Thiele (I got bites for $1000), I wasn't getting any better of an amp in the clean tones. And with the ones with strong cleans and an OD that I liked more than mine, the weight was the same. Seeing as I started the whole search because I wanted a lighter amp...
But I have to say that I did (and still do) like the Port City Pearl as a pure, clean sound. I considered selling the Boogie and getting that when, once again, I realized that the sound was great, but no better than the IIB...and that I like the option of bringing the IIB, with only a compressor, to sessions. Just the amp's pedals. I can't do that with the Pearl. That's when I decided to convert the combo to a head.
Thanks for the tip on the Boogie open back cab, TiPiMods. Here's a shot of my current board. It's nice and compact and packs a wallop. The compressor was modded by Mark Humphrey. I like it a lot, but am considering swapping it for a Wampler Ego for the Blend function. I once a/b'd them and found that was the only thing lacking on the Boss unit, with the mod.
I love the sounds I can get off this board. I've got an even smaller one that I put into an old Boss case (BCB-6?) for the real on the fly stuff...but this is nice for gigs if I want a lot of options.
I miss flanger and phaser stuff, and consider getting a tc electronic Nova Mod, but I really love the Boss CE-2. It was my first effect pedal and there's a reason I've still got it.
It would be nice to have a Timmy on there, too...but that's another reason I'm holding onto the Boogie. It does the light breakup really, really well. I think that's why a lot of people are turned off by the stock IIB. The Lead Channel isn't thick and creamy. But for the more transparent stuff, it kicks arse!
