solid state distortion?

william · Post by **william** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 1:46 pm

ok, so this is jonny greenwood's setup, we've all seen it:

according to all the info ive ever read, jonny uses the vox for his cleans, and then for some reason the solid state fender for distortion.

to me, this seems backwards. for a while i was thinking itd be cool to have say, my fender hot rod deluxe for overdriven sounds, and like a roland JC120 for loud clean chorusey stuff. lately ive been really into the stone roses, galaxie 500, spacemen 3, the smiths etc., so that kind of explains that.

does anyone know why jonny greenwood, or anyone else would specifically want a transistor amp for distortion? ive never had a powerful solid state amp, so maybe there is something im missing. jonny greenwood (im aware he is a polarising force on this forum) has pretty wicked tones, both clean and distorted, so he must be doing something right.

unfortunately i forgot to really pay attention to amps and non guitar gear when i saw them last year.

euan · Post by **euan** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 1:50 pm

Because they like the sound and it works for then?

You realise the the SD1 there is also a solid state distortion in some form?

william · Post by **william** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 1:58 pm

euan wrote:Because they like the sound and it works for then?

You realise the the SD1 there is also a solid state distortion in some form?

you seem to think im being snobby, but im really not. im asking an honest question, because i don't know.

of course all of his pedals and all of mine are solid state, but usually when i have thought about solid state amps, i think about lots of headroom and no tubes to saturate. and i think about jazz players and steel guitar and country players who want cleans above all.

what i dont think about is insano distorted guitar freakouts and this is why i ask if there is some particular reason or advantage.

an overdrive pedal like the sd1 is solid state, but normally its used to push the tubes in a preamp into breaking up, no?

im aware that people use what they use because they like the sound and it works for them, i kind of just wanted to discuss why this setup might work.

avj · Post by **avj** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 2:16 pm

I had always just figured it was simply because he liked the way it sounded -- nothing more, nothing less.

My first not-completely-shitty amp was a solid-state Fender Stage 100, which was a 100-watter from the same series as the Deluxe 85; this was before they started adding onboard DSP to every amp. I used an Original SansAmp, a Big Muff, SD-1, and a Drive Master through it regularly and it really wasn't all bad. The amp seemed to be fairly transparent -- for better or worse -- and there was obviously no pushing the preamp into breakup or anything. It just amplified the sound of the pedals without much color.

If you can view the archives here, this group was pretty active many years ago and there were many good non-Radiohead gear discussions as well.

william · Post by **william** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 2:42 pm

avj wrote:I had always just figured it was simply because he liked the way it sounded -- nothing more, nothing less.

My first not-completely-shitty amp was a solid-state Fender Stage 100, which was a 100-watter from the same series as the Deluxe 85; this was before they started adding digital effects to every amp. I used an Original SansAmp, a Big Muff, SD-1, and a Drive Master through it regularly and it really wasn't all bad. The amp seemed to be fairly transparent -- for better or worse -- and there was obviously no pushing the preamp into breakup or anything. It just amplified the sound of the pedals without much color.

If you can view the archives here, this group was pretty active many years ago and there were many good non-Radiohead gear discussions as well.

hmm. i guess that really is all it boils down to.

i just kind of find it interesting that out of all the amps he could use, in the whole world, with all that money and all those connections, jonny greenwood would choose an ac 30 and a solidstate 80s fender. speaks well for those amps, and so do the results soundwise.

thanks guys.

aphasiac · Post by **aphasiac** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 3:10 pm

Jonny Greenwood actually plays a Fender Eighty-Five, NOT the Deluxe 85. Different amp.

Anyway I used to own a Fender Eighty-Five; bought it in 1997, it was actually my first ever guitar amp. Very loud, and the clean channel was *amazing* - you wouldn't know it's solid state. Distortion channel was utter crap, total raspy wasp in a jar, but it was ok for blues and punky sounds. With pedals, the clean channel was really loud and as mentioned above, really transparent. It was also quite a dark amp (I think due to the speaker), so it never got ear-piercing like other SS's I've owned (i'm talking to you Marshall Valvestate..)

I think i only turned it up to 10 on a couple of occasions, but it held up perfectly clean and just sounded better the louder it got. Sold it a year or two ago when I finally got a real tube amp, but I still miss it a little..

Will · Post by **Will** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 3:53 pm

A lot of the older Fender SS amps were great - my Princeton Chorus had a fantastic distortion channel (at least it worked awesome for me).

Some SS amps take dirt pedals well and some don't - most of the time, they amplify all the raspy high end and fart on the bottom. Sometimes, it's awesome. I had a Peavey Bandit that sounded fantastic with fuzz.
You can't really make generalizations about amps - some work and some don't and it has very little to do with mojo.

avj · Post by **avj** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 4:01 pm

Here's a great shot of the Eighty-Five in action:

Having followed the Radiohead gear stuff for a considerable amount of time, there always seems to be massive confusion/arguments/threats over the Deluxe 85 vs. Eighty-Five deal. Even though their guitar tech Plank stated it's an Eighty-Five in July '06, the battles wage on. (Search for '85' on that page when it finishes loading.)

Both amps fetch stupidly-inflated prices on the used market because of the Greenwood factor, but I'm sure any decently-high-wattage Fender solid-state amp before the days of copious onboard DSP would work just as well.

This thread is making me want to go dig out the ol' Stage 100 from my parents' basement.

Sublimedo · Post by **Sublimedo** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 4:17 pm

I love love love the overdrive on my solid state Deluxe 90, actually. Its a great sound.

aphasiac · Post by **aphasiac** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 4:21 pm

avj wrote: Having followed the Radiohead gear stuff for a considerable amount of time, there always seems to be massive confusion/arguments/threats over the Deluxe 85 vs. Eighty-Five deal. Even though their guitar tech Plank stated it's an Eighty-Five in July '06, the battles wage on. (Search for '85' on that page when it finishes loading.)

Well it's clearly a regular Eighty-Five in that picture (the deluxe has extra knobs to the left of the guitar inputs, and it says "DELUXE on the front). There are pictures of him using it, why is there any debate?!

avj wrote: Both amps fetch stupidly-inflated prices on the used market because of the Greenwood factor, but I'm sure any decently-high-wattage Fender solid-state amp before the days of copious onboard DSP would work just as well.

Actually in the UK at least, they're pretty common on ebay and don't go for that much. I think I listed it for Â£120 and it didn't sell, so I just flogged it to a friend for Â£100.

Reece · Post by **Reece** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 4:30 pm

when they say "he uses it for distortion" are they saying he uses the amp's distortion or he runs his distorted sound into it?
the shredmaster, which i'm pretty sure is still his main distortion, is a weirdly voiced pedal and through some amp it'll sound like utter shite, really fizzy.

you bastards are making me miss my shredmaster

.

euan · Post by **euan** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 4:41 pm

Sublimedo wrote:I love love love the overdrive on my solid state Deluxe 90, actually. Its a great sound.

Dude. Love that amp. It is one of the few solid states I've heard that I think have a genuine positive character of their own.

avj · Post by **avj** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 4:45 pm

aphasiac wrote:Well it's clearly a regular Eighty-Five in that picture (the deluxe has extra knobs to the left of the guitar inputs, and it says "DELUXE on the front). There are pictures of him using it, why is there any debate?!

Sorry, I guess that was kind of confusing. I'm agreeing with you, and I can very clearly see the photo is of an Eighty-Five, as well as read the section from the link I pasted that states he uses an Eighty-Five. It's quite obvious that, regardless of whatever has been said about the Deluxe 85, it is absolutely confirmed (since at least July '06) that he using an Eighty-Five. I didn't want to out myself as a Radiohead gear nerd, so I didn't refute the aforementioned Deluxe 85 as it wasn't really the focus of the discussion anyway.

aphasiac wrote:Actually in the UK at least, they're pretty common on ebay and don't go for that much. I think I listed it for Â£120 and it didn't sell, so I just flogged it to a friend for Â£100.

Seems you're right. Last I remember looking around for them, they were fetching $300+ (Â£210+) on eBay and craigslist.

finboy · Post by **finboy** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 5:05 pm

iirc joe santiago of pixies fame also used solid state fenders (i think someone mentioned that on here, from seeing them live) and marshall stomp boxes, and considering jonny's pablo honey-bends era playing, it's not a far stretch to imagine he wasn't just biting joe's playing, but also parts of his gear.

kim · Post by **kim** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 5:18 pm

lol i confess when i've been listening to lots of punk i like to plug in my guitar into my marshall MG and crank the distortion and play powerchords, it just sounds so crap you have to love it.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 6:49 pm

i've always been under the impression that greenwood uses pedals for his distortion, but the channel it runs on goes through the fender, and his cleans and overdrive go through the vox.

i've got a solid state deluxe 112+ and the distortion channel gets slated by just about everyone, but i think it sounds great (i'd still use pedals though, just cos that's what i'm used to).

i also go down the hot rod for driven / JC120 for cleans route and it works perfectly for me. that's been my live setup for over a year, and it gives me plenty of scope for interesting sounds.

william · Post by **william** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 11:59 pm

wow, this got more action than i thought it would.

thanks for all the input. i have to confess that i generally avoid SS amps when im shopping, maybe its been mojo bullshit all along. if i see an 85 ill definitely check it out.

i did like the jc120 i tried out years ago, wonder if i still would? seems like itd be a decent amp to have in the recording room, as you could mic both speakers independantly and do neato stereo FX all i one box. but they are so goddamned heavy i wouldnt wanna gig one. not that i fucking gig anyway.

r40f · Post by **r40f** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 12:06 am

solid state amps rule

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 1:01 am

I had a red knobbed princeton chorus and it actually was a very good amp. The distortion was pretty cool.

DanHeron · Post by **DanHeron** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 1:12 am

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FENDER-85-12-Clas ... 240%3A1318

Fender 85, 14hours left, Â£70 !!!