I thought I'd fill in the 'gear heads' about my recent consultation with Neil Clark when buying a new amp and turning to someone more knowledgeable for advice a service offered through Neil's website at:

http://www.neilclark.com/

Guitar Consultation Report:

If there were any guitarist I would like to be able to play like, it would be Neil. I am light years from being able to play like him, but it was good to use him for advice through the consultation offered on his website.
For many years I have been happy with my electric guitar, made by the quality Australian manufacturer Maton. When I first bought it, I decided to put all the money into the guitar, and bought a cheap amp not knowing much about them, deciding I would one-day splash out on a better amp down the line. Many years later I finally gave away my horrible amp. This was preceded by the sounds I was getting through virtual amps when recording directly. I was amazed at the sound, but not playing with a band didn’t see the need to splash out on a new amp when there were more pressing needs at the time.
Though the sound I was getting on my recordings using virtual amps such as the Juicy 77 and Fender Sims I was happy with. I eventually desired something I could play in a real way, bouncing the sound around the room, miking it if I decided, feeling the sound as it entered the microphone should I desire. It is great to hear a quality guitar sound coming out from somewhere other than headphones.

My need for a consultation with Neil was a need to have someone far more experienced and not trying to sell a particular product, as is often the case when entering a guitar shop. Neil has many years of live and studio experience and was ideal for independent advice, and advice I could trust. The consultation worked as follows. I filled Neil in on details of my guitar, style of playing, the room I intended to mainly play in (so he would know more about the desired sound level require to fill the room) and my budget. I also provided him with some local guitar amp suppliers that have online sites so he could see what was available. The following day Neil put some tips up on his website about amps, I wondered whether I needed the consultation; why not just buy the amps he suggested on his site? There were reasons for this. The type of amps that Neil had suggested are not easily available in my region, above my budget and not fully tailored to my needs, that was the beauty of the small charge for the consultation, tailoring my needs to my budget and region.

Neil took in my requests, and I believe he will do the same for other advice be it guitars or related equipment. The consultation report came back a few days post my requests being sent out. The amp I originally had in mind was the Fender Champion 300 that I thought seemed to suit my needs. I was aiming at a low watt valve amp, as my past experience with transistor-based amps had not been good, and I needed something that would give the valve ‘warmth’ and when needed break up at a low volume, not to mention, it had a visual appeal - not that that should matter. Neil had some good advice regarding this amp, that advice being that speaker size has a big impact on sound. The amp I had in mind would not get the full tone I should be after in this price range. He presented me with four suggestions and why he thought they would be good; there were some other suggestions I could look at also other than the four. The suggestions were good, of the four three were valve and all attractive, but one caught my eye, this was the non-valve amp. Neil had done a comprehensive search of the Melbourne music stores websites, hunting down amps available he knew well through he or others experience. The report gave details of the various amps qualities and was as well detailed report, he really had gone to a lot of effort. The amp that caught my eye was the Tech 21 Trademark 30; this was for a few reasons. It could simulate various other amps using its inbuilt Sans Amp hardware. Sans amp has been used by Neil and Lloyd over the years, and was used quite a lot on Lloyd’s Love Story album for which I love the guitars. The amp also can be directly recorded with a XLR connection and the guitar sound also coming out of the amp allowing the sound to be captured as played. You can see Neil’s notes about Sans Amp settings when touring Love Story on the Transcriptions area of his site.
The next stage was to visit the stores and test the product. I went in still with the idea of getting away from a solid-state amp and aiming to see how the non-valve went against the Tech 21. Deluxe guitars for me were the ideal place for me to test them. The store has a large range of guitars; one whole wall of left handed in the ‘leftorium’ suiting my left-handed guitar playing. I was able to pick a similar guitar to my own. Having tested the Fender Champ valve amp at another store, the win went to Neil’s suggestion quite easily toward the Tech 21 Trademark 30. The amps bigger speaker gave a greater tone, the various amps Sims within it was amazing, able to bring out different amps character with simple control changes. With a few small changes the amp can kick into a different sound. It can do Fender, Marshall, and Messa Boogie and there are other amps in between if you play around. I tried a few other amps but knew Neil had the product right and in my price range. When I got a better price the deal was done, not only that but it looked great too.





While I may not be able to play like Neil on Love story, I can rest easy that with the consultation I had my money spent right.

I will have to go and give one of these a whirl.  I take it this is an amp simulator?  it doesn't have any tubes/valves in it right?  I haven't heard one of these yet that I really like - but the technology is getting better for sure.  I'm still hung up on the tube amp sound.  I have used sansamps before in the studio and they do sound great. 

glad you found your amp!  it's a great feeling when you have your tone figured out.

OOh..we've got one of those and a red electric guitar...don't know what to do with it though.

Hi Plastic, I have to keep it brief, stuck on an island with limited internet-lovely though. The amp uses no real tubes-but sounds like it does. Its great-a sans amp pedal with amp and speaker...

A wee bit off topic, but just received the next best thing to breaking the bank (and back lugging them around!) by purchasing a Hammond B3 and Leslie speaker amp: the BOSS RT-20 Rotary Ensemble (my own new "Small Ensemble"!).

http://www.bosscorp.co.jp/products/en/RT-20/

It's a sound processor effects pedal usable with guitar or keyboard.  Having never owned a proper B3 and Leslie, I can't compare the sound to the real thing; however, at £120 odd pounds sterling, I'm amazed at the quality of sound it produces (many pounds in cash and carrying weight saved, too).

I'm using my old Hammond GM-1000 Midi module ( http://www.hammond-organ.com/product_support/gm1000.htm ) on various drawbar settings and playing it through it and it sounds superb.  Being able to switch in real time back and forth between slow and fast speed and being able to control/edit overdrive and transition speeds, etc. by simply turning a few knobs (rather than click through a digital display menu on a keyboard, for example) is fantastic.

Playing along to Sweetheart and Speedboat, in particular, just became all the sweeter ... now all I need is another six fingers and a whole lot of skill and I'll attempt the Blair Cowan back catalogue in full!

That would be fun..I love that sound. I love Blair's sound. I have a zoom unit that doesn't cut it in replicating that sound, and also some virtual ones that do an ok job. Neil Clark put his guitar through a Leslie on 'For Crying Out Loud' Love Story and it sounds great. John Lennon did the same on his vocals on 'Tomorrow Never Knows'

Lennon told producer Martin that he wanted to sound like a hundred chanting Tibetan monks, which left Martin the difficult task of trying to find the effect by using the basic equipment they had. Lennon's suggestion was that he be suspended from a rope and—after being given a good push—he would sing as he spun around the microphone. This idea was rejected by Martin, but when asked by Lennon about it, he would only reply with, "We're looking into it."[16] Emerick finally came up with the idea of wiring Lennon's vocal through a Leslie rotating speaker, thus obtaining the desired effect without the need of a rope.[5][17] Emerick made a connector to break into the electronic circuitry of the cabinet and then re-recorded the vocal as it came out of the revolving speaker.[18][16]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_Never_Knows

Put your voice through it Paul. I dare you.....I've rigged my keyboard up from a rope in the centre of the room and spin it quickly around the microphone in a variation on John Lennon's idea-hard to play though....

Hi Sludger

I've been using the chamberlin organ through the rotary effect on the Vox Tonelab.  Sounds very close to a real Hammond.   Such a great sound when you can get it - especially without lugging a real B3 around!  We played with a band about 10 years ago that had a real Hammond and Leslie cabinet on stage....it took about 7 guys to get it up and down off the stage.  not sure if it was worth it

I too had an Amp consultation with Neil Clark... Here's how it went.

I’ve been a guitar player for nearly 25 years, on and off – and mostly off for the past 10 years – but have recently found a renewed love for it. I also make music for television. Oddly it’s rarely guitar music – probably because I’ve never been happy with my guitar sound.

I played in bands in the nineties, but the gear I owned was begged or borrowed for the most part… I tended to make money go a long way because I did a lot of research – when I bought my first electric guitar I couldn’t afford a Fender Strat, but read well, played in guitar shops extensively and ended up with a Tokai Custom Strat, a flagrant copy of the Fender and much cheaper – but well made and with good components – it is often said that it was because of Tokai that Fender was forced to introduce their lower-end Squire brand. Still one of the best guitars I’ve owned, I’m not totally convinced that when I finally did get a Fender it was any better.

So the same with my first amp – I borrowed money from the other guitarist in the band and bought a second-hand Sessionette 75 (in 1988). I’d wanted a valve amp, but they’re generally more expensive and can be tricky to maintain and unreliable. I’d read that the Session were ‘the only people doing anything interesting with solid-state’. Anyway – the amp was great – and despite being heavily gigged, kicked around and neglected, it lasted and never put a foot wrong until it finally keeled-over three years ago. So I began saving…

2008/9 had been kind financially, so I’d managed to save £2000. With this money I wanted the amp, a new guitar, a few stomp-boxes (again, I’d always made do with lower-end ‘multi-fx’ pedals – which tend to do an awful lot for the money – but very little very well) and a good condenser mic. This should be achievable, depending upon how much I spend on the guitar.

I contacted Neil who was offering ‘amp consultations’ through his website (www.neilclark.com).

This time I was going to get my valve amp. I’ve truly come to believe that although guitarists and magazine’s talk about whatever ‘axe’ their current favourite is playing – the amp is massively overlooked, it’s almost as much a part of your instrument as the guitar itself. 

We discussed how it needed to be fairly low wattage – because I record in a home studio in a terraced house, and valve-amps sound their best when cranked-up… I also described the sort of tone I was looking for – or rather, an element of the tone – I love how valve-amps sound on the edge of break-up. So it’s mostly a clean sound, but taking on a creamy, only slightly pushed edge when picked/strummed harder. I think I mentioned early Peter Green, Hendrix on Wind Cries Mary and Little Wing.

Neil did a quick overview, found out where I lived so he could check local availability, tweaked the details and agreed a (very reasonable) price.

All looked to be going well until I called into a local guitar shop on the way home the next day. Now that I’d decided to use the savings I was getting twitchy… As I tend to before an important purchase. I explained much the same thing (except the budget) to the shop owner and he took me down to the basement saying ‘I know what you should buy… Why don’t you play that first – and I’ll bring in other options as we go’.  I spent 5 or 6 hours in that basement, mostly playing a 65amps ‘lil Elvis’ which sounded wonderful. I’m not sure how I got out of the shop without buying it… Probably something to do with the fact it was £1700!

This would mean no guitar, and a choice between FX and a mic. Not ideal. I emailed Neil and said that I think I was going to buy the amp anyway, after all I have a great guitar as it is (that Fender Strat) and if I believe the amp to be so important – then perhaps you get what you pay for.

Neil got straight back, told me to hold-off for 1 day. He’d do the research and get back to me tomorrow, and was as good as his word.

He gave me an awesome breakdown of amps, both old and new – and told me that certain valves (or tubes) are harmonically richer at that point of break-up that we’d talked about. Neil had also checked availability in local stores, and given me numerous options to consider. He didn’t knock the 65amps Lil’ Elvis, he just reminded me that the ‘best sounding amp of all time’ was within that budget.

Neil also offered an option I’d not considered, I could in fact, get two amps, less expensive amps, both great in their own right, but together offering a much wider tonal range. This was interesting – the thing I’d loved about the old Sessionette, was that unusually for an amp you could run the ‘clean’ channel and the ‘dirty’ channel at the same time, with a filter knob letting you decide how much of each. (This is how I used to fake that valve break-up sound... I’d dial in a clean sound and then have a hint of dirty underneath). 2 tube amps could do this too...

The 2 amp solution also gave me a back-up should the need arise. Better and better.

Undecided, but armed with my new knowledge and more options, I set off. I tried a whole bunch of amps. Including hand-wired boutique beauties, and newer all-in-one tanks. I’d got it down to three amps, two of them would be a one-amp solution and the last one would fit the two amp concept. The guy in the guitar shop wasn’t convinced that the two amp solution would work with cheaper amps (‘won’t you just be doubling up an inferior sound?’ – it’s not a bad point, but I couldn’t help thinking 2 things: ‘I wonder if there’s a bigger mark-up on the more expensive amps’, and… I confess… ‘how many of my favourite albums have you played on?’ – but of course it wasn’t about the amps having inferior sound, simply them being less expensive). Anyway, he changed his mind when I started playing the Vox Night Train. We agreed it was the best sounding amp I’d played all day, it was also the least expensive. The Night Train amp head, with the speaker cabinet came to less than £500, and by the time I’d haggled a bit and bought a stomp-box or two it was nearer £400.

Of course… the Night Train was on Neil’s list of amps to try, and used those sweet tubes.

The second amp? To be honest I haven’t decided yet, and for now have stopped looking. I’ve no need at the moment, and with a new guitar, new effects and an amazing amp I’m in no hurry, and couldn’t be happier.

Thanks Unclejake, brilliant run down of Neil's consultation and echo's my experience with the service. He goes to a huge effort with his research and knowledge is amazing. It really helped, the salespeople always have something they want to sell, and being able to bypass this armed with suggestions from someone whose playing and sound you admire means you end up with the product you know is the best for your budget. I love my amp and loved reading your consultation.

I was reading back on Plastic Soul's comments above and have to add that where he puts tips in on the forum, take them in. I have been listening to his brilliant Cds in my car for the past two months and he and his band are very good musicians and songwriters with a great recorded sound. Love both his cds and to give him another plug.

http://www.plasticsoulmusic.com/