The Friendly 12bar Blues Guitar Forum

A couple of posts back, I mentioned that I was trying different amps for different venues. We recently played a bar in the local American Legion that was very small and cramped for a full band. Either of my 4/10 amps or even my 2/10 would have been too much for this space, and I wouldn't have been able to turn them up enough to sound right. I have an old Supro Lap Steel amp made in the late '50's that is kind of like a Champ. It has one 6v6, 5 watts, an 8 inch speaker, one tone knob and one volume knob. It isn't loud enough to use with a full band, (bass, drums, keys) so Mikey put a DI box between the amp and the speaker, and ran it through the PA. So, this is the setup... Casino, into a '63 Alamo tube reverb unit, into the '58 Supro amp, DI'd into the PA. It worked and sounded surprisingly good. It didn't have the same punch that the bigger amps have, but the tone was pretty sweet. Here is a picture... (probably too big, but I haven't figured out how to compress pics on my mac. ) Here is a sound sample from that gig. I'm not posting this as a performance, but to illustrate the sound from this rig. This tune pretty much illustrates the range I was getting just from picking dynamics.
http://soundcloud.com/blindboy1-1/stormy-monday-1
Please forgive the guitar glitches and the spot where I forgot the lyrics . I'm looking forward to exploring this setup a bit more. It is much easier to carry around than the bigger amps, and it sounds pretty good. Can't get a really clean sound, (the amp's knobs are both turned all the way up) but I don't use a really clean sound all that much anyway.

It sounds quite ok. Distortion and all. Hey, I like the soft tone you succeed with your fingers. Really soft and without a lot of unnecessary noise when using a pick. So I wonder how you can play so fast without missing the soft tone. It's a mystery to me.

Blindboy wrote:I have an old Supro Lap Steel amp made in the late '50's that is kind of like a Champ.

Never heard of this one, I didn't even know that there are amps for lap steel guitars. How do they differ from a "normal" guitar amp? It sounds really great!

Dig that Casino.

Well, I tried this setup out again at our Sunday potluck jam, and I think it's a keeper, at least for small venues. I was too tired from working a side job to play much, but I did play enough to get a feel for the rig. It tickles me to be able to actually gig with this vintage gear.

kiwiclapton wrote:Dig that Casino.

Yeah, Casino's are Cool. Is that a Casino I spy in your avatar pic?
If you want to hear a great bluesman tearing up a Casino, check out Gary Clark Jr.

MichaelRobinson wrote:. So I wonder how you can play so fast without missing the soft tone. It's a mystery to me.

I don't know MR. I don't think about it too much, I just play. Maybe because I use the meat of my finger and thumb instead of the fingernail.

12bar wrote:Never heard of this one, I didn't even know that there are amps for lap steel guitars. How do they differ from a "normal" guitar amp? It sounds really great!

They don't really differ at all. Back in the fiftys, Supro and some other companies sold lap steel guitars and matching small amps as a combo deal. I have seen a Supro lap steel that had the same covering as my little amp, so I am guessing that It may have been sold that way.