Yeah..tube amps are a strange beast when you are used to solid states. Just understand this. Wattage is going to be lower on them. 50 watts on a tube amp is louder than 100 watts on a solid state amp. 50-60 watts will be more than you will ever need. Actually, if you like dirty/overdriven tone, a 30 watt tube amp will be awesome. The louder the clean channel goes, the more the tubes saturate and give you natural overdrive/distortion. The higher the wattage, the higher you can turn them without them breaking up.

As far as the Peavey and Crates go. The crates are no longer produced. You can find them on ebay very easily. The peaveys are still made but the cost is out of your range for the new ones. Used, you can find them in your range on ebay on average.

Yeah Im gonna go check out those peavey and crate amps for sure. Its all tubes all day. That fake electronic shit sucks !

This guy tryed to sell me some line 6 piece of shit and I just looked at him and i said "Would you play that little electronic shit? Or would you play through tubes for a real sound?"

Yeah, if you are looking in the 400 buck range, I would surely look into the Peavey and Crate series I mentioned. Even among surf snobs, these amps are well regarded and you can easily find them in your range. The fact is that you are simply not going to get that tube tone that is so sought after with a solid state amp. Fender tube amps while amazing, are simply overpriced. You can, at times, find the old silverface fender Bassman heads in the 3-400 range and they are great. They have no onboard reverb but, as stated before, you are going to want an outboard unit anyway. The FRV-1 is hands down the best economical option for this.

Yeah I was looking at a super reverb but i dont have 1500 bucks to drop on an amp. The Frv looks really good and I thought maybe that with an outboard reverb form a fender frontman 212 would sound cool. Im not sure about the frontman though, iv played a couple and they sound really good but theres a lot of other amps that could be better for the same 400 bucks.

No problem. If you are on a budget, the Peavey Classic series is actually pretty comparable to the Fender tube amps. Also, the Crate Vintage Club and Palamino series, although not made anymore, are quite good for vintage surf tone. On top of that, it depends on what you are going for. If you want a really 'surf' sound, you are going to need a great reverb. While the Fender outboard reverb units are the most desireable, they cost a hefty penny. Boss and Fender teamed up a few years back and released a pedal called the Fender Frv-1, 63 Vintage Reverb. I cannot recommend this pedal enough. It is as close as you will ever get to the outboard unit and you can get them new for 130 bucks. They react in very much the same way as the outboard units, including overdriving and have an amazing 'drip', which I have yet to find another reverb pedal that even comes close.

As for me, with Kill,Baby...Kill!, I use a Peavey Blues Classic, which is the same as a Classic 50, but with a 15" speaker. On the pedal end, I have an Ibanez Tube Screamer and the FRV-1 reverb pedal. Those are my primary tools. I have other pedals on my board that I integrate into certain songs but are not really part of the overall tone. I would compare the sound to mid-year Man or Astro-man? guitar tone. You can sample some of the live sound at www.myspace.com/killbabykill

Thanks Buddy !

Well, the harmonica was coming through, just wasn't working when I ran it through an effect pedal with a second cable running from the pedal to the amp. We'll see how it works now though, I've got a vintage harmonica mic and now I just need an XLR to 1/4 converter to actually connect it(it'll be a little while, I just lost my job) to the amp.

Im using a shure 58 to record harmonica and everything else, and the harmonica came out fine, although my music isnt very heavy on harmonica at all. If it was Id think the money was better spent in the amp than the mic, but whenever ive seen harmonica players who just play that, they tend to have a fancy retro mic of some kind. As for me I just make sure the recording level is good(around -3)and it comes out fine for a folky sound. If you want that gritty distorted sound like old blues you probably want a small tube amp to run it through ideally. Something should be coming out of your bass amp though, try it with a different instrument and cable to check it.

the mean jeans from portland

I'm diggin these guys called Night Beats from Seattle. Heavy Psychedelic.

King Automatic (french guy), The Butchers Orchestra (Brasilians)

Good call!  I like the fe fi fo fums, too. "My Baby got the BOOM BOOM!"

i listen to the dutchess and the duke as well, the duke was the singer of the fe fi fo fums, a decent garage band.

dumfuk said:

Personal and the Pizzas
the Dutchess and the Duke (not relly garage-punk,but totally addictive)

I like your tunes.  the guitar sinds nice n' fuzzy on Do It  I'm all antsy to record now!  I got a Tascam 4 track for christmas and some new tapes in the mail yesterday.  and I'm on vacation...gonna make some solo stuff  guitar and vocals.

Audio Kings of the third world said:

We usually write as a band. Either I will have most of the music in my head already or I'll have a couple riffs that I have been working on and we will play one over and over until the singer starts to find his words. Once we have a verse or two then we try to make some changes. Organize and mapping comes next. Then we usually record it so we can listen and come up with more ideas. The song on my page Do it is the rough recording about ten minutes in. I had an Idea of changing the chords in the chorus after the second verse. Probable after listening to a bunch of early Sonic Youth. We are about to re record it with a drum track that I just finished. Let me know what you think.

we started out that way about nine years ago.  wish we could recreate that!!!

The Desperate Twisters said:

Method ??? Writing ???

Well, we usually just get real drunk and wild then play fast and loose 'til we fall !!!

But I guess we're just a bunch of exotic unable snotty punks, not musicians...

Method ??? Writing ???

Well, we usually just get real drunk and wild then play fast and loose 'til we fall !!!

But I guess we're just a bunch of exotic unable snotty punks, not musicians...

We usually write as a band. Either I will have most of the music in my head already or I'll have a couple riffs that I have been working on and we will play one over and over until the singer starts to find his words. Once we have a verse or two then we try to make some changes. Organize and mapping comes next. Then we usually record it so we can listen and come up with more ideas. The song on my page Do it is the rough recording about ten minutes in. I had an Idea of changing the chords in the chorus after the second verse. Probable after listening to a bunch of early Sonic Youth. We are about to re record it with a drum track that I just finished. Let me know what you think.

I have always played mostly power chords but I'm trying to write melodies on single strings now..it sounds a lot more garage and less punk rock that way.  it feels a lot catchier too.

Jamie said:

I tend to come up with some kind of riff or idea on the guitar then think of some idea I want the song to be about and then come up with words. I'm really slow at it though and don't write as often as I would like. So far for the band I'm in I've tried to not really sound like any thing in particular but I plan on trying to do some more pure "garage/punk" songs eventually.

I tend to come up with some kind of riff or idea on the guitar then think of some idea I want the song to be about and then come up with words. I'm really slow at it though and don't write as often as I would like. So far for the band I'm in I've tried to not really sound like any thing in particular but I plan on trying to do some more pure "garage/punk" songs eventually.

www.thecaliforniagirls.com

And Mark Sultan! Definitly!

legendary tiger man from portugal, of course rev. beat-man!

Dead Elvis & Bloodshot Bill ofcourse, but i'm gonna pick Ottoboy from Holland. Look him up, cool stuff

Yeah man!

The screamin' Soul Preacher said:

...

Anyway, my favorite episode is always the one I'm going to listen. It's so exciting to press play and discover a brand new GARAGEPUNK podcast ! Wow ! That blows my mind everytime !

Old Ampeg reverberocket is what I like. I tried a 90s one at a friends house as well as a more recent ampeg reverberocket headand. The newer ones didnt have the same raunch factor. This is with a junior lester as well. I like the fuzzrite in front of it, or seymour dunkie pickup booster set to the treble boost for more fenderish clean chime.

ChazMatthews said:

I'm gonna agree on this one. I too, used to have an Ampeg Reverberocket. I was using a Gibson LP Jr at the time and it sounded amazing through this. I have an Epiphone Galaxie all tube from the mid 90s now, which is pretty close.

kopper said:

I used to have an Ampeg Reverberocket. That thing was awesome. Wish I still had it!