|
Post by groovergeorge on Feb 5, 2006 20:35:25 GMT -7
Just thought I'd let ya all know I just joined the Ghia club. I haven't test driven the Ghia yet but by the look of the amount of threads and owners and the positive energy about this little rig, I am on a winner. I plan to buy a tone tubby alnico hempcone for it. I am just wondering of anyones thoughts regarding that speaker? The KT45 is still on the top of my list for a rock n roll gigging machine. That thing sounds like it was invented by God himself and the Stingray well lets just say the only thing that has stopped me from ordering one is that if I do a greedy bank will foreclose on my property. Ah the dreaded credit card maxed out factor Anyway heres the link to the amp, www.groovergeorge.com/drz.jpg"KEEP ON ROCKIN IN THE FREE WORLD"
|
|
|
Post by hollywood5150 on Feb 5, 2006 21:27:50 GMT -7
Welcome to the club. I hope you don't have money tied up in other amps. If you spend much time with the Ghia, the others will collect dust.
|
|
|
Post by G'OlPeachPhan on Feb 6, 2006 10:29:10 GMT -7
congratulations groovergeorge! the Ghia is a FANTASTIC amp, and this is a fantastic club to be a part of IMO.
|
|
|
Post by zdogma on Feb 6, 2006 19:48:15 GMT -7
That's a nice looking amp. Was it the one on ebay? I think you're going to li ;Dke it a lot.
|
|
|
Post by groovergeorge on Feb 6, 2006 20:48:52 GMT -7
Thanks for all the good wishes guys.
Yes the amp was on Ebay. I got if for $763. The cost to get it shipped out here was $270 which is what us Aussies have to pay to get stuff out here that is not available in stores like more common Fender,Marshall,Boogie,Vox etc.... but hey well worth it I think!
I can't wait to get it,I hope it lives up to all the hype, I figure so many players can't possibly be wrong.
I emailed Mike Z' yesterday about mating it with an alnico Tone Tubby and he emails me back within 1/2 hour. I didn't even buy it of him directly. Told him that I am keen to be the first Australian to order his new "STINGRAY" as I think it's one of best amps around. He emails me back again straight away and thanks me for the compliment and tells me he spent some time here in the early 80's setting up some medical equiptment in hospitals. What a guy, he must be busy and still has time to get back to people who use his products.
It's a credit to him and his business the way he treats all of us.
"KEEP ON ROCKIN IN THE FREE WORLD"
|
|
|
Post by paddywhacker on Feb 7, 2006 8:08:43 GMT -7
my good buddy...in fact the first fellow in town to own a Z amp and the one who turned me on to one the firt time had a tonetubby cab with two alnico hempcone 12's...he got it to go with his Maz Sr. and brought it over one day to see if some of my gear would change the tone that he wasn't digging.....we could not get acceptable tone from that cab...it was dark and flabby and the low end crunch and grind that you would expect from the el-84's in his Maz just farted out...we tried a Deluxe Reverb 6V6's and a el-34 based Rivera i had at the time and nothing could overcime the basic nature of the tonetubbies...he sold it.....i'm using a 30watt Weber Ceramic Bluedog currently with a Ghia and it's the bees knees .....its darkish but still has good chime and crunch...i have a Celestion V30 that i'm gonna build a cab for too when i want more volume and zing....theres a lot of excellent speakers that cost a lot less than the Tonetubbies out there....but this is just the opinion of a couple of tonefreaks in the middle of nowhere Oregon....we do know tone though....
|
|
|
Post by billyguitar on Feb 7, 2006 8:15:14 GMT -7
I think the Tone Tubbies are great! Check the review in Guitarist Magazine in cabs and speakers. Something must've been wrong with the ones you heard.
|
|
|
Post by paddywhacker on Feb 7, 2006 11:32:13 GMT -7
...i suppose its possible that it was a defective pair of speakers but this was a spendy Tonetubby cabinet special ordered...it was a couple of years ago so maybe improvemnets have been made....my feeling at the time was that as i much as love hemp it just didn't make for a musical sounding cone material...the overall tone wasn't miserable...it was just the lack of definition on the low end which is one my favorite aspects of a Z amp....but it is certainly possible that there was something wrong with the speakers and i always ecourage people to judge for themselves as we all hear differently...
|
|
|
Post by billyguitar on Feb 7, 2006 13:20:59 GMT -7
All I can definitely say is that my TT sounds distinctly better to me, in all aspects, than the stock Celestion G12H30. YMMV
|
|
|
Post by terryg on Feb 15, 2006 15:18:12 GMT -7
Hey all, just a quick unimportant-in-the-new-world-order (except my own) announcement that I too have paid my dues to whatever powers get dues paid to them, to join the club. My Ghia will be abused by Friday night. (montypythonesque "yay")
|
|
|
Post by groovergeorge on Feb 16, 2006 5:32:04 GMT -7
Congrats terryg............
Good luck and let us all know how it went.
"KEEP ON ROCKIN IN THE FREE WORLD"
|
|
|
Post by bluzsteel on Feb 16, 2006 6:43:08 GMT -7
nice Ghia
|
|
|
Post by terryg on Feb 16, 2006 12:09:48 GMT -7
fedex: "in transit" ... not fast enough!
|
|
|
Post by groovergeorge on Feb 17, 2006 3:25:27 GMT -7
Hey......I live in Australia guys! Waiting for gear to get shipped out down here even by FED-EX is a nervous pastime. I actually just bought a 1x12 closed back cab to put my Tone Tubby in.I hope that will help some in improving low end response. if the speaker doesn't live up to expectations I will just use it wth a bigger amp like a KT45 and get a Eminence Red Fang which I hear are great with smaller amps,have an alnico amgnet and have a very punchy low end. Next acqusition = Dr Z KT45 "KEEP ON ROCKIN IN THE FREE WORLD"
|
|
|
Post by terryg on Feb 17, 2006 16:33:41 GMT -7
groovergeorge, my apologies! THAT must be an aggravating wait!
.
. . (whispers) my ghia is sitting next to me in my office, and at my left hand are a bunch of tubes from Mike K. I have Monday off.....I'm in the club.
I'm in the club!!
KT45? 6545! two amps for one! My goal is ghia/z28 switched, or 6545 for bigger requirements.
Have a great weekend (or 3 minutes if I post something somewhere else)!
|
|
|
Post by G'OlPeachPhan on Feb 20, 2006 7:16:42 GMT -7
terry - did you play it yet? did you play it yet?
apparently you did catch that montypython special that was going to be on TV! ;D
Congrats on the Ghia!!!
|
|
|
Post by billyguitar on Feb 20, 2006 11:15:37 GMT -7
Groovergeorge: I have my Tone Tubby in my Maz 38 combo. It's got so much bottom that sometimes I have the bass knob nearly off!
|
|
|
Post by terryg on Feb 21, 2006 10:44:31 GMT -7
terry - did you play it yet? did you play it yet? (comes up for air...) huh, what? where am I? Oh, I'm at my desk....I thought it was 3AM on saturday when I was playing the amp....or was that Sunday at 2AM? down here in the lowlands of chicago it's on tomorrow night....I'll be unreachable many thanks to all for your support, your unknowing influence and encouragement. Now we'll talk tubes and speakers.....
|
|
|
Post by myles on Feb 22, 2006 11:52:19 GMT -7
Welcome to the club. I hope you don't have money tied up in other amps. If you spend much time with the Ghia, the others will collect dust. I found a way to keep the other amps in my group from gathering dust .... I loan them out to others or rent them out to folks like Center Staging or SIR when they have folks that have specific requirements. On a more in depth note .... I have a few amps as some that have been over have seen and my Carmen Ghia is my most played, most recorded, and most requested amp. It is also an amp that when folks come over and I work on their amps and they play my other amps more times than not ask ... "where can I get one of those?" One of the coolest rigs one can imagine is a Carmen Ghia and a Z-28 setup. That is about as complex as you need to get to do just about anything. Toss a Zen Drive into the mix and you are there! Happy playing!
|
|
|
Post by LeftyLang on May 8, 2006 16:16:10 GMT -7
I am back in the Ghia Club!!! I snagged this one on the bay in the last 2 seconds...I am a sucker for Blondes ;D...Plus it matches my 66 that is on the way as well.
|
|
|
Post by prowler on May 8, 2006 17:45:33 GMT -7
Crap! Now I need to buy another Ghia. When I had some non-Z amps I would have just sold one or two of them off to fund the purchase of the Ghia. Now that I have an SRZ & a Mini (both of which are discontinued) as my only amps I'm not willing to sell either of them off to fund the Ghia purchase. Looks like I'll need to do a few hours of OT to pay for another Ghia.
|
|
|
Post by bustertheboy on May 8, 2006 23:24:39 GMT -7
my ghia came from guitarez to blue mts australia via fedex in 4 days- not bad except i paid a whopping $400 aus for it to be shipped what an amazing little amp- mine is through greenbacks which i love- i thought there was an earlier thread about a ghia with tone tubbies where many said they thought it was too much speaker for a little amp i guess some of us like speaker breakup, others like it clean i'd be interested in what other aussies have had as responses to a z out here- i have only met one sound guy who had heard of them but i've had people tell me it's the best tone they've ever heard- and that's against my old '65 vibrolux reverb which was a stunner
|
|
|
Post by taswegian on May 9, 2006 0:02:48 GMT -7
I hear you on the shipping Busterboy, my Z Best cost a fortune to ship out let alone the head! My sound guy owns a Bad Cat and is pretty hip with boutique amps so he knew about the Z. But the only other guy I've come across was when I played the "Gone South" festival, there were two "stage" amps so I asked if I could have both mikes as my speakers were mismatched. I'm sure he was going to say no but then he saw my rig and went "Ah, that's more like it, now I'm getting interested!" I don't know if that meant he knew the amp or not. I asked him how it sounded after my set and he just smiled nodded and said "really, really, good, you made my afternoon!"
Oh, by the way, my lady is in the Blue Mountains as we speak attending a Clown Doctor conference!
|
|
|
Post by bustertheboy on May 9, 2006 0:49:28 GMT -7
a clown doctor conference? it's amazing what we host in the blue mountains- we're a pretty diverse community, but not a lot of performance venues, especially if u are interested in getting paid i think that's the case in australia generally- a friend told me recently that even in melbourne thaings are getting tougher as so many kids are happy to work for nothing in nsw i think we blame the pokies- man can u keep the band down i can't concentrate on the machine!- the other thing has been a lot more door deals i know we don't play just for the money but a little bit helps! by the way i listened to your sound posts- tasty! good to hear another vibe user
|
|
|
Post by taswegian on May 9, 2006 1:37:11 GMT -7
Yeah, I played in Melbourne from 91' to 2001 and the decline of venues was amazing. We went from playing really large clubs to playing really small pubs that DIDN'T have pokies. Playing in Hobart now is like playing in someones living room most of the time. My RT66 has gone from being the perfect club amp to being too bloody loud. I have gigged the Mini! You can talk about the money getting low but it does have a major detrimental affect on the music scene throughout the country at the roots level. The music industry in Australia has always been a huge income earner for the country and it is going to die if something isn't done to improve the situation at this root level. If there is no where to play and people aren't getting paid at professional levels, muso's won't be able to afford gear or to hone their profession, and it will be left to the part-timers who just do it for fun, but lack the skill, time, persistence, financial sacrifice etc etc it takes to produce a great act! Imagine if world class athletes had to work all week and train/practise when they could fit it in. The performances would deteriorate dramatically and that is what's happening in the music industry Sorry about the schpiel...I'm in a bad mood after getting jipped on a Z28 head and 4-10 box! ;D
|
|
|
Post by taswegian on May 9, 2006 1:52:06 GMT -7
Oh, and thanks for the compliment! Love the vibe...I bet it sounds great in your rig!
|
|
|
Post by myles on May 9, 2006 9:58:01 GMT -7
Congrats on having the best amp ever made in the universe.
|
|
|
Post by LeftyLang on May 10, 2006 20:42:19 GMT -7
Congrats on having the best amp ever made in the universe. WOW That is a pretty bold statement. What speakers do you like to use with the CG? I am looking forward to trying it with my 4x10 Zcab.
|
|
|
Post by bustertheboy on May 10, 2006 22:59:36 GMT -7
hi lefty i love greenbacks- i have a 2x12 open back box- i love the midrange bark they have some say they aren't efficient enough- i don't think so- i'm not fond of having my ears fried- just a tiny bit of feed via a mike with the PA makes up for any volume- come to think of it- i haven't even need that
|
|
|
Post by LeftyLang on Jun 6, 2006 13:07:54 GMT -7
I will have to try the Greenbacks someday.. I have been playing the CG through my Zbest 4x10 and it sounds very, very good. Lots of punch and just the right amount of breakup running straight in no pedals. The 4x10 almost sounds like it has natural reverb.
|
|