Sweet 16 - a poor man's DG rig?

[shinksma]

So this morning was up a bit earlier than normal before heading to work and had some time to move amps around, swapping in my Sweet 16 into my main pedal board area where I have had the HXDA for a while. The HXDA is nice, but it doesn't do "cleans" the same way, so I swapped them for a little bit of difference.

I played for a good 10 minutes riffing on a relatively simple chord progression I wrote recently for a new song - originally written on an acoustic. Rather than just strumming, I finger picked in a variety of ways, somewhat intentionally a la David Grissom, because I promised myself I'd expand on my techniques, and was inspired by his clinic at Experience 2018.

Holy smokes! I sounded closer to Mr. Grissom (in a very sloppy way) than I ever thought possible! I dunno if it was just the right settings on the dirt pedal going into the amp (I think it was a Mojo Hand FX DMBL), or the amp settings, or the guitar settings (Special 22 Semihollow LTD), but yowzers, it was fun! So I'm going to do more of that tonight, given the chance - before or after official band practice, I guess (we are practicing unplugged/acoustically, since that is how we're playing this weekend).

Anyway, the Sweet 16 with that pedal had a really nice tone very reminiscent of the sound DG gets out of his signature amps, especially the DG30. Yeah, not exactly the same, but I guess the Sweet 16 is "sort-of" Fender Tweed/Blackface ish, and I understand this is sort of the direction the DG30 goes towards. I suspect there are others here that can more succinctly state what I'm trying to say.

Does this mean I don't want a DG30 + cab any more? No way, of course not! But it helps scratch the itch for a while, and has inspired me!

Anyone else have inspiring Sweet 16 stories to tell?

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Does this mean I don't want a DG30 + cab any more?

Does this mean I want a Sweet 16 combo for when I’m feeling too lazy to haul my DG30?

 

[shinksma]

Does this mean I want a Sweet 16 combo for when I’m feeling too lazy to haul my DG30?

Probably.

 

[garrett]

It's the PRS amp model I'm most interested in. Small, simple, fairly cheap on the used market. I've read good things about the sound, as long as you don't need clean headroom at loud volume.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

From what I heard, pretty Tweedy.

 

[László]

I dug the Sweet 16 when I heard one. They’re great amps. The epitome of ‘grab ‘n go’.

How about a clip showing off the tone you’re getting?

 

[Deleted member 5962]

I dug the Sweet 16 when I heard one. They’re great amps. The epitome of ‘grab ‘n go’.

How about a clip showing off the tone you’re getting?

Do you agree with the Tweed comparisons? I’ve gotten opinions from several guys that owned or played them. Some said the gain is almost fuzzy, and lots of mids. Done right, that’s the kind of thing some won’t care for, and others will love.

 

[shinksma]

I dug the Sweet 16 when I heard one. They’re great amps. The epitome of ‘grab ‘n go’.

How about a clip showing off the tone you’re getting?

I'll try to get a recording eventually, but the next two weeks are full of enough activities that anything more than a phone video is unlikely. My "home studio" hasn't been fired up in a while, I have no idea if I left it in a properly configured state!

 

[László]

I'll try to get a recording eventually, but the next two weeks are full of enough activities that anything more than a phone video is unlikely. My "home studio" hasn't been fired up in a while, I have no idea if I left it in a properly configured state!

Phone!

 

[László]

Do you agree with the Tweed comparisons? I’ve gotten opinions from several guys that owned or played them. Some said the gain is almost fuzzy, and lots of mids. Done right, that’s the kind of thing some won’t care for, and others will love.

I think it depends how they’re set up, and on the speaker. The one I heard was sweet, but it was when they came out years ago, so it’s hard to remember anything beyond that I liked it. That’s why I want a clip!

 

[andy474x]

So this morning was up a bit earlier than normal before heading to work and had some time to move amps around, swapping in my Sweet 16 into my main pedal board area where I have had the HXDA for a while. The HXDA is nice, but it doesn't do "cleans" the same way, so I swapped them for a little bit of difference.

I played for a good 10 minutes riffing on a relatively simple chord progression I wrote recently for a new song - originally written on an acoustic. Rather than just strumming, I finger picked in a variety of ways, somewhat intentionally a la David Grissom, because I promised myself I'd expand on my techniques, and was inspired by his clinic at Experience 2018.

Holy smokes! I sounded closer to Mr. Grissom (in a very sloppy way) than I ever thought possible! I dunno if it was just the right settings on the dirt pedal going into the amp (I think it was a Mojo Hand FX DMBL), or the amp settings, or the guitar settings (Special 22 Semihollow LTD), but yowzers, it was fun! So I'm going to do more of that tonight, given the chance - before or after official band practice, I guess (we are practicing unplugged/acoustically, since that is how we're playing this weekend).

Anyway, the Sweet 16 with that pedal had a really nice tone very reminiscent of the sound DG gets out of his signature amps, especially the DG30. Yeah, not exactly the same, but I guess the Sweet 16 is "sort-of" Fender Tweed/Blackface ish, and I understand this is sort of the direction the DG30 goes towards. I suspect there are others here that can more succinctly state what I'm trying to say.

Does this mean I don't want a DG30 + cab any more? No way, of course not! But it helps scratch the itch for a while, and has inspired me!

Anyone else have inspiring Sweet 16 stories to tell?

I passed on a Sweet 16, brand new, on clearance for $450, about 5 years ago.

Inspiring may not be the correct word.

 

[shinksma]

Phone!

OK, I think (!) this is a link to a publicly-viewable post on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2189650644461108

Hopefully you can see and hear this. My first few recordings that I made I played better (I think), but the phone was too close to the amp and clipped like mad!

Details, for those curious:

Song is called "Blood of the Barley" or maybe "Baptized in the Blood of the Barley" - song about beer, of course. Credit for song title and initial lyrics go to my bandmate Ron, some lyrics by me, rest of the band helping with the remainder of the lyrics. Those lyrics are sort-of complete, but not recorded here. Eventually...

 

[László]

OK, I think (!) this is a link to a publicly-viewable post on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2189650644461108

Hopefully you can see and hear this. My first few recordings that I made I played better (I think), but the phone was too close to the amp and clipped like mad!

Details, for those curious:

Song is called "Blood of the Barley" or maybe "Baptized in the Blood of the Barley" - song about beer, of course. Credit for song title and initial lyrics go to my bandmate Ron, some lyrics by me, rest of the band helping with the remainder of the lyrics. Those lyrics are sort-of complete, but not recorded here. Eventually...

Hey, sounds cool!

Has a bit of that DG vibe in terms of grit, but the DG30 is a bit more midrange-centric with kind of an “awww” formant when going into grit. Below is an example of what I mean.

Here’s my DG, playing the 594 Soapbar followed by the humbucker 594. The rhythm track is just the amp, the lead tracks have an Xotic BB set up as a boost pedal, but most of the distortion is coming from the amp;

https://soundcloud.com/lschefman/messya-deux-v2

So in terms of how the amp grits up, pretty similar, but the voicing of the amp is a bit different.

 

[Boogie]

Do you agree with the Tweed comparisons? I’ve gotten opinions from several guys that owned or played them. Some said the gain is almost fuzzy, and lots of mids. Done right, that’s the kind of thing some won’t care for, and others will love.

I also passed on one from a good buddy and I kick myself to this day. Matched with an ET65 it’s not tweedy to me. More blackface-ish, IMO. With a Klon it’s pretty kick a$$.

 

[shinksma]

Hey, sounds cool!

Has a bit of that DG vibe in terms of grit, but the DG30 is a bit more midrange-centric with kind of an “awww” formant when going into grit. Below is an example of what I mean.

Here’s my DG, playing the 594 Soapbar followed by the humbucker 594. The rhythm track is just the amp, the lead tracks have an Xotic BB set up as a boost pedal, but most of the distortion is coming from the amp;

https://soundcloud.com/lschefman/messya-deux-v2

So in terms of how the amp grits up, pretty similar, but the voicing of the amp is a bit different.

That sure is nice sounding, Les! Great playing!

OK, I can hear the difference, for sure. The Sweet16 did have the bright switch on, and the guitar was configured fairly bright, so maybe that also accounts for some differentiation in the mid-range.

Still, I want a DG30 amp eventually!

 

[László]

That sure is nice sounding, Les! Great playing!

OK, I can hear the difference, for sure. The Sweet16 did have the bright switch on, and the guitar was configured fairly bright, so maybe that also accounts for some differentiation in the mid-range.

Still, I want a DG30 amp eventually!

I have to configure the DG30 with the bright switch on, too, because my room is carpeted with thick padding that tends to absorb high frequencies. So to compensate for the room acoustics, all of my amps are set pretty bright. I’d set them differently in a more reverberant space with a hard floor. I really, really want to redo the room, and especially the flooring, but I keep getting distracted by gear!

Every time I set aside enough to redo the room, something else gets on my radar. It’s shameful how quickly I lose sight of a goal.