John Hendow

Last Friday night the Dudley Manlove Quartet performed for the Seattle Rep’s annual fundraising gala. It was a fun event and I always enjoy being around the theater scene. After a late-afternoon load-in and soundcheck, we had quite a long break before we were to play. We took advantage of the free time to wander around and visited a few local restaurants for snacks and happy hour martinis. On the way back to the venue we stopped for some gourmet chocolate and espresso.

The first set was solid, and par for the course at such events, the audience wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about dancing until they’d had a few refreshments. By the end of the first set we had a good full dance floor. During the second set I turned up my amp a bit to get a little better stage coverage, and encountered the same issue I’ve experienced on a few previous occasions: my amp became increasingly distorted and I couldn’t get a clean tone at a decent volume level. We’re not all that loud onstage – especially at this kind of performance – and this issue has arisen more than once before. I’ve done some reading online in the forums and most people seem to feel this amp is designed to break up a bit at normal stage volume, producing an overdriven blues / rock tone. I really want the amp to be clean with a lot of headroom. It’s possible that I just won’t get this kind of performance from a 40 watt amp, but in Jumbalassy I used a 60 watt amp to drive my speaker cabinets and it was always squeaky clean at stage level. I’m not very interested in returning to that kind of setup, but it may be necessary to find a louder guitar amp for use in The Dudley Manlove Quartet. I’ve already started test-driving a few amps including the classic Fender Twin. I think I’d like to get a 65 Twin Reissue if I can find one at a decent price. If anyone is interested in selling one, please touch base with me.