The Fabulous Headstrong Lil' King Amp - Ask Zac 158

well hello friends and welcome to Ask
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Zac today we are going to Spotlight
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Princeton reverb amplifiers why I've or
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yeah how I've ended up you know owning
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probably 10 or 12 of them through the
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years and always sold them
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and how this headstrong little king with
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a 12 inch speaker has really uh finally
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scratched the itch for a
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blackface Princeton reverb type amp that
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I could actually gig with with a
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Telecaster and I have gigged with this
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amp and yeah so we're going to talk
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about the amp I'm going to play through
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it some and talk a little bit about
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Wayne Jones the owner and founder of uh
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well he hit he is headstrong he builds
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all the amps by hand we're going to talk
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about what what he does so well
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and uh and just have some fun
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all right so while you're thinking about
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it uh if you haven't done it already and
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of stuff all right let's Dive In
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uh so I've been you know gonna be 50
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this month April of 2023 and I've been
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playing since I was 13 so that's 37
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years of playing guitar and I started
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um trying to use Princeton's pretty
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early on and so I've owned many 70s
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princetons on a couple of you know
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vintage 60s you know Princeton reverb
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amplifiers and owned a couple of
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reissues and a hand wired reissue and
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I would always love you know
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love it with a Gibson type guitar
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or you know even with a tele on the neck
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pickup or both pickups or even like an
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overdriven sound on the bridge pickup I
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liked it but with a Telecaster clean and
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on the bridge pickup with most
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princetons most the ones I've ever run
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into I was not happy with the sound at
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all it just didn't have enough girth it
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didn't have enough
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oomph to it it sounded too thin and uh
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two uh yeah I just didn't have enough
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body to it and uh
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I had some princetons that were modified
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I tried one with a 12 and uh you know
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may have been just the 12 that I just
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that I tried that didn't work with it
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and ended up kind of overpowering the
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the cabinet and it just didn't sound
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right I tried some where they modified
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the phase inverter that's a very popular
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thing to do and
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it just made it louder it didn't solve
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the tone issue because for me a print a
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Princeton with a Telecaster on the
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bridge pickup it was always about the
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tone not being right not there not being
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enough volume
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so I just kind of gave up and I just
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said well I'm a deluxe Reverb guy and I
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am a deluxe Reverb guy however
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there have just been times where the
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deluxe is just you know more amp than I
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needed
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and especially now with a lot of the you
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know most of the gigs I play now use
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in-ear monitors and most of the time
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they're trying to keep stage volume low
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so
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and it's like it's it's something you
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know smaller to carry around and so I
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started kind of thinking about them
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again
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but uh
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but just kind of said well I'm just kind
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of a deluxe guy I guess
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well lo and behold I went to a friend's
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studio and he had one of these in fact
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it was identical to this
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and I played through it with my Esquire
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here and
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you know immediately I played on the
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neck pickup and sounded fantastic and
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then I went to the bridge pickup and
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there it was you know it had the
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it had the fullness that I was looking
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for it didn't it didn't sound anemic it
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didn't sound you know it didn't it
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sounded good clean you know because you
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can always kind of dirty it up and kind
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of help it out some in the uh in the
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body area but I wanted one that could do
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that and so I immediately called up
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Wayne Jones with headstrong amps and I
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ordered one and so and just to be clear
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I paid for this amp there was no deal on
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it or anything I
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you know paid for the amp and uh after a
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couple of weeks it showed up
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and first thing this this might sound
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silly to some but you know for someone
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that's been getting you know buying amps
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and having them shipped to him you know
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over the last you know 30 plus years
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I have never seen an amp that was better
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packed than this headstrong it was in
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the right size box it had the formed
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pieces of foam that were coated so you
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didn't get a styrofoam you know burn on
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the tolex
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and then there was heavy duty you know
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paper that was shoved in there in the in
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the sides to make sure it was tight
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everywhere there was no air at all in
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the Box I mean it was all padded
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and the amp you know came out it came
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from North Carolina to Nashville
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and there was not a spot on the box and
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and the amp was in absolute perfect
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condition
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and then I of course pulled the amp out
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it was spotless and I plugged it in and
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it sounded just like my buddies and I
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was so happy with it that uh a day and a
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half later I was I had a gig in Tulsa
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Oklahoma at the Hard Rock Casino they
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have a a really nice big you know really
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large capacity bar called track five
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and I was playing with my friend Paul
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Bogart and uh
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so I took the amp and I was glad I took
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it because we ended up having very
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little because we were having to run
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some a little bit of PA stuff and we're
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just running in a Transit we don't have
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a trailer behind us and so because of
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that I there was barely enough room for
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the for this headstrong to fit in the in
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the back of the vehicle so uh you know I
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just had this and a small pedal board I
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had this Esquire and then I had a backup
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guitar
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and so we we showed up and uh you know
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we had just enough time for a quick
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sound check uh we you know we drove 10
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hours uh you know left at 5 45 in the
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morning and then got there in time to do
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a quick sound check go up to the room
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change clothes go down eat some food and
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then we started playing
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and the amp just sounded phenomenal and
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you know played a four hour gig with it
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and I just kind of kept looking back at
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it and uh and just kind of in uh in
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amazement at how great it sounded and
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the fact that I had you know bought an
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amp that I didn't have to do anything to
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it's like I've hardly ever had that
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happen most every amp that I've bought
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you know if it were a vintage amp
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usually it had to have some some
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maintenance done and or maybe I was
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going to swap speakers and even newer
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amps sometimes I've swapped tubes or
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speakers or something or maybe there was
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a microphonic tube or a rattling tube
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but this this amp was completely ready
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to go and I looked in the back and he
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had put those little silicon little
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bands on the tubes to uh to help with
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the tube rattle because there was no
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tube rattle
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so
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yeah I was just uh amazed and of course
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we played the next night also we played
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Saturday night and again it just
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delivered like crazy and didn't matter
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you know whether I was you know using
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pedals you know using overdrive or or
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what I was running through it you know
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neck uh Bridge pickup it just sounded
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great you know on on everything I did
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so it's uh extremely extremely happy
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with it
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so I uh I I called you know Wayne Jones
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to kind of get the the lowdown on you
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know kind of what makes his amp special
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I mean one of the things I noticed was
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just the quality of the cabinet you know
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because that's one thing I've seen in a
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lot of Princeton type amplifiers
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especially currently made ones is where
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they'll have a cabinet that is pretty
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cheap looking and the tolex job is not
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done well the back panel is made of
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rubberized wood that has you know an
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amazing amount of flex to it and it
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seems like what's wrong with this
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uh so I was you know just taken by you
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know the the quality of the components
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also the low noise floor uh this is
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probably the quietest amp that I own I
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mean it makes very little you know kind
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of background noise the only noise is
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like uh you know from my guitar even if
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I turn the guitar up you know or turn
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the amp up you know there's very little
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noise and uh and that's wonderful
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especially running
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in-ear monitors where everyone's going
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to hear your noise loud and clear right
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in their head
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so uh
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uh so let's uh let's hear it a little
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bit again this is on the on the back
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pickup and uh
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and to me again that's kind of the uh
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the real test for me on a Princeton is
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just the ability you know for it to
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sound full and not overly like Buck
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Owens sounding and I like Buckle ones
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but that's not always the tone that I'm
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going for I want a little bit Fuller
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sound so
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oh
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[Music]
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[Music]
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thank you
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[Music]
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thank you
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[Music]
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of course really nice on the uh on the
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neck pickup I love the I love the range
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of the knobs here so you know got the
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volume set on three I've got the treble
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set on like almost seven which is a lot
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higher than what I would have normally
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set on a Princeton which that's a good
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thing
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the base is a lot lower than I'd
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normally set it which is another good
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thing I'm the base set at three and a
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half and normally I would set the base
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on a Princeton reverb I would set the
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base usually on close to 10 most of the
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time unless I was playing a Gibson
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guitar
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so this and as you turn it up of course
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you do get more bass and uh so it it
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sounds really full really full and uh
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and I I love that because it's just you
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don't feel like when you get the sound
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you want you're at the the end of the of
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the control you're at the end of the
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amount of bass that you can get when you
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get the sound that you want so I think
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that's a a wonderful thing the Reverb I
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have said a little bit past two and
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that's you know of course you can crank
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it up and get uh
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you know as uh you know as surfy as you
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want
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and then
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I gotta show you the uh the vibrato the
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the tremolo and that's really because
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the uh the speed
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and I'm gonna
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I'm gonna set the speed to zero or one
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I'm gonna set the intensity to 10.
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got to turn it on
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[Music]
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thank you
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that's awesome
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uh so yeah again that's that's intensity
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on 10 speed on one that is the ultimate
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like gut bucket you know kind of Rye
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cooter-ish tremolo which most of these
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you know Princeton type amps or even old
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blackface amps
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the tremolo is not dialed in like that
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it's not I mean he's Wayne is just so
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intentional about everything he does he
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really cares about quality and so he has
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this set this way on purpose uh if you
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set the speed up all the way so you have
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speed and intensity all the way you know
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and then
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you get
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[Laughter]
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[Music]
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foreign
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so really nice and then of course you
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can you know kind of have the speed and
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intensity in that you know kind of six
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range where you get uh the normal
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tremolo sound that I would probably use
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maybe five on the speed
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[Laughter]
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[Music]
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really really sweet sound so one of one
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of the the really funny things about
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talking to to Wayne was he shared with
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me a funny factoid and that's that Wayne
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started making these amps 20 years ago
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and he actually started making these
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before Fender reissued the Princeton
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reverb so I thought that was a really
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fun
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um
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again really high quality components he
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uses you know it's got new tubes in it
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but he's you know he chooses him well
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he's got two Vamp doctor and JJ's
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um hey borer or high bore Transformers
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which Transformers are kind of the
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lifeblood of of the amp and those are
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really really important and he's chosen
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well on those
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um ah this is the thing I really need to
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uh to talk about and that's of course
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this amp has a 12 inch speaker
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and the 12 in it is the imminence
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Alessandro ga64 ceramic magnet speaker
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this is a fantastic speaker and a
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perfect mate for this amp
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and it uh it allows the amp to sound
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like an old Princeton but of course it's
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a 12 and so it's fatter and this you
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know Alessandro speaker has more
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mid-range than a uh you know a regular
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Jensen so it's it's not a dead nuts copy
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of an old Jensen speaker I mean I've
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even read interviews where Alessandro
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has said
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he purposefully put a touch of celestion
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green back into this speaker and so but
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it's just enough mids that you like it
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but not enough so that you start
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thinking that the speaker sounds like
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some kind of weird hybrid speaker you
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just think of it as a fat sounding
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Princeton it doesn't start sounding like
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a boogie or something like that so uh
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yeah well chosen components all the way
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around Wayne really cares about what he
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does you can tell when you talk to him
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on the phone
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you can tell in his choice of of
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components you know all the all the caps
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and resistors that are in there you know
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that has a you know they have a a
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lifetime warranty on the amps uh the
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amps you know this amp is uh cheaper
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than a lot of the competition even under
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uh major names that start with the
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letter f
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um yeah I think they're around 24 2500
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dollars
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tons of Pros are using this amp uh you
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know like Bill Frizzell and JD Simo and
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there's this whole you know group of uh
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kind of Blues players in East Nashville
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Jack Roush and a bunch of other cats
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that are using uh headstrong amps also
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and so I I love that when you know a lot
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of the a lot of the guys using an amp
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are uh you know are real players and and
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they're and they're paying for the amps
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you know it's again Wayne's one guy
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building amps you know at his home and
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you know and he can't he's not like a a
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big company that can you know just give
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away amps and so when you see his amps
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you know that you know those people have
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paid for them and they're invested in it
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it's not just oh I got something free so
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really really great amplifier so
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all right guys well I appreciate you
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guys uh watching today and uh we'll uh
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we'll see you next time and uh make sure
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and uh check out a headstrong little
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King uh
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and I guess one more note before before
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we Before We Say Goodbye is that this is
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just the regular uh Little King it's
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just the 12 watt dead nuts you know 64
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Princeton you know version he does make
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different versions like the s that has
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bigger Transformers and 6l6s if you want
19:32
something that has more like 20 to 30
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Watts I did not want that I just wanted
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something that sounded similar to my
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Deluxe Reverb but had uh you know lower
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Headroom was easier to carry around and
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so that's that's what I suggest unless
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you're really needing a lot of uh
19:50
Headroom and more volume I think the uh
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the regular uh Little King with the six
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v6s and being you know 12 Watts but yet
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I think the 12 inch speaker is really
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important all right guys we'll see you
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next time bye