Hey Stick nation.
I’ve been away for some time and wondering what you’re all using for amplification. I currently own a Fishman SA220 which has been pretty good but I’m looking for a bit more bottom end but still wanting to maintain high end crispy goodness that the Fishman provides.

Cheers,
Kev

Take a look at Hendriksen amps, https://www.henriksenamplifiers.com. Their amps are optimized for Jazz guitar players, and I think they work great for Sticks. Hendriksen is a small outfit, focused on their specific clean tone and quality construction.

I have both a Bud Six and a Bud Ten, these have 6 and 10 inch speakers respectively. The Bud amps have two channels, two equalizers, and two reverbs. Nicely built, super solid, and they have tough carrying bags.

I think the Six is too small for the lowest Stick strings, the Ten works better there, but the Six might do well for alto. There is some indication Hendriksen made a Twelve, but it does not look like those are available. Hendriksen also offers heads and cabs separately.

Fuck they are pricey!

Man, I'd love to hear this with Stick. If you have any demo or performance videos with that Bud 10, please share. Or make one! Thanks.

For my Railboard, I use a Roland JC-120 amp with the Helix Floor as the pre-amp. I connect the Helix to the 'Main In' on the back of the amp which bypasses the JC-120 pre-amps thus eliminating any floor noise. If I don't tap on a string, you would never know that the amp is on. It's that clean.

My vintage Stick is using a Fender Mustang Micro as the pre-amp into a Yamaha RX-V990 stereo amp with two UltraLinear Audio Systems 15" DJ Speakers rated at 600W RMS each. They move a lot of air. I bought them in a garage sale for $100 each and the audio fidelity is amazing.

now using Boss S1 & Spark CAB

looking forward for the new Spark live amp

I also use the SA220 Solo Amp. My tube-preamp on the bass side provides a solid low end for me, for the moment. However, I believe the Solo Amp has a dedicated output for a subwoofer. Adding a subwoofer might be a simpler, and less-costly, solution. Let us know what you go with.

If we're talking mono output, the EHX Tri Parallel mixer is a nice way to mix to mono without needing multiple inputs on the amp.

Well, I am an electrical engineer, not a Stick player (yet...). So I can't give you a demo, but I can describe the sound.

The Bud Ten is a clean low-noise amp. Plenty loud, louder than I ever need in my living room. It is not as transparent as a monitor, I would describe a monitor as thinner and more sterile. I also have a Fender '65 Twin, and that sound is well known, I would call it fat or perhaps growly -- the Bud is not like that, it is more controlled. So the Bud does have a 'sound', I would describe it as smooth and well controlled, not overdriven, and not harsh. Very polished.

The Bud has a tweeter that you can switch out, but I have not heard much difference in or out with the Stick. Perhaps on something like an acoustic guitar with a piezo pickup the tweeter would make more difference. I have mostly played it with a Block pickup, a bit with a Stickup, and there may be more high-end in the Stickup. On the low end, I am using Rob Martino's Mirrored 4ths, so I have only played down to the low-E. But the Ten sounds solid down there. The reverb is electronic, not spring, and seems good to my ears. It is not shock sensitive, and does not show any 'drip' behavior.

Addressing Kevin's point, the Bud is pricey. But it is not consumer equipment, it is built for working musicians. You can cary it to a gig and not worry that it won't work. And it has the other things you need, like two fully separate channels, an XLR line out, TRS headphone out, external cab out, and effects loops (two separate channels!). And the Bud is portable, you can cary a Stick with one arm and the amp with the other arm. As an engineer I tend to over-build my stuff, and when I look at the Bud there is really nothing I would change. I have not looked inside yet, but what I do see is really good. So in terms of cost, well, it is less than a Stick.

You can tell that I am a Hendriksen fan. It's a small family company in Colorado and it seems like a great fit for the Stick community. Check out these videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54peh9w ... ZzB74xnphN, and: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBS7BDoQysk.

Let me try to fix those links, I think I posted the first one wrong, also including one more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54peh9wpJlo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBS7BDoQysk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFRgF00d3RM

You can see where they are building the amps, Hendriksen is not a faceless offshore supplier.