What Peche A La Mouche Amp for 1947 Django Tone?

Stamos666

I love Django’s electric tone, especially the tone in his 1947 recording of Belleville. I have a Barault guitar with a Kleio 47 pickup. Tone is great. But my amp has way too much headroom.

I’m thinking of a Peche A La Mouche amp but I’m not sure what to get. There’s a 8 watt version, 10 watt, 10 jazz deluxe watt version, and then a “Daphne” 10 watt version!

I will likely gig with this amp but not sure which model to get. For example, I’m not sure what the difference is between the 10 jazz deluxe version and Daphne 10 watt version. I don’t want to turn it up only a little and have it already be super saturated.

I’d also like to use it with my other electric jazz guitars for non-Gypsy stuff but still with that kinda Django crunch.

would really appreciate y’all’s thoughts! thanks!

adrian

Not sure you can go wrong...? I've had one of these for 9 or 10 years (not sure on the wattage) and have gigged with it many times.

It has a fantastic sound — just so, so tasty. It's so good that it makes me play better, just to enjoy the tone.

The only downside is that this particular sound isn't good for rhythm playing. If I do a duo gig with another guitarist, I need to change my rhythm technique to accomodate the amp (using less of a percussive sound and more tone), to prevent the vibe from sounding too distorted and crunchy.

Here's a recording of me using the amp back in 2019, though we were playing at a restaurant and I didn't really push it, distortion-wise.

Adrian

Stamos666

thanks! hrmmm i tried playing that soundslice and no audio came out. would love to check it out!

youre not sure what wattage your amp is? yeah i’m also worried about the “overdriving too much when playing rhythm” problem!

adrian

If you're on iOS, make sure your device isn't muted (see here).

Stamos666

sounds great! ah i realize the “8” and “10” relate to the speaker size, though i know they have higher wattage Peche amps too. now i’m really confused! i wish i could just try these out somewhere; then i’d know for sure which model to get.

what’s frustrating is i see so many great vids of these amps but no one says what model they are using….

Buco

You can always use a pedal for earlier breakup, there's been discussions about it on the forum. I think Jr Barnyard is a popular choice. Additionally there are tubes specifically made for earlier breakup that you can experiment with, whether you do that with the amps you own (assuming you have some tube amps already) or one of the Peche variants.

JasonS

It would be worth checking out the Vintage 47 VA-185 too.

https://www.vintage47amps.com/VA-185G/

Stamos666

thanks! i’m not looking for earlier breakup; check the thread above for what i’m trying to go for. i’m trying to find a good middle ground. is the 8 inch 6 watt peche too overdriven at gig volume? there’s so many different versions of the same amp so i’m a bit confused.

MichaelHorowitz

@Stamos666 Peche a la Mouche no longer makes 110V amps so if you want to use one of their amps in the US you'd have to get a converter as well. Probably not worth the hassle as you can get one of Dupont's Stimer amps which are similar:

https://www.djangobooks.com/Category/stimer-amplifiers

DoubleWhisky

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/116129#Comment_116129

I'm afraid you have to try for yourself. What one describes as his "clean tone" someone else says is fairly overdriven and it's the same with what is regarded as "gig volume". Are you playing with drums? Do you play cafés without PA? Even in the same musical constellation gig volume will be different at for example a outdoor festival with large stage. To really be prepared to have the same amount of grit for every occasion maybe it's worth checking out if boosting your amp with a overdrive pedal might be an option as you are more flexible that way/can achieve the same amount of drive at different volume levels. In this case more headroom would be a plus. Or you could use something like a attenuator to achieve that with the ampsound only.

Those old school one channel amps that recreate those thar were available in Djangos era are not flexible at all as the amount of overdrive you get always is connected to the volume they deliver and the sound of the Belleville recording is fairly overdriven, so the amp will be very loud. Also 8 watt in tube amps is not noticable quieter than 10 watt, if every other component would be the same the only thing that differs is "when will breakup occur?". A 5 watt tube amp won't be much quiter than a 30 watt tube amp, but at the same volume it will be more overdriven (if everything other component would be the same, in reality the wattage is not really too much connected to how loud it will be).

jero

Hi there! Just a reminder that I have one for sale, listed elsewhere on the forum. It's actually a really versatile amp -- I've used it for straight-ahead jazz as well as some avant stuff, where I ran it pretty clean. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.