Lately I have been feeling as if my practice time has been somewhat stale. It seems that no matter how hard I try, my fingers want to go back to playing the same old chord or note progressions. I have tried various guitars and effects trying to break habitual playing patterns to little avail.
Recently I was browsing the musical instrument section of the local CraigsList. It has seemed that in recent months there has been very little in this section that interests me. This time however, hiding between all the unimpressive items was an ad for a US build Fender Princeton Chorus amplifier. At $130 USD, it seemed to be a very good deal, so I did a little research to see what the going price on this amplifier was. I found a few that were around $250 USD, so I quickly sent the seller an e-mail and met up to pick up the amplifier a few hours later.
I have been looking for a good sounding clean solid state amplifier to add to my collection of mostly tube amps. I had heard good things about the Princeton Chorus, although I had never experienced one in action. Most reviews seem to hone in on the clean channel of the Princeton Chorus as being it's strongest character, but most also say the overdrive channel leaves something to be desired without spending a lot of time fidgeting with the limiter. I was not too worried about the overdrive, so I took it home and plugged it in.
I had spent many of my early playing years through solid state amplifiers, mostly because of their affordability, but once I got my hands on my first tube amp, I had never looked back. I have to admit that the Princeton Chorus has extraordinary sound and tone for a solid state. The clean channel is very smooth, and the built in chorus speaks volumes in its quality. What was the most interested was the fact that I found myself experimenting with chord patterns that were way out of my usual playing patterns in recent months. The new sound was actually inspiring me to push into different areas in my playing. A new amplifier with a new sound was really all it took to break out of my old routine.
Sometimes a new piece of equipment can inspire a person to take steps forward in their playing, no matter what instrument or style they play. Even more interesting is how these new inspirations can translate back to the equipment you normally play on. It is similar to the heavy rock guitarists that I read about who write their songs on acoustic guitar or piano.
Gary Allen