One Song, 32+ Amps! (the ultimate amp demo compilation thread)

[Guitarjon]

Hey everyone!

I'm starting a new thread here based on my new YT amp demo/comparison/versatility-test series: the 'One Song, One Amp' series!

This whole concept originated from when I was trying to come up with a cool idea for a new epic amp comparison with 32 amps or so. The basic idea was that I'd write one song that does a good job of testing the versatility of an amplifier by going through multiple genres and tones with a bunch of different guitars. I realised that the final video will take a looong time to complete and it will be a very long video so I figured I'd release each individual amp video seperately. In the end when all the individual episodes are done I'll make one big compilation video that will be called something like 'One Song, 32 Amps!'. I'll post new amp videos here regularly. I will also be adding some bonus videos such as the Axe Fx III and Helix etc.

These are the tones/guitars that are featured in the 'One Song':

-Clean (Telecaster neck pickup & bridge pickup)

-Crunch (LTD Elite Eclipse-I with SD JB)

-Heavy Rock (Fender Jim Root Tele with EMGs)

-Solo Leads (Ibanez RGT320Z with Dimarzios)

-Heavy Metal (PRS SE277 Baritone with Dimarzios)

For that last segment I'll likely use a boost pedal in front of most of the amps, just to see how well they perform when boosted. I know a lot of guys who play the heavy genres like to boost their amps. For unboosted high gain rhythm tones just reference the 'Heavy Rock' section.

The first amp that will be featured in this series is the Marshall JVM410H:

It's a great amp! I got this amp second hand a year or two ago and it instantly was a favorite. It's just such a versatile amp! The cleans on the clean are nice but I actually prefer the crunch channel for my clean tones as it's nice and bright/chimy, so that's why I went straight to the crunch channel. The tones on the regular clean channel are a little too dry for my taste most of the times. Not bad at all, I just prefer the crunch channel.

Love the crunch tones as they sound very organic and have that nice 'pillowy' saturation. This channel is very versatile as it can do a lot of classic Marshall tones in one!

The heavy rock tones on this amp are great! Love the OD1 channel on the orange voicing for rock and heavier stuff.

The lead tones also came out quite nicely. Plenty of saturation with nice compression but clear pick-attack. Not bad!

The boosted metal riffs also sound great! A little noisy with the staccato parts but the way I record my tracks inherently introduces some noise with such guitar parts. Anyway, this sound is thick, punchy and gnarly but still with that full sounding Marshall frequency spectrum. My new Laney Steelpark does a great job at boosting the amp. The PRS SE277 can get a little muddy on the lows so this pedals helps to make everything sound more angry and tight.

Overall impressions of this amp in this particular test are very good! It's a modern Marshall with many options and plenty of gain where you need it, but it doesn't lose it's classic organic Marshall tone!

Ok, that was the first amp! 31 to go! What did you think of this amp? How well did the Marshall JVM410H do in this test?

[Guitarjon]

Here's the next episode! This one features the ENGL Fireball 25, a new amp from this legendary German brand. The Fireball 25 is based on it's bigger brother, the Fireball 100 and it does a great job of recreating that sound in a smaller package! The FB25 has 6L6 power tubes unlike a lot of other small amps and this does help to give the amp a little bit more headroom.

There are some features missing from the larger head. The bright and bottom switches are gone, possibly to save space, and there are no seperate master volumes this time. It does feature the excellent noise-gate, just as it's big brother, and that is a HUGE plus! The power scaling and soak are very cool as well.

Here's episode 2 with the ENGL Fireball 25:



What do you guys think? Sounds pretty sick huh?

[Guitarjon]

I got a couple of Laney Black Country Customs pedals recently and they turned out to be really good! So I figured it would be fun to feature these pedals in this little 'pedal platform' edition of the 'One Song' show with the IRT Studio amp. I'll do a dedicated 'normal' amp demo version of this series for the IRT Studio in the future but I figured this would be a good amp to demo these pedals on. 15 watt amps are popular these days and a lot of pedal platform guys like those sorts of amps, or so it seems! The overall character of the Laney IRT amps is very suitable for pedals anyway (not very scooped etc. but nicely balanced).

So the pedals in this video are:

-Secret Path reverb (spring, plate and hall with optional modulation/shimmer)
-Spiral Array chorus (analogue, digital & tri stereo chorus)
-Monolith distortion (3 classic distortion modes)
-Steelpark boost (upper mid boost/neutral boost/low mid boost)

I didn't really know what to expect but I'm super impressed overall. The Steelpark alone is one of my favorite boost pedals right now and you'll be seeing that one more in future 'One Song' episodes and more! Anyway, here's the video:

[Erlend_G]

Real nice playing and sound!

[Guitarjon]

Ok guys, here's the next episode! This one is all about the Orange TH30H!

I've wanted a TH30H for a while now. I already have 6 of the smaller ones (Tiny Terror, Jim Root etc.) and I really wanted to have a TH30 mainly because it was the most affordable large Orange head and also because the tones I heard in demos were quite promising. I used to own a Dark Terror but that one was not for me (too scooped) so I was a little bit weary to try the TH30 since that also has that 'shape' control on the drive channel. Luckily the TH30H sounds MUCH better than my old Dark Terror did, so I couldn't be happier!

The clean channel is very simple with only volume, treble and bass controls but it's more versatile than you might think initially. The bass and treble controls have plenty of range so you can make the amp sound bright and scooped or more dark and middy etc. I also takes pedals really well so that's cool!

The dirty channel sounds absolutely huge and I do think it's mainly a high-gain channel. Having said that, I think the amp also has very nice crunch tones as you'll hear in the demo. It does have that classic round and fuzzy sound but it definitely is more aggressive than the Rocker 15 Terror for example. This one is more modern voiced overall.

Since I REALLY am enjoying this amp I also ordered a Rockerverb 50 MKIII. It should be here soon. That's actually a dream amp of mine so I figured I'd just pull the trigger while I'm still alive. lol

So here's the demo video. I think the amp did great with all the styles!



What did you guys think? Are you an Orange fan or do you not like the tones? I think the TH30 is quite popular so I imagine there must be some guys here who have one...

[Guitarjon]

Ok, here's a new one. I had made this video just before Eddie's very unfortunate passing I figured instead of being sad about it, why not celebrate music and gear and just release this episode of One Song, so here it is, with the Peavey 6505 (previous 5150 as you all probably know).

This amp sounds absolutely huge in the mix and really holds it's own! 120 watts of power does help in this case! What else can I say? Fine cleans, but mostly very good driven tones!

What do you guys think?

RIP Eddie Van Halen!!

[Guitarjon]

Hey everyone!

Here's the next episode! This one is all about the Mesa/Boogie Mini Rectifier Twenty-Five. I've had this amp for a couple of years and I think it's still my favorite amp, just so good! It's also definitely one of the smallest amps I own. When I first got it in the mail I was really surprised at how small it is haha! It's quite cute though and it feels very solid. The sound is THERE too! Sure, it probably sounds a little bit tighter than a big Dual Rectifier but that's probably good for the mix to be honest.

I know a lot of people love these but there are also people who dislike them (which is always to be expected though). Most of the people who dislike the amp just aren't fan of EL84 tubes. And I totally get that when you really like to crank your amp for live gigs etc. However, at 'medium' levels this thing absolutely sounds like a Rectifier imho!

Here's the vid, I wonder what you guys think!

[Guitarjon]

Hey everyone, time for the next episode!

This one is all about the Marshall DSL20HR (20 watt Marshall DSL head). This is most likely the most affordable amp in my collection, but does that mean it's bad? Heck no, it's a great little amp in my opinion! Sure, it has it's own tone and you can't compare it to something like a Plexi or 2203 but it's great in its own right.

The tones of the more recent DSLs definitely is a bit more modern sounding than something like a JCM 800 or a 1959 SPL. The clean tones are very bright and the gain tones have plenty of gain on tap. The saturation is pretty thich while still retaining a very good upper-mid cut. So these amps really cut through a mix like a knife! It's also worth pointing out that this small amp has EL34s. A lot of people give amps like the MT15 credit for having the larger powertubes, but we shouldn't forget that this amp was already around!

I think the amp speaks for itself... So here's the demo, would like to know what you guys think (objectively) about the tone. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I think it does a good job at what it's supposed to do, right?

[Guitarjon]

Time for a new episode!

This new one is all about this little modern amp by PRS; the MT15 Mark Tremonti signature head! It's a relatively new amp but it's a very popular amp and for good reasons. It's one of the few lunchbox amps that has big 6L6 powertubes and that definitely is something that a lot of people seem to appreciate. The cleans are nice (a little bit on the sterile side, so very clean with lots of headroom) and the lead channel is great for rock, heavy rock and metal. The only thing that this amp 'lacks' for versatility is a good low-gain crunch tone. You can kinda get in the ballpark with the lead channel but it will never be perfect in that regard (for my personal style that is).

It's a solid amp with plenty of power, the tones are good, it looks cool, what's not to love? Here's the video. How well will the amp perfom in the 'One Song, One Amp' setting? Let's find out:

[Guitarjon]

And here's the next one: the EVH 5150 III 50W EL34!

This amp certainly is popular and for good reasons! It's a killer amp, designed by a great guitarist! (RIP EVH!)

I'm not a huge fan of the clean tones myself because they are very very clean with a lot of headroom. I personally prefer cleans that are a little bit more compressed/saturated but I guess a lot of people do like these types of cleans. Definitely not bad, just a certain sound that you have to gell with.

The blue channel is somewhat controversial because it's not as tight and aggressive as the red channel. I've said this before but I think that the blue channel is great BECAUSE of that! It gives the amp way more versatility and it gives the player a more vintage sounding alternative to the modern and blistering red channel. So the red channel is amazing for (heavy) rock and metal but the blue channel is great for classic rock and even more modern rock as well. I would say, let's give the blue channel a chance folks!

Tight high gain tones are cool, but sometimes I think people tend to obsess too much over tightness of tones. A little bit of fatness and looseness can make guitars sound huge in a mix, and more tube-y too imho. Just my 2 cents! Sure, I like tight tones as well but I have just as much love for 'rounder' tones too!

Alrighty, here's the episode:

[Guitarjon]

Hey everyone!

I'm going to try to release the episodes more frequently now so hopefully we can get closer to the final epic 'One Song, 33 Amps!' compilation sooner!

This next episode is all about the Wangs HD-15 amp. It's a cool Chinese boutique amplifier with some unique tones that are (loosely) based on a Bogner Shiva and a Soldano for the high-gain tones. For more information about this amp I would recommend checking out the full review that I did recently. Of course in this next video there is no talk, just tones! I hope you like it:

I think it's a very cool amp! The only amp in my collection with 6V6 tubes. I hope I can try more Wangs amps in the future.... cough*2204*cough haha!

[dave74]

Haven't had much time lately to comment on these but still following this thread. Great job Jon!
DSL20 has caught my interest most so far. I already have plenty of recto tone and would love just one marshall for my small arsenal.

[Guitarjon]

As we approach the release of the final 6.5 hour long 'One Song, 33 Amps!' video release, I'll start releasing these seperate amp demos more frequently.

So this one is all about the Mesa Boogie Mark 5 Thirty-Five. This is such a cool amp! Certainly not as easy to dial in as some of the other amps but very rewarding once you get the tones just right. With it's 3 modes per channel and 2 channels this amp is quite versatile! Even the first channel alone can do anything from super clean all the way up to high gain crunch. The second channel is just amazing for that classic Boogie Mark sound. The IIC+ isn't always what I expect it to be, but the Xtreme mode and Mark IV modes are just amazing for high-gain.

Overall a super good amp imho. This demo will merely showcase a little bit of what the amp is capable of.

[Guitarjon]

And here's the next one!

This one features the discontinued Orange Jim Root Terror signature head. This amp was based on the Rockerverb. So it's basically a tiny 15w Rockerverb head (only the dirty channel). It sounds really good actually! For high gain tones this is one of my favorite Orange lunchbox amps. The clean and crunch tones are good too! Check it out:

[Guitarjon]

Ah, the Marshall JCM 800 Studio or SC20H (Studio Classic)! Such a cool amplifier with that real iconic sound imho. To all the purists: I know, it's not the same as the 100w amps etc but it has some serious tones (at reasonable levels). It's nice that you don't have to crank it SUPER loud in order to get the EL34's cooking, so it's much easier to find a fat sweetspot where the power tubes are going into saturation. Anyway, super amp, always really enjoy playing through it!