What amp for this type of music.. Tube amp..

[DotNetTim]

Hi guys.. I'm building a custom guitar for myself and although it might take a year or a year and a half, I'm going to be using a set neck Gibson LP type guitar with just one pickup.. Probably a Duncan 59 .. The guitar will be a flammed maple or birdseye maple raw neck with ebony or maple (probably maple to match the back of the neck ) Finger board and all mahogany non carved body.. Just a cut out for the belly a tad, and just a forearm curve of the very slightest.. Anyway, this will be a guitar that is used for everything from metal if needed to blues.. but mostly bluesy type stuff such as Led Zepplin type stuff, Thin Lizzy, etc.. I want to get that classic 70's tone.. but I want to also sound modern a little and I'll do that by adding some effects such as Delay, etc.. I'm thinking the amp I should use would be either a 50 watt Marshall Plexi or Peavey 5150.. or Twin Reverb of older vintage in good shape.. Any suggestions? I want something responsive, with good sustain and warm sounding, not too brittle, but that will work well with or without effects, etc.. that will not turn to mush because of the speakers. etc.. What speakers would you use ? I'm going to be using a Combo by the way and I want something in the 50 watt range.. I'm thinkinig hard about either a plexi or better yet maybe a used 5150 as I think it would work well with the Duncan 59 pup in the bridge.. Just straight ahead rock.. Here are my influences..

Ted Nugent,
Jackyl,
Lynard Skynard,
Aerosmith,
Slaughter,
Cinderella,
Racer X,
Paul Gilbert,
Thin Lizzy,
John Sykes and Blue Murder
Jason Becker
Whitesnake
Tesla
Ozzy and Black sabbath stuff.. Especially the older black sabbath with oz..
Rush,
Blues Sarceno,
Steve Vai, etc, etc etc, etc,

Tim

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: What amp for this type of music.. Tube amp..

Plexi. Definitely a Plexi & a 4x12

[flank]

Re: What amp for this type of music.. Tube amp..

well there wasnt plexi combos was there? maybe a marshall bluesbreaker or i would say a 50 watt JMP 70s marshall 2x12 combo....those JMPs were the sound of the 70s

[Benjy_26]

Re: What amp for this type of music.. Tube amp..

Look at the JTM 60's as well. I played ione a while back and it blew my mind. Too bad I didn't have th4 cash for it at the time....

[matt99camero]

Re: What amp for this type of music.. Tube amp..

I really like the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe or Deville. I play some classic rock and the Deluxe works great for me and they are relativly cheap. But if you have a big buget for this amp I'd go with a higher end Fender tube amp. I'm a Fender amp man myself, but even if you don't go with a Fender go tube, you just can't go wrong with the sound of a tube amp.

[Bludave]

Re: What amp for this type of music.. Tube amp..

Amplifiers are very difficult to just have one. Just like guitars. I currently use two. A 69 Super Reverb, and a Marshall 900 50W combo. My plans are to go with a 57 low output Fender Tweed. This is being offered as a Custom Shop Fender(about2K). Once I have that I will either go with a 50W Plexi or the hand wired JTK 45. I have not played through the 45 or the tweed so I may change my mind after I have played through these. But I got to believe all of these Amps are KILLER amps.

http://www.fender.com/products/show.php?partno=8140500

http://www.marshallamps.com/images/products/hw/hw.html

Check these amps out

[inter]

Re: What amp for this type of music.. Tube amp..

I have a Peavey 5150 and to cover all those influences, you just can't do any better this side of $600.

Make sure you visit www.eurotubes.com for replacement tubes. Bob talks about re-biasing the head but the combo is biased a liitle warmer so it won't be an issue.

If you haven't heard how the 5150 sounds with a 59, check out this thread and listen to some of VHohoic's recordings.

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=5301&highlight=5150

Some guys don't like em' but that's why they are available at such great used prices.

[Jeff_H]

Re: What amp for this type of music.. Tube amp..

In all seriousness....and I know I sound like a broken record, but here goes.

Pick up a used JCM 800 2 channel combo, 4210, 4212 and have it modded. You can pick these up in decent shape for $500-700 dollars. My choice of someone to mod it would be Jeff Seal, however, Trace at Voodoo, Scott Splawn at Splawn Guitars and Dave Bray are some others that do fantastic work.

These guys will take an ordinary JCM 800 and voice it to have the sweetest cleans you can imagine from a Marshall, and combine it with voicing that will go from Marshall crunch to Plexi Roar to the all out balls to the wall sound of a 2204 at full throttle. And you can get the amp + the mods done for the price a plexi re-issue head will cost...stock.

An amp like this will get you into the sound quality of the boutique amps like Bogner, Engle, Soldano...ect. I'm not saying that they sound the same as these....but it's so much better sounding than any stock amp under $1500.

I'd choose either Jeff Seal or Scott Splawn.

[inter]

Re: What amp for this type of music.. Tube amp..

Jeff,

I just had a listen to your clips of your modded JCM800, sounds nice and it still has a foot in the stock JCM800 waters. I used to own a JCM800 & quad and they really are great amps to cop that 70's type of hard rock/metal tone.

Tim, I'm a huge fan of John Sykes tone and his work with blue murder and whitesnake. That massively wide bending/vibrato & singing, syrupy tone gives me goosebumps every time I hear one of his solos. I can hear the 'Valley of the Kings' solo now.

I know you said you'd like mainly a 70's tone with a bit of a modern sound. I think that is going to be hard to do. The older marshall's are never going to give you that rich, full singing sustain unless you:

1. use some kind of pedal or processor to boost the gain.

2. mod an older or reissue amp so heavily that it ends up losing it's original voice.

I'm one of those guys that's grown to hate any kind of pedal/transistor type distortion. I've owned many older type amps and used various types of processors and pedals to cop that modern hi-gain tone when I've needed it and i've always been left with a sterile tone.

Most amps are going to be better in a certain area so IMHO, you probably need 2 amps to faithfully reproduce both eras. A hi-gain modern amp and an opened back combo, something like a Vox AC30, Fender Hot Rod Deville/Peavey Classic 50 and A/B them. Pick em' up used via somewhere like ebay and if they don't spin your wheel after a retubing, sell them on and you can pretty much get back what you paid for them.