What amp would u suggest...?

[Pandemonium]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

Ahem....

[Scott_F]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

Ahem....

yeah, I should have referenced what you said earlier, but you didnt' elaborate too much. so I finished your post for you!

[jmv]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

Well, i don't know about metal...

but a fender bassman halfstack (the blackface kind) work wonderful for blues, IMO... they're pretty darn loud, too. I've seen the heads with cabs go for about $800 in alright condition at guitar shows, but you can prolly pick up a head for around $400, and get whatever sort of cab with it, if thats better...

And i'm sure you could use a pedal to push it into heavier-gain territory.

Only concern would be headroom, because, at least mine, doesn't have just a ton... but then again, mine has a 12AX7 in the phase inverter, rather than the normal 12AT7, and the AX7 has a 'gain factor' or whatever of 100, while the AT7 is at 40, if i remember correctly. So, if you get one and you've got an AT7 in it, it should have pretty good headroom.

Nuther cool thing about these, is the way the volume control ends up working.... all the volume is from 1 to about 4, and after that, you can just use it to dial in different amounts of distortion without raising the volume much at all. It can get quite a bit of gain when its dimed, but part of that might be due to the AX7 in there.

Anyway, my 2 cents....

I'd say go try playing a bunch of amps first. I agree with scott's theory of building on a killer clean tone.

[Nightburst]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

I haven't tried it myself yet but the Randall MTS system seems to be the ultimate versatile amp. The soundclips sound great and you can get all the classic tones you need.

http://www.randallamplifiers.com/index.asp

[stevie ray]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

Hey, thanks for the suggestions!

Yea, I am an SRV fan, but I have a different playing style. I like the kinda gritty sounding cleans, I dunno just a preference. I don't wanna emulate his tone (tho it would be fun!) i want my own... I dunno why but the cleans on the Marshall were to my liking (tho i didnt really do to much experimenting)

I've tried the Hot Rod series, but I didnt really like the overdrive tho it was sparkily clean! I dunno, I think Scott has a pretty good suggestion. I'll give the hot rod another look, see if it would suit my playing...

I kinda have a bit of an electric bluesy playing style and i like to my cleans to be gritty like I said earlier. I kno i didnt really make that clear in my first post, but that is sort of what I meant by "cleans good for blues" I got a clip of the DSL 100 clean channel... ill see if i can post it and try to elaborate from there

[Bluesman]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

Hey, I had also a MG100DFX but my pedals were not very good with it because it's a Solid State. Now, I got a Fender HotRod Deluxe and my tones are super. My pedals really works the way they should and for blues, this amp. is awsome.

[stevie ray]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

couldn't attach the file forget it

So anyways, clean can be a bit gritty or dirty, no sparkily clean required...

[Scott_F]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

Good cleans for blues.... hmmm..... have you ever considered making your own amp?

www.missionamps.com is about to come out with a new Tweed Fender Super kit amp. It'll be less than a grand and you can choose a 1x15 cab, a 2x10 or a 3x10.

6L6 tubes in the power section. Those darn things dirty up super nice (pardon the pun).

He's also coming out with a double deluxe that will have 4 6V6 power tubes. That's going to kick some serious butt as well.

Tweed amps are very simple, minimal controls, but their tone is just delicious and bluesy if you ask me.

A good Fender Twin Reissue used will be under 1000 bucks. There's one helluva lot of blues players out there that use Fender Twins. The Reissue ones seem to have a bit tamer highs. That'd be antoher amp that would dirty up really nicely and it'll be loud as heck. Not sure if there is a 1/2 power switch on that one or not. And, add some pedals and you've got a classic blues rig, no doubt and one that can do metal with the right pedal in front of it.

In retrospect, the Twin Reverb or the Super Reverb might be a better choice than the Deville. Certainly more "traditional".

[stevie ray]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

thanks scott

[jmv]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

a blackface ('64-'67) fender bassman halfstack does the gritty cleans thing beautifully.... in case you can't tell, i love my amp, but i still wanna get one of those kits that missionamps is coming out with. Super bluesy tone, but i don't know how well they'd do metal.... oh well, you've always got pedals!!!

[Lee_L]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

I still say go for a V-Series. Here are some clips I just made, recorded with a rather entry level Audio Technica Mic. I made four clips, one crunchy, one bluesy, one clean, and one metal. Guitar > cable > amp. No pedals. I used some of the onboard reverb on some clips. Don't focus on my playing so much as the tone, because I'm not that great and I was more or less improvising.

This one's crunchy, gain about halfway up, I'm playing in the bridge position but I can't remember if I had that humbucker split or not.

http://members.aol.com/leein3d/1.mp3

Bluesy, didn't change any settings, just added reverb, just rolled off the volume a tad on the guitar, went to middle position with coils split.

http://members.aol.com/leein3d/2.mp3

Clean, no changing of settings on the amp, middle position, split.

http://members.aol.com/leein3d/3.mp3

"Metal", bridge humbucker, gain all the way up, mids about halfway, bass and treble boosted.

http://members.aol.com/leein3d/4.mp3

Oh yeah, the amp is a V-Series VFX5212, 50w 2 12s. Guitar is a Brian Moore i2.

[Hoss]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

if you look hard...you might be able to score a 59' bassman RI in that price range...

and you might wanna try out some peavey classics...!?

like Scott said...the hot rod devilles are great buys...tremendous cleans, and if you're gonna run pedals and not use the amp distortion then you want a good clean...

just my thoughts...

[gordon_39422]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

Well, here's a suggestion. Since you're obviously an SRV fan, I'd go with a Fender that has gorgeous cleans and get pedals to do the nasty work for you. For $1000, you can get a Hot Rod Deville 2x12 and just ignore the drive channel (I didn't like it, you might) and get some pedals for your distortion. Seriously, you can snag one off ebay for 500 or less and have 500 left to put better tubes in, maybe some better speakers and a couple of outstanding pedals.

It's really going to be hard to find all the things you want in one amp.

You need to decide if you want that amp to do incredible cleans or to have an outstanding grind to it. IMO it's easier to add grind to a great clean amp than to try to make a great grinder sound good clean.

Also, how loud do you want it to be? You playing in small clubs, garage/bedroom or stadiums?

Scott couldnt have said it any better! Find your clean sound, Fender's Hot Rods are beautiful tube amps. (I dont own one, but always play through one when test driving guitars at music stores). Then get pedals for each specific sound you want. As Scott said, you will have plenty money left over to buy the basic pedals. Good Luck in your quest, but remember that your ears (and conscience) should be the final judge!

[kaknight]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

Lots of options out there. I like my Fender Twin. it has great cleans, dirties up nicely, and takes pedals well. I also really like the Peavey Classic 50. It comes in both 2X12 and 4X10 combos. Rich raunchy blues, up to some pretty heavy rock can come right out of the speakers. Add in a pedal and you could do some metal damage I would think.

[Brow]

Re: What amp would u suggest...?

I think something like a Marshall JTM30 or 60 might do what you want. They can do good cleans (not Fender clean, but good enough), and sound great set to low/mid gain levels. A pedal such as a G2D Custom Overdrive (for example) could then be used to boost the amp for more gain.

This is what I do and love the versatility this setup gives me.

Just a thought......

Craig