best amp for clean sounds
- Thread starter nognow
- Start date
Rockstar216
New member
Re: best amp for clean sounds
Fender 65 Twin. If you want a clean that will stay clean even when loud go with a twin.
Fender 65 Twin. If you want a clean that will stay clean even when loud go with a twin.
IM4Tone
New member
Re: best amp for clean sounds
65 Twin for sure...I'd give second place to the BDRI, but in any case, it has to be a Fender.
Jack_TriPpEr
Well-known member
Re: best amp for clean sounds
I agree about this amp. I own one too, and use it to drive a Marshall 1960a 4x12 cab.
I wouldn't say this amp has the absolute best cleans - boutique amps like Victorias probably own that claim - but it is about the best I've heard amongst combo amps in its price range.
I've tried to accentuate mine a bit more be using a JAN 5751 pre-amp tube in V1 position, and a TungSol in V2 or V3 (can't remember which at this moment).
I agree about this amp. I own one too, and use it to drive a Marshall 1960a 4x12 cab.
I wouldn't say this amp has the absolute best cleans - boutique amps like Victorias probably own that claim - but it is about the best I've heard amongst combo amps in its price range.
I've tried to accentuate mine a bit more be using a JAN 5751 pre-amp tube in V1 position, and a TungSol in V2 or V3 (can't remember which at this moment).
mantis
New member
Re: best amp for clean sounds
Clean tone is subjective as we all have our "clean tone". But as many amps as I have played nothing is cleaner then a 65 Fender Twin reverb. Many amps have really good clean channels. This really depends on your music of choice. For me I'm a Metal guitarist so I lean towards hi gain amps. I currently have a Krank Revolution 1 as the clean is very Fender like. It's a bit darker like a Fender baseman 10 amp running guitar. I like that tone as I can dial in a very close Twin sound.
I have owned 2 Twins , a real 65 and a reissue. I just ran pedals out front for my metal tones but loved my clear clean channel. It was wonderful.
Another wonderful clean channel amp is the Peavey JSX. I owned one and really loved it. I wanted a 5150 as I really dug the gain channel but the Clean was basically over driven blues style break up , like some dirt on it and I could never dial it out. I had one here for a weekend and took it back and got the JSX.
Right now Bogner is on my list as I love the clean channel and the drive channel. The JVM series from Marshall is also a very nice sounding clean and multiple drive channels. I wouldn't mind owning one.
Clean tone is subjective as we all have our "clean tone". But as many amps as I have played nothing is cleaner then a 65 Fender Twin reverb. Many amps have really good clean channels. This really depends on your music of choice. For me I'm a Metal guitarist so I lean towards hi gain amps. I currently have a Krank Revolution 1 as the clean is very Fender like. It's a bit darker like a Fender baseman 10 amp running guitar. I like that tone as I can dial in a very close Twin sound.
I have owned 2 Twins , a real 65 and a reissue. I just ran pedals out front for my metal tones but loved my clear clean channel. It was wonderful.
Another wonderful clean channel amp is the Peavey JSX. I owned one and really loved it. I wanted a 5150 as I really dug the gain channel but the Clean was basically over driven blues style break up , like some dirt on it and I could never dial it out. I had one here for a weekend and took it back and got the JSX.
Right now Bogner is on my list as I love the clean channel and the drive channel. The JVM series from Marshall is also a very nice sounding clean and multiple drive channels. I wouldn't mind owning one.
FuseG4
Our Neighbor Totoro
Re: best amp for clean sounds
blackface twin reverb all the way.
second choice is the AC30.
My DRRI is really clean up until 6 on the volume. Many have said that the reissues feel stiffer and or they break up later than the real thing. I dunno about the real thing but my won't get what most people call "dirt" at 4 or 5 unless I remove the V1 tube and use it as a PI, and switch to a humbucker guitar.
blackface twin reverb all the way.
second choice is the AC30.
My DRRI is really clean up until 6 on the volume. Many have said that the reissues feel stiffer and or they break up later than the real thing. I dunno about the real thing but my won't get what most people call "dirt" at 4 or 5 unless I remove the V1 tube and use it as a PI, and switch to a humbucker guitar.
Aceman
I am your doctor of love!
Re: best amp for clean sounds
I'm voting OTHER because you didn't include the Roland JC 120
But my #2 choice is the TWin Reverb (65)
However, there are a lot of great clean sounding amps; Marshall DSL 401's for example. MESA Lonestar gets a great clean. Victoria anyone? Trainwreck? We can go on all day....
I'm voting OTHER because you didn't include the Roland JC 120
But my #2 choice is the TWin Reverb (65)
However, there are a lot of great clean sounding amps; Marshall DSL 401's for example. MESA Lonestar gets a great clean. Victoria anyone? Trainwreck? We can go on all day....
Re: best amp for clean sounds
The Fenders are the standard that everything else was built on so you probably couldn't go wrong with starting there.
Mesa based their cleans on Fender I believe. I had the opportunity to toy with a Mark V for a few weeks and I'll attest that the cleans are simply amazing on that amp. (And I wasn't even using a low/mid output pick up) As a matter of fact, I kind of liked the clean/mild break up/mid gain to Mark I modes better than the high gain modes. Go figure.
The Fenders are the standard that everything else was built on so you probably couldn't go wrong with starting there.
Mesa based their cleans on Fender I believe. I had the opportunity to toy with a Mark V for a few weeks and I'll attest that the cleans are simply amazing on that amp. (And I wasn't even using a low/mid output pick up) As a matter of fact, I kind of liked the clean/mild break up/mid gain to Mark I modes better than the high gain modes. Go figure.
Gearjoneser
Gear Ho
Re: best amp for clean sounds
I'm in good company, as they're Seymour and Lew's favorite amps too, but my vote is for the blackface Fender Pro Reverb, whether it's an early one or an overhauled silverface. I'm also a believer that their original speakers are inferior to modern speakers. So, take an old handwired Fender, put fresh tubes, caps, and the best speakers available today, and you'll have a tone that's possibly better than vintage amps and reissues.
I have a 74 Pro Reverb that was owned by Aspen Pitman, sold to his cousin, then sold to me. It been blackfaced, retubed, and has an Emi Swamp Thang and Jensen C12N w/beam blocker. I've put it against the best clean amps, and this Pro Reverb just rules. It's crystal clean up to about 4, where it blooms with natural tube breakup that's smooth and beautiful. It engulfs the room with huge 3D tone. It's reverb and vibrato is gorgeous sounding as well. I was playing it tonight with my new T Rex Replica delay, and it was something to behold.
My other "clean amps" are a 97 Matchless Chieftain and 98 Gibson Goldtone GA-30RVS. The Matchless is my favorite EL-34 clean, and the Goldtone is like a Vox AC-30 that sounds a little woodier than glassy and it has amazing stereo reverb.
I'm in good company, as they're Seymour and Lew's favorite amps too, but my vote is for the blackface Fender Pro Reverb, whether it's an early one or an overhauled silverface. I'm also a believer that their original speakers are inferior to modern speakers. So, take an old handwired Fender, put fresh tubes, caps, and the best speakers available today, and you'll have a tone that's possibly better than vintage amps and reissues.
I have a 74 Pro Reverb that was owned by Aspen Pitman, sold to his cousin, then sold to me. It been blackfaced, retubed, and has an Emi Swamp Thang and Jensen C12N w/beam blocker. I've put it against the best clean amps, and this Pro Reverb just rules. It's crystal clean up to about 4, where it blooms with natural tube breakup that's smooth and beautiful. It engulfs the room with huge 3D tone. It's reverb and vibrato is gorgeous sounding as well. I was playing it tonight with my new T Rex Replica delay, and it was something to behold.
My other "clean amps" are a 97 Matchless Chieftain and 98 Gibson Goldtone GA-30RVS. The Matchless is my favorite EL-34 clean, and the Goldtone is like a Vox AC-30 that sounds a little woodier than glassy and it has amazing stereo reverb.
Last edited:
LReese
Sausage Gravy
Re: best amp for clean sounds
These days if you have access to a PA (if you're gigging), amp size does not matter as much. I recall our own member Wah-Wah uses a Super Champ a lot of big dates. Maybe he will chime in.
A lot of people discount a Marshall clean. Its different from Fender but no less great.
These days if you have access to a PA (if you're gigging), amp size does not matter as much. I recall our own member Wah-Wah uses a Super Champ a lot of big dates. Maybe he will chime in.
A lot of people discount a Marshall clean. Its different from Fender but no less great.
ken361
New member
Re: best amp for clean sounds
totally agree, I replaced the speaker and cable and plus running a buffer up front. The cleans are even better now. I owned a lot over the last few years and this amp is one of my favorites.
totally agree, I replaced the speaker and cable and plus running a buffer up front. The cleans are even better now. I owned a lot over the last few years and this amp is one of my favorites.
mantis
New member
Re: best amp for clean sounds
Really , I gotta give this amp a test drive. I played one years ago when they first came out and I thought it was a very nice sounding amp for everything. I haven't spent any real quality time with the new ones or honestly even with the one I played.
BEACHBUM
New member
Re: best amp for clean sounds
I own a 65 Twin Reissue and a Mesa Express 5:50+. Some say that the Mesas cleans are very Twin like and I agree with that. But, (for me at least) the Mesa has not replaced the Twin in that category. Not because it's clean tones aren't just as good as the Twins, they are. For me the reason is that the cleans that the Twin produces, because of the amps prominent and long running history are probably the most recognizable of any amp in it's class. It's a one trick pony but that one trick has made it the all time benchmark of 6L6 clean. Once that sound becomes a part of your guitar playing it's not something that you are willing to give up easily. That's why you see so many of them still being played today. Best of both worlds? Stereo, with a Twin for clean and a master volume amp of your choice for everything else.
I own a 65 Twin Reissue and a Mesa Express 5:50+. Some say that the Mesas cleans are very Twin like and I agree with that. But, (for me at least) the Mesa has not replaced the Twin in that category. Not because it's clean tones aren't just as good as the Twins, they are. For me the reason is that the cleans that the Twin produces, because of the amps prominent and long running history are probably the most recognizable of any amp in it's class. It's a one trick pony but that one trick has made it the all time benchmark of 6L6 clean. Once that sound becomes a part of your guitar playing it's not something that you are willing to give up easily. That's why you see so many of them still being played today. Best of both worlds? Stereo, with a Twin for clean and a master volume amp of your choice for everything else.
Last edited:
L
Little Pigbacon
Guest
Re: best amp for clean sounds
My idea of a clean channel isn't really clean; it's more like cleaner. I like to take a shimmering, sparkly-clean clean channel and goose it with just enough gain that it thickens up and gets a little mid-heavy, or at least hazy. Doesn't really matter to me whether it's a crunch channel with the gain down, a clean channel with the gain up, or a clean channel with a pedal. I just like playing in that spot.
My idea of a clean channel isn't really clean; it's more like cleaner. I like to take a shimmering, sparkly-clean clean channel and goose it with just enough gain that it thickens up and gets a little mid-heavy, or at least hazy. Doesn't really matter to me whether it's a crunch channel with the gain down, a clean channel with the gain up, or a clean channel with a pedal. I just like playing in that spot.
Gearjoneser
Gear Ho
Re: best amp for clean sounds
I just got to play one of my favorite amps of all time. It was a gray Matchless DC-30.....the 10th Matchless ever made! Anyone got $4300???
I remember playing some of the early Matchless amps when the introductory price was a whopping $2700.
In the early 90's, I was playing in a band with a Matchless employee, and I got to check them all out.
At one point, I had 3 Matchless amps, and ended up deciding to keep my 97 Chieftain 212.
So anyway, I played this very early 92? DC-30 and was instantly reminded how Matchless Amplifiers carved their name in the boutique amp phenomenon as perhaps one of the first and most important. Their amps are equal to the best amps in the world, yet don't sound like any of them. They have their own sound.....a very good one.
I just got to play one of my favorite amps of all time. It was a gray Matchless DC-30.....the 10th Matchless ever made! Anyone got $4300???
I remember playing some of the early Matchless amps when the introductory price was a whopping $2700.
In the early 90's, I was playing in a band with a Matchless employee, and I got to check them all out.
At one point, I had 3 Matchless amps, and ended up deciding to keep my 97 Chieftain 212.
So anyway, I played this very early 92? DC-30 and was instantly reminded how Matchless Amplifiers carved their name in the boutique amp phenomenon as perhaps one of the first and most important. Their amps are equal to the best amps in the world, yet don't sound like any of them. They have their own sound.....a very good one.
Re: best amp for clean sounds
Would you also say a tweed Deluxe is not a good choice for a clean amp? Because almost every Blue Note jazz record with guitar on it that was recorded in the late '50s through mid '60s went through a tweed Deluxe. A ton of twangy '50s Country stuff too - Merle Travis, Leon McAuliffe, etc.
It depends on how you get your cleans - if what you are wanting is a strictly clean amp platform to run dirt pedals into then yeah - a Deluxe of any sort is not a good choice in the scenario you describe. But if you are a guy who uses his guitar's Volume controls to get cleans from an amp that is already breaking up (like they did at Van Gelder's studio for the Blue Note stuff or those Country dudes) then it will absolutely work for cleans. It's all in the input sensitivity of the amp. Send it less signal and it cleans right up - even if the amp is on 10.
Would you also say a tweed Deluxe is not a good choice for a clean amp? Because almost every Blue Note jazz record with guitar on it that was recorded in the late '50s through mid '60s went through a tweed Deluxe. A ton of twangy '50s Country stuff too - Merle Travis, Leon McAuliffe, etc.
It depends on how you get your cleans - if what you are wanting is a strictly clean amp platform to run dirt pedals into then yeah - a Deluxe of any sort is not a good choice in the scenario you describe. But if you are a guy who uses his guitar's Volume controls to get cleans from an amp that is already breaking up (like they did at Van Gelder's studio for the Blue Note stuff or those Country dudes) then it will absolutely work for cleans. It's all in the input sensitivity of the amp. Send it less signal and it cleans right up - even if the amp is on 10.
Similar threads
