cheap tube amp with insane breakup?

L

lareplus

New member
is there a small and cheap tube amp that has a wild and wonderful breakup.

i am not looking for a lovely breakup but something more insane. it can be a hybrid amp, but probably not a solid state. . .i haven't heard any wonderful monster sounds coming out of any ss amps.

it is for a recording project that i can mike so lots of volume isn't needed. this is for consideration for a soundtrack where some fearsome crashing music is needed. .
 
Re: cheap tube amp with insane breakup?

Blackstar HT-5 for more modern tones, Jet City for a little more organic tone. The Jet City doesn't have as much gain, but I like the tone better out of that one. Maybe even an Egnater Tweaker. I have yet to play one of those, but they certainly get good reports. The other two I have upstairs.
 
Re: cheap tube amp with insane breakup?

blackstar 5 is very modern scoopy sounding for a little amp. You might also just use a clean amp that has a fair bit of bottom and a pedal called an MI Audio Tube Zone for some very versatile and high gain madness.
 
Re: cheap tube amp with insane breakup?

These amps all sound good, as the audio tube zone. i want something that sounds bad. that you would take back the same day, but yet has a fearsome distortion sound because it's cheap. something to make sound effects/sound track for a short sci fi film.

sorry if i wasn't clear.
 
Re: cheap tube amp with insane breakup?

I think you might find something more adventurous for your project with some sort of crazy pedal. Perhaps a fuzz pedal set to full gain and a ring modulator will yield some highly interesting results. Even just an EQ pedal with all the upper mid/higher frequencies maxed out and all the lows on minimum will produce some nasty tones.

Tube amps are supposed to sound "nice" so you would be spending more money on something that solid-state does already. That said you can get a Epiphone Valve Junior or Kustom Defender 5 for the price of a pedal, they just might not be crazy enough in their breakup. I've also read that Fender Champs can sound quite "out of control" if you crank the hell out of them.
 
Re: cheap tube amp with insane breakup?

lareplus said:
These amps all sound good, as the audio tube zone. i want something that sounds bad. that you would take back the same day, but yet has a fearsome distortion sound because it's cheap. something to make sound effects/sound track for a short sci fi film.

sorry if i wasn't clear.
Click to expand...

Then i think you need a Line 6 SS amp.
Not saying it to rip-off Line 6, but i really think they will be best suited for a nasty cheap dirt tone, like what you are looking for.

Or the early 1st gen Marshall ValveState AVT amps.
Also, look into the Behringer V-Tone MGX110 & Zoom Fire-30.
 
Re: cheap tube amp with insane breakup?

Electro Harmonix Ring Thing into any amp you choose. Pitch shift it down or up an octave and run a distortion pedal with it and you will get your crazy over the top sounds.

Actually for what you are doing, you need a Ring Modulator type pedal to get those types of sounds you are looking for. Go to Electro Harmonix's web site and demo the samples they have of the Ring Thing. Then imagine it with any type of distortion, ready made for SciFi my friend.
 
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Re: cheap tube amp with insane breakup?

There are some good ideas here, and I think my assumption that a cheap tube amp would bethe simplest way to get the wild sounds I am imagining was probably wrong.

Solid state amps and pedals are worth investigating. Keep those suggestions coming. . .i am enjoying searching out the recommendations and I do believe something will come of it. . .thanks everybody!
 
Re: cheap tube amp with insane breakup?

Any "metal" type pedal run into a cocked wah into any amp= nasty, ugly, cheap radio type distortion.
 
Re: cheap tube amp with insane breakup?

As far as monster solid state noises... Dimebag heavily used Randall solid state amps in Pantera, and White Zombie's guitarist J Yuenger used multiple solid state amps at once to sculpt the sounds on Astro Creep 2000.

Multiple amps used to fill in each other's weak points is a good technique even for tube amps, there's some pretty sick possibilities when mixing multiple cheap amps & pedals.

How about the wail of a champ (or other small tube amp of your choice) boosted by your favorite OD, mixed with the staticy grind of a Randall and the fuzzy warmth of a Marshall SS? I'm sure there's any number of small cheap amps that you can find odd uses for. Some of the older Peavey SS amps had some odd nearly clean sounds, not quite clean but don't sound tubey or like a gritty SS either...

Blending different amp models with an amp sim can be fun, as well. But it's harder to hear where it's ending up if you can't readily test it in the room live.

I goof around a lot with the "And Custom" model on a V-Amp, it's a blend of their Buddha Twinmaster and a JTM-45 models, which has a fat fuzzy tone that's fairly responsive, can go from gritty to smooth with pick control, even with the gain at 80%.
 
Re: cheap tube amp with insane breakup?

No one has ever asked me to build an amp that sounds bad... Just sayin'
 
Re: cheap tube amp with insane breakup?

Doing some research on MF, readers comments. . .it looks like people hate the distortion from the Ibanez 10 watter and the old Peavy Rage 158. . .I guess I will cruise the pawn shops. . .however a variety of pedals might do it.
 
Re: cheap tube amp with insane breakup?

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Either that or you need to start stacking OD pedals.
 
Re: cheap tube amp with insane breakup?

A stock Boss DS-1 or metal zone is pretty horrible......play with the settings for tone and you'll get horrible sounds. Even the keeley modded DS-1 needs a lot of tweaking to get useful tones.
 
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