Forgotten Amps

Re: Forgotten Amps

What do you consider horrible to be?

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Muddy and indistinct with an EQ that didn't seem to do much. The SpiderValve you're rocking is in another (vastly superior) class entirely.
 
Re: Forgotten Amps

Muddy and indistinct with an EQ that didn't seem to do much. The SpiderValve you're rocking is in another (vastly superior) class entirely.
That's what I was wondering. Just in case I were to find one in a pawn shop.
Was just playing my 7-string through the Spidervalve btw. Garage is cool enough now, and I wanted to hear how the new Distortion sounds.
It's good.

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Re: Forgotten Amps

Forgot all about the Dean Markley amp I used to have. Sadly I remember the cheap 5w Crate I started with more than I do the DM.
 
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My first real amp was a SS Ross in a closed back 1x12 combo. It was a loud 80 watts.

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I remember the Dean Markley ad. It had Bill Connor's Charvel and a hot girl in a skirt. If I recall it was a clone of a 2203/4 Marshall circuit so it should have been a good amp.

There was also the Jackson, which I think was a clone of a Laney and actually built by Laney
 
Re: Forgotten Amps

Carvin X amps , Tubemasters, MTS, Vintage series tube amps.
Gone now due to the family feud with the Kiesel family but all fantastic amps. I bought the X 50B Hot Rod Mod head I have in a pawn shop in a REAL Anvil flight case for only $275 OTD. It sounds fantastic!! GREAT cleans and the crunch side is all modded Marshall at it's best. In fact i actually was going to grab a very nice JCM 900 MK III Dual Master 50 Marshall head locally but when I really sat down with it went WHY it sounds so close to my old Carvin and maybe not as good so--.
If you see one of these amps for sale for a song do yourself a favor PLAY IT!! The right one will blow you away!!
Playing my 1991 X 50 B yesterday at Church. Crunch side no drive pedals using touch and guitar volume to clean up at first then rolling it in only effects are a Hardwire Supernatural Reverb running in the loop absolutely nothing else!!

 
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Re: Forgotten Amps

Cryptic Writings: Marshall JMP-1 -> Marshall EL-34 100/100

How DARE you come in here and rekindle my GAS for a JMP-1 like that?!

I get the urge to build a JMP-1 or TriAxis rack every few years. Thankfully it never amounts to much more than browsing the internet.
 
Re: Forgotten Amps

One amp surprisingly no one has mentioned here yet is the Crate Stealth designed by Lee Jackson. Saw one in a local shop last wekk for $250 and was tempted. Owned several and those are wicked amps!!
 
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I had a Crate Blue DooDoo. Mine fried the PC board in the power section 3 times. After the 3rd fix, I sold it and got a Marshall. The problem with them is the power amp tubes where mounted to the PC board rather than to the chassis and tailed to the rest of the circuit. Terrible design. Sounded great when it worked, which wasn't long for me.

As for forgotten amps, what about the red knob/gray carpet Fenders? Those things weighed a ton.
 
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How DARE you come in here and rekindle my GAS for a JMP-1 like that?!

I get the urge to build a JMP-1 or TriAxis rack every few years. Thankfully it never amounts to much more than browsing the internet.

I know where you're coming from and I'd love to have a small rack with a JMP-1, Rocktron Intellifex, and an old school Mesa 50/50. A quick look at prices for used JMP-1s kills that pretty quickly though. I had a chance to play through that exact setup a few times in the mid 2000s and it was literally Cryptic Writings tone in a box (rack?). That original Mesa 50/50 gets very little respect, but they still sound great and sell for a lot less than they should IMO. They're also built far sturdier than the Marshall power amps, hence my choice.
 
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I know where you're coming from and I'd love to have a small rack with a JMP-1, Rocktron Intellifex, and an old school Mesa 50/50. A quick look at prices for used JMP-1s kills that pretty quickly though. I had a chance to play through that exact setup a few times in the mid 2000s and it was literally Cryptic Writings tone in a box (rack?). That original Mesa 50/50 gets very little respect, but they still sound great and sell for a lot less than they should IMO. They're also built far sturdier than the Marshall power amps, hence my choice.
Yep, how cool would it be to have a switch and have a JMP-1, TriAxis, MP-1, maybe a Rack Chorus and TC2290.... :D

I really like the tones on Cryptic Writings. I got that album and Countdown to Extinction when CW came out, it was my introduction to Megadeth.
 
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Yep, how cool would it be to have a switch and have a JMP-1, TriAxis, MP-1, maybe a Rack Chorus and TC2290.... :D

The problem is I couldn't stop there. I'd want to add a Soldano SP-77 or X88R, and maybe a CAE 3+SE or Bogner Fish. Throw in an Eventide Eclipse and/or Lexicon PCM-80/81 and control it all with a Sound Sculpture Switchblade. Power amp would have to be a Mesa Simul 395, because holy crap nothing comes close in terms of tone. Of course it'd cost a fortune and you'd need a truck to move it, so that helps bring the whole thing back down to earth.

On a slightly less insane note, I have thought about putting a JMP-1 and Intellifex or Replifex in a 4 space rack and using my Egnater Tweaker's power section. My Voodoo-modded ADA MP-1 sounded great into the Tweaker's effects return before I sold it last year.

I really like the tones on Cryptic Writings. I got that album and Countdown to Extinction when CW came out, it was my introduction to Megadeth.

Cryptic Writings is an awesome album with some great guitar tones, and it was my introduction to Megadeth as well. I don't remember what my second album was, but I've always considered Countdown a bit overrated. As far as 90s Megadeth goes, I'd much rather listen to CW or Youthanasia.
 
Re: Forgotten Amps

Damn!

This thread reminded me that I forgot my VH2S rackmount proto amp at a tube guru's, around 2010-ish?
 
Re: Forgotten Amps

I have played a few Bedrock amps and they all sound great. I know they're not made anymore.
 
Re: Forgotten Amps

I owned a mode four head for a bit.

It's a cool amp that's actually 2 amps in one.
The cooling fan and heat sync in them were not nearly as well thought out as they should have been and thus, they overheat and blow chips very easily. They are finicky about what you out through the effects loop, can't just plug things in and out without letting chips reset and cool down.

I sold mine off right away.
But having said all that, the MF350 are flat amazing sounding amps.... At least to my ears. I really really liked it. I kind of miss it.


You can pick up those MA50 amps for like 300 bucks these days, I haven't played one yet. I've heard they sound like a cheap Marshall.
 
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You can pick up those MA50 amps for like 300 bucks these days, I haven't played one yet. I've heard they sound like a cheap Marshall.
The MA's aren't awful, I'd argue that they're good enough for home and even some level of gig use. I could get usable tones of the ones I tried, but I'm much more of a Mesa guy at heart.
 
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That's good to know, I bet I could wrangle some decent tones out of one too. Match it with a good cabinet and run enough gain through it, a guy could almost make a line 6 sound good ha ha.
 
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I kinda dug the old Sovtek heads when they came out in the late 80s or early 90s. They weren't too bad out of the box and a couple mods could make them pretty impressive.
 
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