If You Had $1,600 For A New Amp...?

barbarianbrute

barbarianbrute

New member
if you had $1,600 to spend on a tube amp, what would you buy? before answering this question, give some thoughts to these specs:

all tube (el34 or 6l6 doesn't matter)
at least 40-50 watts minimum, class a-b (enough for a football field size gig)
great cleans
enough gain for anything from blues to nu-metal
handles pedals really well
top quality electronics and extremely reliable
great reverb

i want pretty much guaranteed top-notch tone, if that's possible at this price range. i want to play this amp and have people say "you got good tone." oh yeah, i'm not interested in those build-it-yourself kits or even any garage-brand botiques. what kind of amp would you get to meet these specs?
 
Re: If You Had $1,600 For A New Amp...?

joelap said:
+1... Guitarist from Linkin Park is using them on tour right now. He used a lot of vintage amps on the new record, but couldnt bring them all with him. He bought a bunch of modules, sent them somewhere to be modded (I cant recall where) for more accuracy to the real things, and he loves it. I'd really like to check them out.

Other options (if you go used):
Bogner Shiva (wont get into Numetal gain territory, but great sounding amp)
Bogner Extasy (<-- my choice, might cost a little more though)
Rivera knucklehead

Unfortunately, its very hard to find an amp that excells at cleans and distortions at the same time, usually one's gotta suffer to improve the other. But there's some good ones out there for sure.
Click to expand...

are these in that price range NEW though?
 
Re: If You Had $1,600 For A New Amp...?

barbarianbrute said:
i want pretty much guaranteed top-notch tone, if that's possible at this price range. i want to play this amp and have people say "you got good tone."
Click to expand...

honestly if you want head turning tone, it comes from your fingers. obviously a good amp figures into the equation but you need to hear good tone in your head and figure out how to get it. having said all that, simple amps get better tone to my ears
 
Re: If You Had $1,600 For A New Amp...?

barbarianbrute said:
i want to play this amp and have people say "you got good tone."
Click to expand...

At the risk of this sounding like a flame (which it isn't) given the theme of all your bordering on obsessive quest-for-tone threads recently, I doubt you'll ever find what you're looking for until you're happy yourself. When you know, you know. If there was one answer to your question there would be only one amp manufacturer in existence and all others would be out of business. I personally believe good tone comes from a connection from getting into what you're doing and grooving with what you've got. My recommendation would be to step away from the computer, start playing with what you've got, and when you start really having fun and getting into the groove, you'll have found it.
 
Re: If You Had $1,600 For A New Amp...?

Gotta go with Gamera on this one. Tone is so subjective that my thoughts on good tone won't equal what someone else says is good tone 99% of the time. Please yourself and forget about what everyone else thinks.
 
Re: If You Had $1,600 For A New Amp...?

jeremy said:
honestly if you want head turning tone, it comes from your fingers. obviously a good amp figures into the equation but you need to hear good tone in your head and figure out how to get it. having said all that, simple amps get better tone to my ears
Click to expand...

Gamera said:
At the risk of this sounding like a flame (which it isn't) given the theme of all your bordering on obsessive quest-for-tone threads recently, I doubt you'll ever find what you're looking for until you're happy yourself. When you know, you know. If there was one answer to your question there would be only one amp manufacturer in existence and all others would be out of business. I personally believe good tone comes from a connection from getting into what you're doing and grooving with what you've got. My recommendation would be to step away from the computer, start playing with what you've got, and when you start really having fun and getting into the groove, you'll have found it.
Click to expand...

for the love of god man please! just post a friggin amp suggestion if you have one. i hate people who always feel the need to make you justify every friggin thing you're trying to do. i can't seem to post a stinking thread without some kind of rebuttle carried over from another thread that i posted.

if i have the friggin money to buy a new amp then so be it. i want to buy a new combo amp with great tone and i don't need to justify that crap to anyone. for christ's sake man give me a break.

i'm just asking a simple question. if you had so much money, what kind of amp would you get. it's not a friggin hard question to answer.
 
Re: If You Had $1,600 For A New Amp...?

head only? or does $1600 have to get you speakers with it too?

edit - ah cross post - i see you want a combo
 
Re: If You Had $1,600 For A New Amp...?

you asked for head turning tone, you think you can buy that?
 
Re: If You Had $1,600 For A New Amp...?

barbarianbrute said:
i'm just asking a simple question. if you had so much money, what kind of amp would you get. it's not a friggin hard question to answer.
Click to expand...

At the risk of sounding cliche, my point is it's not about money. It's about having fun. If you're not having fun you'll never find it regardless of how much money you have.
 
Re: If You Had $1,600 For A New Amp...?

Soldano Avenger ($1679.99 retail new)

Single channel, SLO gain, no bullcrap. If you can't sound good playing metal through this head you need to switch to bass.

Go like this: Guitar -> cable -> Amp

Don't mess with pedals.
 
Re: If You Had $1,600 For A New Amp...?

For 1600$ when buying new i'd get:

- Engl Screamer 50 Combo: four great channels going from sparkly fender cleans to Thrash metal. ca. 1300$

-Engl Z-5 Footswitch: To have all those channels and reverb readily available at your foot ca. 200$

-A nice, maybe modded, Overdrive to get the heavy lead channel from Thrash to Death metal. around 100$(i'd suggest checking out http://www.bodenhamer-electronics.com/ his chaos mod on a SD-1 is killer as a boost for Engl channel 4)

That way you'll have a total of 5 different and all great sounds directly at your feet
 
Re: If You Had $1,600 For A New Amp...?

FWIW: I paid $1650 (shipped) for a 6 week old Splawn Quickrod and couldn't be happier with my purchase.

*EDIT* No reverb tho....
 
Re: If You Had $1,600 For A New Amp...?

Loserchief said:
For 1600$ when buying new i'd get:

- Engl Screamer 50 Combo: four great channels going from sparkly fender cleans to Thrash metal. ca. 1300$

-Engl Z-5 Footswitch: To have all those channels and reverb readily available at your foot ca. 200$

-A nice, maybe modded, Overdrive to get the heavy lead channel from Thrash to Death metal. around 100$(i'd suggest checking out http://www.bodenhamer-electronics.com/ his chaos mod on a SD-1 is killer as a boost for Engl channel 4)

That way you'll have a total of 5 different and all great sounds directly at your feet
Click to expand...

great suggestions. i'd like to find some soundclips of hte engle screamer. those modded pedals sound cool as hell. i might buy that modded ds-1
 
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