New amp shopping

[vinnie1971]

Re: New amp shopping

You're welcome. It's one of the good deals out there. It's a nice enough amp to connect a 1, 2, or 4 x 12 cab as well.

Have you got the infinium version?
Have you had any of the reported issues with channel switching?


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[Clint 55]

Re: New amp shopping

Yes it's infinium. I haven't had anything go wrong. The reverb sounds great and the distortion sounds ok.

 

[IM4Tone]

Re: New amp shopping

Yes it's infinium. I haven't had anything go wrong. The reverb sounds great and the distortion sounds ok.

......From clean to low gain with occasional moderate gain.....

I wouldn't call "the distortion sounds OK" a ringing endorsement, especially re-reading your criteria.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: New amp shopping

I was talking about the onboard distortion not how it handles pedals.

 

[vinnie1971]

Re: New amp shopping

I was talking about the onboard distortion not how it handles pedals.

I have listened to a lot of Bugera infinium demos and to be honest was pretty sold in them- but need to actually get to try one out to be sure.

I thought the cleans sound very good, quiet fender like, and the low gain, very much in the crunchy fender ball park still, then the higher gain with boost sounds very British amp, not a million miles away from 1970s Marshalls. But that's what I hear in the demos. I only want to know how it sounds without pedals as I prefer to hear the guitar and the amp timbres with a bit of reverb, and occasionally delay and prefer to drive the amp rather than use distortion. I don't even own a distortion pedal, just a tube overdrive pedal for gain.

So everything you have said so far is an endorsement for me. [emoji1360]


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[vinnie1971]

Re: New amp shopping

I wouldn't call "the distortion sounds OK" a ringing endorsement, especially re-reading your criteria.

To be honest I don't really use distortion, crunch, low gain and moderate amp gain. But if the gain sounds fizzy then I can always use the level and tone on my tube overdrive pedal


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[treyhaislip]

Re: New amp shopping

I got to try them all out. My budget has now grown - as luck would have it.

So it's now stretching to Fender Blues Junior, Fender Bass Breaker, Roland Blues Cube, Vox AV60 or Laney VC 30 I think. Any other suggestions?

Require clean headroom, vintage tube tone, blues, country, classic rock. Ideally switchable clean channels circa £500 to £550 ... tops ( although willing to go the extra shilling on the Roland)

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IMO, the Fender Bassbreaker would be the best option EXCEPT for the switchable clean channels. Seriously, the Fender Bassbreaker sounds killer and is worth at least testing one out.

It is all tube, gets crazy loud, offers a direct out, offers an effects loop, offers incredible cleans to incredible gain all by itself...just a great all around amp. It uses EL84s so not quite the typical "Fender tone" I associate with Fender amps, but it is definitely more Fender than Marshall.

Just worth a looking at since your budget allows for it.

 

[vinnie1971]

Re: New amp shopping

IMO, the Fender Bassbreaker would be the best option EXCEPT for the switchable clean channels. Seriously, the Fender Bassbreaker sounds killer and is worth at least testing one out.

It is all tube, gets crazy loud, offers a direct out, offers an effects loop, offers incredible cleans to incredible gain all by itself...just a great all around amp. It uses EL84s so not quite the typical "Fender tone" I associate with Fender amps, but it is definitely more Fender than Marshall.

Just worth a looking at since your budget allows for it.

I notice 3 channels are they foot switchable? Are they modelled after the fender bassman or do you think the Marshall bluesbreaker? The name suggests both.
Will definitely try one out [emoji1360]


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[vinnie1971]

Re: New amp shopping

Does anyone have views or experience if the Fender Champion 100? It looks the part, loud for gigging and rehearsing with a hard hitting drummer, should have tons of clean headroom, but being solid state, is it good or meh?


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[treyhaislip]

Re: New amp shopping

I notice 3 channels are they foot switchable? Are they modelled after the fender bassman or do you think the Marshall bluesbreaker? The name suggests both.
Will definitely try one out [emoji1360]

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That is the only problem I have with it, they are not (as of late last year when I was talking to Fender Customer Service about it) foot switchable. They are based off of the Bassman (Fender calls it an "evolution of the classic Fender Bassman® sound".) I think they are trying to hit both–it does have the most Marshall sounding drive of any Fender amp I've tried...but it is definitely Fenderish in overall tone.

Does anyone have views or experience if the Fender Champion 100? It looks the part, loud for gigging and rehearsing with a hard hitting drummer, should have tons of clean headroom, but being solid state, is it good or meh?

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Honestly, I wouldn't get too caught up in the Tube vs. SS, especially basing stuff off of YouTube sound clips. You are going to sound like you regardless of what you are using (a Satriani Vox pedal is not going to turn your tone into Satch's...) so I would take any sound clip/demo with a grain of salt.

The Champion 100 consistently receives 5 Stars on GC (average is 4.8, which is not bad at all with 36 reviews.) If you can try one out then give it a whirl, you may be pleasantly surprised.

 

[vinnie1971]

Re: New amp shopping

That is the only problem I have with it, they are not (as of late last year when I was talking to Fender Customer Service about it) foot switchable. They are based off of the Bassman (Fender calls it an "evolution of the classic Fender Bassman[emoji768] sound".) I think they are trying to hit both–it does have the most Marshall sounding drive of any Fender amp I've tried...but it is definitely Fenderish in overall tone.





Honestly, I wouldn't get too caught up in the Tube vs. SS, especially basing stuff off of YouTube sound clips. You are going to sound like you regardless of what you are using (a Satriani Vox pedal is not going to turn your tone into Satch's...) so I would take any sound clip/demo with a grain of salt.

The Champion 100 consistently receives 5 Stars on GC (average is 4.8, which is not bad at all with 36 reviews.) If you can try one out then give it a whirl, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Very good point. The amps I tried so far all sounded good, even my 20 year old fender Frontman sounds good to my ear, if not a little sterile in the clean channel and harsh and wasp like in the drive channel. It's not loud enough to play with a hard hitting drummer either.


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[IM4Tone]

Re: New amp shopping

I was talking about the onboard distortion not how it handles pedals.

I understood that.

To be honest I don't really use distortion, crunch, low gain and moderate amp gain. But if the gain sounds fizzy then I can always use the level and tone on my tube overdrive pedal

IF you would be satisfied using the V22's clean channel only, supplementing it w/ OD pedals, it's fine. For me, I have a major hangup buying a channel switching amp which does not have two good channels. IMO those are poor designs. I'd rather buy a single channel amp.
By all means, try one (if you can), but don't be lured by its low price and good sounding demos that were re-voiced for each channel.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: New amp shopping

I have heard good things about the Carvin V3m
But I have also seen a bunch of those heads on the used market

Maybe good
Maybe not

 

[Clint 55]

Re: New amp shopping

Hey Vinnie, I just finished wiring my hsh with partial humbucker splits with 4k7 resistors like you suggest. It sounds awesome.

 

[vinnie1971]

New amp shopping

Hey Vinnie, I just finished wiring my hsh with partial humbucker splits with 4k7 resistors like you suggest. It sounds awesome.

Glad it does. I used to use just a wire then I heard about the PRS coil split and just experimented with values from 1k to 10k, and to my ear, 4.7 works best, spanking single coil tone without too much volume loss, and a slight reduction in hum.

Plus it makes it easier to balance the middle pickup with the humbucker minimising the trade off - so I set it so the middle is slightly quieter than the humbucker so when the coils are split they are all equal. Still get great quack too .




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[vinnie1971]

New amp shopping

To be honest, these guys are looking pretty favourite, Blues Cube, jazz chorus, AV60

https://youtu.be/aP2ZV0b9URo

The cleans on this, no wonder BB King used a jc120
https://youtu.be/4B8RjJrrCnw

This is great value, if I can get to try it I hope it's as good as the Blues Cube even if it is Fugly looking
https://youtu.be/aQ4ZK-ut9Ck


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[vinnie1971]

Re: New amp shopping

In the end it was a dead heat between the fender blues junior and the Roland Blues Cube Hot.
Very close. The Blues Cube sits tonally between the blues junior and a bassman. What sold it were the fact it's got speaker emulation on headphones and line out ( pretty good it is too although for recording I bet the mids need a boost) as most of my guitar playing and recording happens when the kids are in bed. Plus it has attenuation which at .05 watts the clever Roland tube emulation logic means you can really decent cranked tones at low neighbour friendly volumes. I struggled to get as good a low volume tone from the blues junior - it needed to be loud enough to get a neighbour to complain to get that harmonic richness, warmth and depth. It was really tough to decide but for me at this price point for a new amp and my playing style it was down to these 2 amps. The Vox was a bit disappointing sterile sounding, I was hoping for more, the Laney VC15 and Cub 12R: not enough clean head room.


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[IM4Tone]

Re: New amp shopping

:bigthumb:Roland Blues Cube Hot...good choice! Hope it serves you well, and glad you passed on the Bugera V22.

 

[vinnie1971]

Re: New amp shopping

:bigthumb:Roland Blues Cube Hot...good choice! Hope it serves you well, and glad you passed on the Bugera V22.

After spending 2 hours doing A/B comparisons I've no regrets I didn't leave with the blues junior. Very pleased with the Blues Cube


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[Gearjoneser]

Re: New amp shopping

There's usually a few Fender Super Sonic combos on Craigslist. All tube, and versatile.