One trick ponies or Jack of all trades?

[jeremy]

i was thinking about this last night while not being able to sleep. almost all my amps are basically single channel. by that i mean, there might be two but they arent channel switching and i only use one for the most part. like a bf fender reverb amp is technically a two channel amp, but i always use the vibrato channel that has reverb. i have a tweed princeton clone, tweed deluxe clone, musicmaster bass amp (modded to hell), bf deluxe reverb, tweed bandmaster, bf pro reverb, vox bruno, tw express inspired amp, marshall 2204, sf dual showman reverb, and probably one im forgetting that are, for intents and purposes, single channel amps. they all excel at what they do. give me a great base tone, and ill be a happy man

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I usually like multichannel amps. However, I usually find the channel that I like the most, and rarely touch the others, LOL. I do value a nice clean channel, but 99.9% of the time, I'll be playing on a fat, grindy, chunky high-gain rhythm tone.

I like Rectifiers' red modern mode set to bold and diode rectification. IMO, that is the Rectifier sound. Vintage and pushed are nice, but IMO, if you want those kind of sounds, there are other amps that do it better. Also, I boost them. Otherwise, for the stuff that I play, unboosted Rectos are kind of unusable.

I also like a 5150III's red channel. Many people swear by the blue channel. I don't. I find it dry and not very gainy. Also not as fat and chunky as the red. No boost needed on the red either. The clean channel on 5150III's is also nice. But I don't really play cleans.

Kind of controversial amps, but I do like Kranks as well. I used to have a Rev Jr. that sounded like crap like at loud full-band volumes, or at bedroom volumes. But it recorded super nice at moderately loud volumes. Needed a boost as well, though. Not as high-gain as you would think.

I honestly kinda like amps with some "ugliness" to the high-end. I guess you could call them that. Maybe not ugliness, but some agression. I find a really abrassive voicing to the high-end really translates well to giving high-gain amps some character in the mix. I guess I do like me some 90's Swedish tones, though. So maybe that's where my appreciation for such high-end voicing comes from. I've never tried a Diezel, but based on everything I've heard from them, I don't think I'd be happy with the dark/smooth voicing they seem to have.

About the right speaker cab, I agree. I do also agree that a Rectifier will sound like a Rectifier no matter what cab you plug it into. But it will sound radically different if you plug it into a Marshall cab with Greenbacks vs. the Mesa OS Recto cab with V30's. Like, really radically. To the point where you will have to redo your settings completely.

 

[Sirion]

The JVM is actually my fave of the versatile amps out there. i would'nt say it lacks character at all despite being versatile. That's beecause it always undoubtedly sounds sounds like a Marshall ........so it's versatile "within the Marshall spectrum of sound" if you get what I mean.

Fair enough. It tries to cover all the typical Marshall tones and provide a basic clean, which I think it does quite well. It is the first time I think Marshall has truly mastered making a standalone high-gain amp. And I have been on both sides of the fence here: I first owned a JVM205C, but after comparing the original and the Waza version of the SD-1 in a store using a Kramer Jersey Star and an SC20C (Marshall's JCM 800 clone) I felt like a chump since everything I really needed could be found in this amp, so I ended up selling the former and buying the latter. I did, however, like the JVM enough to later get the Satch version, which fixes all the things I didn't like about the original (too uncrunchy crunch channel, flawed parallel loop).

 

[Ewizard]

I prefer an amp that makes 'that' one sound that I never get tired of hearing. If I need another sound, I need another amp. ;-)

I agree with this sentiment!!!! I need a specific amp for every day that ends in y.

 

[Mincer]

While I generally go for one sound from any amp, I do use a lot of effects, as well as dynamics a lot.

 

[JB6464]

All I need is an amp that gives me good OD tones and a clean channel.
So my crusty old 1998 Soldano Hotrod 100+ does that in spades, Soldano tone with an OD preamp that maintains nice string definition under gain.
With most pickups I don't need a pedal to get the OD goods, only with traditional single coils I need pedals.

 

[Sirion]

Another thing to consider is that most of the extremely flexible multi-channel amps aren't made to do everything at once, but to allow you to mix and match your preference of sounds. The JVM is a great example. You won't be able to use all of the twelve channels in it at the same time, but you can mix and match how you want your cleans and gain channels to relate to each other. Even in most normal multi-channel amps this is kind of decided for you.

 

[Top-L]

Another thing to consider is that most of the extremely flexible multi-channel amps aren't made to do everything at once, but to allow you to mix and match your preference of sounds. The JVM is a great example. You won't be able to use all of the twelve channels in it at the same time, but you can mix and match how you want your cleans and gain channels to relate to each other. Even in most normal multi-channel amps this is kind of decided for you.

This is why I recently ordered an Engl Savage (six week wait).

All of the settings on the Savage are midi recallable. There are multiple selectable presence and master volume controls, as well as different channel modes with separate mid knob, input pad, high/low gain, etc. Of the multi-channel jack of all trade amps, it is the closest to having total recall of settings.

It is primarily a metal and lead guitar amp, but demos show it can do pretty much anything. My guess is that even with all those switches, I will probably just find one or two sounds I use, but its nice that it has that capability.

Its really a dying market though for these things. With modelers, you really just need an amp with alot of headroom to get most any sound.

 

[Mincer]

Well, one of the joys of using things like a Fractal is hearing amps in parallel, which would require a lot of gear to do in real life.

 

[Sirion]

As far as amp sounds go, the modelling market is kind of just a rehash of what ADA did with the MP-1 all the way back in 1987. I'm mostly joking, but not entirely.

 

[Sirion]

This is why I recently ordered an Engl Savage (six week wait).

All of the settings on the Savage are midi recallable. There are multiple selectable presence and master volume controls, as well as different channel modes with separate mid knob, input pad, high/low gain, etc. Of the multi-channel jack of all trade amps, it is the closest to having total recall of settings.

It is primarily a metal and lead guitar amp, but demos show it can do pretty much anything. My guess is that even with all those switches, I will probably just find one or two sounds I use, but its nice that it has that capability.

Its really a dying market though for these things. With modelers, you really just need an amp with alot of headroom to get most any sound.

Aye, I suppose those wanting flexibility will go for modellers and those who want one sound will go for simpler amps.

 

[Mincer]

As far as amp sounds go, the modelling market is kind of just a rehash of what ADA did with the MP-1 all the way back in 1987. I'm mostly joking, but not entirely.

Oh, it is very very different.