So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

Actually, I might have another amp in thought when I wrote that about the VC-30. I tried to see if I could look up the place where the amp was under discussion, and I can't seem to find it (I read this some days ago, so if it was about the VC-30 I should have found it easily)..
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

The "big three" are Marshall, Vox, and Fender. To be honest, I'd recommend playing some Fender tube amps, and compare with Vox and Gibson's gold tone amps. Also, Epiphone has some decent amps. Just try them out.

As for me, I fell in love with the Twin Reverb, so I own one.
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

TwinReverb said:
The "big three" are Marshall, Vox, and Fender. To be honest, I'd recommend playing some Fender tube amps, and compare with Vox and Gibson's gold tone amps. Also, Epiphone has some decent amps. Just try them out.

As for me, I fell in love with the Twin Reverb, so I own one.
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Maybe someone can point me towards some good Fenders, but nothing I have played has really impressed me. A lot of the cleans I have found seem to "jangly" (such a descriptive word I know) and their crunch leaves much to be desired.

The Fenders I played, and liked were well out of my price range.
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

beggar_guitar said:
Maybe someone can point me towards some good Fenders, but nothing I have played has really impressed me. A lot of the cleans I have found seem to "jangly" (such a descriptive word I know) and their crunch leaves much to be desired.

The Fenders I played, and liked were well out of my price range.
Click to expand...

The Fender Blues Junior isn't so bad. I've tried it before.
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

I played the Mesa (discontinued) F-series a few times. Medium-gain, supposedly one of Mesa's best clean tones, and a pretty good value I think. I like it more then the new Express series.

Not sure if i'm right on this but I think the F-30 and the F-50 had different power tubes, 30 might have had the EL34's and the 50 has the 6l6 i think.
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

I have the F-50. The F-30 has EL84 and a Vintage-30 speaker, and the F-50 has 6L6 with a Celestion-90 'Black Shadow' speaker. They're both great amps, with a different flavor (haven't tried the F-30 much, but from what I have tried it was very nice. And light!). The F-50 has plenty of gain, more than I'll ever need. The cleans are really really nice. I love the thing. :) Check out the Mesa F-series Lounge over at HC if you would like to see some great info.
 
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Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

For what it's worth, go to musician's friend (just to use as an example, not because you "must" buy from them), go to guitar > amps > combo > tube > sort by price low to high. This is what you get.

Then you can look at them by price, low to high, and they'll be all tube, so you can just pick which ones you want to try, or are interested in buying.
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

My favourite small Tube amp is the Peavey Classic 30. The cleans are great and the drive channel gets Classic Rock tones with ease. They take OD Pedals well and have an effects loop. There is also an extension speaker jack to drive an extra cabinet.

The Reverb is nice too...
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

pinto79 said:
My favourite small Tube amp is the Peavey Classic 30. The cleans are great and the drive channel gets Classic Rock tones with ease. They take OD Pedals well and have an effects loop. There is also an extension speaker jack to drive an extra cabinet.

The Reverb is nice too...
Click to expand...

I get the feeling I am the only person on here who feels this way, but I just don't like the Classic 30 all that much. Maybe I've played some duds, or maybe I just haven't spent enough time with one. Everything I read on here tells me I should love it.
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

beggar_guitar said:
Ha. Yeah I don't see me doing much Stryper. It's mainly gospel choir music.
Also some more contemporary artists... Chris Tomlin, Hillsong, Jeff Deyo... That kinda stuff.
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AC30...enough said. Same amp that hillsong uses so it has to be good enough for you haha
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

Maybe you should wait until Line 6 releases the Spider Valve, the one with the Bogner power section. That thing is shaping up to be pretty awesome.
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

PaulReedSmith said:
AC30...enough said. Same amp that hillsong uses so it has to be good enough for you haha
Click to expand...

beggar_guitar said:
What about the Laney LC Series? Are they any good?
Also.. If I drop down to 15 watts. That will still be plenty loud right? I play at home, and at church where I am mic'ed. I also have a Laney 1x12 extension cab I can use too.
Click to expand...

Hmm. Yeah, I agree with PaulReedSmith. Hillsong's probably most famous guitarist uses an AC30 and a Gretsch White Falcon, if I remember correctly. However, that may not be for you, but for church I'd definitely recommend the Fender Twin Reverb (or Deluxe Reverb or Classic Reverb), since I use that, and have used a Peavey Delta Blues as well. Both those work good. Trust me, the beautiful tube tone of a Fender Lite Ash Stratocaster into a Fender Twin Reverb is pure heaven. In fact, it's so good that ironically positions 1,3,5 on the switch (one single coil by itself) sound better than the notch positions 2 and 4 (neck+middle or middle+bridge respectively). I have some excellent recordings of stuff like that from church: my Fender Twin and my Lite Ash.

And my amp, with bright switch OFF, doesn't sound as jangly as the Vox AC30.
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

try a Blues Deluxe!

a used one would probably be in your range!
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

fingerace said:
Here, check this out: http://www.proguitar.de/AudioDemo/CompareAmps/CompareAmps.html

This site helped me make up my mind or at least stop thinking in general lines.
Click to expand...

i listened to almost all of those clips...and i gotta say that the Matchless DC-30 and the Vox AC-30 were my two faves by far!!!!

imagine that!

the thing is i've never played through either of them! i love the clean tones...the jangly cripsness and i also love the crunch!

i gotta a sneaking suspicion that a Celtic Diedre would be the cats meow to me!!!
 
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Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

fingerace said:
Here, check this out: http://www.proguitar.de/AudioDemo/CompareAmps/CompareAmps.html

This site helped me make up my mind or at least stop thinking in general lines.
Click to expand...
Awesome site. Oh man I love that soldano avenger through an orange cab, fantastic. Funny how Soldano is next to Laney on the list ... I think I know my dream rig My LaneyAOR with Soldano Avanger stereo into a an Orange cab ... mmmm GAS !!!!!!
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

Yeap, that site is a GAS generator!

I downloaded the clips and listened to them with my eyes closed... Really interesting results... Amps that I thought were "full" turned up to be "muddy" and amps that I thought were "Hard-harsh" turned up to be pronounced...

I found that I like the FULL sound of a JTM, the crisp OD of a plexi and the "clean" OD of the AC30. So I ended up looking for a cross of these sounds...

I did find it and it's on the way (still). Thread in amp room coming up hopefully in 2-3 weeks. You ll have to guess the amp when the time comes...
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

Anyone ever able to get the classic Steve Jones, Never Mind the Bollocks tone out of a Fender Twin ?

Layering aside, I've tried a wealth of different OD's in front of one and just never really came close. Being an apartment dweller I couldn't dime it but even if I could it still doesn't seem to get the same crunch and saturation he had.

I've always wondered if in the studio he was using something different like a Plexi. Early video's did show the twin, with the "guitar hero" scrawled on the grill, and of course theres all the stories about how he nicked it from Bob Marley etc, but that doesn't mean he tracked the album with it.

And these days he seems to be using DSL's so go figure....
 
Re: So many amps... so many tones... Wanting to go tube. Where do I begin?

millsart said:
Anyone ever able to get the classic Steve Jones, Never Mind the Bollocks tone out of a Fender Twin ?

Layering aside, I've tried a wealth of different OD's in front of one and just never really came close. Being an apartment dweller I couldn't dime it but even if I could it still doesn't seem to get the same crunch and saturation he had.

I've always wondered if in the studio he was using something different like a Plexi. Early video's did show the twin, with the "guitar hero" scrawled on the grill, and of course theres all the stories about how he nicked it from Bob Marley etc, but that doesn't mean he tracked the album with it.

And these days he seems to be using DSL's so go figure....
Click to expand...

No offense, but Twin Reverb's aren't for distortion, i.e. they don't come with a drive channel. You can do almost anything with them, however, using a pedal in front of them. So go plug pedals into a TR and find the pedal that does the job :D I can get Metallica-sounding stuff from a TR using a Boss MT-2 pedal (or equivalent).
 
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