some_dude
Raging BB Gunologist
Re: Thoughts on this idea?
Ok.....so I drug all my sh*t down to my practice space and ran all three amps through their paces (Laney GH100TI, Boogie MkIII, Marshall 100 SLP).
My first thought after moving all this sh*t was F*ck the two amp setup.
My second thought was [/i]Lets Rock![/i]
I ran up the Laney first......it sounded good, but not incredible. I ran it through it's paces and decided to try something more inspiring.
Next was the Boogie. It's a 1x12 combo loaded with an Electro-Voice EVM 12L. For comparison purposes I ran it through just my 4x12 cab (Mesa Recto Std 4x12). It sounded FAT. Fat and smooth. The cleans were awesome. The lead channel was less than stellar for about the first 10 minutes of play...once the thing heated up a bit though the lead channel really started to sing, and continued to get better the more I played it.
For fun, I ran both the combo's speaker and the 4x12. It sounds alot better this way. The EVM 12L's tone alone is somewhat harsh and boxy. The V30s add alot of warmth but by themselves they make this amp sound very dark and give it a very loose, unarticulate sound. Mixing them with EVM 12L brightened and tightened everything up, definatly a huge improvement.
Next was the Plexi. Honestly, I thought it'd be louder. It's the first time I've ever rocked one myself, and after reading all the comments on it I honestly expected more volume. After the Laney and the Boogie, this seemed somewhat average.
Anyway, on to the tone. The tone was stellar. The cleans were great, and the OD was damn cool. For the most part I ran it with all the tone knobs on 10 except the presence, which I dialed down to around 2. The amp broke up sooner than I expected (around 4), and kept getting more creamy upto about 8. I felt that running the gain past 8 started to degrade the tone. What I was most impressed with is how reactive the amp stayed (at 8) to my picking dynamics.....I was able to dial in a fair amount of distortion yet had very little compression. It was definatly a fun amp to play on. This amp turns sick when fed with a fuzz box....very cool. The only drawback to it is the volume.....it doesn't get any OD until you have it up near it's maximum volume.....not a very versitile option for a pub/club amp.
Lastly, I ran up the Laney again. Now that my ears had adjusted to playing that loud this amp sounded much better. It gave a killer metal tone and was giving me a better Metallica tone and a tighter, more percussive bottom end than my Boogie was. For those that haven't used these amps, what's cool about them is that they seem to gate themselves. As soon as you mute the strings they drop off fast, and you can stand right in front of your amp with the gain on 7 (5 gain stages) and your guitar on ten and it won't feed back.
When pluged into the low input the Laney actually does a pretty good clean. It's darker than the Marshall, but not as dark as the Boogie. Certainly better sounding than the cleans on my Recto.
The Laney is pretty tonally limited compared to the other two amps, but it does the couple of tones that it does extremely well. If you want a strait up, no bullsh*t single channel head for metal, you'll like this Laney.
This next part is highlighted for people who don't feel like reading the above....
Either way, the moral of the story is that I'm not dragging two heads around unless it's a pretty big and/or important show.....or I get roadies. So I guess we can consider this new rig idea officially scrapped.
That said, I might one day add a Plexi (or similar) to my arsenal to expand my tonal options. It was a very cool amp.....but this excercise has shown me that even for clean to mid gain tones I'd rather rock a Boogie.
P.S. - The Laney was the loudest of the three.
Ok.....so I drug all my sh*t down to my practice space and ran all three amps through their paces (Laney GH100TI, Boogie MkIII, Marshall 100 SLP).
My first thought after moving all this sh*t was F*ck the two amp setup.
My second thought was [/i]Lets Rock![/i]
I ran up the Laney first......it sounded good, but not incredible. I ran it through it's paces and decided to try something more inspiring.
Next was the Boogie. It's a 1x12 combo loaded with an Electro-Voice EVM 12L. For comparison purposes I ran it through just my 4x12 cab (Mesa Recto Std 4x12). It sounded FAT. Fat and smooth. The cleans were awesome. The lead channel was less than stellar for about the first 10 minutes of play...once the thing heated up a bit though the lead channel really started to sing, and continued to get better the more I played it.
For fun, I ran both the combo's speaker and the 4x12. It sounds alot better this way. The EVM 12L's tone alone is somewhat harsh and boxy. The V30s add alot of warmth but by themselves they make this amp sound very dark and give it a very loose, unarticulate sound. Mixing them with EVM 12L brightened and tightened everything up, definatly a huge improvement.
Next was the Plexi. Honestly, I thought it'd be louder. It's the first time I've ever rocked one myself, and after reading all the comments on it I honestly expected more volume. After the Laney and the Boogie, this seemed somewhat average.
Anyway, on to the tone. The tone was stellar. The cleans were great, and the OD was damn cool. For the most part I ran it with all the tone knobs on 10 except the presence, which I dialed down to around 2. The amp broke up sooner than I expected (around 4), and kept getting more creamy upto about 8. I felt that running the gain past 8 started to degrade the tone. What I was most impressed with is how reactive the amp stayed (at 8) to my picking dynamics.....I was able to dial in a fair amount of distortion yet had very little compression. It was definatly a fun amp to play on. This amp turns sick when fed with a fuzz box....very cool. The only drawback to it is the volume.....it doesn't get any OD until you have it up near it's maximum volume.....not a very versitile option for a pub/club amp.
Lastly, I ran up the Laney again. Now that my ears had adjusted to playing that loud this amp sounded much better. It gave a killer metal tone and was giving me a better Metallica tone and a tighter, more percussive bottom end than my Boogie was. For those that haven't used these amps, what's cool about them is that they seem to gate themselves. As soon as you mute the strings they drop off fast, and you can stand right in front of your amp with the gain on 7 (5 gain stages) and your guitar on ten and it won't feed back.
When pluged into the low input the Laney actually does a pretty good clean. It's darker than the Marshall, but not as dark as the Boogie. Certainly better sounding than the cleans on my Recto.
The Laney is pretty tonally limited compared to the other two amps, but it does the couple of tones that it does extremely well. If you want a strait up, no bullsh*t single channel head for metal, you'll like this Laney.
This next part is highlighted for people who don't feel like reading the above....
Either way, the moral of the story is that I'm not dragging two heads around unless it's a pretty big and/or important show.....or I get roadies. So I guess we can consider this new rig idea officially scrapped.
That said, I might one day add a Plexi (or similar) to my arsenal to expand my tonal options. It was a very cool amp.....but this excercise has shown me that even for clean to mid gain tones I'd rather rock a Boogie.
P.S. - The Laney was the loudest of the three.
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