That90'sGuy
DyzaBoyzologist
I'm going into the studio tomorrow and I needed a good amp to record with (aka, not the Vibrolux Reverb). Ever since I played a Crate V32 Palomino, I've been thinking about how great it sounded for the cash. I want an amp to get me by until the Fargen comes back home all repaired. I was also looking for an amp that would be relatively cheap and all around very good sounding (that was the difficult part). I talked to my singer / fellow guitar player and he told me that if I ever wanted to sell the Crate that he would buy it off of me (I was initially trying to find a quality amp for him, never imagined I'd actually pony up the cash for another amp).
So in short, went to Guitar Center for a good 3 hours or so and played the crap out of that amp with my full pedalboard. I cranked the sucker listening to every nuance of the tone to see if it would work for the band. Couldn't say no to it after that amount of time, it really is a fantastic sounding amp (and I usually HATE Crates or anything that's standard production), but it's a real deal Class A 30w EL-84 tube amp that sings with my gear.
It's a 1x12 combo that is pretty lightweight (a nice surprise), it's loud as hell with good headroom and even though the EQ is shared between the clean and overdrive channels, I was able to get exactly the tone I wanted on both sides with the EQ. This one is the Guitar Center exclusive model complete with blond tolex, gold hardware, special Celestion speaker (which kicks by the way) and from what I've gathered, has more gain on tap than the 3112 and is better built.
I walked in with cash in hand and got what I feel was a pretty decent deal on it (the sound really rivals amps 4x as expensive). Brand spanking new with full warranty and all appropriate tags not to mention the special footswitch... not too shabby.
How does it sound? Sweet EL-84 chime on the clean channel that nails U2, Refreshments and Tom Petty type stuff. The overdrive is pure classic Marshall... I can see why guys like Joe Walsh have used these live.
Let's hope this amp lasts a long time without any issues. The price is right and the sound is really great (the recordings tomorrow should show that). I'm still VERY pissed about my Fargen, but I'm going to try to keep a cool head about it and wait for payment from Staples/UPS.
So in short, went to Guitar Center for a good 3 hours or so and played the crap out of that amp with my full pedalboard. I cranked the sucker listening to every nuance of the tone to see if it would work for the band. Couldn't say no to it after that amount of time, it really is a fantastic sounding amp (and I usually HATE Crates or anything that's standard production), but it's a real deal Class A 30w EL-84 tube amp that sings with my gear.
It's a 1x12 combo that is pretty lightweight (a nice surprise), it's loud as hell with good headroom and even though the EQ is shared between the clean and overdrive channels, I was able to get exactly the tone I wanted on both sides with the EQ. This one is the Guitar Center exclusive model complete with blond tolex, gold hardware, special Celestion speaker (which kicks by the way) and from what I've gathered, has more gain on tap than the 3112 and is better built.
I walked in with cash in hand and got what I feel was a pretty decent deal on it (the sound really rivals amps 4x as expensive). Brand spanking new with full warranty and all appropriate tags not to mention the special footswitch... not too shabby.
How does it sound? Sweet EL-84 chime on the clean channel that nails U2, Refreshments and Tom Petty type stuff. The overdrive is pure classic Marshall... I can see why guys like Joe Walsh have used these live.
Let's hope this amp lasts a long time without any issues. The price is right and the sound is really great (the recordings tomorrow should show that). I'm still VERY pissed about my Fargen, but I'm going to try to keep a cool head about it and wait for payment from Staples/UPS.
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