Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

Re: Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

Just been playing my Spidervalve HD100. At about 3 it sounds like a deity. I also liked my old Carvin X amp combo. My Picovalve even sounds great. I don't think that I've ever played a bad tube amp.

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Re: Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

I don't remember that many tube amps. Instead of a Best and Worst, I'll post some tube amps I've enjoyed, along with one that merits relative infamy.

Amps that have met with towardness:
Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue
Fender Blues Jr.
Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III
Fender Blues Deluxe
Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister 18 Anniversary head
Marshall DSL40C Creamback
Marshall JCM2000 TSL122
Marshall JCM2000 TSL100
Orange Dark Terror
Mesa Rocket 44
Mesa Roadster

Howls of Derisive Laughter:
Crate VC508
 
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Re: Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

How was that Marshall combo with the Creamback?

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Re: Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

Demanic said:
How was that Marshall combo with the Creamback?

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Click to expand...

It kind of effortlessly hopped from one genre to another. It was super responsive and musical. I really liked the ambience created by the backwave. I'm thinking of getting a Creamback for my open-back cab.
 
Re: Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

Best:
Marshall Silver Jubilee. I had forgotten how great this amp was until I tried to find a suitable replacement/backup when the old gal started to fade ( It has since been restored to tonal health by replacing all the electrolytic caps).

67 or 68 Fender Bassman This one had a silver face but black face guts. Should have held on to that one.

66 Marshall JTM45 This amp was so good, but it wasn't mine, that I built clone. These amps can sound like anything, good or bad or in between, depending on the tubes, especially the rectifier tube. The ultimate pure tube amp.

Worst:
Some 60's off brand that I don't recall with a 10-inch speaker and cardboard cabinet. This amp had 6BQ5 (EL84) tubes. I have a prejudice against the EL84 in general, so it's hard for me to give an EL84 amp a fair shake. Not saying every EL84 amp is bad of course, but chances are I won't like it.

Stock Marshall DSL-15 I hated this amp in stock form although it had 6V6 tubes instead of the industry standard EL84s common among this wattage range. Just a muddy, fizzy, mess on the red channel, and a sterile uninspiring green channel. However, modded with the Johnny Eggz mods, it turned into a fine rock gig amp. Everything from smokey cleans to an excellent high gain with the twist of the guitar's volume knob at whatever volume you needed.
 
Re: Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

Not likely to happen anytime soon.

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Re: Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

Lake Placid Blues said:
Best:
Marshall Silver Jubilee. I had forgotten how great this amp was until I tried to find a suitable replacement/backup when the old gal started to fade ( It has since been restored to tonal health by replacing all the electrolytic caps).
Click to expand...

I spent years and thousands of dollars looking for more versatility, a better clean sound, or to overcome the Jubilee's various shortcomings with varying degrees of success. The Soldano SP-77 came the closest, but it wasn't without its own issues. And then there was that day in the Spring of 2003 when I had to unload either the SP-77 or the Jube to make rent and I think I made the right choice. Some of the others had better clean sounds or more tonal options, but none of the overdrive channels came close to measuring up.

I'm not entirely sure how it finally happened, but sometime in the last couple of years I finally came to my senses. Between my 2555 and 2525H and having a better set up board I can do everything I want with one Jube or the other.
 
Re: Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

My favorites over the years have been Mesa amps. A Roadster or MK II Road King will do almost anything I want or need. Paired with a creamback loaded cab, it just sounds awesome.
 
Re: Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

BEST: Not "THE" best, but one of the top two or three: My old Ampeg Jet12-T from the '90s. Warm, loud, clear, clean yet dirty, able to go from rage to soothe depending on how you hit the guitar. Great reverb, and the best tremolo circuit EVER. Shoulda never sold that one...

WORST: Maybe not the bottom, but close: MY old Fender red knob Super 112. It was a loud beast, but it went from "Can you turn up a bit?" to "WAY too loud" in an instant. The tone itself wasn't bad, per se, but it wasn't anything to write home about, either. The above mentioned Ampeg made it sound like a braying donkey.
 
Re: Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

Best:
Blues Cube Artist (sort of kidding)
Fender Twin Custom 15


Worst:
Fender Blues Jr (boxy piece of noisy crud)


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Re: Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

My fave was the laney aor pro tube ii 50 112 combo I had in the nineties. Maybe I was lucky but it was instant guns and roses, even at low level.
My least fave was a marshal jcm 2000 tsl 122 combo.......great sounds but very unreliable, it went back to the shop 3 times in the 4 months I owned it. I changed it for a valvestate and that crapped out on me too!
 
Re: Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

The worst is easy. I once had a friend who fiddled around with electronics and he put together his own tube amp. It seemed like a fun project, but it sounded horrible. Probably because of the cheap materials he used.

The best is tough. I've played quite a few tube amps that appealed to my taste.
 
Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

Best: my Marshall JCM 900 4502 combo or a 60's Fender Vibroverb.

Worst: Peavey Valve King - useless but not as useless as a Line 6 amp I plugged into.


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Re: Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

Best, my Mesa DC-5. I can get every tone i want, easily.

Worst, Epiphone Blues Custom 30. Mediocre clean channel, Buzz saw "drive." I gutted it and put in a Marshall Plexi circuit in it, and put Greenbacks in the cab. Tasty!
 
Re: Worst and best tube amps you've ever played?

ehdwuld said:
Best
Probably that mid nineties Prosonic
It was awesome
Of course it could have been that 4k McCarthy PRS I was playing
But then the American Standard sounded great too
Heck the Squire did as well
Everything sounded great through that thing
Click to expand...

Been playing the prosonic head for 20 years. BEST amp EVER oddly enough hated it until we figured each other out.
 
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