Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: downrodeo on August 22, 2006, 08:15:56 PM
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Hey, guys...I'm probably not going to be in the market for a new amp for awhile, but that can't stop me from being CURIOUS! What I want is a tone machine of an amp with three (or four) channels: a great clean channel with an almost jazzy smoothness, a second channel for lower gain, distorted tones that are nice and clean and soulful...think classic Jimmy Page overdrive on "Since I've Been Loving You"...and of course a third channel for gritty metal and powerful power chords and soaring, sustaining leads. I know...sounds exactly like what everyone else wants, but I want to know what is the best amp out there for the job I'm describing. A big plus would be half power switch, and possibly independent effects loops. Thanks, guys. I just want to know so that when I CAN buy my dream amp, I'll have a better idea.
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Most versatile tube amp eh?
Maybe a Bognor or something - or something else high end like that...You could probably get close to those tones with some sort of Mesa or Engl, for a more affordable package
I'm sure some more knowledgeable people will be along soon :P
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Have one built for you, to your specs. Then you will get exactly what you want/desire.
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I agree with TO, a custom amp would be good if you have the cash.. something from Matamp maybe
If not
An ENGL Screamer is great and will do everything you mention.
A POD 2.0 in one of the ATomic amps would be the most versatile, POD models with the atomics valve setup ;)
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MOST versatile would prob have to be the Diezel VH4. Only problem is that its like 180 watts and no half power switch. And it costs an arm and a leg, and everything else attached to them ;]
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:D To be quite honest you`ve asked for the impossible !
No one amp will do all these things convincingly. TO`s right you`ll need to talk to a custom amp builder Sheldon, DHA to name but 2 inorder to get anywhere near what you want. And that`s going to cost serious amounts of money !
:D 8)
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The Hughes and Kettner Triamp would be close.
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The Hughes and Kettner Triamp would be close.
its high gain tones don't cut the mustard, though (for modern metal). in my opinion.
I agree with TO.
off the shelf ones I've tried, that do a bit of everything:
engl se
diezel vh4
mesa roadking
of course, they're all incredibly dear- you could by 3 or even 4 amps each aimed specifically at one tone you need for their respective costs- and if you want versatility, that might be better. depends on what space you have, etc.
haha, this was no help.
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Hmm, A Double Pole-Triple Throw footswitch (if such a thing exists, or could be built might be a possible idea...would allow you to fashion a device that allows you to switch the guitar between amp heads with one pole, and the amp heads between a single cab with the other pole...
But I just saw the major flaw in that plan (along with many less major flaws) in that there would be no load on the amps when they weren't selected, which would then explode the amps :lol:
Looks like separate cabs is the only way to go :drink:
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Bogner XTC Classic with Class A/AB mod
However, for those 3,000 GBP you can also get a Fender, a Vox and a Marshall :)
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"The Hughes and Kettner Triamp would be close."
I was going to sudgest that to, but as with the reply the only thing that let the amp down was its hi gain tone :-(
Shame because the clean channel was just so loverly ;-)
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[quote To be quite honest you`ve asked for the impossible ! [/quote]
I know I was asking the impossible, BUT, I just wanted see what you brilliant people would have to say. Thanks for the responses...I have def. been gassing something major for a Bogner XTC and Engl SE. Both extraordinarily costly, I know. But, the cost is not what matters...I'm in search for my holy grail of tone. So, yeah. :lol:
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It might not be THE most versatile tube amp ever made but the B-52 AT-100 is up there. It has THREE rectifier settings. Class A, AB, and solid state. I can get a smooth and warm VOX like overdrive classic rock sound(class A), to a hot rodded jcm800 marshall sound (slayer, class AB) to a really raw tight cold Dual Rectifier sound. With a little play with the low resonance and other EQ settings I can get something close to a Engl Powerball also.
I've never really played a Randall RM4 preamp combined with the Randall two channel power amp, but since the preamp is modular, you can put in 4 out of something like 20 preamp modules in and switch between them live with a press of a button. You can match the preamp modules with the correct power amp tubes also. You can also remove a module and replace it with another on stage by going into standby. Awesome shite. Egnater has a super super high end version also, that supports modules that actually have two modules built into one. There are some that are usable with the Randall version but you have to walk up and flip a switch. And those aren't really two preamps, they just have gain boosts and mid voice changes.
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Not a one box solution, but how about a JMP or ENGL pre, into a power amp of your required power/tone choice.
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Try the new Fender Supersonic.
There are some clips of it on Fender's website. It also gets some great reviews on other forums.
2 clean channels and 2 dirty channels.
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About Rack units...Do they have to be enclosed in a rack? Is it a good idea to have them in one? And are they kind of a pain to bring to gigs for some reason, because there aren't a lot of players that have rackmount pre- and power-amps out there. Ya know? The thing about them is that I've always wondered if they can produce the same qualtiy sounds as a well built, full-size head. Thanks, again guys...
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"The Hughes and Kettner Triamp would be close."
I was going to sudgest that to, but as with the reply the only thing that let the amp down was its hi gain tone :-(
Shame because the clean channel was just so loverly ;-)
aye, i mean everything up to channel 4 was really nice (though I thought the marshall-y channels had a little too much gain- or at least, didn't have a wide enough gain sweep)- but the high gain channels were pretty poor. and on a £2000-odd amp, that claims to do everything, that's just not acceptable, IMO.
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About Rack units...Do they have to be enclosed in a rack? Is it a good idea to have them in one? And are they kind of a pain to bring to gigs for some reason, because there aren't a lot of players that have rackmount pre- and power-amps out there. Ya know? The thing about them is that I've always wondered if they can produce the same qualtiy sounds as a well built, full-size head. Thanks, again guys...
You can balance your rack gear on top of your speakers if you want to, but it's neater and has less chance of falling off in a rack mount thingy.
I haven't played much rack gear, but the stuff I've heard sounds every bit as good as non-rack amplification. However, if you're the sort of person who likes to plug straight into a class A amp, then racks would probably not be for you.
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A Boogie Roadking probably comes close
Or A mesa Triaxis preamp with a switchable mode power amp into a choice of cabinets.
Chosing carefully would allow everything from A Fender Juior to a ful recto stack with some Fender clean Twin sounds etc in between
The truth is that there is no one amp or any one guitar that lets you do it all
Somehow you want a different guitar with Apaches in as one with Warpigs in too - to some extent it's horses for courses.
There are some setups that give you enough range to cover most things and get by but some kit is made to suit a certain purpose and be untouched in that department.
A Ferrari is a great sports car - but not ideal for taking a family of 4 to Tesco to do the weekly shopping.....
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Well if you wanted to get into rack gear then the Hughes & Kettner Access is probably one of the most versatile Preamps I've tried.
Haven't really compared it though with much of the really high end Bogners, Soldano's, Engl's etc but it certainly has an awesome sound and like I said, hugely versatile with 3 completely different channels.
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A Boogie Roadking probably comes close
Or A mesa Triaxis preamp with a switchable mode power amp into a choice of cabinets.
Chosing carefully would allow everything from A Fender Juior to a ful recto stack with some Fender clean Twin sounds etc in between
The truth is that there is no one amp or any one guitar that lets you do it all
Somehow you want a different guitar with Apaches in as one with Warpigs in too - to some extent it's horses for courses.
There are some setups that give you enough range to cover most things and get by but some kit is made to suit a certain purpose and be untouched in that department.
A Ferrari is a great sports car - but not ideal for taking a family of 4 to Tesco to do the weekly shopping.....
exactly- even the amps that do it all, even the mega dear ones, still leave something to be desired compared to the amps aimed only at the vintage tones (mainly because the amps aimed at doing it all are mainly modern high gain amps at heart)...
:drink:
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no one has even mentioned Orange, in fact, that's what Jimmy page used on 'since I've been lovin you' by Led Zep. There's an orange head with three channels.
no one has mentioned Soldano, they do some outstanding head amps! one of the best, check out their three channel amps.
Mesa Boogie Dual rectifier, has 3 channels and it can do what you described but not fully.
If I was you I'd contact Custom Audio amplifiers, made by John Shur, as they're that good I recon it's actually possible with one to get the tone youre after. It certanly isn't impossible, but you're looking at £3,500 + just for the head. To me Custom Audio are the best of the best, I mean Warren Cuccurullo used them in the 90s! to give you an idea of the tone of a Custom Audio amp, just listen to the album 'Thanks to Frank' from the 90s. Now that's what I call a real $%&#ing amp! he used the CA100 head, which is now a classic.
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Custom Audio, eh? Never seen or heard one...but if what you say is true...sounds good enough to me! I checked their website and I didn't see anything about the CA-100...did you mean the OD-100 all-tube series that they make?