Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: jimmy_fowler on January 01, 2007, 09:28:12 PM
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Hey guys,
Looking to buy an amp and was wondering if you could recommend a few amps for me to try... I live in the middle of nowhere in England, and there's no good guitar shops near me, and it seems no shops anywhere are a dealer of everything, so I have to pick my shops wisely...
Anyways, I play a sort of brand of melodic hard rock/punk. It's not really emo or pop-punk either. I sing and play lead guitar, and I'd say my sound and the way I write guitar parts is very similar to Dave Baksh of Sum 41 (although I'd like to think I'm not as whiney as the singer!) - that sort of 80's metal-tinged heavy rock/punk, but vocally and lyrically I'm inspired by Brand New and the Alkaline Trio, etc. So sort of a heavier, harder punk sound I guess. Not too gainy, but gainy enough, dark-ishly voiced with lots of good, tight, bass, but not very very dark, and not completely without mids and highs. Cleans are very important to me too.
I play a Schecter S-1 Elite, in which I'm about to put a Miracle Man bridge pup and a Cold Sweat neck pup. Been saving some money, and I've got around £700-£800 to spend on an amp.
I've tried and disliked so far: Mesa Boogie Single and Dual Rectifier, Laney TT100 and VH100R, Orange Rockerverb 50, Marshall TSL.
Amps that I liked but weren't quite there: Peavey 6505, ENGL Fireball, Marshall JCM-800.
Can you make any suggestions of what else to try? At the moment my list is only two other amps - ENGL Screamer and Marshall DSL...
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that sort of 80's metal-tinged heavy rock/punk
They all played JCM 800's you might want to try another one if you didn't like the one you played!
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Yeah, I mean I was torn with it really. When I plugged in and played I wasn't wow-ed... Didn't have enough gain or bottom end for me... But when I tried it with an OD pedal it started to sound better. My only problem is that it's one channel, and I can't sacrifice cleans...
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well the only other big classic rock/punk make you haven't tried out yet is Vox!
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Yeah? I always associated Vox with cleans not distortion... Which Voxes should I look at? Also, do ya agree that I should try out the Screamer and the DSL? Thanks :)
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^ DSL's have an OK distortion sound but the shared EQ screws with your cleans.
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Yeah? I always associated Vox with cleans not distortion... Which Voxes should I look at? Also, do ya agree that I should try out the Screamer and the DSL? Thanks :)
or you could hang on cos the new marshall JVM series looks the business!!!
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^ DSL's have an OK distortion sound but the shared EQ screws with your cleans.
Well as it's a cheaper amp I could afford an EQ pedal for cleans... Is the distortion though? How does it compare to an ENGL Screamer, which is supposed to have near-Fendery cleans?
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that sort of 80's metal-tinged heavy rock/punk
They all played JCM 800's you might want to try another one if you didn't like the one you played!
Yeah and not a reissue either... find an '81-'83 model with vertical inputs, they are ever so much better than the rest.
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Yep played one of those ones with the vertical inputs...
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what did you not like about the amps you disliked, and what made the "nearly there" ones be only "nearly there"?
also, what's your budget?
:drink:
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Umm, well I've looking to buy some other bits and pieces, so I suppose around £800 overall if possible.
In terms of ones I didn't like -
The Mesas - too gainy, bass to flabby, seemed a tad lifeless and the tone didn't grab me. Too dark for my liking. Cleans weren't much of anything, but then that's what you get with Mesas.
The Laneys - nothing really wrong with them, they just didn't grab me. I couldn't really fault them, I'm just not willing to pay a lot of money for something that my reaction was just "Meh".
Orange Rockerverb - I loved the cleans, and I liked the dirty sound, it was just a bit too much of a neat, tidy, "clean" distortion. It didn't really have much raunch to it if ya know what I mean. Plus the price.
Marshall TSL - Just a bit tinny and fizzy really.
In terms of ones that were close -
Marshall JCM-800 - Didn't think much of it at first, but when I used an OD pedal and boosted it, it started to sound better. Slightly too middy and not enough bass, and not gainy enough (but the pedal took care of it I guess), but my main problem is that it's one-channel and I need cleans.
ENGL Fireball - I really liked the tone. Never before have I said "Wow" out loud and grinned like a chimp when trying an amp. The thing is that even with the gain on about 3, it still was slightly too aggresive and gainy, and didn't have quite the clarity of other amps. However, I did like the tone, and cleans were very impressive for such a high-gain amp.
Peavey 6505 - Again, liked it a lot. I liked the ENGL Fireball better though, so see my comments on that!
Based on these comments, I guessed the DSL and the Screamer were the best choices to try out next, as they seemed to be in that halfway house between your JCM 800's/Laneys/Oranges and your Peaveys/Fireballs/Mesas. Is that a fair assumption? Anything else I should try out?
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^ that would sound like a pretty fair assumption to me too. I guess you should try the engl thunder too (and maybe the blackmore, though it's liable to be almost £700/£800 for the head alone), and also make sure you try the dsl head, not the combo, the head sounds better in my opinion.
Judging by what you say, I'd have thought the screamer might do it for you- I haven't actually tried the fireball, but I hear it's a bit like a powerball or savage, and the screamer is a bit less "metal" than that, and also since it has 4 channels, has more variety.
also, what volume did you try those amps at? most will get heavier as you crank them up, which is worth bearing in mind.
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I was able to crank the Peavey, ENGL and Marshalls in a soundproof room. The others I could crank a bit, but not fully. Ah so you reckon the DSL head is better than the combo? How comes that? Thanks.
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^ i have no idea, it might just be the speaker- or it might have a different circuit, I know the front panel is different at any rate.
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If you didnt think much of the Laney VH100R, then the DSL will seem like a tonal shite heap. I swapped from one to another, I would have to reccommend getting all of the amps up to normal playin volume to really test them. I find that the closest you can get to fender (and better) cleans (other than a fender) is Hiwatt 100 watt custom classic head (but one channel and over £1000), a Matamp again usually over £1000, probably a rivera too as rivera designed all the red-knob fenders from the 70s/80s (i think it was then anyway) and I think that my Laney VH100R sounds just as good as anyfender clean, but I play a strat, so clean tones are always better than a Humbucker guitar hehehe.
Also, some of the other mesa's you find around the joint sound awesome, some of their combos are just amazing, Rectumfriers (deliberate spelling) are just overateded.
Finally, have you tried finding a perfect clean amp and getting a great distortion pedal?
Joe
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i'd agree with Dave... the Screamer does sound like it would suit you...
(and im NOT just saying that 'cause i've just bought one.... really im not... i promise :lol: )
but if you say you liked the ENGL vibe but found the Fireball too agressive, then the Screamer would appear to fit the bill as ive found from mine the gain definitely isn't extremely aggressive... sure it's raunchy and aggressive to an extent... but no overly so.
it's the exact right price as well.
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oh and to add to that-
your observations of the amps you tried sound similar to mine-
the Mesas i tried also felt too dark and not really anything special to me...
same with the orange- cleans were great, distortion was nice as you said but didnt quite have that edge that the ENGL vibe has going on... it's a different kind of tone.
so it would appear that we might have similar-ish taste amp-wise... and if that's the case, then you'll love the screamer.
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Divided by 13, and Soldano should be worth a try.
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Cool, thanks guys :)
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I just tried a blackmore and fireball today (for the first time, rather surprisingly). Definitely try a blackmore if you can afford it. I was seriously impressed with said Blackmore.
Soldano are awesome too, but quite expensive, and not with many features. I guess cornford would be worth a look too, if you can get up to that kind of bracket.
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Yep played one of those ones with the vertical inputs...
The new reissues have vertical inputs too though... gotta watch out they are not the same as the real thing.
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Yeah? I always associated Vox with cleans not distortion...
They are fairly clean. They get a classic rock level distortion, like Led Zeppelin, Queen....
I find with higher output pickups my AC30 will pull off a pretty sick tone that is great for playing Van Halen tone, but not quite a Van Halen tone (it's not quite as aggressive sounding).