New Amp advice please

[william35]

First post so go easy on me please!

I have returned to playing regularly after almost twenty years of playing one or twice a year. The sound I am getting is not the sound I am looking for. I used to play an Iceman with a Bill Lawrence L90XL pickup through a TS9 (all bought in 1982/83) into a ProAmp head and celestion speaker.
I recently bought a Vintage AV6 Strat Copy and a Vintage AV1 LP Copy after reading the review in Guitarist in October 2006. I managed to buy both guitars second-hand from the same eBay seller for £269. I have also bought a number of effects boxes in the search for the tone in my head.

I have come to the conclusion that all the pedals in the world won't overcome the limitations of my old amp, a ProAmp 65/100W Head (solid state preamp and two 6L6GC power tubes built in 1983) and it needs to be replaced. I am open to buying a head, stack or combo and possibly a tube based pedal to expand the sounds such as a Radial / Blackstar / Mesa Boogie. (I am not a corporate lawyer with a middle age crisis; I am going to use my ISA savings: after all my need for tone is more important than a rainy day)

I have no preconceptions of how the amp needs to look visually, the power level or even the logo on the front. I am looking for a range of sounds from the Amp/Pedal mix and in my head I want to be able to sound like Rory Gallagher, Ritchie Blackmore, Brian Tatler, Michael Schenker, Carlos Santana, “fast" Eddie Clark, Eddie Van Halen pre-1984, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Randy Rhoads, George Lynch, Jimi Hendrix, & Slash: which should be quite easy then!

Joking aside I know that each of these great players spent their whole lives finding their sound and most of it comes from their fingers.


I have read about some of the amps around just now that have great reviews and would love to try them out, however I live in Edinburgh and although it’s a well known place it’s really pretty small and there's little chance of trying a good range of amps locally. Can you narrow the field for me so that I can try out two or three amps before I buy? (I would be quite happy spending time and money travelling as far as need be: I got the train to Lincoln from Edinburgh to buy my last car, then drove back home in it and my next Amp is much more important). I am looking for your advice, I have a budget of around £2000 possibly more. I f I can't get the range of sounds from one amp then I am open to buying two and using an ABY switch. I play mainly for my own pleasure so volume is not an issue, in fact I would like to overdrive an amp at lower volumes.

Amps that I have read good things about that have a range of sounds on tap include Blackstar, Cornford, Cornell, Mesa Boogie, Marshall JVM, Randall, Rivera, Dr Z, Dumble, ZVex nano, Red Iron and a whole range of small tube amps. etc. I do not like the sound of digital modelling as I cannot "hear" the sound of the guitar that I am playing.

Can you draw on your vast experience and help me to narrow this down to three or four options please?

 :?

[TwilightOdyssey]

Randall MTS?

http://www.randallamplifiers.com/products/amplifiers/mts/index.asp


Welcome, btw.

[Stevepage]

What about a JCM800 with 4 x 12 cab? Or a 1959 super lead with an overdrive pedal for more saturated tones.

[hhcave]

I recently bought a Mesa/Boogie F-50 (head) which is a fantastic amp. It's got a crystal clear clean channel - one of the best i've ever tried, the crunch channel sounds HUGE and the 'Contour' switch essentially turns the distortion into a high gain Dual rectifier type sound... but tighter...

Also, because its been discontinued its comparatively cheap (i got it for roughly 850 quid new)

Although there don't seem to be very many different effects and gimmicks built into the amp it is very versatile and pedal-friendly...

When i went amp shopping during easter i tried out tons of Mesa/Boogies (Roadsters, Triple Rectifiers, Stilettos) and Marshalls (JCM900/2000, JVM, JTM etc.) and the F-50 was the one. Well, it was eitehr that or the Mesa/Boogie Mark IV but that was horrendously expensive (pretty much double the price).

Good Luck!

PS: The 'new version' of the F-50 (Express) is NOT similar at ALL. It is much lower gain and sounds very different on the whole. Lastly the F-50's distortion channel sounds like something in between a Mark IV and a Dual Rectifier (not as tight as the Mark IV and not as much suppressed gain as the Dual Rectifier - compromise really isn't a bad thing though as you end up with a very versatile amp)

[kevincurtis]

Randall MTS?

http://www.randallamplifiers.com/products/amplifiers/mts/index.asp


Welcome, btw.

+1 on that ... no single amp could cope with such a variety well, so modular would be an obvious choice.

[ailean]

Welcome to the forum.

This probably isn't much help as it adds to your list rather than narrow it down. I recently bought an Orange Rockerverb 50, which has a great clean channel and a 4 stage gain channel.  Apparently the gain stages are added in sequence as you up the level, changing the texture of the gain as you go. It seems to work.

The clean channel takes a pedal board well so if you want something different you can just use a distortion pedal in front of the amp (or into the fx loop). It's worked very well with a range of guitars from clean strat tones upto heavily distored metal tones (WARPIGS!).

To get room levels I use a THD Hotplate into an Orange 4x12.

I'm sorry if this isn't a help, but I've been very happy with the versatility of this amp and thought it was worth mentioning.

[william35]

Hi guys thanks for the advice, looks like I won't get all the sounds I want from the one amplifier. Any suggestions about buying two amps, possible secondhand, to get the range of sounds?

william

[Jonny]

Hi guys thanks for the advice, looks like I won't get all the sounds I want from the one amplifier. Any suggestions about buying two amps, possible secondhand, to get the range of sounds?

william

You might not get all the sounds you want, but a Randall MTS would be the closest. And I would go for that rather than two amps.

[dave_mc]

er, guitar guitar in corstorphine had a brilliant range of amps any time i've been in, plus a soundproof room to try them out in. Nice staff too. I'd head there sharpish if I were you.  :twisted: EDIT: £2000 budget? you should DEFINITELY head to guitar guitar, you have one of the best dealers of premium kit in the UK on your doorstep... try their bogner ecstacy and engl se for starters...  :twisted:

[william35]

thanks again for the suggestions. i will need to hear the randall mts, it seems to be highly recommended.

dave_mc - i was in guitarguitar in corstorphine last week and i thought their stocjk was pretty poor. they did have a bognor and another boutique amp. however they didn't have a mesa boogie lonestar special, an orange thunderverb or a blackstar a30, all of which i'd like to try. the assistant said that they stock more high end amps in the glasgow branch.

i went into scayles music today which did have a blackstar a15 & a30 as well as a JVM410, i didn't have time to try them but the guy raved about the blackstar then said that they used to stock engl which he thought were the best sounding amps he'd ever heard.

on with the search then...

william

[dave_mc]

ah, ok. i've only been in guitar guitar in edinburgh twice, but the couple of times I was in it, they had a lot of nice stuff. also don't be scared to try stuff you haven't heard of, there's loads of expensive stuff which is awesome, but which isn't necessarily all that well-known.

i dunno if i'd say that engls are the best-sounding amps ever (depends what you want them for, apart from anything), but they're definitely up there in terms of versatility. I've got one, lol. :)