Now I NEED to buy an amp!

[headtheball]

I play a VC-30 2x12 myself, and it'sa  perfectly nice little amp, and as mentioned, it sounds very nice at domestic volume. While it's not overburdened with clean headroom, if you can keep it clean, it has a really, really tasty clean sound.

It does take pedals in front very well, but I'm dubious about the loop.

Finally, wound to the teeth, with a decent dirtbox, the VC does a decent enough metal lead sound, but it's never going to do much in the way of a scooped rhythm tone.

[Doadman]

The Engl Screamer looks gorgeous but I can only find one on Ebay and that has a starting price of £600; money I just don't have right now. I could get to £500 but for now, that's my limit.

I tried the Spider Valve and DSL401 today. I didn't have a lot of time to fully explore them but I did come to a couple of broad conclusions.

The Spider Valve is hugely versatile and I really can't think of anything that would come close to it in that regard. Some patches were really very good indeed, but they tended to be towards the really high gain end of the spectrum where possibly genuine valve tone doesn't count for as much. Other patches sounded a bit more digital in nature and it felt a little like listening to my GNX3000. In many ways it is an ideal option for me as it means I can play anything but too much of it just wasn't 'special'. It's also the most expensive of the amps I'm looking at and realistically, is of limited use unless you get the floorboard to go with it; another £80. Tempting as it may be, I don't think it's the one for me. I think I'd rather have an amp that has a few good sounds and just play songs with those, regardless of what the original is like. Thinking about it, I do that to a degree now as I only really use a handful of the patches on my Digitech.

The Marshall DSL401 was a really nice amp. The clean channel didn't quite have the depth of richness I might have liked but it was certainly serviceable and some tweaking with equaliser settings may have helped a little. The first overdrive channel delivered a good tone that reminded me of many of the bands of my youth and the second overdrive channel was able to use far more gain than I had expected. OK, it doesn't quite get to the very high gain levels of some modern bands but there are a couple of ways I could help that along. My original idea was to use a Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Mayhem on the clean channel but having tried the amp, another route may be to use a Tube Screamer to just give the drive channel that little extra.

I'd still like to try the VC30, though that would certainly need pedals to give me the levels of gain I'm after and while I'm on, I'd like to give the DSL a second try when I'm not quite so pressed for time.

[SG Thrasher]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Laney-VC50-2x12-Valve-Guitar-Amplifier_W0QQitemZ220250436847QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item220250436847&_trkparms=72%3A638|39%3A1|65%3A12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

40 minutes left

[Doadman]

I'm afraid by the time I noticed your post the sale had ended on the Laney but it did start me wondering if there were some good second hand buys to be had. As a result, this morning I started looking on ebay for a Marshall DSL401 and found a very interesting option. It is apparently only a year old, has had a speaker upgrade to a Celestion G12T-75 and when it was serviced recently all the valves were replaced by a set of JJ Tesla units. The seller tells me that the result of these modifications is a bit more bottom end, better definition and more overall clarity. The amp is described as mint condition having never been gigged at all. A new DSL401 would set me back £450 and this one was only £280. That seems to me to be a very decent buy so that's what I did and I'll pick it up on Saturday. I'll post a review when I've had a chance to play with it.

[BigK]

Sounds Like a reasonable deal, Let us know how it sounds.

[MDV]

really high gain end of the spectrum where possibly genuine valve tone doesn't count for as much.

SAY WHAT NOW?

 :shock: :shock:
:trans: :snipe: :rock: :rip: :plasma:
(  :P )

[noodleplugerine]

I got my Screamer for exactly £500 with pedal and an amp cover... Perfect nick too.

[Daniel G]

Guess a Marshall is the best option, unless you have unlimited funds. Haven't played the 401 myself, but from the DSL100 I can say that that one is an amazing amp (if you can make it loud that is :O)

i thought the head version was noticeably better than the 401. However, a lot of that is allegedly in the terrible speaker in the 401 (but obviously not owning one i can't corroborate that).

To me, the vc30 is the nicer amp, but possibly a bit less versatile than the marshall.

reliability, again having never owned one can't comment, but like you i have heard reports of failures in both of them.

Second hand ENGL screamer, it can be found cheap, and its a brilliant amp.

that would be an excellent choice if one can be found cheap enough (and also if thedoadman likes its tone!). :)

It is down to the speaker in the 401, it really is a terrible piece of ****.
I had mine replaced with a celestion greenback, and all of a sudden it actually sounded like a guitar amp, instead of sounding like some overpriced hi-fi setup, like it did when i first got it.

[MDV]

I got my Screamer for exactly £500 with pedal and an amp cover... Perfect nick too.

I recently sold one in perfect condition and freshly valved with JJ's for £400, with cover (albeit a carlsbro, but it fit perfectly!) and no pedal (needed it for my powerball)

But that was to a mate. I doubt that sort of price happens every day

[sambo]

I got my Screamer for exactly £500 with pedal and an amp cover... Perfect nick too.

I recently sold one in perfect condition and freshly valved with JJ's for £400, with cover (albeit a carlsbro, but it fit perfectly!) and no pedal (needed it for my powerball)

But that was to a mate. I doubt that sort of price happens every day

Sold mine on ebay and only got £400 for it too. Was quite annoyed at the time, but needed the cash really.

[noodleplugerine]

Unlucky guys...

£400 is a STEAL for such a brilliant amp..

[sambo]

Unlucky guys...

£400 is a STEAL for such a brilliant amp..

Said that to the guy that bought it. His reply was "Well it's worth what someone will pay for it"...


A right smarmy bar-steward. :lol: :lol:

[dave_mc]

he's right though. that being said, £400 does sound like a good price if you can get one for that- especially if that's with the footswitch. :)

[sambo]

he's right though.

Shhh!