Do-it-all amp?

[dave_mc]

(a) Clean, rhythm and lead. But rhythm does not equal "crunch". I'm not Malcolm Young. I want a rhythm tone with some gain.
A two channel amp with footswitchable master volumes would do the trick as well.

(b) That being said, looks like my Carvin V3M is ticking all the right boxes, and its bigger brother is getting ever nearer the top of my list.

(a) or even just with a boost. you can also approximate the twin switchable masters approach with either a boost or passive volume pedal in the loop (i think)- so don't discount otherwise perfect amps just because they don't have switchable masters, because that's one of the easiest things to to fix.

(b) yeah i mean if the carvin does what you want, then go with that. I didn't mention them because I haven't tried them, that's the only reason.

[Sancho]

(b) yeah i mean if the carvin does what you want, then go with that. I didn't mention them because I haven't tried them, that's the only reason.

I'll wait until the honeymoon phase is over before I pull the trigger.

As for the boost in the loop : I've done that before and it does work with most amps. Which puts the 5150 family back on the map as well.

[richard]

Laney VH100 - 2 channels with 2 footswitchable modes each. Great high gain sounds and the cleans are fantastic as well.

[Sancho]

Laney VH100

I love my GH100L. Love it. But... it was slightly modded to smooth out the gain.
The guy who did the mods has vanished from the face of the earth, unfortunately. But yeah, I suppose I should put the VH100 on my shortlist. Which by now isn't quite so short any more...

[HTH AMPS]

Marshall JCM800 and a couple of good overdrive/distortion pedals.

This.  Exactly what I'd be doing in your situation.

this IS essentially what I do and cover everything from Lady Gaga to The Darkness - use your guitar's volume pot to vary the overdriven tone.

[Sancho]

use your guitar's volume pot to vary the overdriven tone.

Nope, sorry. Not a road I want to take...

[HTH AMPS]

use your guitar's volume pot to vary the overdriven tone.

Nope, sorry. Not a road I want to take...

why not? - some great tones to be had that way.

[AndyR]

I'm with HTH on the "why not?"

Not because I think you ought to do it, everyone's got to go their own way to get their instrument doing what they want it to do.

But I would be interested to hear your reasoning after "Not a road I want to take...". That made it sound like you think it might be some effort and possibly not productive enough. Of course, it does kinda depend on the type of music you play, how distinct you want the different voices to be, and the ease of getting from one to another accurately everytime.

Personally, I stumbled into the volume control way of doing it in gigs in the 80s because I had to - I was lead guitar and lead vocal and I was using a single channel marshall-type thing. I used a guvnor to kick it a bit harder when I wanted, but I was pretty much using vol/tone on the guitar almost by instinct.

Playing at home, I was still tending to use "everything on full" on the guitar because at living room volumes backing off does tend to muddy you up a bit more than you'd like. In the last few years though (always at home now) after much fiddling with small amps and a couple of modellors, I've found that the "muddying up" thing was a lot more to do with trying to use my "gig" amp EQ after turning the master down to neighbour friendly levels. I'm much more prepared to naff about with the EQ knobs on an amp nowadays depending on what volume I'm restricted to... in days gone by I used to "find my magical settings" on the amp and then tended to expect it to work from one venue to the next, forgetting that it still had adjustable tone controls!  :lol:

I've actually had a lot more grief and problems getting a channel switching amp to do what I want. Yeah, I can get a cleaner clean or more godlike "godlike-lead-tone"... but can i get the two to sound like it's the same guitarist in the same song?! Nope... :roll:

So, ummm... yeah, I'm probably even less help for you in this thread than some others. I'd personally want a single channel amp that gave me "the" basic sound which I could then stick a quick boost/overdrive in front of if the guitar controls didn't give me enough variation. :lol:

[Transcend]

My own limitations are that i MUST have a dedicated clean channel.

Purely because i dont have any controls wired up on my guitars other than the pickup selector as i prefer the tone this way.

And also the fact that im too lazy and when i tried it i could never get it consistent.

For me its 2 strong channels & a seperate boost for solos all the way

[asianaxeman]

use your guitar's volume pot to vary the overdriven tone.

Nope, sorry. Not a road I want to take...

Agree that for you that is NOT the road to take, it's 2011 for Christ's sake, the technology is available to switch tones with one switch of a pedal, most players who need versatility in cover bands don't need to be fiddling with volume nobs like EVH did back in the day messing with single channels amps- that's exactly why his latest amp is a 3 channel beast!

I suggest you consder a jvm410 (midi controllable), EVH5150iii ( 50w version coming out soon should be less than a grand) or an engl screamer head....add a few pedals or a gmajor in the loop for later on and you've got a cracking rig. i hate to say it but someone earlier suggested axe fx ultra on the cheap which sounds like a plan but not sure how cheap they'll get and then you've got a hassle of getting a separate poweramp and rack gear etc.

[asianaxeman]

...this dude gets some killer tones with his engl screamer head and gmajor- check it out-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCwK3c9S4JY

[Sancho]

why not? - some great tones to be had that way.

Agree that for you that is NOT the road to take, it's 2011 for Christ's sake, the technology is available to switch tones with one switch of a pedal, most players who need versatility in cover bands don't need to be fiddling with volume nobs like EVH did back in the day messing with single channels amps- that's exactly why his latest amp is a 3 channel beast!

This, basically.
For years I've gotten my clean sound by turning down my guitar's volume. It always felt and sounded like a compromise. Whether with a Laney GH100 or a Marshall 2203 or a DSL, it was passable at best. Each of these amps is capable of both great cleans and great dirt, but not at the same time...
Now I simply want an amp with several dedicated channels.

[Sancho]

...this dude gets some killer tones with his engl screamer head and gmajor- check it out-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCwK3c9S4JY

I agree he gets some good tones, but he's still fiddling about with overdrives. I want to take those out of the equation as well.
The Thunder looks like it might be more up my alley than the Screamer as well. But if I'm going multichannel, I might just as well get separate tone and especially gain controls per channel.

[HTH AMPS]

why not? - some great tones to be had that way.

Agree that for you that is NOT the road to take, it's 2011 for Christ's sake, the technology is available to switch tones with one switch of a pedal, most players who need versatility in cover bands don't need to be fiddling with volume nobs like EVH did back in the day messing with single channels amps- that's exactly why his latest amp is a 3 channel beast!

This, basically.
For years I've gotten my clean sound by turning down my guitar's volume. It always felt and sounded like a compromise. Whether with a Laney GH100 or a Marshall 2203 or a DSL, it was passable at best. Each of these amps is capable of both great cleans and great dirt, but not at the same time...
Now I simply want an amp with several dedicated channels.

Thats fair enough, I do know what you mean.  For me it's not a problem as I like my 'clean' quite dirty (crunchy) - it also adds weight to your tone when playing live.

From the amps you say you've played, a Splawn would likely sort you out - plexi, JCM800 and hotrod tones.  What else would you want (unless you play extreme metal).

You may also look into a Top Hat Emplexador - plexi and JCM800 tones, great amp.

[Telerocker]

I think no one's wrong in this thread. Going from clean to full throttle with the vol.knob can work, but depends on the pickup and amp. I got amazing cleans and semi-cleans this way. However in my current coverband I just need cleans at high levels and this asks for an amp with a lot of headroom (on the clean channel). I prefer at the moment at least a two channelamp. Wit some good pedals you can do a lot of styles. I have great results with the Suhr Riot dist. which is designed for the use in front of the cleanchannel. Great tubeamplike tones out of that box.