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Post subject: What guitar amplifier should I get?
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:03 pm
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What guitar amplifier should I get?

I know this probably should go in the amplifier forum, but not many people go there

Here are some of my influences: Aerosmith, The Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Cheap Trick, CSN, Deep Purple, Dire Straits, The Doors, The Eagles, ELO, ELP, Eric Clapton, Genesis, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mother Love Bone, Neil Young, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Pink Floyd, The Police, Porcupine Tree, Queen, The Rolling Stones, Rush, Santana, The Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Temple of the Dog, U2, Van Halen, The Who, ZZ Top etc...

My favorite guitarist is David Gilmour from Pink Floyd and I know he uses Hiwatt amps, the thing is they're to expensive.

What I want is a sort of rush/zeppelin kind of distortion with a really nice vox/fender kind of clean. I want a tube amp and I was thinking about a Peavy classic 50 or an ENGL 50 screamer, but I'm not sure. Here's the thing, I want a "dirty" amp distortion, with a really nice clean sound. If I can't obtain that than I would rather have a nice clean sounding amp than a dirty amp, I can always use a distortion pedal. If anyone knows an amp that provides both, then I'll look into it. If no such thing exists, then suggest me a nice clean sounding amp and I can figure out what to do from there. Btw I do play a strat, so if you know any amp that sounds good with one let me know.


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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:17 pm
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:53 pm
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Since you like David Gilmour, there's some great information and recommendations on http://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=36 -- amps, guitars, pedals and more.


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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 7:18 pm
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I own a Peavey Classic 50/212, and although I don't play through it as often as I do my VOX DA5 or Line6 Guitar POD 2.0 (with headphones in both cases), I do love it for what it is. I'd tried several VOX AC30 combos, and was close to buying a Peavey Classic 50/410, then had a chance to try the Classic 50/212 and decided it was the one for me. To my ear, the Peavey Classic 50/212 sounds just like a VOX AC30 combo, but without the built-in tremolo that the AC30 has. No biggie, there. I'll just buy a tremolo pedal for my Peavey, whenever I get a chance.

There are also several models of Fender tube combos within the same price range of the Peavey Classic 50/212, and although there are some quick to dismiss/discount Fender's not-quite-$1,000 combos, I think they're worth giving a try. Just don't do like I did, when trying out a Vibrolux, and find out that "yes, it is possible to have too much reverb." :oops:

Matt

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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:26 pm
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Of course, I'm a huge Fender fan, and love some of their amps. I think a Fender clean is still the prettiest, and a strat straight into a clean Fender amp with a lot of reverb is an almost spiritual experience. But, a lot of Fender mid-gain an above tends to sound very muddy to me, especially when you're playing some lines on the low strings. When compared to my Mesa Boogie, it's very obvious. But then again, you're comparing a $500 production line amp to a $1500 hand-made boutique amp.

The Peavey classic series is a great amp for the money, or any money for that matter. I've always liked the tone on those and always recommend them to people wanting a good, focused tube tone in a smaller budget.

I will say that my 91 Fender Super 210 is still a great amp all around (though buggy and likes to eat tubes). The clean tone with reverb can make you cry it's so beautiful. The lower gain, semi dirty tones are very nice as well, but again - start to mud up real fast when you start putting that gain up.

On a side note: The first Mesa Boogies were actually Fender Princetons that Randall Smith would modify for pros (Santana) way back in the day so they could control their gain (he pretty much invented the gain channel, and channel switching if I'm not mistaken). So there is a lot of Fender soul and blood in the whole Mesa Boogie line.


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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 10:52 am
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The Peavy Classic Series amps are great, and all tube! The only downside being they come with no drive channels and you might need your own distortion pedal. Although they sound beautiful driven or clean! :D

Also, if you can afford an Orange amp like the AD30TC Combo, then try out one of those. I tried one out a few weeks ago, it sounded absolutely beautiful! The price didn't though!! (Can you say $2,000 for a 30W?)


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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 1:54 pm
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I think you should get a Marshall or a Fender amp.Dpending on what kind of Marshall you get it could get expensive. A Fender is good to but doesn't have as much power. I think you should get a Marshall.


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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 3:15 pm
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dgonz wrote:
I will say that my 91 Fender Super 210 is still a great amp all around (though buggy and likes to eat tubes). The clean tone with reverb can make you cry it's so beautiful. The lower gain, semi dirty tones are very nice as well, but again - start to mud up real fast when you start putting that gain up.



I'd agree on the 210, having one myself. If you can find a used one, they tend not to be horribly expensive. The clean channel is great although I'm a bit iffy about the distortion channel. I generally use a TS808 because I'm more into OD than distortion, but that's personal preference.

I have a Line6 DuoVerb that mostly just sits since I ran across the 210 two summers ago.


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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 4:01 pm
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Since you love Gilmour get a CS Gilmour and a CS 57 Fender Twin Tweed!
Then go to Gilmourish and get all the effects they list he has in his chain! No problem. :)


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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 4:41 pm
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I have a hybrid marshall avt 20x and it sounds really warm and nice :)


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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:06 pm
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There is no one or 2 amp that covers that much ground as you have listed.

those are pretty diverse artists out there.

You need to consider 3 main criterias

1) are you leaning towards a British sound or and American sound?

Most of the other amps fall within this spectrum. More or less on either side. That is why the best combination is a Marshall and a Fender for most.

2) How much power and volume can you afford?

There is no point falling in love with a Marshall 100W Jimi Hendrix anniversary model only to find out that you cannot play it at home without leveling 4 square blocks! Knowing that you need 5W or 15W or 30W can already narrow down your amp choice.

3) Tubes or solid state?

This seems like a no brainer but if you are into straight jazz you might opt for a transistor amp. Most rock and blues sound better with tubes.



Now with all that in mind, i have myself amassed a formidable amp collection with which to play both at home and in small gigs without hurting anyone's ears

1) Fender Blues Junior (15W, great for some clean tones)
2)Swart spacetone( 5W tube monster, the best tweed sound ever)
3) Blackstar HT5 (5W tube combo, Marshall like sound from former Marshall employees and design engineers)
4) 1973 Fender Champ( Great little practise amp)
5) Marshall JTM45 combo. (This is a killer but does not get used often enough due to the power and volume. Use it in a room and you go deaf even with ear plugs! This is a small auditorium gig material)

Hope this helps somewhat.

peace


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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:22 pm
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Also, you mention you want a "rush/zeppelin kind of distortion".

Those are two COMPLETELY different tongs. Alex Lifeson used a lot of GK solid state amps, and have a very distinct tone, and that was nothing like Jimmy Page's.

All amps are going to sound different, and an amp is the single biggest factor of your tone. Not that I like modeling amps, but you may want to try your guitar into a decent model, like a line 6 pod or something. Go through the amp models. None are dead on, but some are close. In any case, they'll give you a better target as to where you want your sound to be, and will show you why a Vox sound different than a Fender, and a Marshall sounds different than a Mesa Boogie, etc. Once you find the tone you want, you can take it from there.

What you don't want, is to get an amp that someone else recommends only to find out that the tone you have in your head isn't going to come out of that amp. Unfortunately, it takes some many years of frustration to figure that out.


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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:25 pm
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seems what you need is very simple to me.

a fender hot rod or fender deville. I have a texas red hot rod with extention cab and it has that dirty distortion down well, but the clean headroom is even better. I think the texas red is the best option for the hot rods because of the 40w head with 30w vintage celestion speaker in it.

sometimes the amp distortion is too dirty for certain tunes and my digitech hot rod distortion pedal gives me a full spectrum of distortion, from sharp to dull.

seriously i have the same influence as you, and I'm a strat player. From what i see and the hot rod or deville series amps will work perfect. All tube and affordable.


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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:54 pm
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I've played on number of hot rod and devilles. I love the classic Fender cleans, but they've all seemed to get very muddy, unfocused and "flubby" when you put any mid gain on them. I'll put just a low or mid gain on them, and I can't make out any note definition on the low strings.

Is that texas version different by chance? That would be very nice if it was.


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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 3:04 pm
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I, and many other people on the Internet, are quite fond of our Epiphone Valve Junior half-stacks.

They're cheap, they're quite nice, and they're possibly the most-modded amp available. $250 for a 5W half-stack, or $150 each for the head and speaker separately.


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