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Post by MDV on Jul 5, 2014 16:50:17 GMT
So I suppose I should start
Engl Powerball - Great amp, I like it. I mostly use it for cleans these days but overall its my number 2 (of 3). Said cleans are outstanding. The mid gain sounds are hit or miss, depending what you're going for, and the high gain is extraordinarily tight, very compressed and with the valves I'm running actually quite dry (drier than a 5150). It's hard to dial in without an EQ in the loop, and tricky to mic but I love the amp overall. Nothing does 'mechanical brutality' quite like it.
Peavey 6505+ - Need I really describe it. It does a sound. It does that sound very well and its a very popular sound. I like that sound or I wouldn't have the amp. A sound thats a bit like a condom in recording modern metal. You can have it and not need, but needing it and not having it will fuck your day up.
VHT Pittbull 100CL EQ - 2 quite similar channels. Both will go from clean to high gain. Very, very responsive, dry, clear amp. Completely unforgiving. Aggressive sounding to such an extent it makes the other two sound tame and restrained. Very powerful controls - it'll go from thick and scooped to bright and crunchy in a couple of tweaks. Usable gain range is amazing - clean to death metal and all points in between and all done very well indeed. I've used it to record country, blues, hard-rock, thrash metal, death metal and more, and it pulls it off every time. Feels great to play through - what you do to the strings is what happens to the speakers. Absolutely love it.
All through a mesa recto cab. I could write another post about how awesome that is, but I'll spare you it. Just buy one.
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Post by Tony on Jul 5, 2014 17:25:05 GMT
I currently have three amps and I will list them in order of preference. The White One - This started out life as a Soldano SLO clone but it is constantly changing. In it's current state it's very punchy & midrange based and doesn't have a tonne of gain but the gain that it does have is very focused and can go from dry & crunchy to saturated and chugtastic. Mesa MKIIC+ clone - This one is an amp that I have always wanted. It absolutely nails those early Metallica tones and has a very powerful EQ giving excellent versatility but imho it sounds best slightly or extremely scooped as it just suits the voicing of the circuit. It can do everything from your Santana type stuff right up to modern tech metal. Laney Ironheart Studio - I got this just so that I could still play guitar in more restricted circumstances but i've grown to love it. Gainwise it's a bit of a strange beast as it has loads but it never really saturates. The push/pull EQ options are a bit of a letdown as they are very subtle changes. The main draw of this amp though is silent recording that also tracks DI's and allows reamping at a later date. All of the above are used through a Roadkill cab loaded with Eminence Legend V128 speakers.  |
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Post by MDV on Jul 5, 2014 17:44:33 GMT
Your SLO-ish amp is outstanding. Love that thing.
Didn't really get on with the ironheart I had round here for a while (mates amp, I forget why it was here, but it was).
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Post by slartibartfarst42 on Jul 6, 2014 0:24:33 GMT
Rather like guitars, I keep things simple with amps. I only own one and it's a Blackstar HT-60 Soloist. It's rather like a Marshal;l but with a slightly more modern slant on the tone. I love it and have no plans to change
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Post by Blankplank on Jul 6, 2014 18:53:00 GMT
Your SLO-ish amp is outstanding. Love that thing. Didn't really get on with the ironheart I had round here for a while (mates amp, I forget why it was here, but it was). I have a feeling you'd get along with the Ironheart with a boost in front. It's much like an Uberschall in that respect. You need to try my 15w Ironheart, everyone that's tried it has preferred it to the full 120w version. Also, I have one amp, a Diezel Hagen. Sold a Blackstar S1-100, Peavey 6505+ (the one MDV mentioned above, as it went to him), and a Schecter Loomis to buy it, and have no regrets at all. Absolutely pristine cleans, a nice slightly broken clean/crunch, skull-crushing rhythm, and super-sexy leads. It's insanely versatile, and I can't find a single fault with it. Next on the WTB list however is a Kemper. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2014 9:25:46 GMT
Engl Invader 150 - I've been harping on about this thing for years, but it is just my tone. Channel 2, bright and high gain modes engaged, and it just decimates. It's tight as a nuns chuff (not quite as much as Mark's VHT, that thing is ungodly tight), very unforgiving, but it just ends up dominating mixes (live and recorded).
Marshall JVM410H - Outstanding amp, and has changed my views on Marshalls. The gain character doesn't quite work perfectly for Lacrota (my main band), it needs a boost to change the character for that (nothing to do with tightening the amp, more about tone shaping) but it works great for my second band. It's got the right amount of harshness to cut through, a nice amount of chunk when digging in, and the lead tone on it is sublime.
I don't have anything else worth speaking of (a broken Marshall Valvestate 8200, the POD HD500 which I only use for effects etc), but I can see getting a Kemper at some point over the next couple of years. After tweaking one a fair amount over the weekend, a glorious tone was achieved.
To back up Ant on the Ironheart 15 watter, Pete from my bands owned the 120-watt version and neither of us were sold on it. Nice tone but nothing special and had trouble in a mix. The 15 watter sounds very different (the EL84s at work I expect) and as a smaller amp for practice and things like that, I personally think it blows away the lower wattage Blackstars, Orange etc
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Mattayus
New Guy
Sir Groove-A-Lot
Posts: 13 
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Post by Mattayus on Jul 7, 2014 23:50:55 GMT
Mesa/Boogie 'reborn' Dual Rectifier - My favourite of any amp I've owned personally. I'm in a covers band these days that does everything from Sabbath to Machine Head, and this does it all incredibly convincingly. It's got *that* rectifier tone, but it's just got some extra mojo going on. They've made the presence control a lot more responsive, and much smoother too. The option to have everything channel-specific and not global is a stroke of genius too, IMO. You can step down to 50w for each channel, not the whole amp, which is mind-boggling in itself. You can also choose the good ol' standard rectifier options that are on all rectifiers (bold/spongy, valve/diode rectification) per channel too. So you can go from a 50w spongy screaming lead channel, fully power amp saturated, but keep the clean channel 100w for full sparkly headroom. There's some wizardry in that shit. (Also, the clean channel is no longer an afterthought like on previous rectifier models. It's actually very fucking clean and chimey). 3 fully independent channels, with tons of options for each one, and 3 modes on each channel, it can do absolutely anything, and do it better than most other amps.
Marshall JVM410H - Not mine personally, but it lives at my house when my bandmate isn't using it, as he only ever uses it when we're either rehearsing or gigging! Gotta echo what Stu said basically - I've never liked Marshalls, but this thing absolutely takes my face off. I use it a lot for reamping, as it's got some real grunt to it. The channel options are never ending, 4 channels, each with 3 modes, you can get ac/dc rawking spank or Florida death metal grime, absolutely bonkers amounts of gain, and fucking stonking lead tones! Very 'meh' cleans though, but... it's a Marshall, after all.
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