Guitar amp poll

Favorite guitar amp

  • Marshall

    Votes: 276 19.8%

  • Mesa Boogie

    Votes: 203 14.6%

  • Fender

    Votes: 301 21.6%

  • Vox

    Votes: 133 9.5%

  • Soldano

    Votes: 27 1.9%

  • Peavey

    Votes: 104 7.5%

  • Anything but a peavey

    Votes: 34 2.4%

  • other

    Votes: 316 22.7%
  • Total voters
    1,394
Has anyone heard a tube guitar amp that sounded horrible?

Ever, even once?

I can't imagine it, because if a tube amp sounded horrible it would probably sound funny and that would be good.

I can imagine it not being the particular tone you want, but there's something innately correct about tube amps that sounds harmonically balanced, as opposed to solid state guitar amps, which can sound good but it sure seems that most don't.

Solid state guitar amps seem to sound innately wrong, but when geniuses tweak them they can make them sound good.
 
dintymoore said:
Has anyone heard a tube guitar amp that sounded horrible?

Ever, even once?

I can't imagine it, because if a tube amp sounded horrible it would probably sound funny and that would be good.

I can imagine it not being the particular tone you want, but there's something innately correct about tube amps that sounds harmonically balanced, as opposed to solid state guitar amps, which can sound good but it sure seems that most don't.

Solid state guitar amps seem to sound innately wrong, but when geniuses tweak them they can make them sound good.
Click to expand...

If you have a solid state amp and you want a quick solution to make it sound "warmer" like a tube, the Cold Compress by Eden Audio is the ticket.
 
Yes, I have heard tube amps that sounded bad, and I'm open-minded about such things. Sometimes a turd's a turd, and the "magic" of tubes isn't going to fix it.

I have both tube and solid state amps and use them for different types of sounds, and sometimes for pretty much the same types of sound, but there's something to be said for the damping of a SS amp.

Oh, here's a little list--
TransTube Bandit 112--$50.00
TransTube Studio Pro 112--traded for a HP tower, good riddance.
Crate Vintage Club 30--Curbside Upgrade
Bogen Challenger 50--$25.00
'40's ElectroMuse (Supro)--$10.00
In the works--an RCA stereo console about to become a Class A combo--Free.
 
Mack Addy said:
Where the hell's the option for Hughes & Kettner!?!? :mad:

I just voted other. Long live the Trilogy!!
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I have yet to try one of these. Saw Alex Lifeson of Rush using them on the last tour, and have been wanting to plug into one since. For some reason, it's not easy to find a dealer near by.
 
Exclusively Fender!

I've been a guitarist since the 1950's. I started with a little Fender tweed amp that I purchased at a pawn shop. It had a bullet hole in the side! (I hope the previous owner wasn't injured ). It served me well through my formative guitar learning phase and still worked perfectly when it was stolen. I've had really bad luck over the years in that area. I also owned a Fender super reverb which I stupidly left over night on a night club bandstand,(too lazy to take it home, knowing that our band was to play again the next night). I know I'm rambling here, You know how old people get. Back to the point. Fender was head and shoulders above the others back then in quality of sound and durability. I hope they are still. I am about to order the new Fender tweed delux which, as I understand is in great demand and I will probably have to wait awhile for delivery. If anyone who already owns one can give feedback, pos. or neg. jump right in. thanks
 
This thread is what, eight years old? I'm sure I've posted before, but not much has changed. I have three Fender guitar amps, a Silvertone 1484, and now a Mesa-Boogie bass amp.

The Silvertone is the same one I bought in Austin for $40 in 1974; it still gets used, once a month or so. The last time I had it in the shop the tech was pulling people into his space, saying, "This is what real point-to-point wiring looks like!"

Fenders make me happy: they are always musical, predictable, and available in a wide variety of models. Currently I have a Jazzmaster Ultralight, which is a terrific solid state beast that puts out 250 watts and weighs 26 lb, speaker and all.

Next up is the grab-and-go killer, a Blues Jr NOS (tweed, Jensen speaker, Ruby Reverb) that travels with me to most jams and many gigs when I don't take the JM. Lightweight, handsome, great sound.

The last one is an oddball combination of a Band-Master VM head plugged into a Weber California Ceramic 15 in a Weber cabinet. This would be my one and only if it were as small and light as the other two, but it has a sound that makes it worth the hassle: rich and full, sweet top end, digital effects, tube drive preamp, solid state clean preamp, tube power amp. All over the internet participants in forums like this delight in solemnly informing me that "it's not a REAL Band-Master" which is true. What it is, is a musical and fairly light head that really fits my 335 and my playing style.

I had a modded Pignose G40V that my grandson got for Christmas. Eminence Ragin' Cajun (where do they get these names?) speaker, Sovtek power tubes, 12AU7 sub for the middle pre tube -- a great sounding, loud and aggressive rock amp.

The new star of the ensemble is not a guitar amp. It's a Mesa/Boogie Walkabout Scout 1x15 bass amp that makes my Precision sound like the voice of the bass god.

I had a 1970 Les Paul gold top that I no longer played since I got my 335 and an SG with a Bigsby, so I sold it. Then I drove 200 miles to a shop that had a floor demo Walkabout with a cream vinyl covering, handed over the money I got for Lester and took a ten dollar bill and 43 cents in change.

The Mesa/Boogie replaces a couple of Ampegs (B15N and B100R) and, more recently a Hartke stack. It's a clever 300 watt hybrid head that nests in a cabinet that has either 1-12" and an 8" passive radiator or, in the model I have, 1-15" and a 10" passive radiator.

Also, it's cream cover is very attractive, and quite a contrast to the usual black on black (ever wonder why manufacturers of pro audio gear insist on labeling inputs and outputs with grey-on-black or black-on-black? Every band I've been in has carried a flashlight to prevent plugging the speakers into the DI inputs).
 
Toker41 said:
I haven't had a chance to check these out. Please tell me more....
Click to expand...
man ..... it's SO freakin' good for what I do. You're a Mesa guy right? You gotta check one out!
I do the hired gun thing so one night I'm doing twangy country and the next night it's jazz or blues or rock.
I can get anything I want out of it and there's not a bad sound in the bunch.
Wait, I think I posted a review on it .... ah, there it is. This is from before I gigged with it. I've since done 7 or 8 gigs with it and my reaction is just as enthusiastic as these initial impressions but I've changed a few of my choices ..... I've gone to 'Fat' for the clean mode and 'Extreme' for the high gain channel.
Still using the 'Mark I' setting for channel 2.
It's a really really great sounding amp ..... worth every penny. Sure is complex though so we'll have to see if it holds up to gigging but it's a Mesa so it should be durable. Hope so.
Anyway ..... my initial reaction:

"it's awesome guys.
I won't really have a good report 'till I gig with it tomorrow night but some early impressions:

First ..... it's small ...... the same size as my Blue Angel. I worried about combo vs head & cab because of the weight but I'm glad I went combo ...... one thing to carry and nothing to hook up ..... set it on the floor and you're done.

At 65lbs it's not a featherweight but it's easily handled, by me at least.
It has casters which I usually think are stupid 'cause I have a dolly and little hard casters beat the shit out of an amp rolling it on concrete etc.
But Mesa has an awesome rail system with a push button where you can take them off easily and it just uses standard casters so you can replace them easily or get bigger ones. And they are neat for moving it around the house ...... score one for Mesa!

If you've looked at Mesa's site and read what it does, you know it's basically 9 amps in one.
I can tell you, there's not a bad sound among them.
I quickly zero'd in on my favorites but that was with my strat. I feel sure that with a humbucker git, I'll likely choose different ones.

Channel 1, the clean channel, is wicked ....... on the 'clean' setting you've got pedal-steel clean with no dirt at all ...... and Fat is much the same but with more 'body' to it.
But Tweed is the shit ......... sounds like an old Bassman combo with just a little bit of breakup to it ....... just enough to add some nice harmonics to the sound but not really distorted.

Channel 2 ....... for me it the Mark 1 setting ....... I loved Mark ones and this has that sound.
It's gonna be my choice for crunch rhythms but it does a great lead sound too. Easy pinch harmonics ........ a really good sound.
I liked it enough to where I didn't really investigate the other two settings much.

Channel 3 is the hi-gain channel although I liked channel 2's Mark 1 sound so much for leads that I might play around with dialing the gain way back and using 3 for crunch rhythms.
But 3 is a gain monster ....... I liked the Mark IIC+ best although maybe the Mark IV ...... I'll have to see.
I didn't care much for the Extreme setting but with a different git I might.

The EQ is amazing and the presets ( 'V' setting) is useful .... you have a knob that progressively deepens the 'V'. Since I know how to use an EQ, I found my own choices preferable to the preset so I used the sliders but you can assign either to any channel.
And the EQ can come on automatically in a channel or just by footswitch or even not available in a channel.

Separate reverb levels for each channel and a nice 'verb at that.
Not quite as lush as my Blue Angel but the Blue Angel is the reverb king and Mesa themselves told me that it was comparable to the Blue Angel but not quite as good ....... I'd agree. A VERY nice 'verb comparable to a nice blackface .....

Tube or disode rectification at 45 watts .... auto selected as tube at 10 watts and diode at 90 watts.

All of this stuff is channel assignable and you have a seriously sturdy 8 button footswitch ..... it even has a mute button for tuning and there's an out for the tuner.

But wait ..... there's more!


This is not for the tweak-averse. The tone controls are very interactive and there's a zillion different ways to use just about everything.
I think it could be so versatile that it could cover ANY studio use ....... no need for anything else because you can get so many different sounds. You could have this amp alone and you'd be able to do anything and sound like you had lots of different amps.

And the modes ...... you know how many times an amp has different modes but they don't really sound that different? Just EQ'd a little differently?
This isn't like that ....... it's much like actual different amps. Even the gain can change enough to where you'll have to set the tone and volumes way different for each.
And the wattage assign ...... wow that's cool. You can have a channel on 90 watts for pristine cleans and another at 10 watts and dimed out for true power tube distortion.
And there's a global volume boost for solo'ing if you need yet another sound.

Plus ..... what other company will return your call in a day and then spend 45 minutes on the phone with you telling you the pros and cons of the amp?

The only thing Mesa said that some players complained about is that if you have one channel set at 10 watts and the others at 45 or 90 ...... you'll get a pop when you switch channels. He said there's no way to avoid it because you have all this power that has to be dissipated plus you're going from multiple tubes in A/B to a single tube Class A. I did notice the pop but didn't find it to be enough to be an issue when playing.
It doesn't happen if all channels are on 10 watts or any combination of 45 and 90 watts. ONLY if you have channels set on higher wattage and switch to one at 10.

This amp is gonna occupy my time for a while .......... if all you want to do is plug in and go ....... this ain't the amp for you ....... while you can just plug in and go because it sounds great ...... there's no way you're gonna sit down and dial it completely in one afternoon. There's just too many possibilities.
I'm sure I'll be tweaking it over the next few weeks as I gig, which is the only way to know for sure about some of my choices. And at this point I've only tried every channel at the 10 watt setting which is Class A triode so there's a whole 'nother bunch of sounds I haven't even heard yet.
But even though I'm just getting started to learn this thing I can already tell that for someone like me, who goes from Merle Haggard to ZZ Top to Maroon 5 ..... it's amazing and versatile and, if it holds up, possibly the best amp ever!"
 
I cant beleive that you have left orange off that list, its a pure disgrace, they are the only amps for me and the only amps to deliver raw english tone every time!!
xxxx
 
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