amp recommendations for home recording

R

raindogred

New member
I have a small studio under my house where there is a drum kit and 30 watt bass amp. For guitars I don,t have an amp and have used either a V-amp /and or the amplitube plugin. Never really been happy with the guitar sound I have been getting so far. Can someone recommend a good all rounder amp in the 30-50watt range. Have looked so far at just peavey gear - studio 112 and the classic 30 tube amp, both sound pretty good. can anyone suggest/recomend a good all round amp for getting good rock/blues/clean sounds. Can anyone recomend other brands eg marshall valavestate or roland?/whatever
cheers
 
THE recording amp

Yo...I have been a blues/Hendrix guitarist for near 40 years, and I found that the Fender Cyber Champ amp is the ticket for recording. With 21 pre-sets (7 you can build & then save yourself) it can't be beat. It has a factory "Red House" setting that comes real close to the exact sound Hendrix was getting that day in the studio....and you can tweak it any way you like then save it to your 7 available amp settings "Players Lounge" bank...Lots of great clean amps too "65 Deluxe Reverb" etc. etc. I've been a Tube and analog purist for a long time...but this amp won me over....60 watts/1-12" spk...about $400.00 new!
Have Fun! :)
 
For just recording, I'd suggest:

1) A small tube amp in the 5 to 15 watt range that you can really CRANK to get some power tube saturation.

2) Vox Pathfinder 15. This one's starting to get notice from some pro studios. I paid $99 US for mine and now the best price is $119 US. Best "budget amp" on the market today.
 
Second the Vox Pathfinder. Really nice tone for a cheap 15 watt solid state amp (and plenty of ooomph too) :cool:
 
i use a Pod Xt to great affect.......

also, don't forget the Fender Blues Jr......
15 watts tube, still very loud.....

Probably the THD Univalve, would give the widest choices of tones and sounds, and is easy to control volume wise and has a lot of features.....
 
I used a Digitech RP50 Modeling Guitar Processor, run direct, to record the song in my signature line. Hey, it's kinda cheesy, but it's only $60 and it's got a great tuner.
 
regarding the suggestions on the PoD and the digitech I have found that its really hard to get guitar tracks to sit nicely in a mix using the V-amp, which is similar to these. It can be done but I usually have to do a whole bunch of EQing and compressing and stuff which throws everything else out and then takes heaps of time to fix. On the oher hand when we recorded a mates 100 watt marshall valvestate the other day-was pretty much a case of put a sm57 in front and it was perfect-no eqing (or very little) was required-it was the best guitar recording I have done. Gots heaps of different sounds just by changing mic position .having said that I think the effects are pretty cool in amplitube and will probably still use it fo that. Also the behringer V-amp is pretty cool as a DI for bass on some of the settings if you muck around a bit.

I really also like the suggestion about a small 15 watt tube amp and cranking that up.

cheers
 
Actually, I use the VAMP-2 and a Pod Pro. I prefer the Vamp for clean sounds and the POD for distortion, but- I had all the problems you describe until I took these puppies, plugged them into a good power amp, and then into a Marshall 1X12 cab and mic'd it up. I don't think the real problem is the amp modeler, but that nothing really simulates the sound of a speaker moving air into a real mic. Another trick is to take the line out from the modeler and run it into a powered reference monitor, or a power amp and then into a passive monitor, and mic the monitor. Don't close mic the monitor as if it was a cab. Back the mic off 3-4' or so, where you would listen to it mixing. It'll sound like hell in the room, because you and the mic can't both be in the neaar field. It'll sound fine on the recording. Use a condenser, rather than the cheap dynamic that sounds so good on a cranked up cab. I don't have anything against amps, but if you give your modeler real sound in real space, I think you'll find it's better than you thought.-Richie
 
thanks dude-great idea. I have behringer truths and Rode Nt1 and a couple of those mxl603s as condensers-they may be OK. will try that out a.s.a.p.

Good to know that its not only me that has experienced these difficulties-was starting to get worried there. When I bought the V-amp I just couldn,t see how you could get better quality in a recording than by going direct. I think your combination of the 2 sounds well worth trying.

Was thinking - its like the sound of the room coming into it as well-giving the recording a bit of depth. I'm still gonna get an amp -will be fun trying em all out this weekend.

ciao
 
The v-amp pro is not that great for distortion, I can't complain bout the price and it does have some very interesting effects.
 
small tube amps are definately the way to go...

vibro champ, AC15, fender pro junior. any of those would rule.
 
Get a Vox AD120 VTh Head.

It is bad ass!!!!!
It has 16 amp simulators, 11 cab , a bunch of fxs, a tube power amp, and can be switched from 1, 15, 30, or 60 watts a side (stereo head)


Trust me on this one, go to http//:www.vox.com and look up this head, they have demos on their that are the real deal, then go to your local music store and play one.. I gurantee they will blow all other amps out of the way, Ilove this amp. it sounds ssooooo good!!!
 
stuff said:
Get a Vox AD120 VTh Head.

It is bad ass!!!!!
It has 16 amp simulators, 11 cab , a bunch of fxs, a tube power amp, and can be switched from 1, 15, 30, or 60 watts a side (stereo head)


Trust me on this one, go to http//:www.vox.com and look up this head, they have demos on their that are the real deal, then go to your local music store and play one.. I gurantee they will blow all other amps out of the way, Ilove this amp. it sounds ssooooo good!!!
Click to expand...

that's not vox's website, by the way
 
bixlmalta said:
The v-amp pro is not that great for distortion, I can't complain bout the price and it does have some very interesting effects.
Click to expand...


Drop a YJM308 type pedal in front of it to give it a little nudge and you'll be suprised;) Very effective !! :D
 
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