The New Tone Thread

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liv_rong said:
What do you guys think of this? For me right from the intro that tone is great to me. The "clean" channel sounds ok but I would want a prestine tone for that amount of money, not a jacked pushed "clean" like that. The 3rd channel is good too but man that amp in general sounds amazing to me.

https://youtu.be/1_bQl1OEg70

(Sorry for the mobile link)
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I've heard loads of really good reviews of those Friedman amps and he's got some great tones there. You've got to ask yourself though, what on earth are you really gonna do with a 100W head? Sure our Blackstars have some inherent drawback with their EQ, but they have a very clear clean channel and at 20W you can get them working hard at a relatively reasonable volume level. They're also pretty cheap - I haven't found anything under 6 or 7 hundred quid which I prefer to the Blackstar yet.
 
Friedman amps are always good. I'm a huge fan of the Friedman Brown Eye. I don't like his sound in that clip, but that aint the amp's fault, I'm just not a fan of that drop metal shit sound.


JDOD sort of has a point. What are you gonna do with a 100w Friedman head? Where his point fails though is that a 100w Friedman head will ass-rape destroy any Blackstar at any volume. That's just how it goes. Sound great is what you could do with it. So if you're interested in that amp, buy it, you could do a lot worse.
 
JDOD said:
I've heard loads of really good reviews of those Friedman amps and he's got some great tones there. You've got to ask yourself though, what on earth are you really gonna do with a 100W head? Sure our Blackstars have some inherent drawback with their EQ, but they have a very clear clean channel and at 20W you can get them working hard at a relatively reasonable volume level. They're also pretty cheap - I haven't found anything under 6 or 7 hundred quid which I prefer to the Blackstar yet.
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Yes totally. I would only get one if I were rich. But if the right 100 watt head came along I would be adverse to it to get the tones I want. And the Blackstar is great for recording cleans no doubt but it has no headroom for band volume playing. I use it often in that setting and when pushed that channel breaks up way too early. I've been looking at eating something else for cleans lately for just that purpose. But generally im happy with the Blackstars gain channel for the most part for what I do with it.
 
Greg_L said:
Friedman amps are always good. I'm a huge fan of the Friedman Brown Eye. I don't like his sound in that clip, but that aint the amp's fault, I'm just not a fan of that drop metal shit sound.


JDOD sort of has a point. What are you gonna do with a 100w Friedman head? Where his point fails though is that a 100w Friedman head will ass-rape destroy any Blackstar at any volume. That's just how it goes. Sound great is what you could do with it. So if you're interested in that amp, buy it, you could do a lot worse.
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I see what you're saying Greg. But the Friedman is a fuck load more cash than a blackstar. At that sort of money there's probably a shit load more options around that are more usable than a 100W head.
 
Suppose it depends whether you want a recording amp or a rehersal/gigging amp.. or some combination of the two
 
JDOD said:
Suppose it depends whether you want a recording amp or a rehersal/gigging amp.. or some combination of the two
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Definitely. I think that Runt 20 would be a step up from my Blackstar. I just don't know if cleans would work for me at that wattage at the loud volumes I like to play at. I'll probably get a Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue within the next few months for clean stuff at loud volumes. They come up used and cheap around here all the time. Eventually, no time soon, I'll get something different than the Blackstar. I do like it though don't get me wrong, just doesn't do what we want exactly.
 
If I had the $$$, I'd get another 50 or 100w amp. My current living situation doesn't allow me to get loud very often, but I won't be here forever either...I miss my big EL34 amps, there's no fighting one to get a good tone on "tape", & I will eventually get another big amp or two...

Liv, if you can afford a Friedman, I say buy it. While I've never played through one, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. They're basically a really expensive high-end, hot rodded Marshall...
 
I bought, I thought, a No FX CD EP a couple of weeks ago, amongst a bunch of otehr cool stuff at a fete. It wasn't until I got home that I deiscovered my excitement had blinkered me - I'd bough a DEF FX CD - stupid Aussie (con)fusion band...
My wife was a year ahead of the singer at High School - this vid is from a reunion tour in 13 - she's now a published witch.
 
Liv, I was just looking at amps at that sort of price range myself (although the next purchase is probably gonna be a guitar and I'll build a cab).

There is a shit load of stuff available, the cheapest by far being the Blackstar HT60. (half the price of the cheapest stuff by Friedman) but when you get in that 900 - 1300 quid range there's mini Rectifiers, Rectoverbs, Peavey 6505s, Victorys, big Marshalls some of the Suhr stuff etc. The intriguing one is that you're also getting into Kemper money.

I don't know anyone who's tried a Kemper yet but the reviews are saying that the latest ones have nailed it completely! I hope that's true as a Kemper could solve a lot of my problems!
 
rayc said:
I bought, I thought, a No FX CD EP a couple of weeks ago, amongst a bunch of otehr cool stuff at a fete. It wasn't until I got home that I deiscovered my excitement had blinkered me - I'd bough a DEF FX CD - stupid Aussie (con)fusion band...

My wife was a year ahead of the singer at High School - this vid is from a reunion tour in 13 - she's now a published witch.
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Oh dear... these are not the punks you were looking for.
 
Misfits bits - I don't have much - a pick guard & Jerry figurine...
misfitscratch.webpJerry.webpDSC02180.webp
My nephews bought them for me because they dig the band, like to educate me and indulge my musical aquisitiveness.
 
Cool, I don't have any actually collectable shit like that. Just a few pictures and books.
 
JDOD said:
Liv, I was just looking at amps at that sort of price range myself (although the next purchase is probably gonna be a guitar and I'll build a cab).

Try the HT-60 before you buy! I am bound to say it is a great amp (!) and would be very reliable (and loud, I never benched one that did not kick 80W+!) but many people don't like the "Blackstar Sound".

You are looking only at heads? The new "Artist" 30 might suit, different voicing from other B'stars and 6L6 OPstage but as yet, no head option. The company seemed resistant to do heads and (I understand) the HT-50 and other heads only came about due to punter pester power!

Dave.
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ecc83 said:
but many people don't like the "Blackstar Sound".
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I don't dislike it, certainly not in the room, but it does seem to have a massive bump in the low mids (LOL, check out me getting all technical with my frequencies). It also seems like the position of the bass and mid controls is a little odd, almost like the bass creeps into the mids so its quite hard to dial in. Liv seems to have very different EQ settings to me though so maybe that's partially due to differences between my combo and his Orange cab.
 
JDOD said:
I don't dislike it, certainly not in the room, but it does seem to have a massive bump in the low mids (LOL, check out me getting all technical with my frequencies). It also seems like the position of the bass and mid controls is a little odd, almost like the bass creeps into the mids so its quite hard to dial in. Liv seems to have very different EQ settings to me though so maybe that's partially due to differences between my combo and his Orange cab.
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Ooo! You can't go comparing speakers! Especially combos and cabs. Fork! Two V30 can sound different!

"Mid/bass hump" Yes, many peeps say they are "dark" . Have you tried an EQ pedal in the FX loop? about 3-8dB lift at 2-3kHz. Folks say it works well for the HT-20.

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Ooo! You can't go comparing speakers! Especially combos and cabs. Fork! Two V30 can sound different!

"Mid/bass hump" Yes, many peeps say they are "dark" . Have you tried an EQ pedal in the FX loop? about 3-8dB lift at 2-3kHz. Folks say it works well for the HT-20.

Dave.
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I haven't tried an EQ pedal in the loop yet - it does kind of piss me off that I should have to - but I am thinking of trying that soon. I'm in the process of re-thinking the layout of my pedal board; putting a delay and verb in the loop, so I might put an EQ in there also. I haven't got the knowledge of how what I hearing relates to frequencies in Hz yet though so an additional EQ in the loop might just end up being and annoying and confusing waste of time.

I've changed the speaker in my amp to a V30 (which was a massive improvement) and Liv also has a V30 in his Orange cab. So the main difference should be the choice of cab.

For all I whinge about dialing in my Blackstar - I am getting some pretty good tones out of it (just not quite what I'm after yet) and it only cost 500 quid! The amps I am thinking of replacing it with one day are all twice the price.
 
ecc83 said:
The company seemed resistant to do heads and (I understand) the HT-50 and other heads only came about due to punter pester power!

Dave.
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Stuff like this irks me. Why wouldn't an amp company want to make heads? The only reason I can think of is because they want to pander to the little bedroom player. And that's fine, they need amps too, but notice how no serious pros are using Blackstar? I just spent 3 days at Riot Fest, saw tons of amps ranging from the standard big-name backline stuff to boutique weirdness....and not one single Blackstar. Not one. So I don't know what Blackstar's problem is. They make amps that struggle to sound good and they don't make amps for serious giggers. Good business plan.
 
Greg_L said:
Stuff like this irks me. Why wouldn't an amp company want to make heads? The only reason I can think of is because they want to pander to the little bedroom player. And that's fine, they need amps too, but notice how no serious pros are using Blackstar? I just spent 3 days at Riot Fest, saw tons of amps ranging from the standard big-name backline stuff to boutique weirdness....and not one single Blackstar. Not one. So I don't know what Blackstar's problem is. They make amps that struggle to sound good and they don't make amps for serious giggers. Good business plan.
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I think they are generally aiming at younger people getting their first "decent" amp as that's the price point. As pissed grunge musician in my late teens and early 20s the idea of saving up 500 quid by doing shit jobs was realistic. The idea of saving up over a grand wasn't. In the even I spend 350 quid on a bandit and didn't buy a tube amp for another 20 years!

Its still annoying that they don't like doing heads though - getting a head allows you to get an inherently more modular up-gradable rig.
 
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