Best/Favorite SOLID STATE Amp (poll)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mr. C
  • Start date Start date

Best/Favorite Solid State Amp?

  • Peavey

    Votes: 30 10.4%

  • Fender

    Votes: 45 15.6%

  • Marshall

    Votes: 33 11.4%

  • Crate

    Votes: 25 8.7%

  • Randall

    Votes: 14 4.8%

  • Vox

    Votes: 27 9.3%

  • Line 6

    Votes: 21 7.3%

  • Ibanez

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Roland

    Votes: 44 15.2%

  • Other

    Votes: 50 17.3%
  • Total voters
    289
NOT a crate, NOT Line 6
those are the only solid state amps I have really played through and hate them

I prefer tubes.
 
Roland Cube 60 is pretty decent.

Roland Jazz Chorus 120 is a unique and well respected amp for the clean sounds, but I have trouble getting any kind of distortion I like out of it. Clean, it sounds great.

Lab Series amps are great for crunch guitar.

My Vox Pathfinder 10 is a fun practice amp that I can actually get some useable sounds out of.

I used to have an old Yamaha 100 watt combo that sounded pretty decent.

I'm not a fan of SS amps in general, but these are the ones that I could live with for certain tones. None of them are a black face Twin or a Plexi or anything like that, but they have their own character. Without naming names, there are many I don't like.


sl
 
Those little tiny 18 watt VOX amps are a lot of fun. I can't believe I don't have one yet seeing as how they are very cheap.
 
I've got a Fender Princeton Chorus, the gain chanel is a little gritty but the clean side has that classic Fender sound. The chorus is pretty smooth and I love the spring reverb. It's a little lacking on the bottom end but that is to be expected from 2X10s.
 
another vote for Roland

I've been using a pair of Roland JC-120s live for over 15 years - awesome amps -- worth every penny!!!

I recently purchased a Roland AC-60 for solo acoustic gigs - awesome little amp with tons of features and big tone for it's size. Another great little workhorse.
 
My vote is the extinct Gallien Krueger 250ML.

Great *solid state* sound. Can kick ass through a 4x12 too.
 
I have a Marshall AVT 150 and think the AVT series is a cut above many other SS amps I've heard (at least the clean channel is anyway). I think it works particularly well with guitar processors too. It may not shimmer or sparkle like a Fender or Roland, but it certianly has a great warm clean punchy tube tone with plenty of bottom end and responds much like tube power amp when cranked. (Reminds me of an old Mosvalve but better). Although I think its distortion is a bit flabby, (I use a Digitech RP-21 instead) its more the fault of that channels EQ voicing and can be easily corrected with some graphic EQ. Another testement to this amps tonal qualities is how well it cuts through a live mix. (Certian other SS amps I've heard dont always cut through well even though they have plenty of power and sounded great in the store).

Another SS amp I've had my eye on has been the VOX Valvetronix series. These things are about as close as you'll get to a real tube amp in SS form in my opinion. The key is the real power output tube which is completely different than the typical "tube preamp configuration. I have a Tonelab and have driven a 4x12 cab powered by an old 150 watt Peavey SS power amp and it sounded awsome. Guess I dont really need a Valvetronix amp afterall then do I?
 
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Question for JC-120 owners.

Anyone ever tried the JC-120 head unit? How much of the JC-120 sound is the 2x12 openback cabinet and how much is in the head itself?

I might snag a head unit and use it with my Randall ISO cabinet. With the piezo pickups on the Parker, I can get a pretty clean sound out of the Mesa... but not quite as crisp as I'd like.
 
I usually stay away from Peavey gear, but I've got a pre-1990 Peavey Express 112 reverb that I really like a lot! I haven't owned a bunch of amps, but this one is a keeper. I really need to upgrade the speaker to a black widow. Also, the reverb unit is crap, but if you overlook those flaws, it's still a pretty decent amp.
 
gitrguy87 said:
Love my Fender Ultimate Chorus.
Click to expand...
Me too. But I do sometimes struggle with getting it dialed in just so. Especially getting a clean tone out of the clean channel, and getting the overdrive channel to not feedback, with the EQ settings where i like it. Otherwise I like it and I love the chorus sound.
 
I'd go with Mesa/Boogie Rectifier Head and Marshall Cabs. My favorite for hard rock/heavy metal.

For anything else, just a plain ol' Marshall JCM head.
 
I'm afraid you simply can not get great distortion without some hot glass in the back of your amp.

I know, I know, you solid state guys are going to try and tell me I'm wrong, but I used to BE one of you solid state guys. I tried everything, and I was never happy with my distortion sound. It was, you know, OK, but never great. Then I got a tube amp. NOW I know. You just can't do it without hot glass.

That being said, for really CLEAN sounds, there are some amazing sounds in the land of the semiconductor. I won't bother to mention the JC-120, as it is pretty well covered in this thread, but the other paragon of transistor clean glory is the Polytone Mini-Brute. It sounds like dog shit when it distorts, but you will find very few clean amps that can compaire. I've got two of them in the shop, because it makes it easy to hear when a guitar is not quite right, and because they can handle bass guitars as well as they can electric guitars. A truly GREAT amp. If I were ever to do another Jazz gig (not gonna happen, but you know, IF), I would bring one of my Mini-Brutes.


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