looking for a used tube guitar head

  • Thread starter Thread starter treymonfauntre
  • Start date Start date
treymonfauntre

treymonfauntre

Magic Bag Of Sounds
i've had a marshall vs100 (came as a 12" combo but i ripped the head out of the combo and use it with a crummy marshall mg4x12). i fucking hate it. its noisy as hell and the distortion is god awful. i need an upgrade. i'm going to be putting the head back into the combo cabinet and selling it and the 4x12 to either a music store, craigs list, or ebay.
i'm going to take that money and grab a 2x12 from avatar (i really don't think i need a 4x12, i'm tired of breaking my back) and i'm in the market for a tube head to replace that piece of garbage "valvestate".

like i said, i'm going to use it with a 2x12 for now (might add another cabinet later if i feel cooky enough), speakers are 60W at 8ohms.. i want an amp that will be powerful enough to overcome a drumset in a small living room environment and in a small club environment. my musical style sits in the post-hardcore side of the indie rock field, so i'm lo0oking for something that can accurately reproduce all the notes i'm hitting with definition and precision. i don't need chuggy metal riffs and i don't care about having a smooth distortion for soloing. i want something that breaks up nice and can be powerful and defined/crunchy if driven hard enough either through the amp or through a preamp/distortion pedal. dig deep into your brains. i know sovteks are the rage right now as far as cheaper tube amps go.. but they're at the point of not being cheap anymore. i've heard the peavey ultra heads are actually quite nice, is that totally wrong? the few times i used peavey were for power amping and they didn't do an awful job if i had a good preamp signal to send to them.
any random suggestions that people are just overlooking these days, or should i just bite the bullet and save my pennies until i can afford something like a sovtek? right now my budget is flexible because this is an improvement i know i need and am willing to invest in.
 
To me it sounds like you should try a tube marshall.. I never liked their solid state amps but their valve one's are pretty close to what you say you're after.

Pity you don't live close or i would let you try mine. Although I am likely to mothball it soon, I need a tube amp with really nice clean channels... i.e won't break up. Oh well each to their own.
 
Be Careful about Sovteks

I like some Sovteks but I have a few cautions besides that many are overpriced.

1. Many Sovteks have been hacked. Unless you know for sure that the head is stock or that the person who modded it is a true pro, I would stay away. Most shop owners don't know shit about this stuff. I was looking at one head that the shop owner said was stock and I could easily see at least three mods and they didn't look pretty.

2. I know that many mig 50s had plastic jacks that break and were a hassle to upgrade. I believe some of them may have been mounted to the PC board. Not sure if any of the mig 100s had the cheapo jacks but it is something to check for.

3. I know that a lot of the earlier mig 50s didn't have master volumes. Not sure about the mig 100s. Some of these would give a massive amount of clean volume without no good way of getting it to break up. Depending on the particular tube set in the amp and the cab, this could sound nice or quite brittle. Might get some cool sounds from the non-master versions if you used an atenuator but otherwise, these will not get the sound you want.

Sounds like perceive may be on the right track for you with the Marshall but I would try anything you can lay your hands on. Tone is such a personal thing and truly does vary a lot from unit to unit, especially in tube amps. Maybe you will find something that you love that you never would have thought of if you had not tried it out.

Good Luck in your search,
ST
 
i've seriously never seen a used tube amp at any of the music stores around me. theres one 10 minutes away, one a half huor, and about 6 all in a cluster about an hour away and they never come through when i'm looking.

hah as i typed that i checked craigs list again and somebody in my town is selling a penncrest tube amp, doesn't list a wattage but it looks like its 12w :)
 
My suggestion is to go to AX84.com, and Schematic heaven,... if you can solder,... and read a schematic,... and build your own,..... several other good places to get started with that very thing,.... Torres engineering has kits,... as does Mojotone.com,... and go to that last one for parts .... Avatar cabs are a very good choice,.... , but you can also build your own cab without too much hassle ,.... E mail me, for more sites, or search from links at Ampage.com too,....


Good luck, and photos please if you do decide to build it yourself....

By the way,.... I can assist with Tolex application info, and other DIY info....if needed...


Steve
 
every once in a while i totally wish i had one of those nerdy dads like one of my friends had that was building radios and computers when he was 9. but then i remembered i was doing badass stuff back then and i don't mind so much. but now that i am encountering a schemating with no clue what it means, i once again long for a nerdy dad..
 
To build from schematics alone, i.e., from scratch, there is a LOT more to it than just being able to solder. Chassis fabrication requires special tools and a LOT of hard work in terms of determining layout, hole punching, drilling, etc. Then you have to source all the right parts, it's a major undertaking, and anyone capable of doing this kind of work would have considered it already, which he hasn't.

A kit, on the other hand, may be an interesting route, but even then it's not just a matter of 'being able to solder.' Patience is required, the ability to follow a schematic and instructions carefully, not to mention knowledge of safety procedures.

And only after all that do you finally get to hear if all the effort was worth it, and there's every chance it may not be.
 
treymonfauntre said:
i've seriously never seen a used tube amp at any of the music stores around me. theres one 10 minutes away, one a half huor, and about 6 all in a cluster about an hour away and they never come through when i'm looking.
Click to expand...

I've seen a lot in shops but maybe that's cause I live in a big city. Thing with the Sovteks in general is that since they were cheap new, a lot of people bought them specifically to modify them so you never know for sure what you are getting if you buy one that has passed through several sets of hands unless you examine it carefully. Same thing is true for the Electar Tube 30 and Tube 10 combo amps that were popular about 3-5 years ago.

Again, assuming that whatever you buy is in decent shape, IMO the big thing is what your ears and fingers tell you.

AFA kits go, I see pros and cons with building kit amps. A complete tube amp is a bit much for a first project (I would start with an F/X pedal/box or a preamp maybe) and I would still want to be able to play through a finished version of the kit I was considering building before I invested any cash or time in such a product. OTOH if it didn't sound the way you wanted, you would know the guts and maybe be able to modify it.

*shrug* Time to go play my guitar....

peace,
ST
 
robin watson said:
To build from schematics alone, i.e., from scratch, there is a LOT more to it than just being able to solder. Chassis fabrication requires special tools and a LOT of hard work in terms of determining layout, hole punching, drilling, etc. Then you have to source all the right parts, it's a major undertaking, and anyone capable of doing this kind of work would have considered it already, which he hasn't.

A kit, on the other hand, may be an interesting route, but even then it's not just a matter of 'being able to solder.' Patience is required, the ability to follow a schematic and instructions carefully, not to mention knowledge of safety procedures.

And only after all that do you finally get to hear if all the effort was worth it, and there's every chance it may not be.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. I have created amps from scratch ... jy own designs. For a want a very expensive hobby. Component layout is very important and in fact the component layout on the chasis will effect the noise pick up level and the sound of the amp. Stray capacitance and inductance as a result of hand wiring can cause a lot of problems. Did you ever wonder why you can try two hand wired amps of the same make and model and one sounds good and the other sounds like crap? My advice is to find an amp that you like and buy it. It is cheaper.
 
I feel your pain

My wife bought me a Marshall VS years ago for my birthday. I feel your pain. I promptly traded it in on a Marshall JCM900 4100 Dual Reverb 100 Watt head and a 1960 Slant cabinet. She didn't mind and I have kept it ever since. I've heard mixed reviews on the head on Harmony Central but I like it. Just my .02 worth. Not sure of your budget but I recommend tube Marshall over VS anyday.

If you check my link below in Soundclick, the song Overtime will give you an idea of the dirty channel and the other two songs there used the clean channel. Note I used a Roland GP-8 for a bit of delay and compression too. Excuse the sound quality - it's a crappy MP3 file......
 
You could always check out an old silverface Bassman. They shouldn't run you more than $300. The Sovtek MIG 50 was pretty much a ripoff of the Bassman. I have both, and I like them both a lot.

You might also try to find an old Traynor, or, if you can find one for not much money, a Sunn Model T.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top