Most versatile AND\OR brutal guitar amplifier

[capnkid]

Totally, the first Marshall design (JTM45, I'm pretty sure) was schematically identical to a 5F6A tweed Bassman. British parts and British "mojo" accounted for all the difference in tone. Everyone uses someone else's circuit as the basis for their amps, so it's just a matter of tracing it back to the original, I guess.

Fenders rule.

and the bassman was copied from and old radio design.

 

[cavedog101]

Versatile would be a Fender Twin...in the right hands and a big enough venue to turn it up....On 8 or so these amps just sing clean and bluesy.

Brutal, while I gotta agree with both the posts about the Ampeg V4 stack,and the 100 watt Marshall half,(though the era of Marshall makes a huge diff), the AMPEG VT22 combo was much much more brutal than the V4 which did have some semblance of sweetness to it. The VT22 did not.
The Marshall 100 watt Super-lead(JTM series) was so friking loud that it was hard to tell what note was being played.And to think there were four of em in my band back in those days..........................Eh? whats dat u say????

 

[Toker41]

I've been using Mesa Boogie since the mid 80's. Back when everyone and their brother was using Marshall Jcm800. The reason all those bands back then all sounded the same was because there is only 1 good sound you can get from a JCM800. Not only does the Mesa kick the crap outta the crunch on the Marshall, but it's also a million times more versatile. I've used the Mesa Studio Stereo preamp since about '90 ( the one Kurt Cobain, and Mettalica used), and I now have added a Mesa Dual Rectifier. I use both amps in my rig when I play, which give me 5 usable great sounding channels all together.
Channel switching on a JCM800 was useless, and you had to add a ton of outboard gear (including EQ) to get it to sound good. I've yet to hear anything from Marshall after that line that sounds anything close to "great".

 

[dragonworks]

Versatile would be a Fender Twin...in the right hands and a big enough venue to turn it up....On 8 or so these amps just sing clean and bluesy.

Brutal, while I gotta agree with both the posts about the Ampeg V4 stack,and the 100 watt Marshall half,(though the era of Marshall makes a huge diff), the AMPEG VT22 combo was much much more brutal than the V4 which did have some semblance of sweetness to it. The VT22 did not.
The Marshall 100 watt Super-lead(JTM series) was so friking loud that it was hard to tell what note was being played.And to think there were four of em in my band back in those days..........................Eh? whats dat u say????

The VT22 and the V4 are the exact same amps, check the schematics, the only difference was one was a combo and one was a head.
I know, I have owned two of each.

 

[moogyboy]

Brutal distortion? Try this:

Kustom K200B-3 head. That's right, the old '60s tuck-n-roll kind. Mine has the Harmonic Clipper feature, which seems to be a built-in vintage style fuzztone circuit as opposed to a proper overdrive. Absolute sonic mayhem, to use a well-worn cliche. It's either on or off, and you don't need an effin' LED indicator. Of course, this amp is almost the opposite of versatile in the sense you're probably thinking. But very powerful and a good clean tone.

For versatile, I think the Peavey Transtube series (and my black/silver Bandit 112 in particular) is a reasonably priced contender.

cheers

Billy S.

 

[cavedog101]

Thanx Dragon....Of this ,I am totally aware. Same head, different cabinet(see???) Different sounding because of this...STILL VERY BRUTAL.Something about those Ampeg 4-12's, they were kinda damped....ya know.Still loud,but not in a singing way like an old 25 watt Marshall box or a Deluxe Reverb on 8.The COMBO aka VT22 was just plain violent...(I had one with a 4-12 under it)(on a good clear day you could cover most of the county with it)

 

[DonGraham]

Mesa Trem-o-verb..nuff said.

 

[Dave_M]

I voted "other".

Carvin "X" series amps (from the 80s). My XV112E is 23 years old and has been used for blues, country, jazz, classic rock to metal and grunge. With a 2X12 extension cab, it has given 5150 and Marshall stacks a run for the money. All the tone knobs and EQ sliders bring out every nuance of the guitar being played. The clean channel sings as well as the lead channel. My Strat, Tele and Les Paul love that amp but its the hollow body and semi-hollow body models that make it shine. Even my Ibanez Artcore sounds like a much more expensive jazz box. I've hooked up a mandolin to it and dialed in crisp, chime like tones. Since the seventies, I've tried Peavy, Marshall, Line6, Fender, Roland, and even Mesa Boogie amps. The same day I tried the Mesa Boogie, I went to the old Carvin factory in Escondido and tried the XV112E. I'm still pleased with the choice I made.

 

[SilverbayJ]

Boogie Boogie Boogie

Don't let the name fool you. I own a dual channel Mesa Boogie Triple Recto. You want brutal, you CANNOT beat this head! I usually run 2 4x12 Marshall cabinets, turn this head up to 40% volume and you will be purchasing new windows for your house, and looking for a good divorce lawyer, because this monster of a head IS BRUTAL! The tone of this head is unbeatable and when you locate the sweet spot on the cabinets, the tone is perfect. Don't get me wrong, Marshall DSL heads are good, but not very versital and if you get a bad one, they can be very harsh or muddy sounding. Plus every guitar I have run through the Boogie has sounded great, but trying several guitars on the Marshall can result in different tones between each guitar, from horrible to decend tones. The Mesa always had a consistant great to incredible tone from the same guitars.
The Mesa can produce some incredible blues tones, metal tones, cristal clear clean tones. I can't even begin to talk about the versatile bold, spongy switches, and the other configurations you can change on this head!
Mesa is always going to remain my staple head for life!

 

[joemintz]

The most versatile amp has gotta be the Mesa Boogie Mark IV.

You can get so many different sounds of this Boogie that it just boggles the mind.

And that's BEFORE you even plug in any stomp boxes. Add a couple different cabinets and you've got everything covered - including brutal.

I completely agree. I own one, and you can do about ten million different things with it. And then you can retube it. You can't get "the" Marshall sound, or "the" Fender sound, but you can certainly get "the" Mesa sound and a crapload of variations.

Who knows, maybe you can get the Marshall sound. I've never put any EL34s in it. Or any 6V6s, for that matter (Fender). Regarless, I love it and it can do anything, including run marathons and cook eggs.

 

[Outlaws]

I completely agree. I own one, and you can do about ten million different things with it. And then you can retube it. You can't get "the" Marshall sound, or "the" Fender sound, but you can certainly get "the" Mesa sound and a crapload of variations.

Who knows, maybe you can get the Marshall sound. I've never put any EL34s in it. Or any 6V6s, for that matter (Fender). Regarless, I love it and it can do anything, including run marathons and cook eggs.

Don't worry about the tube differnces, there are so many more things in the amps design that are more important to its signature sound than the tube type.

EDIT:
Why do people pull up year old threads?

 

[Ironklad Audio]

i see some other people mentioning ampeg, but i see no one mentioning the lee jackson-designed vl-1002 - fucking great metal amps

 

[Cool711]

Brutal: Diezel VH4

Versatile: Diezal VH4 (4 different preamps) (Don't own it, yet.)

Close Second: Mesa Mark IV (Own it).

 

[gbdweller]

I used to have a 5150 and I have to admit, it had excellent tone. "Brutality" seems to be a subjective term, but the amp did sing and scream! However, I wouldn't say the amp was "versatile." The clean tone was lacking. It was adequate.

The 5150 had one good tone and it screamed it with balls.

I've used my 5150 live since I got it in '91. It is a road warrior. I've also found it to be versatile. I get a lot of people looking on the floor to see how I'm getting all of my sounds. The only pedal I have on the floor is a script logo phase 90. I run a Roland GS6 through the effects loop that have three patches that are used for a little 'color' here and there (2 patches are delay/reverb, 1 is chorus/reverb). That's it. I would agree with the clean tone being lacking in the stock 5150. I put a bias mod in mine and now the clean sound is incredible. All of the tones are absolutely amazing since the mod. I'll be adding a set of JJ's soon. That will be the final piece of the puzzle.

 

[pikingrin]

Alright, +1 for the Diezel... but, I think the Mesa Roadking is a close runner up for both brutality and versatility... #1 on my list of things to add to my collection before I die, played through a couple of them and was awestruck. Play around with a couple of switches in the back and you can have practically any tone that you would want and then some.

 

[sweetpeee]

For versitility I like my Fender Cyber Twin using the XTL before it. For brutality, I go with the Marshall stack.

J.P.

 

[Cool711]

^What kind of Marshall?

 

[tylerxxx]

i didn't read the thread, but i think your comment about the 5150 being the most versatile amp was straight retarded. have you even heard the clean channel?

diezel herbert til death (i wish i could afford one )

 

[flamin-gitaur]

I still like the sound of Mesa amps (Strategy 500) running thru a pair of Marshall 1960 4x12's. Very versatile sound. But I think for brutality, Bogners would sound good too.