Smallish Amp for recording metal and other

  • Thread starter Thread starter cellardweller
  • Start date Start date

What's a good small-medium amp for recording mostly metal?

  • Marshall

    Votes: 5 11.6%

  • Mesa

    Votes: 13 30.2%

  • Fender

    Votes: 3 7.0%

  • Vox

    Votes: 2 4.7%

  • Randall

    Votes: 1 2.3%

  • Hughes & Kettner

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Tech 21

    Votes: 3 7.0%

  • POD/Line 6/other modeler (please specify other)

    Votes: 4 9.3%

  • Peavey

    Votes: 6 14.0%

  • Soldano

    Votes: 2 4.7%

  • Rivera / Bogner (probably out of my league/pricerange

    Votes: 1 2.3%

  • Other (please specify)

    Votes: 3 7.0%
  • Total voters
    43
Wireneck ~ Where did you get your Mesa?

I see from the dealer locator on the Mesa site, that there are no guitar centers within 3 hours of where I am. There are a couple of ma & pa's within an hour.

There are many on ebay, but I can't imagine what shipping would cost, and in what shape it might arrive...

PS Peavey is winning the poll! Whodathunk?
 
Henri Devill said:
UniValve is great IMO for a single 12...Peavey made a single 12 cab about the size of a Classic30 you can run it closed or open.Good lil cabinet and should be cheap!Good luck
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Another good suggestion.

Oh yea ... the nice thing about the Univalve is that you don't need to worry about biasing. Tubes on that thing are hot-swappable from what I understand. I've only worked with one a few times, but from my limited experience, it's about the most versatile thing out there as far as real amps go at less than a thousand bucks.

Certainly nothing wrong with a Boogie, though, if you can swing it.
 
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chessrock said:
it's (Univalve) about the most versatile thing out there as far as real amps go at less than a thousand bucks.

Certainly nothing wrong with a Boogie, though, if you can swing it.
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Seems that about sums it up, though only MF has the 15W Univalve which runs under $1000...
 
Don't know if you have Craigslist in your area (http://www.craigslist.com/about/cities.html)?

Something I've done a lot in the past is buy a used amp on Craiglist, try it for a while and sell it back on Craiglist and then pick up another amp. If you're careful you'll never loose money on the amps you buy/sell and get to try quite a few out. I've been doing this for a few years and stopped once I found a nice Twin. Before then it afforded me the opportunity to try out Mesa's, Marshalls, Ampeg, MusicMans, etc. Great thing if you're not sure about the tone you're looking for yet.
 
Looks like the closest is Chicago, maybe St. Louis.

Wow, found a Mesa Nomad 55 w/mesa 4X12 for $750!
Probably a stupid question, but is payment arranged only between buyer/seller? A "you're on your own" deal if you get what I mean?

The univalve 15w gets consistent good reviews, but seems extra distortion still may be needed for "paint peeling" distortion...

From Harmony Central ~Most amps aren't designed with a instrument level out. If you simply plug a line-level out into the input of another amp, you can get nasty results.

Not only does this have the right "instrument level" signal, but it also has a "volume control" for this output which allows you to fully control the signal to a second amp.

I typically use this into the "poweramp in" on my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, which bypasses the tone stack on the amp. This allows the tone controls on the UniValve to be dominant, and that's a simpler solution for my needs. It still sounds great through the normal amp Input... so you don't need another amp with a specific poweramp in.
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Now that's another pretty cool feature!
 
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no doubt the best thing to do is to take your git to a couple different music stores, any that you can, and play all the amps you can with YOUR git. i spent 2 years searching for my last amp, but when i found it i knew it was the one. (not for what you want, an 80's tube ampeg but i thought it was the coolest thing ever, i lost it to a house fire)

i'm well aware of the i want it now new gear twitch but probably the longer you take, the happier you'll be.

i don't know univalve, but have also heard good things about them

maby consider vox also?
 
How much stock do you put in the reviews at Harmony Central?
Many people poo-pooed the Univalve for metal...
I've also seen where Vox, though highly recommended otherwise, is not recommended for metal.

I probably can't even afford to spell B-o-g-n-e-r, though I've been unable to find any prices.

Which has me reversing my thought, and considering one of these and a new axe (to be determined)...

Here is the GT2, I especiallly like the "california" clip...
Here is the TRI-O.D., but no soundclips seem to be available for it...

Are these both considered "emulators"?
The GT2 is under "Sansamps", while the TRI-O.D. is under "effects" :confused:

There are no decent music stores in my area, but as soon as I can, I'm going to take a drive to Chi-town.
 
Regarding Craigslist: you make the deal directly with the seller. If the seller is dishonest you could get into a difficult situation if making the purchase via mail. I lived in SF and now Seattle so I've always been able to meet the seller and try the gear out before buying in those cities. I wouldn't recommend using Craigslist by mail; better off with eBay.

I have a VT60 and it sounds pretty close to the Twin but tighter. Its clean channel is excellent; I don't really use the distortion. The VT60 gets unreliable after about an hour of use though. Those amps are plagued :(

How has your VT120 been? If reliable you could spend a minimal amount on a used ADA MP1 and use it in front of the VT120. That would give you a ton of tube gain and versatility for very low $.
 
cellardweller said:
How much stock do you put in the reviews at Harmony Central?
Many people poo-pooed the Univalve for metal...
I've also seen where Vox, though highly recommended otherwise, is not recommended for metal.

I probably can't even afford to spell B-o-g-n-e-r, though I've been unable to find any prices.

Which has me reversing my thought, and considering one of these and a new axe (to be determined)...

Here is the GT2, I especiallly like the "california" clip...
Here is the TRI-O.D., but no soundclips seem to be available for it...

Are these both considered "emulators"?
The GT2 is under "Sansamps", while the TRI-O.D. is under "effects" :confused:

There are no decent music stores in my area, but as soon as I can, I'm going to take a drive to Chi-town.
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I think you would consider them both emulators. I've been listening to the samples on the site. Then I got curious and checked out the bass sansamp.

http://www.tech21nyc.com/bassdriver_p.html

Damn I want that thing. How much do these run?
 
nuemes said:
The VT60 gets unreliable after about an hour of use though. Those amps are plagued :(

How has your VT120 been? If reliable you could spend a minimal amount on a used ADA MP1 and use it in front of the VT120. That would give you a ton of tube gain and versatility for very low $.
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What do you mean by unreliable? VT's in general? I've had some strange stuff in the past, I just thought it was the tubes going out, so I changed them and had them rebiased...
There is an unpredictable hum though, despite using a furman ahead of it. When my humidifier kicks on it hums intolerably also.

ADA MP1, huh... is there an equivelant still in production? I see a slew of them on ebay...
 
The one at music123 didn't look the same as the one on the tech21 site, though...
 
cellardweller said:
What do you mean by unreliable? VT's in general?
ADA MP1, huh... is there an equivelant still in production? I see a slew of them on ebay...
Click to expand...

The VT60's are known for having problems. Check out Harmony Central for the reviews; 50% will be no problem and love their amps and the other 50% will be thouroughly frustrated. Still a great amp though; I like it better than the Boogie Subway which is in the same price range.

ADA had a warehouse fire in Oakland that put them out of buisiness some years ago. MP1's are no longer in production; best bet is to pick them up cheap on eBay. It's typically described as a hot rodded Marshall sound. A lot of metal folks were using them in the late 80's/early 90's. Kirk Hammet used the MP1 for And Justice For All, Tesla, Nuno Bettencourt. If you want 80's/90's metal sound it's pretty hard to beat. Les Claypool even used the MP1 live for his bass sound (that sparked ADA to make the MB1 for bass supposedly). It has tube and solid state channels; many tone options.

The only equivalents I'm aware of are Mesa's Tri-Axis and the Marshall JMP1. I don't know if they still produce those units. If you're interested I can post some of the tones on the MP1 for you to check out.
 
as far as worrying about gain with the univalve, DON'T. too much gain usually makes a distorted guitar suck anyways... live it's neccessary sometimes, but your signal is gonna get squashed so much after you record, if you lose the dynamics from the start, your recording will never be as punchy and rocking as it could be.

just my 2c
 
Take a look at a used Fender Studio 85 if you can find one. I use one for rehearsal alot and it's small, with one 12" but has a great Fender tube sound with 2 channels so you can set your own level of dirt at a low volume and it cranks too. It's pretty much like say one half of a red knob twin.
 
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