Squeaky Clean Amp...?

  • Thread starter Thread starter miroslav
  • Start date Start date
miroslav

miroslav

Cosmic Cowboy
I may be in the hunt for a clean amp in the not too distant future...but I want a really nice clean "squeaky clean" amp, and not something that can "do clean", but generally more intended for crunchier tones.
Not that theres anything wrong with that, but I got enough "crunchy" amps....so would want something that just had the larger than life clean tone, at most levels. Not super bright/chimey, just clean and well balanced.

I had at least 2 maybe 3 amps over the years that were very good at the clean thing, but ended up selling them off for other flavors.

So...I am curious what kind of suggestions people have. There's a a few I have in mind, but I'm sure there are many I'm not even thinking about, so would like to hear what others say.

Oh...not looking for the 100W super loud amps....something in the 30-ish watt area, and that holds the same good clean tone at lower levels, and not get too dull...or to ice-pick-in-ear at louder settings.
I think a 112 combo would be good...but I'm open to anything at this point.
My main purpose would be for rhythm tracking, so the amp has to be very articulate/balanced with chords, not just single notes.
 
Fender is a good candidate.
Fender Deluxe Reverb is a 22 watt 1x12.
I used to have a Princeton Reverb (15 w 1x10), it was clear as a bell.

On my Modeler, the Bogner Shiva has beautiful cleans.
I would like a Bogner someday.
 
If you want REAL clean, get a keyboard amp, like a Roland KC series.
 
Telegram Sam said:
Fender is a good candidate.
Fender Deluxe Reverb is a 22 watt 1x12.
Click to expand...

It's on my list.

Telegram Sam said:
On my Modeler, the Bogner Shiva has beautiful cleans.
I would like a Bogner someday.
Click to expand...

Use the have a Bogner Shiva....bought it off of Blues Saraceno of all people. :cool:
Yes, it had fantastic cleans, but at the time, I was looking for some sweet EL34 crunch, and I have to say, I was totally unimpressed with the Shiva in that regard. I mean, yeah, it could do a crunch tone...but it had just one flavor, and that one flavor wasn't anything that great...IMHO.
I know some guys love Shiva amps, and I wanted one for a long time...then when I got it, it was kinda of a letdown.
So I sold it...though to this day I wonder if I should have kept it for the clean sound.... *shrug*

mjbphotos said:
If you want REAL clean, get a keyboard amp, like a Roland KC series.
Click to expand...

Yeah...that's an alternative, but I guess I should have said I still want it to be a tube amp. I know SS amps often do cleans very well, but I still think it's a different flavor when coming from a tube amp VS an SS amp....and I do think there are quite a few guitar tube amps that can do cleans (like the Shiva or some Fender amps)...so no need to go into keyboard/SS territory just yet, but thank for the suggestion!
 
miroslav said:
Use the have a Bogner Shiva....bought it off of Blues Saraceno of all people. :cool:
Yes, it had fantastic cleans, but at the time, I was looking for some sweet EL34 crunch, and I have to say, I was totally unimpressed with the Shiva in that regard. I mean, yeah, it could do a crunch tone...but it had just one flavor, and that one flavor wasn't anything that great...IMHO.
I know some guys love Shiva amps, and I wanted one for a long time...then when I got it, it was kinda of a letdown.
So I sold it...though to this day I wonder if I should have kept it for the clean sound.... *shrug*
Click to expand...

If I were to get a Bogner it wouldn't be the Shiva, maybe an Ecstacy.
The problem with the Bogners for me, is that there are so many different flavors,
it's almost like each individual amp is different.
How do you know which one you want?
I like high gain crunch, I think you do too.
 
The crunch on the Shiva was really great....for about 2-3 days...then it just became very stale sounding, and it was kind a "flat" 2-dimensional. I mean...I could have gotten better crunch options/variety from a couple of my pedals just by turning their knobs...while the Shiva just seemed to sound the same no matter what you did with the knobs.
But I do agree that the clean channel and it's reverb was exceptional.

The other thing I didn't like about it (and this is something I've seen with other 2-channel amps)...the transition from the clean channel to the crunch channel was very dramatic. I mean you had to place your volume and tone in completely different/extreme positions in order to get a balanced transition from clean to crunch like if you were playing rhythm and wanted to just do some leads and then go back to rhythm. I had ideas of using it as a gig amp...but like I said, I didn't keep it for long.

As a comparison...sometimes after that I got the Rivera Chubster 40, and I have to say, it's much more fun and usable than the Shiva. On the Rivera, the two channels while voiced differently (American/British)...are still well balanced/matched...and you can get all kinds of clean to crunch flavors...lots of options with the knobs.
It's been a very happy purchase for me.

Don't get me wrong...the Bogner stuff is very well built (the Shiva 112 combo was like a tank, and man, it weighed a TON...very beefy cab)...but yeah, there's all kinds of Bogner amps to pick from.
 
Yeah, I have a Rivera Pubster and it's a VERY cool amp. If you can find one, an old Ampeg sounds like it would work. I have my old Gemini VI. 30 watts of pretty clean power.
 
IMO you can't beat a fender twin for cleans. It's 85w so it gets loud, but even at reasonable volumes the cleans are pristine. Also, remember there's not so much volume difference between higher and lower wattage amps, it's more a matter of clean headroom.

Another clean I really like is the fender hotrod deluxe. At 40w it's pretty loud but does have a great clean tone.

Deluxe Reverb is better for about to breakup sounds IMO that it is for that super clean stuff.

For most of my cleans I use my twin, or Dr Z maz 18 (amazingly good clean tones...blackface without the ice pick). Basically, you can sum up my position as fenders...I love their cleans.
 
"Clean" and "30 watts or less" is a bit of an anomally!

We all know of relatively low power amps that can be ridiculously loud when having their nuts driven off but you can't really have clean unless you have the power reserve and that means the amp is always going to be very loud if you drive it hard enough.

I know of a very good (spam forbids and it is very expensive!) 30watter with 2x V30s that can produce pretty loud cleans but most 30watters are not build to this amps standards, hefty traffs for one thing. It is also bloody heavy. Driven into distortion the thing threatens windows.

I would suggets looking at amps in the 40-60watt class if valved but clean is an area that transistors do very well but you will need to look at 100watts and above to get the SPLs of a 50W valve jobbie.

And yes, Fender have always had the squeaky image!

Dave.
 
Oh, there's a new Dr. Z M12 that is supposed to stay really clean...I think 30w...it was designed to run pedals in front. Looks interesting to me.
 
aaronmcoleman said:
Oh, there's a new Dr. Z M12 that is supposed to stay really clean...I think 30w...it was designed to run pedals in front. Looks interesting to me.
Click to expand...

Just Googed it and it is a 15 (12?) watter using EL84s (not noted for cleanliness?) and cathode bias. Now I never knock "The Competition" but I cannot see that combination delivering very much high level clean sound.

Dave.
 
I didn't really say "30 watts or less"...just "30-ish watts"....:)...meaning something up to 40-50 watts would be OK.
Just wasn't looking for a 100W monster in order to get some cleans.

Yeah...the Fender stuff is certainly a possibility. I'm also looking at some of the Tone King amps...which are supposed to do clean really well, with a nice 3-D quality. something like the Meteor...though it's a little pricey, but I would drop $1200 on a nice clean amp. The Imperial and Meteor are sweet looking.

I didn't think the Dr. Z Maz 18 was able to do lots of clean....interesting.
I have a Dr. Z Rt. 66 that actually does the clean thing pretty good, but I just find the EF86 preamp to be a bit too peaky/bright for my taste. I always wished that amp had a 12AX7 front end instead...but it's still a great amp.
I was using a Celestion Gold with one of the older/smaller Z cabs (19")..then this past weekend I pulled the Gold out (which was nice, but also accentuating that peaky/bright sound), and I dropped a Weber Chicago in there, and also went form the stock 8 ohm setup to a 16 ohm...and now I'm liking the amp even more. I'll have to live with it for a bit to see how it works out, but it's much warmer, easier breakup at lower levels, and I can dial in a nice clean with it.

I also did some other speaker swaps this past weekend, and I matched up my my Carr Hammerhead with a Jensen C12K instead of the stock Eminence Cannabis Rex. The Rex was nice, but the Hammerhead has the (Impact and Grip) tone voicing switches which are more on the bright side, and I always found the top 2-3 selections way too bright. As it turns out the Rex also had a bright bite to it. With the C12K, I'm able to get more use out of the brighter settings, and now, I can also dial in a louder clean setting without that high-end bite.

So...I have two amps that may be able to cover my clean tones much better now, but I'm still going to look for a more dedicated clean amp, as both the Carr and Rt. 66 are more about crunch tones.
 
"I have a Dr. Z Rt. 66 that actually does the clean thing pretty good, but I just find the EF86 preamp to be a bit too peaky/bright for my taste. I always wished that amp had a 12AX7 front end instead...but it's still a great amp" If you have a good tame tech' there is a lot that can be done to an EF86 stage (basically they give them too much gain) but buy him a copy of Merlin Blencowes' Designing Tube Preamps for Guitar and Bass first!

Dave.
 
Well, the Maz18 isn't known for its cleans. It's mostly a "just about to breakup" kinda amp to CCR kinda crunch. But, for me the cleans are great. I have an nice blackface twin, and the maz gets really close...not 100% but very close...actually for most of my stuff I like the maz clean better.

Maybe a Maz38? As for the M12, I haven't heard it at all or played one. It doesn't sound, on paper, like a super clean amp, but they bill it as a great backend for pedal users...and at 12 watts it's hard to believe it's got tons of headroom...but who knows...I'd like to try one.
 
aaronmcoleman said:
Well, the Maz18 isn't known for its cleans. It's mostly a "just about to breakup" kinda amp to CCR kinda crunch. But, for me the cleans are great. I have an nice blackface twin, and the maz gets really close...not 100% but very close...actually for most of my stuff I like the maz clean better.

Maybe a Maz38? As for the M12, I haven't heard it at all or played one. It doesn't sound, on paper, like a super clean amp, but they bill it as a great backend for pedal users...and at 12 watts it's hard to believe it's got tons of headroom...but who knows...I'd like to try one.
Click to expand...

I originally wanted one of the Maz amps...but then ended up getting the Rt. 66 instead.
I then tried adding a Prescription ES, and *absolutely hated that amp* from the first 5 seconds of powering it up and right to the last day I had it, about two weeks later when I put it up on eBay. IMO, it had some of the worst tone voicing I've ever heard, but Brad Paisley loves it, so what do I know....though the guy I sold it to wanted to return it to me after a few days becuase he didn't like the sound either...! :D

Anyway...after all that, I became a bit gun shy about going for another Dr. Z amp. The amps are well built, but I'm not sure about his choice of preamp/tone voicing. Maybe his other amps are different....?

I would just like something that can do no break-up real well...mainly for rhythm use, not so much for pedal use...but apart from that, it doesn't have to only do clean....and I would like it to be a tube amp, though I know there's SS and keyboard amps that can do clean real well.
 
miroslav said:
I would just like something that can do no break-up real well...mainly for rhythm use, not so much for pedal use...but apart from that, it doesn't have to only do clean....and I would like it to be a tube amp
Click to expand...

Once again you have described the Carvin Legacy to a tee. The clean channel has absolutely no breakup at any volume. As a bonus you get the kick ass distortion channels. Just because it's a Vai signature amp doesn't mean that it's only for shredding. The output has 3 settings, 100/50/15 watts. OK I'm done ranting now. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top