Tube Amp With Nice Clean Sound?

ggunn said:
Well, my 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb has an incredible glassy clean sound with my Strat, but it's not for sale...
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I thought the same thing about my 1965 Deluxe... Until I bought a used Matchless Lightning about 10 years ago. I was a gritty blues player and loved the tone of my Deluxe on 8-9 in a club, and this Matchless was a score: $500 in the classifieds for a prissy "boutique" amp that I had planned to immediately unload on eBay for $1000...

...Then I plugged it in and played through it. My ears were amazed at its sweet, clean tone. I had to pull-out my Deluxe and playthem side-by-side, and I felt blasphemous that I liked the Lightning better. I even went out and bought a correct-vintage Utah speaker for my Deluxe, and on the clean settings, it still couldn't compete. The Deluxe sounds midrangey compared to the full tone of the Matchless.

It's not an amp on your list, because you can't get a 1990's Matchless for under $1500 anymore.. and it definetly sounds different than a vintage Fender Deluxe Reverb - especially the crunch, but the sweet clean tones are the best I've heard.

However, modeling boxes (POD, V-Amp, etc.) do a really good job of capturing the tones, and they do it for a fraction of the price. So I think modeling is great for recording in your apartment... But mic-up a Matchless or put it on a small stage and you can't really go wrong.

- Rickshaw
 
First id like to say thank you very much for all the replies...and that it seems that fender's clean is getting put up there. Now just to make tihngs clear, this will be used live but mic'd with an sm57..so it doesnt need to be crazy loud, but should have some volume...right now i think im pretty set on a fender deluxe 1x12, considering i could get one used for like 400 bucks. The laney looked intruiging, but is a bit out of range...and i'll keep the f-30 idea in the back of my mind..cause those go pretty cheap as well. But still, if anyone has any more suggestions..i'd love to hear them..and also, how are the effects on the rocktron utopia that someone mentioned they had?
 
JPXTom said:
First id like to say thank you very much for all the replies...and that it seems that fender's clean is getting put up there. Now just to make tihngs clear, this will be used live but mic'd with an sm57..so it doesnt need to be crazy loud, but should have some volume...right now i think im pretty set on a fender deluxe 1x12, considering i could get one used for like 400 bucks. The laney looked intruiging, but is a bit out of range...and i'll keep the f-30 idea in the back of my mind..cause those go pretty cheap as well. But still, if anyone has any more suggestions..i'd love to hear them..and also, how are the effects on the rocktron utopia that someone mentioned they had?
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You won't regret getting a Deluxe, I'll wager. I've had a lot of amps, but my Deluxe is the one I use and it very well could be the last amp I will ever buy.
 
JPXTom said:
how are the effects on the rocktron utopia that someone mentioned they had?
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Well, I think they're pretty good. But I didn't get it for that so much and I don't want to mislead you, I'm not a over the top effects user. I use the 'verb in it, the delay some .... the wah ..... and a bit of chorus.
But the main thing I like about it is that the amp modeling is very close sounding and responding to a real amp so some of my gigs I can use no amp at all. The preset access is a bit awkward actually .... takes a little getting used to but the thing sounds very good. PM me if you need more details ..... I di a thourouh review of ot at RP and I'll find the link for ya'.
 
if you want tons of clean headroom and plenty of power for gigging, then look no further than a fender twin. 85W or 100W (depending on the amp) and 2x12.......won't really break up no matter how loud it goes, and they get really, really loud. and they don't sound too good until they've got some ass (and volume) behind em.

ac30's also are extremely loud. they've got a great clean (and a great driven if you can handle the volume), though. they too need to be turned up before they start sounding good.

i just picked up a '66 fender champ off ebay that has an exquisite clean. and i thought my 76 SF champ sounded good......this BF just smokes it in every way imaginable. and it's all nice and minty lookin, too. but at 6W (and 8in speaker), the champ is probably a little too little for a gig (and will overdrive pretty easily, starting to break up around 5 or 6).

many, many gigs have been played with a fender deluxe reverb or a princeton. you can't go wrong with either of those.

you might want to look at the AC15 as well.

and i know it's not tube.....but you can NOT discount the clean from a Roland JC120.


cheers,
wade
 
Lt. Bob said:
Well, I think they're pretty good. But I didn't get it for that so much and I don't want to mislead you, I'm not a over the top effects user. I use the 'verb in it, the delay some .... the wah ..... and a bit of chorus.
But the main thing I like about it is that the amp modeling is very close sounding and responding to a real amp so some of my gigs I can use no amp at all. The preset access is a bit awkward actually .... takes a little getting used to but the thing sounds very good. PM me if you need more details ..... I di a thourouh review of ot at RP and I'll find the link for ya'.
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Well i was thinking about getting a tube screamer (unless the mega channel has a nice distortion), and having some delay/reverb/wah/flange...if it has pretty good of all those, and sounds nice through a tube amp...then im all for it.
 
JPXTom said:
Well i was thinking about getting a tube screamer (unless the mega channel has a nice distortion), and having some delay/reverb/wah/flange...if it has pretty good of all those, and sounds nice through a tube amp...then im all for it.
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Distortion is such a personal thing. It always surprises me how many zillion different ways a distortion can sound.
I think it has a very nice distortion BUT: ... what I'm going for is amp-like distortion. I want the thing to sound as close as possible to an amp cranked up.
If that's what you want, personally I think it captures that better than any other modeler I've bought in my quest to find one that doesn't suck.
Plus they're relatively cheap!
But YMMV so be sure to try one first or buy it from somewhere that'll let you send it back if you don't like it.
 
Here's my couple of pennies

My personal view:
Vox AC30... But they aint half unreliable
Fender Hot Rod deVille/Deluxe
Fender Bassman :) Lovely
The old MusicMan 112's


Any of these. Many dont like the HotRod Deluxes, but I love them. And they're cheap.

And distortion wise: BigMuff or the Fulltone OCR.....
 
You know, I guess I'm making the mistake of making recommendations based on what I like in an amp, and assuming you're looking for something similar.

so....

What exactly are you looking for in a "nice clean sound?" Crisp, bright, and glassy with a ton of headroom and no breakup? Dark and woody, with some good poweramp compression and saturation? Chimey, with most of the breakup occuring as upper harmonic "haze", or more of a low-end breakup? Compressed and middy, or very open and dynamically responsive?

What are a few clean sounds you've really liked on record? I think one I always have to mention is SRV's clean on "Little Wing," but also worth mentioning are Satriani's semi-driven lead break on "A Piece of Liquid" off his (excellent) Crystal Planet album, and basically all of the clean tones on Neil Zaza's "Staring at the Sun."

Incidently, if you're willing to throw some cash at the "help me get a great clean sound" problem, and you do like his tones on that disc (if you're into instrumental rock, it's a must by - great writing and great playing, and Zaza consistantly gets some unspeakably good tone), then anything from Dr. Z is worth a shot. He used a Route 66 head on a lot of the cleaner passages of that album, and described the tone as "...like angels flying out of my speakers." Based on my distant recollections of playing a Carmen Ghia years ago with some sort of a Fulltone OD, I have to agree - considering the Ghia can be had as a head for $800, really I need to suck it up and buy one of those things. Only 20 watts with a single volume and tone, but good lord...
 
im big on explosions in the sky type of clean..or the clean in the intro of my curse by killswitch engage....a wide open clean sound that sounds great with some reverb to make it sound very "spaced out"...not brittle sounding or anything like that..nice smooth "sparkling" open clean. And for all my tones..im looking to get either an effects unit..g-sharp, utopia, me-20, etc..or some specific pedals like a tube screamer, line 6 echo park(heard some samples and fell in love), digitech digiverb, crybaby wah etc...seems like people are saying the fender is good for that...i remember playing a vox and liking it, but it wasnt exactly what i was looking for.
 
How about the fender blues juniors? Good clean tube sound? I notice they are very affordable, and with a few mods can sound really nice...And i have a few "basic" tube questions..such as..after how long do you usually have to change tubes...do you have to get your amp re-biased when you get it retubed...can you re-bias/re-tube yourself easily...should i possibly get a cheap solid state amp to practice with down the line so i dont wear out my tube amp so fast...b/c i have a solid state amp now, but after i get a new amp, im giving the one i have now to my dad since he essentially bought it for me, and he doesnt really have a good guitar amp.
 
I just bought a Blues Jr. last week and though I've only used it on a couple of pretty soft gigs, I found it had a nice clean. I just turned the master wide open and had the gain way down. Pretty clean. If it were my only gigging amp though I think I'd want that Deluxe ....... there's gonna be some gigs that 15 watts isn't enough for my taste even with it mic'd.
But it does have a nice clean.
And there's some really easy mods that are supposed to make it shine. I gave $250 for a 8 year old one in blonde tolex/oxblood grill cloth in perfect shape.
 
In that price range any Carvin amp will have a great clean channel and you can go into the FX loop and bypass all of the amps EQ section. Really you can't go wrong there. I have had quite a few Carvin amps. Valvemaster, MTS, Belair, Quad X, etc. I only have the MTS left as I just off loaded a lot of amps and guitars.
 
JPXTom said:
How about the fender blues juniors? Good clean tube sound?
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I've got a Deluxe Reverb and a Blues Jr, and IMO the clean sound of the Jr cannot compare to that of the Deluxe. With my Strat in the #2 position, the Deluxe is glassy and deep sounding, whereas the Jr is a bit dark and kind of flat. The Jr is a great little amp cranked up with my Les Paul, but for a clean sound I'll always go with the Deluxe.
 
Thurgood said:
did someone say Explosions in the Sky??? AC30 all the way.:)
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I remember seeing them on conan, and seeing the one guitarist using an ac30...but they are a bit out of my price range..i really only have like 500/600 bucks to mess around with..the fender blues jr. is in that range..and i'd probably switch out the speaker with a v30 or hellatone..and maybe see what some of those mods are about...

if i had the 1100 bucks, id prob. get a vox or a really nice fender...and if i had a hundred more or so than my budget, i'd probably get a carvin mts..but i need cash for other things like pedals, mics, interface etc...
 
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