What makes a good amp for low tunings?

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metal gear

well as far as amps go mesa makes the best amps for the metal/ low tuning crowd imho. they are a little pricey although you can usualy find a good used one on ebay or similar sites for relatively cheap.

as guitars go i currently play a schecter xxx with a tony iommi gibson humbucker in the bridge position. I love this combo. ive played jacksons and deans my whole life but i bought this guitar recently and have zero complaints little to no fret buzz all along the board and the pickup is outstanding. I know your looking for an amp but i noticed previous threads mentioning schecters just though id chime in.

although if your not willing to blow a lot of money on a new guitar amp combo a good preamp can change your sound drastically with pretty much any combo. and i know this may upset some tube purists but with new digital modelling the way it is today you might want to consider just getting a line6 or similar amp. i play em and i love their sounds. it also allows you many different amp models in one convienently priced package.

hope this helped.
 
Not too impressed with the newer mesa amps. Try a Mark iV or one of the DC series amps. If you want a real killer sound use a mesa with a marshall. You get the chime with the low end. When I say marshall I mean JCM 800 / 900/ or the early 2000 with the drake trannie.

The heaviest guitar sound I ever heard was out of a gibson SG with a 500t in the bridge.

Also other have suggested speakers as a focal point. I would agree. I myself have found a cheaper alternative speaker for this type tone your after. THe jensen mod12 speaker. They are about half the price of the celestion vintage 30 speaker. I have the jensens in a 2x12 homeade cab and it rocks so much harder than my marshall 4x12 1960 cab. I will probably replace the celestions in the marshall cab before its over with.
 
I was also going to suggest the Mark IV, but not sure if it will fit your budget...
 
legionserial said:
+1 on the 5150
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+1 from me, too... A lot of the bands I work with are assorted flavors of metal bands, and a few of them have had 5150s - it's a pretty damn badass amp for the more melodic metal styles. The channels actually sound exactly like they should - rhythm is crunchy as all hell (gorgeous!) and lead has that smooth sizzly harmonic-blast that makes you wanna melt sound to it (Older In Flames lead style). I was actually quite surprised when playing with the gain that cranking it all the way didn't sound like shit - It definitely didn't sound best like that, but most amps sound like total ass with the gain all the way up, and the 5150 is an interesting exception. It rocks - really. You should be able to find one used on ebay or something in your price range.

The last band that recorded with me that had 5150s had some Ibanez 7-string guitars that they had put EMG 81s and EMG 85s in, and a Les Paul. Both sounded great through the 5150 on the rhythm channel with the gain around 4-5 (any more gain and the crunch started giving way to fuzz), and the bass at about 5, mids around 6-7 and high at about 6 (I think - I could be totally wrong, but that's what I think I remember....) The Les Paul didn't sound nearly as good as their Ibanez's (which totally took me off guard, as I am a major fan of the Les Paul tone, and a major non-fan of most Ibanez instruments - but like I said earlier...it's an interesting amp that isn't very similar to many other amps. I guess the EMGs and the 5150 just get along great, perhaps?).

Oh, and about all those pedals and stuff - I wish people would just stay away from them. I have yet to hear a little pedal box thing that adds to a guitar tone in a pleasant way. I run sound several nights a week for mostly hard rock/heavy metal type bands, and whenever I see a guitarist setting up pedals that are not strictly used for time-based effects, my heart sinks, and so does his level in the mix, heh...

Happy amp hunting - and merry christmas!
 
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Vagodeoz said:
I was also going to suggest the Mark IV, but not sure if it will fit your budget...
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gcapel said:
Not too impressed with the newer mesa amps. Try a Mark iV or one of the DC series amps.
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I'm not sure I'd suggest the Mark-IV for this particular application. It's a SERIOUSLY nice sounding amp, and probably the best lead guitar tone I've ever heard, but it's tough to get them to stay clear sounding much below E. They have a very round, yet somehow curtailed bass response, where you don't really get the "chunk" and impact of a low note through the amp in the same way you do with a Rectifier or more modern-voiced Mesa, where you have this huge, clear low end with a ton of headroom.

Don't get me wrong, it CAN be done (and I'm sure my habit of always setting them to half power/tweed doesn't help, lol), especially if you dial out most of the bass... But if your only concern is simply low end clarity, then you'd be making a less-than-ideal amp work, rather than starting right off the bat with something thats appropriate for the application.

That said, a Mark series layered against a Recto (Dream Theater's "Awake" is a great example, IIC+ and Recto) sounds absolutely huge.
 
Seeing as your already in a band, and need to stay with in a certain pocket of sound. My recommendation is to go to your local shop and play with stuff you can, and can't afford. Also bring your bass player or other guitar player if you have on in the band. Two heads are better than one. ESP when the other head doesn't have any kind of "incentive" to get you to buy some thing you might not want. This in the long run will tell you every thin you need to know. Another good thing to try as well, pick a few bands that have the sound your going for, and then google them cross referencing there rigs. All be it you may not find much, you still get to see what every one else is using. This just gives you one more point of info to contrast and compare all the different equipment.

As for using bass amps. They are not for every one, but if your going for that muddy Kyuss/desert tone then they are definitely the way to go. In my experience they seem to end up doing just that any way. Because they are really meant to bring out the deep low end, as well as the mids, but don't do to much with the highs. I could also be 100% wrong as opinions, and gear do vary.
 
If you are looking for something that will pick up a better low end frequency you may want to look at some keyboard amps or a bass amp.
Mesa,Peavey, Ashdown are 3 of my favorites.
 
Marshall superbass MkII 100W would be a good head to run through - no master vol/gain though so you'd probably want a pre..
 
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