While the rest of the world went jcm800 crazy.......

ICBM

impmann said:

80s amps? Guaranteed to ruffle ICBMs feathers but the Sessionette 75 needs to be in there...

Probably .

Got two of them in for some work just now actually - a really early one with the glitter grille and a slightly later one with the string-vest grille. The glitter one sounds a bit better, possibly because it has a G12H-100 instead of the G12K-85 - not sure if that's original. Or maybe it's the ILP power module…

I can *almost* get a sound I like out of the glitter one .

1nten5e

80's......I went from a Lab Series L5 to a JC120 and that saw me into the 90's

richardhomer

I was using a Music Man 65 410 during this period (a sort of 'Super Reverb' of the day).

Clearly my tonal preferences were not in Marshall territory. A great sounding amp that never failed....

drwiddly

I had a 50w Marshall MV combo (fantastic sounding thing - one of the best amps I've ever owned) and an Orange OR80 combo as a back up. Marshall was nicked so I popped the Orange in for a Marshall 100w MV head & 4x12. Traded that a few years on for an AC30 + cash which saw me through to the 90's.

Zodiac51

All the hip cats were running around town with their Gallien-Kruegers & Sessionettes

impmann

Wow... was I a 'hip cat', then? 

GK amps... yep, I'd forgotten those. I saw Gary Moore at the Hammersmith Odeon back in the day, and I'm sure he had a GK amp set up...

ICBM

impmann said:

GK amps..

Awful things. Unbelievably loud in their time for such a small amp (well before the modern Class D mini-amps) but completely toneless in my opinion - or you could use the built-in chorus which sort-of made it sound better... if you like chorus!

A lot of them failed too. I had one of the bass ones, it sounded not too bad at home, but at gig volume the sound went out about a foot and stopped there - no projection or space filling whatever. Then it died... I fixed it and got rid.

FX_Munkee

I was using a Hafler pre-amp and a Midiverb into one of those SS Marshall power amps for quite a while.
Sounded perfect.... for the decade.

As for sleeper amps, I'd like to try a Peavey Triumph again. To check the sound in my memory is actually as good as it was.

Karlos

Lodious said:

I guess there was a pretty short window before ADA MP1 and a quadraverb became the dogs twitcher....dark days indeed.

When flogged my JCM and went with the ADA MP1 and Quadraverb GT, I was using a Marshall 9000 Series power amp, the big 4U green monster. 

Now that WAS a back breaker.

meltedbuzzbox

No mention of the Roland Jazz Chorus from the 80s?

Best solid state amp ever, weighed more than a volvo though.

1nten5e

meltedbuzzbox said:

No mention of the Roland Jazz Chorus from the 80s?

Best solid state amp ever, weighed more than a volvo though.

I think you'll find it's been mentioned a couple of times

meltedbuzzbox

helps when you read things!

thomasw88

Gigged a Yamaha G100 for most of the 90s.,  I was happy with that, a korg a4, and a japanese strat for about 6 or 7 years.

 

then the gas man strucketh..

What about the roland bolt amp.  great little hybrid ss/valve amp. terrible drive channel, but a clean channel to die for..

 

 

kelvinburn

My friend has a silver pannelled Peavey classic 100 2x12 that may be from about then. Lovely sounding thing, like this;

http://guitarmike.com/peaveycombo.jpg

ICBM

Those are nice - although the Classic is a 50W, it's the Deuce which is 100W. Valve power amp, solid-state preamp and a fantastic onboard phaser! (Tremolo on the very earliest models if I remember right.) The clean sound is fantastic and very Fender-like, the overdrive is a bit more of an acquired taste - essentially the same as the Bandit etc of the same era. They're pretty reliable, weigh a lot and sell for very little these days...

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM said:

Those are nice - although the Classic is a 50W, it's the Deuce which is 100W. Valve power amp, solid-state preamp and a fantastic onboard phaser! (Tremolo on the very earliest models if I remember right.) The clean sound is fantastic and very Fender-like, the overdrive is a bit more of an acquired taste - essentially the same as the Bandit etc of the same era. They're pretty reliable, weigh a lot and sell for very little these days...

Could you use a preamp type setup running straight into the power amp?  IE 6l6 valve power amp with modeller or SS preamp of choice?

ICBM

Yes.

ThePrettyDamned

I'm sure the clean sounds great as it is, but I reckon an AMT P1 might sound a bit better than the old style Bandit esque drive, so maybe it's possible to use a splitter and run between the clean preamp and an AMT running into the power amp.  

They really do go cheap... I'm a bit shocked, actually.

ICBM

The Deuce in particular can sell for little more than the value of the original quad of Peavey-labelled Sylvania 6L6GCs they sometimes still contain.

Loobs

Peavey VTM