Opinions on the best SS Amps?

Gassage

Amazed that no mention of the wonderful Peterson Special 100 Jazz Amp. Literally the best SS ever, IMO. And you can grab them for 500

Sassafras

I like the Tech 21 Trademark series. Very versatile amps that do the edge of break-up sound very convincingly. Excellent EQ section too.

Grunfeld

Sassafras said:

I like the Tech 21 Trademark series. Very versatile amps that do the edge of break-up sound very convincingly. Excellent EQ section too.

I like these too and the only reason I sold mine was because for some reason I found them bloody fiddly to work with for gigging -- as you altered the tone to suit the song the volume drop or boost would be too much and need more dialling in.  I could never suss out if it was me or the amp.

Gassage

I rest my case.

ICBM

timmysoft said:

I had three super tramp heads, never had a problem with any of them!

I think that might explain it, especially if you weren't running them at the minimum impedance - the combos did, to maximise power output. The heads would also be somewhat isolated from the vibration of the speakers, which would probably have helped.

Gassage said:

Amazed that no mention of the wonderful Peterson Special 100 Jazz Amp. Literally the best SS ever, IMO. And you can grab them for 500

Or less, even with the EV - assuming you can find one at all, they're quite rare. They do a fantastic clean sound, but the distortion really isn't that brilliant - very much of its time... late 70s/early 80s. Unless you like that kind of thing.

Grangousier

ICBM said:

timmysoft said

Trace Elliot Super Tramp - i toured with these in the early 2000's, they were always a huge sounding amp.

They do sound great, but you must have been one of the few people who didn't have trouble with them. A rehearsal studio I work for bought half a dozen of them at the time - every one died within a few months. Once they were out of warranty I modded the surviving ones to make them a bit more reliable.

Ooh, I'm curious as to what that is - I've a Super Tramp Twin, currently in use as a piece of furniture at a friend's house.In my case the difficulty (apart from lugging it around) was one of the channels just becoming insanely loud unexpectedly, which is the worst kind of insanely loud. When it wasn't doing that, though, I have very fond memories of using it in jazz pub gigs, where it was the most comfortable clean sound I've ever had - not so much loud as big enough to fill the room. I suppose you'd get that with any twin 12" combo, though. 

Anyway it might be nice to use it again some time, without it going "BOO!" at mucho decibels. 

Another vote for the Trademark amp - if you can get a TM60, and also get a Power Engine 60 (the same thing with just the power amp stage), you can stack them, which is also a lovely big sound. 

Sassafras

Grunfeld said:

Sassafras said:

I like the Tech 21 Trademark series. Very versatile amps that do the edge of break-up sound very convincingly. Excellent EQ section too.

I like these too and the only reason I sold mine was because for some reason I found them bloody fiddly to work with for gigging -- as you altered the tone to suit the song the volume drop or boost would be too much and need more dialling in.  I could never suss out if it was me or the amp.

No, it is the amp. There is an unfortunately huge volume difference between the clean Fender sound and all the others.
I mainly used that one sound so I wasn't too bothered by it.

ESBlonde

The HH musician 100 amps were not that bad at the time. Sessionette has been mentioned not that I've owned one, but they sound good when others play through them. I've learned to get a decent sound from a little Marshall AVT20 despite the boxy speaker and OTT drive capabilities (but it has an ECC83). Peavey Bandit.

I think more so with SS amps, you need to spend time and dial them in much more so than the plug and sound lovely approach a good valve amp gives. I'm a less is more guy on the overdrive front, so that skews my opinion.

JayGee

Whether you’d regard them as “good” in absolute terms or not I don’t know, but two very reasonably priced amps I’ve been pleasantly surprised by are the larger (65/100 series) Fender Frontman’s. Very usable, recognisably “Fender” clean channel, usable reverb, and works very well with drive pedals.

Slightly more contentiously a mate has a HiWatt “MaxWatt” 100 watt combo which shows up as house amp at jams on a regular basis. It’s kind of hard to get past the idea of a cheap SS amp with that logo on the front of it, but again clean or as a pedal platform it’s a better than decent sounding amp and deafeningly loud...

ICBM

JayGee said:

Whether you’d regard them as “good” in absolute terms or not I don’t know, but two very reasonably priced amps I’ve been pleasantly surprised by are the larger (65/100 series) Fender Frontman’s. Very usable, recognisably “Fender” clean channel, usable reverb, and works very well with drive pedals.

They're astonishing value for money too. They do have a weak point, which is the speakers - but at the price they are, the speakers are essentially free, so if they blow and you have to replace them you're not really any worse off...

And they're very light for such a powerful amp of that size. I actually think the overdrive channel on them isn't bad either.

JayGee said:

Slightly more contentiously a mate has a HiWatt “MaxWatt” 100 watt combo which shows up as house amp at jams on a regular basis. It’s kind of hard to get past the idea of a cheap SS amp with that logo on the front of it, but again clean or as a pedal platform it’s a better than decent sounding amp and deafeningly loud...

These are also surprisingly good-sounding, although not that well-built. I can't remember if these are from the 'Harrison era' of Hiwatt brand ownership or not - they may pre-date it, but I'm not sure.

solar

ZT Lunchbox.

guitarmangler

Yamaha dg 80, or any of the Yamaha Dg’s really.

HHwarner

Still available quite cheaply is the Marshall Lead 100 Mosfet. Great amps if you like the JCM800 sort of thing

Jimbro66

Back in the day I really liked the LAB Series amps designed by Moog for Gibson. Excellent clean sound, good with pedals and a very nice built-in compressor. Finding a good one now might not be easy and I believe they are not the easiest amps to work on. Nevertheless, I would still take a punt on a good one.

BluesyDave

Jimbro66 said:

Back in the day I really liked the LAB Series amps designed by Moog for Gibson. Excellent clean sound, good with pedals and a very nice built-in compressor. Finding a good one now might not be easy and I believe they are not the easiest amps to work on. Nevertheless, I would still take a punt on a good one.

Didn't BB King use them?

bugileman

Thanks for all your input guy's,  some interesting amps here. Alot of food for thought!

Pigknows

+1 for Lab Series. Excellent Fender reverb sound, and good overdrive too.
'60s and '70s Kustom Tuck and Roll amps. The 'Creedence' amp.
'60s and '70s Acoustic Control Corp amps. 
Vox Pathfinder 15R - a superb all-rounder. 
Marshall Lead 12 
Peavey Bandit 65 and Special 130
Orange C120R
Roland JC-77, 120 or 160
HH - great for Dr Feelgood, The Sweet, T Rex

stratman3142

I had a Lab Series L5, which I got when they first came out. I used it for years. It was bloody loud and a good pedal platform, but was very heavy. Eventually I sold it and moved on.

I've currently got a Blues Cube Artist 1 x12, which is a good amp and reasonably light.

Creed_Clicks

One of the Roland JC series? I had an Orange Crush 120 head and it sounded excellent, twas just too bloody heavy! But really good sounding amp.
I have a Quilter 101 mini head now, and I like it. I often think the 101reverb with traditional eq might be better, but I've read mixed reports on which could be better.
The Quilter micro block pedal looks like a great little home/portable amp.

PinstripePhil

Quilter with any good preamp pedal is killer.  I can recommend any sort of echoplex style pedal or the holy grail: a Nocturne JrBarnyard.