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Which amp should I get for sounding awesome?

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gearaddictgearaddict Frets: 894
I'm so sick of trying different amps. I buy amp after amp and fiddle with them endlessly and nevertheless there are nights (like tonight) when I plug in and think "Hm...that sounds shit in a different way from any way it has sounded shit before" and I just can't be arsed any more. What can I buy that just sounds awesome?

Awesome = like Mark Tremonti or that cunt out of Porcupine Tree.
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Comments

  • Tremonti =Bognor uberschall, fender twin reverb reissue and a two rock I think. Not a cheap setup :)

    When all else fails, get a 6505/5150 (literally depends on which one you prefer the looks of if you get an older 5150) or a rockerverb :)
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  • crunchmancrunchman Frets: 11414
    Lazy J
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  • bertiebertie Frets: 13564

    I'm so sick of trying different amps. I buy amp after amp and fiddle with them endlessly and nevertheless there are nights (like tonight) when I plug in and think "Hm...that sounds shit in a different way from any way it has sounded shit before"  

    What can I buy that just sounds awesome?


    someone elses fingers ?

    ;)



    seriously, TBH I think everyone suffers from that to some extent..........some days its all great, "so glad I got this XXXX"   some days its just "WTF, where did that awful noise come from"........................  I guess its more lug-holes and brain and amp and guitar
    just because you don't, doesn't mean you can't
     just because you do, doesn't mean you should.
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  • Never managed to get a bad tone out of either of my Jet City amps. Yes, there have been a few wildly inappropriate tones, but nothing I'd term bad ;)
    <space for hire>
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  • gjonesygjonesy Frets: 145
    edited October 2013
    I hear Tremonti has used a Cornford RK100 in the studio - having stood in front of one of these on full chat I can vouch that its pretty amazing
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  • JohnPerryJohnPerry Frets: 1616
    I seem to recall the cunt to whom you refer uses a Bad Cat

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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963
    Awesome = Mesa Trem-o-verb.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • Forget amps, it's down to your plectrum choice, that's where you're going wrong, lad.

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  • IMO @bertie is right. you can get a good sound out of anything if you approach it with the right attitude.

    FWIW I recorded some stuff for a local radio station and although I say it myself it sounded awesomely huge. Was it recorded with the Lester through a 1967 Plexi? No, but a £100 cheap chinese plank that @bucket once laughed at for its fugly proportions through some FX on the pedalboard.
    "Working" software has only unobserved bugs. (Parroty Error: Pieces of Nine! Pieces of Nine!)
    Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    I had one of those rare days yesterday where my amp just sounded exactly like I wanted it to. 

    Strat into an H&K Puretone with a bit of SP Comp. Big and chunky, but plenty of sparkle and my Shredmaster seems to be a high gain pedal I love as much as the Liquid Sunshine for light gain. 

    The guy at the studio let me try his ultimate recording rig which is a preamp made out of a valve hydrophone from a submarine, a 60's Matamp into an attenuator, via a Fender valve reverb into a load of vintage JBLs. It sounded rather good.
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  • p90foolp90fool Frets: 31369
    Get a big, non-master volume valve amp and a load of overdrive, distortion and fuzz pedals.

    People don't get bored with their amps, they get bored with their PRE-amps. Shift it back outside the box and onto the floor where it belongs and you'll never change your amp again.


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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963
    p90fool said:
    Get a big, non-master volume valve amp and a load of overdrive, distortion and fuzz pedals.

    People don't get bored with their amps, they get bored with their PRE-amps. Shift it back outside the box and onto the floor where it belongs and you'll never change your amp again.

    I agree up to a point, but the 'feel' of the main amp is still important, and they aren't all the same by a long way. I didn't realise how much I preferred valve-rectified amps until I started playing them - so you could still end up changing. Even the negative feedback makes a big difference.

    Obviously a really good big non-master-volume amp with options like valve or solid-state rectifier, different power valve types, switchable negative feedback etc will come very close to being 'the last amp you'll ever need'.

    Or you could just get that but with a truly great and very flexible preamp attached as well, as I mentioned earlier ;). (And I still use pedals with it :).)

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • CirrusCirrus Frets: 8481
    edited October 2013
    Why is SW a cunt? I heard someone else ranting about him a couple of months ago but wouldn't tell me why. What's he done, besides going a bit "arty" on his solo stuff?

    Anyway. If you want to sound awesome it's got nothing to do with your gear. I've heard awesome sounds from Tremoverbs, JCM800s, Twin Reverbs, AC30s, Line 6 Vetta stacks, Hiwatts, Champs maxed out, Peavey solid state amps... so gear has fuck all to do with it. What matters is writing the best music you can and playing something worth hearing.

    Stop fiddling with amps as if they are source of quality, and start using them as tools to do something with purpose. Guitar "tone" is nothing without context.
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  • JohnPerryJohnPerry Frets: 1616
    Cirrus said:
    If you want to sound awesome it's got nothing to do with your gear.
    This is shocking and terrible news which strikes at the very foundations of this website. 

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  • JohnPerryJohnPerry Frets: 1616
    and I'm not altogether sure that "cunt" was intended by the OP as anything other than another word for "bloke". Perhaps it was. I'm unaware of specific cuntishness on the part of SW

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  • JohnPerry said:
    I seem to recall the cunt to whom you refer uses a Bad Cat


    cunt

     

    ...seriously though - apologies for the gratuitous use of the word. Didn't mean anything by it. Sometimes I forget not everyone is Scottish. :)

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  • Cirrus said:
    Stop fiddling with amps as if they are source of quality, and start using them as tools to do something with purpose. Guitar "tone" is nothing without context.

    Sorry, you are on the wrong forum.
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  • CirrusCirrus Frets: 8481
    No, Cunt is fine and I am actually Scottish. I wouldn't have thought anything of it if someone else hadn't been ranting about him recently, made me wonder if there was a thing...
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  • Cirrus said:
    No, Cunt is fine and I am actually Scottish. I wouldn't have thought anything of it if someone else hadn't been ranting about him recently, made me wonder if there was a thing...

    Ah. OK, cool. He probably is a cunt though.
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  • Thanks for the responses.

    I might have a bash at using pedals through the clean channel of my amp. It's a TH-30 so the clean channel is pretty well suited to that kind of thing. It's not that the drive channel sounds bad...I actually think it sounds great on its own but often I'm not sure it's working in the band context. I launched into 'you really got me' last night and I thought it sounded more like the intro to "My Wave" (soundgarden). Which isn't a bad thing if you were playing Soundgarden...but I wasn't. All just sounded a bit fuzzy last night.

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