One Amp to Rule them All - Can of Worms

Travisthedog

I love my Fender Prosonic. Its warm and bluesy, but surprisingly gets a little muddy under drive. Like most fenders, its own drive channel isn't all that great, even though its the best I've heard from a fender.

If you were in a semi pro function band that had to cover everything from the beatles/stones, eagles, doobie brothers, dire straits through to Foo Fighters, Green Day, G'n'R, Biffy Clyro etc, what would you reach for (that isn't thousands of quids). I'm feeling a 2x12 and it needs a line out

Go

DesVegas

2 Peavey Bandits?

p90fool

I can fake all of that stuff in a working band with pretty much any valve amp and a couple of choice pedals, but if you want to nail the nuances of each individual tone then you're really looking at multiFX rather than a couple of good amp channels.

Bridgehouse

Helix and be done with it.

Travisthedog

Bridgehouse said:

Helix and be done with it.

I keep looking at Fractal FX8, but you still have to put that out through something pretty transparent don't you

Travisthedog

p90fool said:

I can fake all of that stuff in a working band with pretty much any valve amp and a couple of choice pedals, but if you want to nail the nuances of each individual tone then you're really looking at multiFX rather than a couple of good amp channels.

@p90foolI think its finding the right valve amp. I use a Rocket Animal for those JCM/JTM tones but it still goes muddy and flabby fairly early on

koneguitarist

70's Fender Pro reverb, still a great sounding amp. Clean channel is perfect. A simple cap mod on normal Chanel and it will take all sorts of drive pedals. 

Bridgehouse

Travisthedog said:

Bridgehouse said:

Helix and be done with it.

I keep looking at Fractal FX8, but you still have to put that out through something pretty transparent don't you

Depends on your band setup I guess. Decent FRFR Speaker(s) for monitoring and direct out to PA if that's the setup, or a pair of FRFR for backline with some spread if you don't need to go through the PA. Does depend on venue size tho. The big advantage is you can build up some patches and use them in a 'setlist' style. The disadvantage is you could spend the rest of your life building patches

Travisthedog

That's what terrifies me!

Bridgehouse

Travisthedog said:

That's what terrifies me!

TBH I was terrified that it would happen when I got the Helix. But it actually didn't. Created a series of patches I really liked, and tweak them a bit, but mostly stick to using them. The flexibility is brilliant. OK, it's not quite the same as a valve amp with a good 2x12 attached, but I suspect in a function band setting it's so damned close as to be irrelevant. 

Oh, and flippin' convenient too. Er, and lighter. 

BowynMadley

I've played a few prosonics and by the best by far was the one that had a replacement speaker. He had blown the original and had an old celestion gold. It sounded incredible! Very tight bottom end and punchy. But above all it killed that muddy mush when pushed hard.

Moral of the story. Save your money and replace the speaker

ICBM

Mesa Trem-o-verb. By a curious coincidence I may be selling mine… even though I love it.

I'm very surprised the Prosonic gets muddy when driven hard though - or at least if you're using the full power solid-state rectifier mode. I seem to remember them being *too* clear and cutting like that, if anything.

Travisthedog

BowynMadley said:

I've played a few prosonics and by the best by far was the one that had a replacement speaker. He had blown the original and had an old celestion gold. It sounded incredible! Very tight bottom end and punchy. But above all it killed that muddy mush when pushed hard.

Moral of the story. Save your money and replace the speaker

I had though this - 2 10" golds will hurt the bank though!!

Travisthedog

£156 each!!!!!

Richardj

An honourable mention perhaps for the Fender Bassbreaker 18/30 and 45. My 18/30 is plenty loud and dynamic, loves pedals into the front for Marshall style drives and the two Celestion V-Type speakers really move some air.

ChrisCox1994

deluxe reverb with a speaker swap and some nice pedals, all the function stuff is mic'd and they (generally) prefer the look of small combos on stage (punters at weddings see a 4x12 and instantly think its loud!) 

Anything bigger would take more volume to sound good and clients listen with their eyes a lot of the time. 

John_P

With a few pedals or an Fx8 then I'd vote for a fender twin.   Perfect gigging amp they can cope with big and small stages, mic'd or on its own and has enough headroom to sound great with lots of pedals.  
Ignore comments about the weight - make sure it's on wheels and it's fine. 

Dodge

AC30, Hotcake and a Rat.

DesVegas

Dodge said:

AC30, Hotcake and a Rat.

Sounds rad

Jack_

Line 6 Spider, one of the early models.

ruralfrance

Dodge said:

AC30, Hotcake and a Rat.

This ^