Hey guys!
I've been on the search for a tube amp for a while now. I've been using solid state amps my whole life and have consequently become used to very pure clean channels (minimal breakup). The difficulty with tube amps is achieving true versatility unless I buy something like a Mesa Boogie, which is too expensive.
I play such a wide variety of genres ranging from jazz to mayer/clapton blues and all the way up to loads Iron Maiden and Metallica.
I've tested loads and loads of amps and my favorite two are Orange Rocker 15 Terror and Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. Now, these are obviously two very different amps but their respective tones are very important for my taste. So my dilemma is this:
The Orange Rocker 15 Terror has my favorite rock and metal tones I've tested so far, however, the natural channel is not purely clean by any measure. So do I compromise the clean tone and buy an Orange and maybe buy EQ, reverb and delay pedals to help with my clean sound?
OR
Buy a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and use overdrive and distortion pedals to achieve the high gain sounds?
My budget would be somewhere around £1000 (head/cab or combo)
Thanks in advance guys!
Comments
I have recently had a long term loan of an old Marshall 2204, I've been able to replicate that sound pretty well using my HRD and pedals.
You can add dirt, but it's very hard to add cleans.
Covers all bases nicely
You can get a good high-gain sound from the Hotrod with pedals, but not great - it’s just not tight enough really.
A Mesa Express will do both better, and as stickyfiddle said, are within your budget second hand. I wouldn’t buy a Mesa new in the UK anyway, they’re overpriced.
"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
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I haven’t heard the new Rocker 32 yet so I don’t know if it’s the same.
Maybe, but not that much. The amp is simply designed for a looser, more vintage sound.
Another suggestion - inspired by @jdgm - an old Fender Super 60, or the bigger red-knob (or later black-knob version) ‘The Twin’. These have a huge-sounding, very clean clean channel with almost solid-state-like dynamics but valve tone, and the Twin has a very versatile dirty channel, although it’s fussy to dial in. You can easily buy either for well under half your budget.
"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
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I had one, I shouldn’t have sold it!
That's technically true, but at the same time it's kind of misleading. I think it depends on what type of player you are- for example, even though it's true, it wouldn't really suit me since I like distortion tones so much, I'll just put up with the clean channel. I don't dislike pedals, but for (tube amp-style) distortion, they don't really sound or feel the same. At least the ones I've tried. If you're more of a "pedals for dirt" player, then it makes plenty of sense.
Sure, with an HRD you can use a pedal and maybe it'll get you "close enough". Or it might not and you might still be annoyed.
If I wanted to put in a different speaker which would improve it without ruining the clean sound I would pick something like a Celestion G12-65, or an EV - although I’m not sure that will physically fit.
"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
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
If you want that crystal clean 80's tone then go for the clean sound + high gain pedals.
IMHO the high gain tone is never tight enough.
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I play my Marshall 2204 clone through the clean input with distortion pedals
If you can get your cleans just before breakup so they're compressing you can use less distortion on the pedals and still get a fat/singing sound, more so I think
Which doesn't particularly help you choose.
But for £1000 - I'd get a used Helix and a powered cab and have it all.
https://speakerimpedance.co.uk/?act=two_parallel&page=calculator