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Mid/high gain amp with useable cleans.

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  • JayGeeJayGee Frets: 1254
    A Blackstar series one would cover this easily. You can pick the heads up very cheap second hand.

    I seen a 50 watt head just this week for £250 on one of the Facebook groups. 

    I used to gig the 2x12 combo with a TC Nova System in the loop.
    It was a nice little compact Rig. I used the TC for all my delays and modulations and also to change the 3 channels on the amp via midi.
    This was my first thought, I’ve got a 104 EL34 head, I know they divide opinion but the cleans are genuinely lovely, the crunch/super crunch modes are great, and the higher (OD1/OD2) gain voices are at worst very usable. Definitely worth a try, after all the worst that can happen is that you don’t like it and don’t buy it... :-)
    Don't ask me, I just play the damned thing...
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  • VH4 
    ဈǝᴉʇsɐoʇǝsǝǝɥɔဪቌ
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  • simonksimonk Frets: 1467
    I still think the Boogie MkV25 is the best amp in the current MB lineup so I’m going to suggest that.

    Having said that the Triple Crown would seem to more than fulfil the brief.
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  • jaysmithjaysmith Frets: 27
    edited January 2019
    Marshall JCM 800 2203 reissue..... Led Zep, AC/DC tones are there no problem. For cleans, just roll back your guitar volume. To get John Sykes Whitesnake type tones all you need is a Boss SD 1 in front of the amp. It's the best guitar rig I have had so far and is so simple.
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  • ClarkyClarky Frets: 3261
    edited January 2019
    John_P said:
    Clarky said:
    Diesel Herbert.. hugely versatile
    I’ve never tried a Diesel - ugly looking things but I’ll check them out thanks.  
    when people think Deizel they immediately think metal..
    there's so much more to them than that
    both the Herbert and VH4 are incredibly versatile
    I've played blues and funk through real ones at the Guitar Show in Brum [which always turns heads cos everyone expects drop-tune riffing from that stand]..
    in the Axe-FX, the Herbert is a goto amp and part of my live config too
    as a session player I've used the Herbert in the Axe-FX for rock, swamp blues, funk and rockabilly [as well as my usual proggy blood and snot]..

    the Herbert and VH4 are slightly different animals, so I'd certainly suggest trying them both..
    and... unlike Boogies and some other amps, they are sooooo easy to dial in
    play every note as if it were your first
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  • Clarky said:
    Diesel Herbert.. hugely versatile
    ^ this or a VH4 or if you can find one a Diesel Schmidt, class A, 3 channels (clean / mid to high gain / high gain) - great little amp but because as @Clarky says Diezel = metal they didnt really sell all that well. Totally overlooked :)

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  • Mk V? 3 channels  and easier to dial in than other Mesa amps, and maybe try it with EL 34s.
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  • JMP220478JMP220478 Frets: 421
    Friedman small box ?
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  • DrBobDrBob Frets: 2998
    If you get the “mod” done on Budda SuperDrives to sort out the clean channel/dirty channel mismatch they’re ideal for this 
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  • ClarkyClarky Frets: 3261
    Clarky said:
    Diesel Herbert.. hugely versatile
    ^ this or a VH4 or if you can find one a Diesel Schmidt, class A, 3 channels (clean / mid to high gain / high gain) - great little amp but because as @Clarky says Diezel = metal they didnt really sell all that well. Totally overlooked :)

    I'd never played a Schmitt..
    that said, I've never played a bad Deizel so I'd expect it to be excellent
    play every note as if it were your first
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  • webrthomsonwebrthomson Frets: 1029
    edited January 2019
    Clarky said:
    Clarky said:
    Diesel Herbert.. hugely versatile
    ^ this or a VH4 or if you can find one a Diesel Schmidt, class A, 3 channels (clean / mid to high gain / high gain) - great little amp but because as @Clarky says Diezel = metal they didnt really sell all that well. Totally overlooked

    I'd never played a Schmitt..
    that said, I've never played a bad Deizel so I'd expect it to be excellent

    Blisteringly good little amp - only issue due to it being class A it uses the same transformers as the VH4 and therefore is physically very heavy – the Paul is the newer version of it, not tried that but want to!

    Love Diezel, great amps, lovely people and some of the the best customer service ever

    EDIT - any of the Mark V Boogies are very good too - way easier that the Mark IV to dial in and much more logically laid out.

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  • ClarkyClarky Frets: 3261
    Clarky said:
    Clarky said:
    Diesel Herbert.. hugely versatile
    ^ this or a VH4 or if you can find one a Diesel Schmidt, class A, 3 channels (clean / mid to high gain / high gain) - great little amp but because as @Clarky says Diezel = metal they didnt really sell all that well. Totally overlooked

    I'd never played a Schmitt..
    that said, I've never played a bad Deizel so I'd expect it to be excellent

    Blisteringly good little amp - only issue due to it being class A it uses the same transformers as the VH4 and therefore is physically very heavy – the Paul is the newer version of it, not tried that but want to!

    Love Diezel, great amps, lovely people and some of the the best customer service ever

    EDIT - any of the Mark V Boogies are very good too - way easier that the Mark IV to dial in and much more logically laid out.

    I've not tried a real MkV. The only Boogies I've tried are a real MkIIC and the selection in the Axe-FX [which I'm told are extremely accurate models]. Personally I thought they were great, but still gravitated towards the Diezels and a handful of others [JCM800, 5150mk3, Tucana3, 70's Hiwatt, 5150 Block and a few others]
    the 5150 mk3 is another superb amp that is highly versatile [I combine it with the Herbert for my riffing tone and use it for my lead tone].
    play every note as if it were your first
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  • John_PJohn_P Frets: 2744
    Well I’m still weighing up all the options and but haven’t seen anything the looks better than the bogner xtc or a soldano decatone/hot rod+ tbh.    
    I’m wary of a lot of Mesa models as they can end up with too many options when I just want a few simple great sounding options.  I’m sure the diesels are great but not sure they are for me 

    I was sidetracked briefly with the thought of another jubilee or Danish Pete’s old Lonestar than Andertons have for sale but we shall see what comes up over the next few weeks.  
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  • ClarkyClarky Frets: 3261
    John_P said:
    Well I’m still weighing up all the options and but haven’t seen anything the looks better than the bogner xtc or a soldano decatone/hot rod+ tbh.    
    I’m wary of a lot of Mesa models as they can end up with too many options when I just want a few simple great sounding options.  I’m sure the diesels are great but not sure they are for me 

    I was sidetracked briefly with the thought of another jubilee or Danish Pete’s old Lonestar than Andertons have for sale but we shall see what comes up over the next few weeks.  
    a thing I forgot to mention about the VH4 is that it's a 4 channel amp
    ch1 is clean and will get quite aggressive if you want it to
    ch2 is low to mid gain but it also has nice aggressive cleans
    ch3 is mid gain to the low end of hi gain [and is jaw dropping cos it's a mid gain tone with a hi gain feel]
    ch4 is full on hi gain

    a point to note is that each channel has it's own voicing, so it's not like is the same tone getting dirtier in each channel.
    They are all quite distinct and so have their own tonal charactericts.
    Additionally [if memory serves], each channel has it's own fx send / return and the master has another 2 of them; so you can drop different fx combinations on to each channel and have 'amp wide' fx too.
    The channels and loops are all switchable via MIDI so it's quite powerful and flexible

    and... there are 2 versions..
    the VH4 and the VH4S [which is the stereo version]
    play every note as if it were your first
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  • Clarky said:
    Clarky said:
    Clarky said:
    Diesel Herbert.. hugely versatile
    ^ this or a VH4 or if you can find one a Diesel Schmidt, class A, 3 channels (clean / mid to high gain / high gain) - great little amp but because as @Clarky says Diezel = metal they didnt really sell all that well. Totally overlooked

    I'd never played a Schmitt..
    that said, I've never played a bad Deizel so I'd expect it to be excellent

    Blisteringly good little amp - only issue due to it being class A it uses the same transformers as the VH4 and therefore is physically very heavy – the Paul is the newer version of it, not tried that but want to!

    Love Diezel, great amps, lovely people and some of the the best customer service ever

    EDIT - any of the Mark V Boogies are very good too - way easier that the Mark IV to dial in and much more logically laid out.

    I've not tried a real MkV. The only Boogies I've tried are a real MkIIC and the selection in the Axe-FX [which I'm told are extremely accurate models]. Personally I thought they were great, but still gravitated towards the Diezels and a handful of others [JCM800, 5150mk3, Tucana3, 70's Hiwatt, 5150 Block and a few others]
    the 5150 mk3 is another superb amp that is highly versatile [I combine it with the Herbert for my riffing tone and use it for my lead tone].
    I've owned pretty much every version of the mark series and while they are a bit of a pain to dial in (maybe that should read - not dialed in like a Marshall TBH) in a band context they are excellent. The diezels are also superb amps for everything not just metal. These days due to weight I tend to find myself using a slightly modded Mesa DC5 - loud enough and sounds like 2 channel Mark.

    Oddly I've never owned any version of 5150, thought I did have a SLO and I still have a dual recto 2 channel revision C which are all very close or so I'm told :)
    John_P said:
    Well I’m still weighing up all the options and but haven’t seen anything the looks better than the bogner xtc or a soldano decatone/hot rod+ tbh.    
    I’m wary of a lot of Mesa models as they can end up with too many options when I just want a few simple great sounding options.  I’m sure the diesels are great but not sure they are for me 

    I was sidetracked briefly with the thought of another jubilee or Danish Pete’s old Lonestar than Andertons have for sale but we shall see what comes up over the next few weeks.  
    I dont think you can go wrong with the XTC - thats a great amp! Didnt care for the Decatone, the controls are too restricting but you could normally get two good sounding channels, just not the third :(

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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963

    Oddly I've never owned any version of 5150, thought I did have a SLO and I still have a dual recto 2 channel revision C which are all very close or so I'm told :)
    No, they’re not. Part of the Dual Rectifier preamp circuit is copied from the SLO, but only part - the rest of the amp is completely different - and the 5150 is not remotely similar to either of them, or any other of the amps which evolved from the 5F6-A Bassman via Marshall. The 5150 is actually quite unusual in amp history in that it appears to be more or less an original design, not directly copied or derived from anything else as far as I know.

    "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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  • ClarkyClarky Frets: 3261
    ICBM said:

    Oddly I've never owned any version of 5150, thought I did have a SLO and I still have a dual recto 2 channel revision C which are all very close or so I'm told :)
    No, they’re not. Part of the Dual Rectifier preamp circuit is copied from the SLO, but only part - the rest of the amp is completely different - and the 5150 is not remotely similar to either of them, or any other of the amps which evolved from the 5F6-A Bassman via Marshall. The 5150 is actually quite unusual in amp history in that it appears to be more or less an original design, not directly copied or derived from anything else as far as I know.
    I don't know the history or technicals regarding the 5150 family
    but I have played through a real 5150 Block, 5153 and the Axe-FX modelled versions [which I use regular and know sound and feel pretty much the same as the real thing]..
    the 5150 Block seemed very single minded to me.. a very hi-gain amp.. does one thing brilliantly
    the 5153 has all the goodies of the 5150 plus very nice clean and mid-gain channels
    the unexpected surprise was the aggressive clean from the green channel..
    it's wonderful.. thick and full bodied with a nice edge in the highs

    if I were to ever switch from the Axe to a real amp, the contest would be between the VH4, Herbert and 5153
    it'd be a very tough choice but for flexibility I reckon the VH4 would win by a whisker
    play every note as if it were your first
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  • John_PJohn_P Frets: 2744
    Just our of interest,  has anyone tried the Bogner helios and compared it to any of the amps discussed like the 5153?
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  • The Friedman SS100. Awesome.
    Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life
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  • monkey42monkey42 Frets: 336
    The Friedman SS100. Awesome.
    Now you’re talking  ;)
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