Amps for Covers Band

digitalscream

Jetfire said:

So, after watching Chappers doing a review of the Laney IRT Studio, Capt Lee said that it wouldnt be an amp for covers bands etc. So, if we are talking a non tribute, general covers band (As we've all prob played in at some point) what would be the ideal amp for this? Of course, Axe FX etc would be great as it does everything etc. but what would be the best amp in your opinion? I mean, surely most amps would do it? (except maybe the 5150/6505 as that is a real metal amp.. )

I'd say that the Cap'n is totally wrong on that. The IRTs are phenomenally versatile amps - they have the lovely Laney clean, and the crunch/drive channels have fantastically tweakable EQ along with the boost and a good effects loop.

I suppose he might have a point about the IRT Studio if you're running with a vocal-only PA, purely because it might not have the headroom for proper cleans when competing with a drummer. The IRT60H is about as good as it gets for a three-channel amp at the lower price points, though.

1nten5e

Mesa Roadking......or Roadster

p90fool

dindude;181787" said:

The best covers bands I've seen have a guitarist with a little personality still who isn't obsessed with recreating the exact tones. 
.

Whether I succeed or not is not for me to judge, but this is exactly my approach.

monquixote

I use a one channel amp (H&K Puretone) and an OD (Liquid Sunshine or AC Boost) and Dist (Bogner Red) which gives you spanky clean, gritty, drive and shred (with both on). I could not care less if the track I'm playing has a Voxy clean and a Les Paul, when I play it it gets a Fender clean and a Strat. 

I'll be using that for a dep gig where I've got to do Van Morrison, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Madness, Fleetwood Mac, Killers, etc and my own band where I'm playing Chic, Stevie Wonder and Daft Punk. 

I once read in Guitarist one of the writers used an Esquire and a one channel amp riding the volume knob for his cover band to see if he could do it and he got loads more compliments about his sound and playing because he wasn't tap dancing.

I'd say the most important thing for a cover band amp is that it's robust and reliable, luggable and not so expensive that when you drop it down some stairs, or some dick spills a pint on it you don't want to cry.

With that in mind I'd say something like an HRD or a classic 50 and a couple of pedals (say a TS and a RAT), or if you want to go valveless a Bandit or a TM60. 

The only amps I could imagine not working in a covers context is a mega shred amp with no clean channel, or one of those little blues boxes with no headroom which are only good at squishy crunch. 

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM said:

Drew_fx said:

Line 6 Spider.

Not in a "real band" context - they aren't dynamic enough to cut through against live drums and bass - but perfect for live guitar and vocals over backing tracks. A friend of mine uses one for exactly that job, and it works far better than his valve Marshalls.

I would say:

Peavey Bandit. Cheap, reliable, loud, good-sounding, versatile and (despite what some people say!) lightweight.

I would take a small bet that more money has been earned in covers and function bands over the years with a Peavey Bandit than any other model of guitar amp. The only other real contenders would be the Fender Twin and maybe the Hotrod Deluxe.

Mine is heavy and big... But then again, you're used to lugging around those big ol' dual rec monsters.  

Yeah, I guess it's light :P 

My vote goes to Hot Rod Deluxe or Peavey Classic 50 if you insist on valves, if you're not fussed or if you need a backup, an old USA Peavey Bandit is so cheap, and they sound great.  Just don't use boost pedals into it with the bright switch on, it'll hurt your soul.  

Danny1969

Any old Marshall, Blackstar, Fender works for me ....  if it's got clean and dirty you can get the inbetweens by backing off the guitar. If you get the right notes and the right phrasing it will sound right regardless of the brand of amp to a certain extent ......... I'm talking covers bands like KOL, U2, Stereophonics cassic rock etc I've no experience in nailing Cannibal Corpse's tone

A luxury for the discerning covers guitarist is midi switching, so you can switch effects and channels with one stomp but you can slum it without midi  

Jalapeno

Don't think a Spider 75w is too bad a suggestion really.

Or a Bandit/Valvestate plus a Pod Floorboard

crunchman

Someting that does decent Fender cleans and taks pedals well.  Depending on band volume, HRD or DRRI if you are in smaller venues and don't play too loud.

martinw

p90fool said:

dindude;181787" said:

The best covers bands I've seen have a guitarist with a little personality still who isn't obsessed with recreating the exact tones. 
.

Whether I succeed or not is not for me to judge, but this is exactly my approach.

And me. I use a clean amp and half a dozen pedals. I use a V6-20, but the good thing is I can use almost any amp that will give me a decent clean sound.

Setting up is quick and easy with predictable results.

Handsome_Chris

At the GBGS, at TFB stand @Clarky and I ran an IRT Studio into a Matrix GT1000FX and two 4x12s.  It was a versatile little preamp that, in the limited time I had to try it, I believe it performed well.

http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac233/elastitude/Mobile Uploads/IMG_20140301_160758_zpsc5a6d1e9.jpg

http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac233/elastitude/Mobile Uploads/IMG_20140301_160744_zps8c273d59.jpg

ESBlonde

Define 'covers'.

AC-DC, Free and Thin lizzy type sets are all covers as are Al Green, Chic, Michael Jackson, cher, Nirvana, The Dandy Warhols, Tom Petty, Stevie Wonder, Wings, The Three Degrees, Lional Ritchie, Hot Chocolate and a host of others.

In all my years of playing I have tended to go the great basic tone and a few pedals, when I bought a backup to my old amp a few years back it was the Fender HRD. I can use that as a platform and cover all normal guitar tones. second channel is a bit Marmite (not for your high gain sounds really if I'm honest) but a compresser, drive, chorus, echo and you're good to go.

siraxeman

dindude said:

The best covers bands I've seen have a guitarist with a little personality still who isn't obsessed with recreating the exact tones. 

Any good two channel amp with nice cleans and heavy gain channel will do it if you combine it with Tubescreamer type pedal on the clean channel for the in-between sounds. Add a delay and maybe a mod too and you're there. I gigged a covers band for years like this.

We have a winner. Game over.

AndyJP

Either an Egnater m4 preamp with various modules (fender, marshall, vox, dumble, mesa).  .... Midi switchable too.    Into a torpedo c.a.b -> frfr speaker.

Or instead of the preamp get some tube based pedals and run that into the torpedo c.a.b.

The Egnater preamp is like gold dust though....

mike257

I'm playing in a function band doing a fairly broad range of covers and using my Genz Benz Black Pearl 30 - one channel, footswitchable boost, gets me from clean to hairy and then I just have a couple of drive pedals, two delays and a verb on my board.  Gets me through everything that's asked of me and in all honesty I could probably drop down to just one drive pedal and the Deluxe Memory Boy and get away with it just fine. 

I've had a bigger board and I've contemplated programmable loopers, G System, all that, but in the end I like the simplicity and immediacy of having a great base tone and a couple of good sounding pedals.  There's no fiddling, no worrying about patches and programming, it just gets the job done, and I don't have to spend a day building a new bank of sounds if I'm out on a dep gig.  I can see the merits of the "nail every tone" approach but I think the subtleties of that largely get lost in an average gig situation.

ESBlonde

@Mike257 that gets a wisdom from me.

KISS principle.

Catthan

It depends, do you like pedals? Will be spending money on pedals even if you got a good switcher amp? If yes on both, get a nice clean amp and pick your pedals. If you want more amp and less pedals my experience is that you ll probably have to look a bit harder. Things like, how clean do you want your cleans to be, do you want a dedicated lead channel like what the Mesa amps seems to offer? Do you want a good dirty rhythm channel as a boost-able basis for leads? If yes, do you want the boost to come from some amp functionality ( like a 3rd channel) or a pedal? If the latter, what pedal would work well with the driven sound of YOUR amp? You'll need pedals eventually, it's just a matter of how many and what for...

little story:

I sold my amazing Badger 30 and a couple of nice ODs to get a Lonestar special which has a dirty channel and a volume boost; all I need, right? Well, fortunately the dirty channel is awesome for leads to justify the investment but not much more unless I played in a Texas blues band which I don't . So I had to buy a MIAB eventually for my dirty rhythm work. 

the practical benefit is that my board is 1-2 pedals lighter BUT there's the amp's foot switch. Fortunately you don't pay extra for that..

And that's the anal approach. you can probably do fine with a basic amp and a single good OD if you know how to dial them in and get the songs down right.

fretmeister

I bought Catthan's Badger 30 and it's bloody brilliant.

And I have a couple of excellent drive pedals to go with it.

With the pedals I've got I can go from Chic to Slayer. Not had this much fun with a set up for years.

dhaywood67

Can I ask what drive pedals people might recomend for running in the clean channel of an amp. I have  Mooer Green Mile but I never seem to achieve very much other than fizz, but sounds good if I use it to push the gain channel. I can only assume I'm missing a trick somewhere. The rest of my rig is a USA Strat, EB booster and a couple of modulation pedals into the front end of an Orange Rocker 30.

vasselmeyer

@dhaywood76 Pretty much any of the Plexi type pedals will do. You can find anything from the very budget range (Joyo) through to mid range (EHX) or £100+ (Xotic, Carl Martin etc).

monquixote

dhaywood67 said:

Can I ask what drive pedals people might recomend for running in the clean channel of an amp. I have  Mooer Green Mile but I never seem to achieve very much other than fizz, but sounds good if I use it to push the gain channel. I can only assume I'm missing a trick somewhere. The rest of my rig is a USA Strat, EB booster and a couple of modulation pedals into the front end of an Orange Rocker 30.

You want more distortion type than OD. 

There are loads of good ones, what type of sound are you going for. 

In terms of Mooer Cruncher is a Marshally high gain, Rumble is a Zen lower gain smooth thing, Solo is American high gain (Riot), Hustle is an OCD, Black Secret is a RAT (and awesome) All good into clean amps. 

Green Mile is TS like and though opinions vary I hate them into clean amps.