Amp for heavy tight stuff plus genuinely pretty cleans

ThePrettyDamned

I have a few in mind, will be shopping used - budget maybe 4-500.

Basically, I love metal and djent and tech and all the rest of it, but I love funk and pretty, simple sounding stuff. Big fan of frusciante, nile etc.

So, the 6505+ is *the* amp for the crunch and lead sound but the cleans are more functional than pretty.

The hot rod deluxe has pretty cleans and great drive, but won't do metal so well.

Laney vc50 - 3 channels, could be great. Would need a speaker change, and I feel nervous having massive gain in a combo, seems to be begging for valve squealing. Could possibly rehouse?

Or, a great clean amp that has an effects loop so I can get an amptweaker tightrock or tightmetal pro and use that (with some way of switching between front end and direct to power section).

Or something else - h+k and engl both do channel switching monsters.

Or a jet city. But I have no way to try the 22h out... Which is the one with the most gain, though others may suffice?

Ideally, head and 1x12 cab I could consider 2x12 cab but might need some room rearranging and it's total overkill for me. In fairness, any of these are but I've saved and saved and should be able to treat myself before Christmas (which is when I may have made up my mind!).

Must have excellent master volume for bedroom use.

Moon on a stick?

Love the classic 50 but it won't go gainy enough

timmysoft

Vc50 is killer, I toured one for two years. Worth looking at the ironhearts too, theyre a big sounding amp

guitarfishbay

Ironheart will do the tight gain, the cleans are clean clean only though unless you use pedals for some break up. It also stays clean really loud on the 120h. The gain channel sounds like a brighter, drier, less saturated 6505. If you use a TS to further saturate it you can get ballpark of a 6505, it'll still sound drier though. If you were spending more I'd say the EVH 5150 iii 100 watt would do everything you want. So my vote is Ironheart, or save more money.

Drew_TNBD

5153.

guitarfishbay

This guy did a vid with a 6505 and Ironheart, the Ironheart sounds exactly as I'd expect based on my own experiences.

ThePrettyDamned

So far, vc50 or save a fair bit more dollar (which I might do).

The 5153... 50 watter in particular, what is the channel switching like? Can I have clean and pretty fender sound, and crunch, and lead?

Also, I just remembered... Fender machete!

ThePrettyDamned

Balls, machete is 800 quid. But possibly worth saving for. Has an emulated out, too.

The demos are from players who are not that good at heavy styles though...

guitarfishbay

Get the 100 EVH. I'm pretty evangelical about this so take with a grain of salt, but shared volume and gain controls are the devil. Both amps sound good but the 50 has a noticeable volume jump from clean to rhythm. Those channels share gain and volume controls (and also EQ FWIW). On the 100 no controls are shared so you can set it up however you fancy. You can get around the 50 watt volume issue with a midi pedal, or just a simple pedal to either reduce the volume of rhythm or increase the volume of clean (eg EQ). IMO the only negative with the 100 is the size. They're well over your current budget used, but honestly it could be a keeper for you given you want 6505 gains with nicer cleans, so would be worth investigating at least.

ThePrettyDamned

Definitely will bear that in mind, though it's waaaaaay out of budget

guitarfishbay

Yeah it is. If you were going to save towards that Machete though you wouldn't be far off a used EVH and personally I reckon you'd be happier with the 5150. If you're happy with the shared controls then a used EVH 50 watt will probably suit you better than an Ironheart IMO.

spacecadet

I had a play around with the new Peavey Valveking. I was never too fond of the old one. Sounded great but didn't really have any character. The new one (I borrowed the micro head) was awesome. Very sparkly cleans which can be driven, incredible amounts of gain that was very responsive. All the other features on it were a bonus.

Drew_TNBD

Definitely don't get the 50-watter 5153 if you want a good clean tone, a nice rhythm tone, and a high-gain lead tone. It cannot do all three at once, regardless of what the company and fanboiz claim.

Jetfire

Ironheart Studio and a power amp. Its what Im using and its BEAST.

Bidley

Consider a Carvin. An X100B head can be had for about £250 used, and they come up reasonably regularly. The amount of features for the money is insane, and it'll do those awesome cleans right through to br00tz with a TS in front of it. I love mine so much I bought the combo version as well.

There's also the V3M, which is a micro head but a touch more expensive. Still, 3 channels, great cleans and insane gain.

digitalscream

I'm thinking the Ironheart - however, if you want to try a Jet City out, just wander over in my direction some time (you're not that far away, I think...).

Kebabkid

Have a go of a Hughes and Kettner Tubemeister 36 head - 3 channels with great cleans, nice crunch and a fair amount of gain on Channel 3 that might get you into metal territory but would certainly do it with an OD pedal added.

Obviously, I'm talking used as new they're £800+

The head weighs 17lbs and has inbuilt Red Box Speaker Simulator so you can record directly from it or take a feed to the PA for a live mix. It also has limited MIDI function over the settings.

ICBM

I seem to remember the clean sound being pretty nice on the Peavey XXX, but I ma not be a fair judge of "pretty" clean sounds.

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM;311682" said:

I seem to remember the clean sound being pretty nice on the Peavey XXX, but I ma not be a fair judge of "pretty" clean sounds.

My favourite clean tone is fru - basically Marshall major. I can't afford one of those, though

digitalscream;311654" said:

I'm thinking the Ironheart - however, if you want to try a Jet City out, just wander over in my direction some time (you're not that far away, I think...).

Forgot the iron heart studio existed... I think pmt in Cambridge stock them so I can try one out. Thanks!

Also, I might need to take you up on that sometime - not least because my mate wants one.

@kebabkid I have tried the tm range and really didn't like them - maybe the stock speakers... I love the looks, though.

@bidley ooo nice idea! I've seen carvin kit go cheap, but again, never tried one. Steve vai (and viz) are fans iirc. Definitely got some youtubing to do.

@drew_fx did you try the 50 watter with midi? Would that fix the issue? I've not done midi before...

Drew_TNBD

I assume you mean with midi, and using the effects loop to bring in some attenuation??? I did try it with midi. No, it didn't fix the issue. You would nearly always get a nasty click or loud jump when going from channel to channel when trying it like this.

It's a 2 channel amp. Bottom line.

Bidley

@ThePrettyDamned you're welcome to have a burn on one of my Carvins if you like.

Bidley

I mean, this is an absolute bargain. I have the exact same as this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Carvin-XT112-/171402028961?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item27e85b67a1

Channel-assignable graphic EQ, 25w/50w/100w power switching, direct out, 2 gain stages, lush reverb for £200.