Amp for heavy tight stuff plus genuinely pretty cleans

ThePrettyDamned

Drew_fx;313682" said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

They go stupid cheap these days, if I had room for a massive head and 2x12 I'd get one.





you've got room. gwan... gwan

How are they at home volume?

Seriously could consider it.

Drew_TNBD

ThePrettyDamned said:

Drew_fx;313682" said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

They go stupid cheap these days, if I had room for a massive head and 2x12 I'd get one.





you've got room. gwan... gwan

How are they at home volume?

Seriously could consider it.

Well, you can reign in the gain channels easily enough. The clean channel is quite loud, even before being at 1. But you can use the effects loop volume as an extra attenuator, which is what I used to do.

Or you could get a loadbox/attenuator like the Jettenuator for instance.

Seriously good amps though. Shits all over the Ironheart.

randomhandclaps

I have two LH50 heads in the studio and if pushed with a decent mid-focused pedal, dialled right and you pick a decent speaker they are pretty damn tight.  Whilst granted it may not be as tight as a dedicated high gainer it's certainly league above your more classic sounding amps.  Plenty of gain and a really good clean channel.  I wouldn't choose it for cleans alone (as I have other choices) but if I could only have one amp for everything that would be pretty close to the top of my list.  I actually bought my first one off a guy for £150 (plus 4x10 cab) simply to put in our rehearsal space but it very quickly became a favourite.  They sound good a low volume too.

I had a VH100 which someone kindly dropped down a staircase and I have never got around to replacing it.

My main concern with the VC50 is that it's an open back combo so unless you rehouse it you are already fighting to claw back the tightness that a cab offers from the beginning.

ThePrettyDamned

Ooo didn't realise it was open back.

Yeah, I loved my old lh50. It sounds good at low volume but needed a tubescreamer on at all times for me to get a rhythm tone I like. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I'd rather have something that's more focused to begin with.

It also doesn't saturate quite the same way, unless you boost the hell out of it. It's just a more classic voice, whereas I'm really after something that gets crunchy and saturated really easily.

I loved it though. If one came up at the right price, I'd happily own another. Nice and small, too. The reverb was basic, but really usable...

Yeah, I kinda miss that one! Really comes to life when you let it breathe a bit, too.

dindude

A second hand ENGL Screamer 50 would be in your budget. I had one some years back and it is an awesome, loud, built like a brick outhouse, combo. It was too modern and focused sounding for my needs but it was great at what it did. Nice big cleans too.

ThePrettyDamned

I've tried one before, was impressed but again, I've heard occasional inner build quality issues. Tone was great though, I loved the cleans. The thunder 50 was great, if not for the shared eq.

I think... I'll possibly just say screw it, try the blackstar ID, try a Laney iron heart, try a vc50 or vh100r and possibly (!) try a more vintage voiced amp but with a dedicated metal distortion pedal ( @bucket strongly rates the hardwire metal distortion).

So possibly look into a used vintage Marshall circuit, or a peavey classic 50 for example. I've yet to be blown away by a metal distortion but bucket knows his tone, and we have a fair bit in common taste wise.

I think the amp I'm looking for is probably a dual or tri rec, or two amps - something vintage voiced and something like a 6505.

There is also the amt pedal range - perhaps I can run one into a valve power section and use a switching system to get from in front of the amp to straight to the loop.