Gigging amps

ThePrettyDamned

Yeah I'd agree with the above.

What sounds do you like? And what sort of guitars do you have?

JayGee

Catthan;362059" said:

any gent giggin with a mini- Rec or Rectoverb 25?if so, what cab, mic'd or not, how soon do you run out of clean headroom?

I gig an Express 5:25 combo - in small pubs it just goes through the internal 1x10 speaker, for larger ones it sits on top of a Marshall 1936 2x12. It stays clean at much higher volumes than a 25 Watt rating would lead you to believe, certainly enough for me playing classic-to-contemporary rock covers with a fairly enthusiastic drummer in typical pub venues...

Jalapeno

JayGee said:

Catthan;362059" said:

any gent giggin with a mini- Rec or Rectoverb 25?if so, what cab, mic'd or not, how soon do you run out of clean headroom?

I gig an Express 5:25 combo - in small pubs it just goes through the internal 1x10 speaker, for larger ones it sits on top of a Marshall 1936 2x12. It stays clean at much higher volumes than a 25 Watt rating would lead you to believe, certainly enough for me playing classic-to-contemporary rock covers with a fairly enthusiastic drummer in typical pub venues...

I use a mini-Rec through a DrZ 2x10, or 2, Boogie 1x12s - really flipping loud and cleans that can be turned up.  I normally keep it on the 10W setting (it is DI'd through the PA), I just use the speakers for on-stage monitoring that I can control  (obvoously - it's all about me )

vasselmeyer

@monquixote is right that watts are pretty meaningless. I'm a clean amp with pedals guy but I like a little bit of something in my sound that comes from a power amp working hard. I play through an Egnater Rebel 30 2x12 which has a control which lets me turn the power amp down from the full 30W right down to 1W. Depending on the venue I'm adjust the output level so that I'm getting the response I like from from my power amp. It's difficult to describe but people have tried to with words like "sag" and "spongy". It's more of a feel than a sound.

In my case, the Egnater can get stupidly loud but with the power amp setting, I often am able to get that feel at giggable volumes with a very very enthusiastic drummer by turning the output down to around the 1W level. If I want completely pristine without the power amp working hard (say for a funk gig) then I can just whack it up to 30W and it would stay clean until the volume becomes a weapon of mass destruction.

IanSavage

monquixote said:

The whole "Get the best clean amp and use pedals" thing falls down a bit because most clean amps can't be made to sound like a high gain amp any more than most high gain amps can do a decent clean so you really need to decide what is the most important to you. 

I personally much prefer the sound of my favorite pedals to any amp drive I am yet to encounter, but then I don't use a lot of gain.

I'd slightly disagree with that - my old Peavey Classic's real strength was its cleans and 'just-breaking-up' sounds, but it could be turned into a roaring monster with a Marshall Jackhammer in front of it; I'm doing the same at the moment running a Marshall Drivemaster into a Fender Studio Lead (80s solid-state combo, ringing cleans all day long).

 

I guess it depends on the particular combination you use; none of the amps I've ever had have sounded particularly good with a Rat running into them, for example, but I've known other folk to get amazing lead sounds from one.

monquixote

I agree that you can get some great heavy drive sounds by amp and pedals. 

I've had amazing results with a Shredmaster, Bogner Red and Suhr Riot, but you can't ever make a Fender Twin sound just like a Mesa Triple Rectifier how ever good your pedal is because you just don't have the right power section or speakers.