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Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
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Did
It's not a rant..Just the opinions formed on what I have used and owned..
For the most Useful Amps to me I will Pick Marshall..The Valvestates,,AVT's even some of the MG heads..
Don't use the really high gain on the MG's though it is a thick Swamp....They work with a Les Paul and a Tubescreamer Beautifully..
Not tried one live with a Fender guitar..
An other useful and good sounding one is Peavey Bandits...Teal Stripe Sheffield equipped in my case..
Good with most guitars..
Mesa Boogie,,Yuk,,Orange,,Meh,, Vox,,so far Meh,,but a Tele can sound good with them on a Modeller of one....
I think they may be good at a certain narrow niche..They can end up fat and bloated like a Boogie though..
Again my Experience..
I often end up using Champ models with 8 or 10 inch speaker depending on crunch or clean..
AC 30's quite loud,,but expect non cleans with loud drummers..
OK. Valvestates...For me a Hidden Gem..
I have wrote this type of thing about 3 times now and it comes from my experience playing live..
You can set up a Valvestate etc to have 3 sounds,but only a crunch sound on the amp..
For a nice thick Crunch for Metal from Maiden to Slayer they are great,,for second wave British Punk too..Set up that channel on the amp....They have headroom being transistor,,you can take advantage of that headroom..They don't just saturate like valves and stay at the same volume....If you use a Tubescreamer you get a volume jump perfect for leads,,plus you get a fatter sound,more mids and added finger muscle,,not just more saturation and often mud like valves.....If you crack the volume open on the neck pickup a little there is your clean sound,,you can alter it's fatness with the neck pickup volume control..Any pingyness or clank you can dial out with the tone control....Click down to the full up volume on the bridge and you have your aggressive crunch..Kick in the Tubescreamer you have you lead sound,,not just a muffled oversaturated sound with increased mids....
Plus they are quieter,,lighter and take pedals without fuss..What more could you need..
Fenders Unreliable..
I do love a nice fat just before breakup Fender Clean sound too...
I've found Transistor Fenders in my case to be full of problems and develop faults..
My Valve Vibro Champ Reverb takes Pedals Amazingly though,not like Solid State Fenders I have owned..
My Fender Performer 1000 didn't like to be driven by an overdrive etc on the clean channel..
It also kept developing faults..It said on the instructions it would keep reliably putting it out night after night..My Arse..
It could sound very good with single coil Strats and Teles..It developed multiple faults though..
The Blue Stripe Peavey Bandit totally outclassed it in reliability as well as with pedals,,good clean sound too......
The older 1970's and earlier All Valve Fenders I have used I've found good with pedals..
Most weigh a ton though..Plus I only used,,didn't own them..Reliability may be an issue..
The build quality of a lot of modern Fender stuff I find lousy....
Even my 'The Twin',,way more expensive than Marshall at the time,but the equivalent late JCM 800 to me was much better built..Even if it did pick up the local Taxi Firm..Also insanely heavy..
I mention the Champion 100 elsewhere..The channel select switch went flying through the air on day one..
The clean channel was usable,but I would pick a peavey over it..
The Bandit wasn't exactly light for a Transistor combo either...
I still have one that keeps dropping volume in someone's attic..Or I hope so anyway..
This fault took a long time to appear..
I'm not Anti Valve,,but you put a Valve amp in to get sorted and get it back and the problem can still be there..
The tech has maybe sorted another separate problem,,or it was behaving well until it got moved...They really can be a moody pain in the arse that never quite work fully..
Still Valve just about to break up clean is one of the best sounds ever,,but be prepared for upkeep weight Frustration etc..
Less is definitely more. The more dials, knobs, modes and channels you put on an amp, the more ways you introduce to ruin the sound it’s making.
Modelling amps sound just fine. Not the same joy to play as a soulful valve amp but they get the job done perfectly well and then some. If you can’t make your playing sound interesting and get your intention across with a good modeller, the amp is not the problem
My soul says - yeah but turn a valve amp up a bit. Just listen to the sound coming out of the speaker and just play. The smile on your face tells you which you really want.
That's why I've been on that roller coaster for so long now. The battle between head and heart.
The solutions - simple and I could have saved myself so much money if I'd learned this years ago. I need both.
I have my marshall dsl40cr which is what I really love playing through.
I have my tonex pedal that gets used for:
Taken me many years to get here but seems to be a great solution for me.
To be fair modellers are far better than they used to be, but they still mainly excel for 'guitar on 10, hit the patch buttons instead' players.
https://edmorgan.info
Some sold state amps are better than some valve amps for some people.
Down the pub, in the mix of a moderately loud band, the bloke at the bar generally wouldn't be able to tell if your guitar was out of tune and wouldn't care if you played the wrong chords for most of the song as long as he can sing along to the chours...
I think the chances of them noticing the nuances of an amp are slim to zero.
The choice of amp is for the benefit of the player more than the listener.
https://edmorgan.info