Which amp? Opinions and advice please :-)

[slukather]

There are even more things it took me way too long to learn. Let's see:

1). The best tone by yourself often is not a suitable tone in a band mix, and vice versa.
2). Your best bedroom tone will NEVER sound the same once you take the gear out of the house. Once you dial it in for practice, it changes when you get to the gig. Once you dial it in at the gig, it changes again when the room fills up.

For sure, different rooms will sound different, many factors should be considered, what you have in the room, carpet, walls, ceiling height, etc etc etc

4). THE BIG ONE: Nobody really cares about your tone except for other guitarists. As long as it isn't ice picks in the ears, 95% of the people listening don't care. So...
5). ...for me, the main reason to get a tone you love (or guitar, or amp, any piece of gear) is to inspire you and instill confidence in playing outside your boundaries.

Yeah l agree, l know no one cares about my guitar sound, but the opposite is also true, l don’t care what people think of my guitar sound, l do this because l love it (or used to anyway), and getting a guitar sound l like will improve my playing and will enhance my enjoyment.

P.S.: One more
7). Anyone who says the can easily nail the tone of the first Van Halen record with their EBMM EVH or PV Wolfgang through a 5150 is smoking crack. Let's see: Frankenstrat with low output pickups into a Marshall with the power tubes (EL34s?) begging for mercy on VH1, versus high-output pickups into a hi-gain preamp in a master volume 6L6 amp. Yeah, that nails it! See #3 and #6 as well.

Cheers!

I always though the same thing, l find it extremely funny actually, but who am l to say anything, if they enjoy it, that’s cool.

Scott.

 

[slukather]

I don't want to completely bash Mesa though - JP gets a huge variety of great and unique tones out of their amps.

But have you seen JP's rig? he uses so many effects and pops and whistles, he's Mesa's are probably modded to the hilt anyway, but he pretty much tunes down to B now. His sound pretty much went way downhill when he started using Rectifiers, well around 6DOIT is (for me anyway) when l started hating his guitar sound, and they are doing a full on Metal thing now, which has completely lost me. He was sounding great on SFAM though.

Scott.

 

[slukather]

Ice pick in the ear, anyone?

LMAO

I've a jam friend who plays a Mesa/PRS combo. Pretty decent player but 'his sound' is flat and lifeless. The fact that his amp packs 4x6L6's in the power section (100 watts) doesn't help, as we don't jam at especially loud volumes, plus he uses his clean channel 80% of the time; not Mesa's strong suit.

Only Mesa I've ever owned was a little Subway Rocket. Very neat little class A amp, but typically Mesa focused in dark midrange territory, and no great cleans to speak of.

A Comment on using 5-18 watt EL84 amps: I agree that you can get power tube breakup/low headroom out of small amps without shattering apartment windows, but the little guys can't match the tone - especially the bottom end - of a decent 50 watt 6L6 or EL34 amp, even at moderate volumes. It's just not there in a 5-18 watt amp. But midrange solos can sound super from them!

You know what, my rig has slowly been getting smaller and smaller, a couple of years back, i used the have a half stack, with all this rack junk, all midi up, it was versitle as hell, a prick if something sh!t itself though, and now all l want is a one channel, low watt tube amp with gain, that cleans up when l lower the volume, cause l just want it simple, turn my volume pedal up to get gain, turn it down to get a clean sound, and everything in between, and add a touch of delay for colour. I listened to some sample of a Rivera K-55 yesterday, man that sounds like a rocking amp, l tried one a couple of years back, and l loved it.

Scott.

 

[mhorse]

But have you seen JP's rig? he uses so many effects and pops and whistles, he's Mesa's are probably modded to the hilt anyway, but he pretty much tunes down to B now. His sound pretty much went way downhill when he started using Rectifiers, well around 6DOIT is (for me anyway) when l started hating his guitar sound, and they are doing a full on Metal thing now, which has completely lost me. He was sounding great on SFAM though.

Scott.

I do like his tone before Train Of Thought better (or before 6DOIT). It became muddier and more processed in recent years. I like full on metal thing, but i think his heavy pieces sounded better on SFAM and before then they do now. And yes, I've seen pictures of his rig. Still, you can tell it's him and not some kis with PRS/DualRecto who thinks he belongs on that list of top guitarists where Cobain was in top 5. (No disrespect for Nirvana, but they were no breakthrough in guitar music)

 

[robelinda2]

But have you seen JP's rig? he uses so many effects and pops and whistles, he's Mesa's are probably modded to the hilt anyway, but he pretty much tunes down to B now. His sound pretty much went way downhill when he started using Rectifiers, well around 6DOIT is (for me anyway) when l started hating his guitar sound, and they are doing a full on Metal thing now, which has completely lost me. He was sounding great on SFAM though.

Scott.

i really dont like his sound at all, just sounds muddy and not classy like Luke or Morse. His sound on the G3 tokyo dvd is "interesting". just my unwanted opinion.

 

[candid_x]

You know what, my rig has slowly been getting smaller and smaller, a couple of years back, i used the have a half stack, with all this rack junk, all midi up, it was versitle as hell, a prick if something sh!t itself though, and now all l want is a one channel, low watt tube amp with gain, that cleans up when l lower the volume, cause l just want it simple, turn my volume pedal up to get gain, turn it down to get a clean sound, and everything in between, and add a touch of delay for colour. I listened to some sample of a Rivera K-55 yesterday, man that sounds like a rocking amp, l tried one a couple of years back, and l loved it.

Scott.

I hear ya, Scott. These days I go guitar straight into input, no pedals. I do like using two separate channels, however. Have had a few low watt amps, including a neat Soldano head, but they are never as rewarding to play through as the fatter fifties I have. Granted, the EQ changes when playing in a band setting, which often means focusing the tone more in the mids than in those fat bottom tones, but the over all experience is still more gratifying for me when playing through a meaty 50+ watt amp. Guess I’m just not a ‘class A’ guy.

Never tried a Rivera but have been very curious. Will keep ears perked for the K-55.

Bruce

 

[TheStoner]

Amps drive me nuts. Guitars tend to be reliable and predictable - a good guitar is a good guitar. However there are so many variables with amps that getting a good sound from one gig to the next can be a problem. Not helped by the fact that sometimes I take the MESA, sometimes the 5150, etc.

Big +1 on the difference between "bedroom tone" and "live tone". The best gig-level rhythm sound (for rock/metal) is my 5150 with a BBE Sonic Maximiser in the loop. The best "bedroom tone" is my Marshall. I'm never happy with my lead sound! Even if I like it at the start of a gig I usually don't by the end - although I've heard that this may be due to "ear fatigue" as ROUGH JUSTICE play pretty loud. By the time we encore with Freebird (yes!) my fat singing lead tone seems to have turned into a thin harsh one. However, as mentioned above, 99% of people don't notice this sort of stuff...

 

[slukather]

I hear ya, Scott. These days I go guitar straight into input, no pedals. I do like using two separate channels, however. Have had a few low watt amps, including a neat Soldano head, but they are never as rewarding to play through as the fatter fifties I have. Granted, the EQ changes when playing in a band setting, which often means focusing the tone more in the mids than in those fat bottom tones, but the over all experience is still more gratifying for me when playing through a meaty 50+ watt amp. Guess I’m just not a ‘class A’ guy.

Never tried a Rivera but have been very curious. Will keep ears perked for the K-55.

Bruce

Here's a clip l found http://www.savageevolution.com/K55.mp3 of some dude from Marmony Cental forum, kinda reminds me of what it sounded like.

Cheers,

Scott.

 

[candid_x]

Here's a clip l found http://www.savageevolution.com/K55.mp3 of some dude from Marmony Cental forum, kinda reminds me of what it sounded like.

Cheers,

Scott.

Scott,

From what I hear, Riveras are capable of a wide variety of tones, very interactive electronics. While the clip from the Harmony guy doesn’t curl my toes, I imagine there’s probably a whole lot more that amp do.

Thanks,
Bruce

 

[mhorse]

Scott,

From what I hear, Riveras are capable of a wide variety of tones, very interactive electronics. While the clip from the Harmony guy doesn’t curl my toes, I imagine there’s probably a whole lot more that amp do.

Thanks,
Bruce

Here's a sample from their website (very different sounding to my ears) http://www.rivera.com/knuckle/TZ_Boomstick.mp3

There are more sample of 100-watt version and other rivera amps here http://www.rivera.com/tones.php

I have to add that my Clubster is extremely versatile and eq controls really work well on it.

 

[philiprst]

I have a love hate relationship with Petrucci's tone. On the one hand I find that scooped mids, Rectifier tone to be flat and lifeless. On the other hand it works well with all those strange distinctive power chords he uses. For classic crunch and distortion sounds I love the traditional Marshall half stack. But for cleans and mild overdrive I like the older style Mesas... Go figure

 

[slukather]

Here's a sample from their website (very different sounding to my ears) http://www.rivera.com/knuckle/TZ_Boomstick.mp3

There are more sample of 100-watt version and other rivera amps here http://www.rivera.com/tones.php

I have to add that my Clubster is extremely versatile and eq controls really work well on it.

That's not a bad clip,

What tones can you get on your Clubster??

Scott.

 

[candid_x]

Very nice tones, though not my thing. The whole scooped mid thing sounds dated and redundant to my ears. Color me jaded.

 

[mhorse]

That's not a bad clip,

What tones can you get on your Clubster??

Scott.

Well, let's see. Clubster/Pubster is a budget line, so they have some solid state in them, and only 2 tubes in preamp. I'n the magazine reviews I've read they said that the overdrive is done by solid state circutry, and so is reverb driver.

So the overdrive tones do sound like a good solid state OD pedal into clean tube amp, which is what a lot of people do anyway. It doesn't sound harsh or "sandy" at all until you literally crank the gain all the way up and pull the boost. At that point it doesn't really sound bad, either. If you roll off treble and and some mids you can get early Metallica type tones. Medium gain tones are very musical, you can get very nice crunch. One thing I love about Clubster is that bottom end stays tight and focused at any gain level. And there is a lot of it.

The clean channel is where the amp really shines. I've never owned or played 50's or 60's Fender amps which are supposed to be the benchmarks for clean, but I love Clubster's clean sound to death. I find myself playing on clean a lot more then I did on my Mesa. It sounds nice and full when I use my SUB w/humbuckers, but I also gotten some quack from it with my friend's peavey strat clone. It didn't sound fabulous, but for some reason I beleive it's the $150 guitar rather then the amp fault. Reverb is intense, I bet surf players would love it. I like it, but only small amount of it.

 

[brentrocks]

Big +1 on the difference between "bedroom tone" and "live tone". The best gig-level rhythm sound (for rock/metal) is my 5150 with a BBE Sonic Maximiser in the loop.

that BBE makes a big difference!!! doesnt it?

i love mine!!!

 

[slukather]

Well, let's see. Clubster/Pubster is a budget line, so they have some solid state in them, and only 2 tubes in preamp. I'n the magazine reviews I've read they said that the overdrive is done by solid state circutry, and so is reverb driver.

So the overdrive tones do sound like a good solid state OD pedal into clean tube amp, which is what a lot of people do anyway. It doesn't sound harsh or "sandy" at all until you literally crank the gain all the way up and pull the boost. At that point it doesn't really sound bad, either. If you roll off treble and and some mids you can get early Metallica type tones. Medium gain tones are very musical, you can get very nice crunch. One thing I love about Clubster is that bottom end stays tight and focused at any gain level. And there is a lot of it.

The clean channel is where the amp really shines. I've never owned or played 50's or 60's Fender amps which are supposed to be the benchmarks for clean, but I love Clubster's clean sound to death. I find myself playing on clean a lot more then I did on my Mesa. It sounds nice and full when I use my SUB w/humbuckers, but I also gotten some quack from it with my friend's peavey strat clone. It didn't sound fabulous, but for some reason I beleive it's the $150 guitar rather then the amp fault. Reverb is intense, I bet surf players would love it. I like it, but only small amount of it.

Thanks for that man, sounds like a nice amp, l just happen to be one of those people who love all tube amps though, l love the warm sound of a tube amp.

Thanks bro,

Scott.

 

[mhorse]

Thanks for that man, sounds like a nice amp, l just happen to be one of those people who love all tube amps though, l love the warm sound of a tube amp.

Thanks bro,

Scott.

No problem bro, but do check out more expensive all-tube rivera's. Except for pubster/clubster line, they are all-tube.
I love all-tube amps as well, for me it was a money issue.