Tav Posted February 7, 2004 Report Share Posted February 7, 2004 Pre Amp / Power Amp / CabI have been considiering what to purchase when it comes time to get a new amp set up. I am looking for something that will be versatile and allow be to play a variety of styles...mainly aimed in the rock area though.I like the idea of a modeling pre-amp like a Rocktron Repli-tone, Vox Tone Lab or a Line 6 pod. Obviously these are great for practicing/recording with but I will want to run a cab from them as headphones aren't appealing all the time so, I will need a power amp. What I was wondering was does anyone have any suggestions for a power amp that isn't insanely expensive and will have suffcient power so that when combined with a cab I could use it in a live/practice situation. What power out puts would I be looking for?Next comes the cab. Something like a Marshall 1936 with two 12" speakers would be an ideal size. Can anyone recommend any cabinets or speakers? I have been look at various celestion's without coming to any conclusions.Does anyone use this set-up? Is it worthwhile? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraemeC Posted February 7, 2004 Report Share Posted February 7, 2004 What I would like...(for bass)Sansamp RBiamcron D1502..Messa Boogie 2x10 RRThat'll do me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tav Posted February 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2004 But what about me and my guitar lol...nice choice on the SansAmp and Mesa Boogie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraemeC Posted February 7, 2004 Report Share Posted February 7, 2004 Guitarists.....Pah....!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouse Posted February 7, 2004 Report Share Posted February 7, 2004 I'm still sticking with my suggestion for Tav to get a Marshall AVT-100. You can play grindcore to country to blues to hard rock as it's so versatile & the tone is brilliant everytime! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iain44s Posted February 7, 2004 Report Share Posted February 7, 2004 this is exactly the kind of set up ive been thinking about for a while...havent had a chance to look at power amps yet though. however i think something with valves in it will be a must... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeid Posted February 7, 2004 Report Share Posted February 7, 2004 look around for a second hand marshall 20-20 poweramp. it should be perfect for any small-medium gigs and perfect for practising with. plus its got tubes, so it'll give the pre-amp of choice a nice warm soundas for your choice of pre-amps, i'd get a pod XT. supposedly waaay better than the Pod 2.0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Posted February 7, 2004 Report Share Posted February 7, 2004 Originally posted by Mouse:I'm still sticking with my suggestion for Tav to get a Marshall AVT-100. You can play grindcore to country to blues to hard rock as it's so versatile & the tone is brilliant everytime! i hate mine. the clean channel sounds okay but thats about it. i wish i'd kept my fender amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tav Posted February 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2004 I don't need a tube power amp as it's only really a tube pre-amp that matters in this kind of set up. If I bought the vox, which is looking likely if it lives up to the rave reviews it has been getting, then the pre-amp/power amp and even a dummy speaker load are taken care of in it...all the power amp is doing is boosting the signal with hopefully as little tone colouring or addition of warmth as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted February 7, 2004 Report Share Posted February 7, 2004 well the way i would go about it...get hold of an amp modelling preamp, somehting like the Behringer V-amp pro (my choice) or the Line 6 POD pro, these will give you all the amp models you will ever need, along with cab modelling and some fx to play withsince these are basically an all in one unit, a guitar based poweramp and cab will colour the tone, and then lose the point in having cab simulation...so what you would use would be a PA style full range rack mounted power amp, this will sit nicely in a rack case with the pre and amplify the sound as intended, the bonus is that these are also usually cheaper than the equivalent wattage guitar power ampthen some monitor/pa style cabs to give you some lovely noise, you could either buy a normal pa cab, or get hold of some full range pa style speakers and switch them into a cab of your choiceDavid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tav Posted February 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2004 Yeah the PA power amp would work but I think running through some celestion guitar speakers would be fine since the frequencies being produced are guitar specific so the celestions would be best suited to reproducing them? But then at least with PA speakers you're getting close to a transperant out put which is what you want I dunno...hence why I started this thread...just trying to find the best way to go about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouse Posted February 7, 2004 Report Share Posted February 7, 2004 Originally posted by Graham:i hate mine. the clean channel sounds okay but thats about it. i wish i'd kept my fender amp.For me I'd have a Fender clean channel with Marshall distortion & tone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tav Posted February 8, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2004 Well that's why a dedicated pre-amp with digital modelling is great because you can! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted February 8, 2004 Report Share Posted February 8, 2004 Originally posted by Tav:Yeah the PA power amp would work but I think running through some celestion guitar speakers would be fine since the frequencies being produced are guitar specific so the celestions would be best suited to reproducing them? But then at least with PA speakers you're getting close to a transperant out put which is what you want I dunno...hence why I started this thread...just trying to find the best way to go about it. PA speakers are made to produce full range sounds, ie everything from bass to trumpets and more.Guitar speakers are only designed to produce guitar sounds, so cut off lots of extrra frequencys that are extra or sound bad (try playing guitar through a stereo and it will sound poo...)so even thuogh a guitar speaker will work fine, they will still colour the sound of the moddelling device, which is already making the sounds of the speakers, so the resultying sound wont be as good as it would eb with full range speakersthe main problem is that all guitar speakers sound different, and colour the sound in different ways...you can turn off the speaker sims on vamps/pods, but i would prefer to get full range speakers that let me use the cabs of my choce (as you can mix and match cabs in the preamp to get loads of different sounds)so yes, you can use a guitar cab, but it wont let you use the modelling device to its full potentialDavid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tav Posted February 8, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2004 Right so modelling device into a power amp <not had any suggestions yet> then into a cab with PA speakers...I could see that working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted February 8, 2004 Report Share Posted February 8, 2004 Originally posted by Tav:Right so modelling device into a power amp <not had any suggestions yet> then into a cab with PA speakers...I could see that working. yep, that you good to gonot too sure on what power amps are good value or whatever, the best bet would be to ask somewhere like harmony central and see what they say therewhat your looking for is a half decent wattage (pa's will be designed to need much bigger wattages than for just guitar) rack mounted powerampDavid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tav Posted February 8, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2004 Yip well rack mounted would go well with the rocktron pre-amp though the Vox is looking like the shiz at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig deadenstereo Posted February 9, 2004 Report Share Posted February 9, 2004 Well, there's two options here.1) You could get a programmable pre-amp thing like the Marshall JMP-1 (Always on Ebay), and a guitar power amp and guitar cabinet.For a guitar power amp I'd say either that 20/20 Marshall amp or a Peavey Classic 60/60 (or maybe 50/50 - can't quite remember what the model is) - should be pretty cheap, reliable and inexpensive to repair. If it's rock stuff the Marshall amp would be a good idea as you would get some nice power amp distortion.For the cabs, a 1936 would be good, but you could get two 1x12" cabs and maybe run some kind of stereo setup (maybe with a rack processor?) Plus you can just use 1 of them for practising if you can't be arsed lugging two around. I personally use a head and 1x12" cab for ease of transport.For rock, I'd recommend Celestion Vintage 30 speakers (60W power rating). I've got one in my cab, sounds nice, use it for recording and everything.2) The POD thingy's. Yeah, you're best to use a small PA setup for that. Once again a power amp (Peavey CS-400? - 2x200W) and some cabs. Here, getting a stereo power amp and two sets of cabs would give yo a kick ass stereo setup as I'm sure the pods and stuff can run some cool stereo delays and stuff. You need to cough up for the floorboards though. You have the choices between the rack one and the normal one. I think the rack ones have more connections and stuff - but that they are more for recording? I may be wrong here.If you like the sound of the PODs then go for it - as for gigs you can just take that and plug straight into PA - that would be total heaven doing that compared to lugging amps and stuff, plus the sound man will thank you for keeping stage volume down. PLus if the venue has a vocal only PA, then you take your own PA system. A 400W power amp would easily be loud enough and can be had for cheap. I've been looking at Peavey CS-800 amps, and supposedly they are very reliable, and I've seen quite a few going for 200 second hand, so a less powerful model should be even cheaper than that.Personally I'm not so keen on the POD sounds after trying to use them in the studio and hearing quite a few people use them live, but you have to be pretty pikcy to notice the diference. They are very versatile though.Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan G Posted February 9, 2004 Report Share Posted February 9, 2004 I don't like the Marshall AVT's.I had a 100W valvestate and it actually sounded a hell of a lot better than the AVT's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouse Posted February 9, 2004 Report Share Posted February 9, 2004 Must be down to taste. I found the AVT-100 sounds better than the AVT-150 & AVT-275! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badger Posted February 10, 2004 Report Share Posted February 10, 2004 Tav, I think you should buy a Peavey Bandit........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundian Posted February 10, 2004 Report Share Posted February 10, 2004 Originally posted by badger:Tav, I think you should buy a Peavey Bandit........... That's harsh. There's no need for those sort of insults Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tav Posted February 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2004 Originally posted by badger:Tav, I think you should buy a Peavey Bandit........... And that's why you're a drummer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badger Posted February 13, 2004 Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 Originally posted by Tav:And that's why you're a drummer... Damn......exposed again....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tav Posted February 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2004 Silly drummer boy...no seriously does any one else have an answer to the question? I was thinking badger or soundian might have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.