Needing a new amp on budget

[Soda Jerk]

I actually found that I really needed to buck up my playing when I switched from a Marshall Valvestate to a DSL50. The fuzziness of the valvestate distortion covered up my sloppiness. The massive boost in clarity I got from the DSL50 meant my playing sounded weak and scrappy until I really got used to actually being able to hear everything.

[Huw]

so much about tone is in the player, their technique, rythmn, type of plectrum et al THEN comes the amp.

You can put utter shite into a cracking amp and it won't sound that good, this is a fact. You can have a brilliant player who ticks all of the boxes who can make a Marshall MG100FX sound amazing. Remember Olli from Meet me in st louis? He used a line 6 head and made it sound fantastic. The bassist from Acoustic Ladyland could make a carlsboro house amp sound great, APB / Hot Club making Hartke 3500 sound incredible.

see the guitar tone from the band "shield your eyes". It's a racket, but the guitar tone is great and he's playing through a Marshall Valvestate 50 (about 10 years old and covered in what looked like tipp-ex), possibly the worst amp I've ever heard with the word valve on it.

+1 regarding ollie. I'm sure he used that for recording too and it sounds brilliant because he is a brilliant guitar player.

[Lame Guitarist]

After being fed up burning up my valves in my amps just for practicing at home or with bands I bought a flextone xl. Its ok for practice but still sounds rank and I find i practice longer and play better if I at least have a good practice sound (fussy bugger I am).

I now use a Marshall JMP-1 pre-amp and a power-amp (solid state) for practice which sounds miles better or my Mesa Triaxis. I can easily take it to band practice as well. I would be suprised anyone gigging with a line 6 cos if i put my one to gig volume it sounds like tuning a radio through a 100 watt speaker. Too much hiss.

For me I wouldn't have anything behind me nowadays that doesn't say Mesa or Diezel. Even gone off the marshall sound and thats even with 2 Modded DSL's.

I must admit though the Marshalls sound cracking through Bogner cabs.anyway back to the subject of line 6. I know there are better practice amps out there and to be honest i thought a roland cube amp sounded better than a line 6

[Soda Jerk]

He got a raging sound out of that Valvestate and battered Strat copy. I had a Valvestate. Mine never came close to sounding as good. The lad's a genius.

[Lame Guitarist]

While I dont completely disagree with you and prefer valve amps i think you're being a bit ott. If they were really that bad they wouldldn't get consistently good write ups. Like I said for high gain stuff solid state/digital amps can do the job pretty well (dimebag always did alright). if you want cleans/vintage then i think thats when valve amps come into their own.

For high gain my line6 sounds as good as my dsl100 and peavey 5150 ever did.

Gotta Disagree with you there. I have a 5150 thats now modded and even before that it was still miles better for a high gain sound than a line 6. Maybe at bedroom level it won't sound good but when its cranked its a monster amp

[Lame Guitarist]

Well i think it stands up well to all the big metal/thrash players at the same time (Metallica, Slayer, Kreator, Obituary etc). Do you listen to much metal and thrash?

Christ, someone said something on the internet so it must be right.

No, scooping mids does not always mean "ballbag tone". His pinches, dives, arpeggios and cleans were superb across the span of Pantera's albums and i always found his palm mutes to be tight and crisp and added the the rhythm of the songs rather than just sounding dull and fluffy like a lot of other players.

His tone was abrasive. Metal is an abrasive genre sound-wise. The cap fits.

I agree, Dimebags tone was quite sharp and tight, Just listening to Cowboys from Hell on my ipod and gotta say, From a year when a lot of guitar players were into sterile sounding rack systems its pretty meaty. This was before grunge really hit as well

[nikhinton]

I dont think there's anything wrong with my lugs. I think the line 6 takes a bit of getting used to.. there's far too much gain so u only need like 4.5-5 and you need to pull the bass down cos theres loads of that too. I When you do that it doesn't really get fizzy and stays relatively tight. found the tones were in there but just not where you'd expect them eq wise. ... As for my marshall and peavey, ive never payed a venue where i could crank either loud enough. The peavey I just never liked from the get go (was a mk2 which i dont think were that well recieved could be wrong tho) The clean particularly was horrible.

My point was more about solid state/digital in general... I dont think they should be dismissed when on a budget... One of the best metal tones ive heard at a gig was a guy playin an mg head. He really got the greatest lead tone.

[Sora01]

buy my marshall dsl 401 combo, 320 mint condition Marshall DSL401 Combo Amp (GAK)

Or he could have my superior vintage jcm900. my post got lost in the flood of this thread

[nikhinton]

I have no idea who is giving Line6 good writeups,

Pretty much every piece of line6 gear gets decent/good reviews from guitarist and guitar world magazines. Thats the PODS, the amps and that stomp box emulator thing.

[Bigsby]

I have one of the Pocket Pods. I used it at a gig last week, I was just playing some lead along with an acoustic act so I just stuck my Gretsch into the Pod then DI'd into the PA. It worked really well, although I was only using clean tones.

So I do think the Line 6 stuff is pretty good and definitely has its place. As I say, I was just playing clean last week but after hearing some of the distrorted tones through headphones (although I'm not talking about metal), I could see myself using the Pod for home recording no problem.

I wouldn't buy one of their amps though, valve only for me. Maybe a little one for practise at home, but I have a Microcube for that which is very good. And I had to laugh at the prospect of a Line 6 amp being mic'd up, why not just use the line out straight into the PA?

All that said I did use a Vox Tonelab amp at Captain Tom's and liked it, didn't use it for anything heavy but it gave me a nice "on the verge of breakup" tone on the AC15 setting.

[Lame Guitarist]

I was always tempted to try their Floor Based effects.Heard a lot of people rave about the delay one but I also heard some people say they break easily and could be built to be more durable. I would put it in my rack though and switch by midi so that wouldn't matter to me. Anyone ever used these? I use a lot of different delay settings in one of my bands so I need fully programmable delays.Anyway back on topic. If you look on you-tube and do a search for the BB preamp a video pops up with Andy Timmons demonstrating this pedal. In the background you see he has one of those Line6 rack units in his rack. He gets a lovely sound in that vid from his amps and that line6 unit.

[Bigsby]

I was always tempted to try their Floor Based effects.Heard a lot of people rave about the delay one but I also heard some people say they break easily and could be built to be more durable. I would put it in my rack though and switch by midi so that wouldn't matter to me. Anyone ever used these? I use a lot of different delay settings in one of my bands so I need fully programmable delays.Anyway back on topic. If you look on you-tube and do a search for the BB preamp a video pops up with Andy Timmons demonstrating this pedal. In the background you see he has one of those Line6 rack units in his rack. He gets a lovely sound in that vid from his amps and that line6 unit.

I seem to recall The Edge from U2 using a Line 6 delay and I guess he relies on delay more than most.

[Soda Jerk]

The Line6 delay is actually pretty smashing. The Pods aren't half bad either. It's just their amps I have a problem with.

Or he could have my superior vintage jcm900

JCM900's are not superior to JCM2000's. They upped their game tenfold on the clean channel on the JCM2000's, and they sound miles and miles better than the dark scratchy tone that comes out of a 900's clean settings.

[nikhinton]

I was always tempted to try their Floor Based effects..

I actually had a PODxt live pedal. I didn't really get on with it. There is SOOOO much in them. You can change the virtual mic positions and head/cab combos. It was almost like too many choices so you constantly fiddle and change things so never settle on a solid tone. You could do some cool stuff like switch on/off the effects with the foot buttons whilst still on the same preset if you know what i mean... a very good idea i thought

[skuzzlebutt]

For me I wouldn't have anything behind me nowadays that doesn't say Mesa or Diezel. Even gone off the marshall sound and thats even with 2 Modded DSL's.

i recently picked up a blackstar artisan15, which i play through a hotplate power break effort. my mesa, gathers dust now....

good value for money cracking tone and not made in china. don't want to blindly knock chinese amp production but there are a shit load of cheap valve amps being produced in china which suffer from terrible quality control problems... (before anyone asks, the artisan series are manufactured in korea - next door to the place where they do the 1940's A-bombs)

i used to own a flextone30. it made it to a couple of practices, but never to a gig. biggest problem for me was controlling the different volumes of different patches...

[berni907]

so... which amp SHOULD i buy? hahaha. maybe 300-350 budget but won't be buying for a couple months. might save even more and get something better.

[Lame Guitarist]

i recently picked up a blackstar artisan15, which i play through a hotplate power break effort. my mesa, gathers dust now....

good value for money cracking tone and not made in china. don't want to blindly knock chinese amp production but there are a shit load of cheap valve amps being produced in china which suffer from terrible quality control problems... (before anyone asks, the artisan series are manufactured in korea - next door to the place where they do the 1940's A-bombs)

i used to own a flextone30. it made it to a couple of practices, but never to a gig. biggest problem for me was controlling the different volumes of different patches...

Funny you should mention Blackstar. They are apparently cracking amps that I am suprised no-one has recommended yet on this thread. Heard a lot of good reviews on them. I was thinking about them when Bruce Millers got stock but the only thing that put me off was no effects loop on the models they had there.

I have heard there is a small head, HT5 it could be called, and its getting a lot of praise for its nice warm overdrive and voicing. Might try and get my hands on one.

Think I would avoid Chinese made amps after the bugera amp scare stories that have cropped up on the net. Pics of them after their transformers and circuits melted while playing

[Lame Guitarist]

so... which amp SHOULD i buy? hahaha. maybe 300-350 budget but won't be buying for a couple months. might save even more and get something better.

You should maybe look at the Blackstar amps. I am sure that you can get some of the models for near 500 which is not that far off your budget.

[unbroken]

so... which amp SHOULD i buy? hahaha. maybe 300-350 budget but won't be buying for a couple months. might save even more and get something better.

peavey valveking combo.

Dimebag's guitar tone on everything from Far Beyond Driven onwards is just awesome.

Maxi, TOP50 back eh? lets dee it.

[stuartmaxwell]

aye all sorted. LOUD and TONE plz thx

[Pierre Von Mondragon]

Has anyone tried the new wee 4 watt Vox AC4, I am wondering/theorising whether 2 of them in stereo could compete with a drummer*. I quite fancy either the new Orange Dual Terror at some undefined point in the future, or the Blackstar HT 5 combo, as its meant to be well loud.

*Get the power stage cooking and clean headroom=pfaff.

[skuzzlebutt]

Funny you should mention Blackstar. They are apparently cracking amps that I am suprised no-one has recommended yet on this thread. Heard a lot of good reviews on them. I was thinking about them when Bruce Millers got stock but the only thing that put me off was no effects loop on the models they had there.

the artisan series is actually a little pricey, the 15 watt combo is now about 800bux+. since the good reveiws and the shit pound the price went up.

i totally agree on the effects loop issue, but then you have to offset that against the very desireable tone.

I have heard there is a small head, HT5 it could be called, and its getting a lot of praise for its nice warm overdrive and voicing. Might try and get my hands on one.

i traded mine in for the artisan. the ht-5 is a stonking little amp, no doubt.

Think I would avoid Chinese made amps after the bugera amp scare stories that have cropped up on the net. Pics of them after their transformers and circuits melted while playing

where is the valve king made?

[skuzzlebutt]

so... which amp SHOULD i buy? hahaha. maybe 300-350 budget but won't be buying for a couple months. might save even more and get something better.

second hand decent valve amp, dsl-401, dsl-50, both not bad, probably pretty good for metal.

if i were in you i'd get a second hand fender hot rod deluxe and use distortion pedals for a metal sound. the beauty there is the clean tone is excellent which is a pretty good canvas to start from....

[HairyScaryMark]

Have to say I favour the advice to save up your money for something good quality and preferably a valve amplfiier.

Some of the things mentioned are not particularly good value for money, in my opinion and also not that good quality (i.e Line 6 Spider).

I got a Fender Super Champ XD (small valve combo) which goes for just over 200 and it sounds as good as many bigger amps i've tried and not even comparible with the likes of Line 6. The other thing i've found since getting this is my playing has came on due to increased clarity from this amplifier and I've stopped fantasising over gear as much as I am more interested in playing.

Blackstar also do some small combo amps as well as some heads which are comparible in price with some of the things mentioned here.

Ih it really depends what you need it for i.e to use at gigs? practice in bedroom? band practice etc?

I repeat this advice to some people also, "don't buy equipment for a gig you don't have yet",

I also would advise against buying gear which you have no way of transporting.

Some people have mentioned Marshall DSL but I have to say I haven't been that impressed by anything in current standard range of Marshall. It's not that they are bad I just don't find they really compare with many of the older models or classic re-issues or amplifiers from other companies.

If you can travel to Glasgow or Edinbugh I find the shop 'guitar guitar' has a very good selection of amplifiers.

[fatboy]

I agree with what everyone is saying about the spider amps,

ive had one and yes you get a good instant sound for dicking about with but as one dude already said it has no presence, i my guitar couldn't cut throught mix at rehersals when i used

theres alot of small wattage valve amps,

check out bugera they are cheap cheerfull made by chinese people and i think the sound not bad

Search (GAK)

probally get as much stick as the spider for that