My Dream Pedal Board, Comments/Advice Please ... |
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Jul 19 2007, 12:34 AM
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Ok, I'm very hapopy with my PodXTL, but at the same time I want to see what kind of a setup I can build using old fashioned stomp boxes and a decent Amp to complement my Jem (The PodXTL goes great with the Variax with ita automatic patch switching).
I am starting a list, and was hoping for people to tell me if I am on the right track. At this point in time, Steve Vai is my inspiration, and I am looking for a kind of "For the love of god" sound, coupled with a great clean sound. From my pod experiments I know which effects interest me, I'd like to figure out the best of breed for each. This is a paper exercise at the moment, and I will fo course try all suggestions before I buy this stuff - particularly the AMP! 1. Amp - I have no idea here, seomthing with an awesome clean channel and no built in effects. Also, if I have a distortion pedal (see later) do I need to worry about overdriving the amp as well? 2. Distortion - Robert Keeley modded Boss BD-2 - I imagine this will give me a clean and useable sound with decent sustain 3. Chorus - Something subtle to add some stereo width, and to help with a good clean sound - Boss CE2? 4. Delay - Digital Stereo Delay - Boss DD6? 5. Wah - Morley bad horsie 2 6. Expression Pedal - Ernie Ball Volume pedal? 7. Compressor - Keeley compressor? I welcome your thoughts ... -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
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Jul 19 2007, 01:40 AM
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Hi Andrew,
I use the Keeley compressor and the Keeley modded Boss Blues Driver. Both are wonderful pedals -and love the blue lights  .I play into a Matchless Lightning 15 that gives, to me, a lovely organic, almost liquid, singing response. Great sustain and breakup. With the compressor the sustain goes on for ever without tiping over into the sort of harsh 'zippered' type sound you can get at the end of some sampler keyboard long sample patches. It remains musical all the way. It also seems to have lots of open, natural harmonics. I'm probably very lazy as I tend to leave it set and switched on. I have the two rotary one - there's a more expensive and versatile four know one available which (I think) lets you play with the fine tuning for different guitars/pick-up combinations. In my experience a (good) distortion pedal can easily take a clean valve amp into OD/Blues distortion territory (I can get Led Zep/AcDc territory from my Matchless, what is essentially a clean valve amp that has some od with the BD). The Keeley BD is sufficient to push the Lightning from OD to distortion, but its not a fierce or hard type of distortion - find it hard to explain but the closest I can think of is Jeff Beck Blow by Blow type territory. Again the sustain is wonderful. Its also one of those sorts of pedals that really does interact with you and your guitar. Voicings are very musical and react beautifully to changes in volume from the guitar, picking attack etc. The one thing the BD ain't going to give you is hi-gain from a clean setting on my amp. It's aimed at blues type distortion. I had a Boss BD years ago and the Keeley is way way better. (The Boss was good but...) Other possiblities here though - Keeley modded Ibanez TS9 Tube Scream - more distortion/gain, Fulltone Distortion Pro (I use an OCD) - again great pedal though different tone and distortion band (?) to the Keeley. Neither Keeley pedal are ones (arguably) to suffer bad playing. If your technique is sloppy they will make that crystal clear. All Keeley's are true bypass so if turned off they won't degrade your tone - turned on I've never had an issue. On a side note Rob Keeley is a great guy and really helpful in my experience. The pedals are built like tanks, very high quality and very reliable. Downside - as with most boutique pedals - finding anywhere where you can try them before buying. On the wish list - consider going a bit more up market for the delay (dream wish list after all  ). DD6 is good but I'd go with an eventide or lexicon rack delay. Alternatively, if you can find a 2nd hand one, a Roland Space Echo or WEM copycat. To me the DD6 (and DD3 and 5) are a bit too digital. That of course is subjective.To try to kill 2 birds with one stone - chorus and a clean amp - sounds a bit like a Roland JC120... (Other possible amps for clean - Matchless Lightning, Fender Twin or perhaps a Bad Cat. For clean and (some) od/distortion - Matchless DC30, Elmwood Modena, Bogner Shiva, Tophat Royale.) On the subject of amps - worth discussing with MickeM regarding his possible purchase of an Elmwood Modena or similar.) However if you want a chorus pedal Boss are great but for a money's no object wish list try a Maxon CS9 or CS550. Wah pedal - seriously suggest you try a Geoff Tease Real McCoy - unless you can get an original Cry Baby. (Never tried the Vai Bad Horsie though.) Had a Dunlop Cry Baby and the Teese is much better, not as harsh at the extremes of range. My one has dip switches that let you alter the wah voicing so it can change between Cry Baby Vox etc - sadly the switches are internal  though there might be one that isn't. If you are after a more autowah type effect there's a Keeley one (don't know what it is like though) and the Zvex Seekwahs/Probewahs are great. Also, but haven't seen or heard - Bob Moog has several autofilter pedals out.No comment on expression pedals - never used one, I rely on violining when I remember... Cheers, Tony -------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
Be friends on facebook with us here. We use professional, mastering grade hardware in our mastering studo. Our hardware includes: Cranesong Avocet II Monitor Controller, Dangerous Music Liasion Insert Hardware Router, ATC SCM Pro Monitors, Lavry Black DA11, Prism Orpheus ADC/DAC, Gyratec Gyraf XIV Parallel Passive Mastering EQ, Great River MAQ 2NV Mastering EQ, Kush Clariphonic Parallel EQ Shelf, Maselec MLA-2 Mastering Compressor, API 2500 Mastering Compressor, Eventide Eclipse Reverb/Echo. |
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Jul 19 2007, 04:01 AM
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Hey Andrew,
I can't give you much advice about the amps or most of the pedals as the only amp I ever had is the Vox AD30VT and that has built in effects, and the only pedals I have are the Whammy and a Zakk Wylde Wah...which i love both. But if I can I'd like to recommend you look at the Vox AC30CC or AC30BM amps.(not sure what wattage your going for). Vox makes a very high quality amp in my opinion and should at least warrant a look. http://www.voxamps.co.uk/acseries/ac30cc.asp About the only other thing I can suggest is to make sure your Wah has "true bypass" or else it will suck the tone right out of your amp. The original crybaby wah is great or a Vox. The Zakk Wylde I have is a great wah as well, but it's a bit more "crunchy" and fatter in the tone than the original and I don't know if that's what your looking for. Its a very "metal" wah. This post has been edited by rokchik: Jul 19 2007, 04:08 AM |
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Jul 19 2007, 10:50 AM
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First about all those pedals, too many (if they don't bypass the signal... but even then, I'm not sure I trust all that "true bypass" talk) will alter the sound from your guitar. I'm having a hard time myself keeping it down to EQ, delay and a Wah, for my Peavey I have to use a distortion for the heavier songs and I'm also very fond of the overdrive pedal. I only run it on the clean channel to get it to crack up earlier.
The ideal for me is to have an amp with so great sound I won't be needing any pedals except for a delay and a wah. Meaning the amp has a good EQ for each channel, so I could use the same settings on two channes only eq the solo channel differently, or have a good solo boost. QUOTE (Andrew Cockburn @ Jul 19 2007, 01:34 AM)  Amp - I have no idea here, seomthing with an awesome clean channel and no built in effects. Also, if I have a distortion pedal (see later) do I need to worry about overdriving the amp as well? Mr Vai has his signature amp, Carvin Legacy. But you living in the US have some other great choises that don't have the Europe overpricing. Bogner Ecstacy! If you take this and this or maybe you key in something right in the middle of these two. My choise of tubes would be EL34's. They have a real nice character and I think they sound a lot warmer than 6L6 tubes. I don't know if they come in less than 100W, I read it can run on 50W. Still a power soak would probably come in handy so you can get it down to 5-15 Watts which likely will be enough. The for the cabinet. I'm a sucker for Vintage 30's but I don't know what's better in your case really. Have a look what Steve Vai uses. A 2x12 would be enough for using home and playing the local pub sized large. Bogner, that's all I'm suggesting for now. Have a look and we'll talk more.On my own quest for sound I've had my eyes on the Elmwood Modena60 and now also an ENGL Invader 100W. Hoping for a 50W to be released soon but I can't make up my mind really. EDIT: Here's another Bogner Ecstasy clip from a "amp database" with recordings by users - CLIP This post has been edited by MickeM: Jul 19 2007, 11:28 AM -------------------- My bands homepage
All time favourites: B. Streisand - Woman in Love, M. Hopkin - Those were the days, L. Richie - Hello |
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Jul 19 2007, 11:55 PM
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Ok, great input so far
 Keeley compressor + Modded BD2 sounds like it is in. I might need another distortion pedal as well to get a high gain sound if I need it ... but I need to be careful not to put too many pedals in series, and true bypass is a must. I have my heart set on the Vai bad horsie 2, I had a Vox before and know what that sounds like, I want to try something different. Delay/Chorus, still thinking about, I wont jump straight into the Boss pedals and may look at rack stuff. I need to add a floor tuner to my list (good one!) Amps So far I am looking at:1. Roland Jazz Chorus - does it OD, or would I need to get all of that from pedals? 2. Vox 3. Matchless 4. Bogner Thanks! Any more advice welcomed
-------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
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Jul 20 2007, 02:18 AM
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http://ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/guitar_...-120/index.html
According to this, the distortion isn't so great haha. I'm glad I'm the only one to think so. This guy's review is similar to my thought on this amp too. http://ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/guitar_...-120/index.html According to this, the distortion isn't so great haha. I'm glad I'm the only one to think so. This guy's review is similar to my thought on this amp too. -------------------- Guitars:
Ibanez Prestige RG2610E [BKP Cold Sweat] Ibanez Prestige RG2550E [Carbon Fiber Plastics] Ibanez Roadstar II RS-135 [Stock] Quest Acoustic [Stock] Effects: Electro-Harmonix Metal Muff Ibanez Weeping Demon Wah Boss DR-3 Dr. Rhythym Amp: Marshall JCM2000 DSL 401 'Only the dead have seen the end of the war.' - Plato |
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Jul 20 2007, 02:41 AM
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Tend to agree with Sircraigery- I have a JC as a backup amp. Clean it's wonderful and the chorus is a lovely shimmering one. Distortion though is the achillies heel: poor early 80s transistor amp type. I stick a distortion pedal through the clean amp rather than use the amp's od.
Price wise btw Bogner ecstacy>= MatchlessDC30>>>Fender Twin>=Vox AC30> JC120 at a guess 3500 3500 for combo 1500ish 1000ish 500 2nd hand (UK sterling) inc speaker decent cab. Sure you can get much better prices in the states though Andrew. IF (and its a big if) I had bucket loads of cash I'd probably go with the Bogner as it's a bit more versatile then the matchless (ecstacy has 3 channels, DC30 is 2) and gives better tube saturation then the other remaining 3 amps (IMO) but it is v. expensive (and way too good an amp for my abilities - I'd still sound rubbish, but with a great tone )Cheers, Tony -------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
Be friends on facebook with us here. We use professional, mastering grade hardware in our mastering studo. Our hardware includes: Cranesong Avocet II Monitor Controller, Dangerous Music Liasion Insert Hardware Router, ATC SCM Pro Monitors, Lavry Black DA11, Prism Orpheus ADC/DAC, Gyratec Gyraf XIV Parallel Passive Mastering EQ, Great River MAQ 2NV Mastering EQ, Kush Clariphonic Parallel EQ Shelf, Maselec MLA-2 Mastering Compressor, API 2500 Mastering Compressor, Eventide Eclipse Reverb/Echo. |
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Jul 22 2007, 12:15 AM
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Interesting, thanks guys -
On another thread I saw a suggestion that its best to go for an awesome clean valve sounding rig, and just use pedals for distortion/overdrive - any other views on that as a streategy, it kind of makes sense to me? Is valve overdrive an essential part of the whole experience, or is it about the overall sound from an amp? What about Vox for clean sounds? Also, I did a quick search for Bogners, found some second hand ones - don't they make them any more? Regards, Andrew -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
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Jul 22 2007, 12:40 AM
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QUOTE (ZakkWylde @ Jul 21 2007, 07:23 PM) The point is: if youre amp has no overdrive itself, you have to put another stompbox in the line which will alter your amp's sound even more. My advise would be an amp with a good clean channel and at least two overdrive channels, for example an Engl. Why 2 OD channels? Is that so you can swicth between them to get different sounds? -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
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Jul 22 2007, 12:41 AM
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Or a new Marshall JVM series! Check out the JVM series demonstration on Marshall official website! That amp is amazing!
Btw. the only thing i think is really important is the AMP so i think getting a decent amp will solve 80% of your sound problems/goals. I aim for Mesa Boogie or Diamond - unfortunately - too expensive but i'll wait. -------------------- "It isn't how many years you have been playing, it's how many hours." -- Prashant Aswani "PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!" -- Michael Angelo Batio Check out my video lessons and instructor board! |
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Jul 22 2007, 12:43 AM
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QUOTE (ZakkWylde @ Jul 22 2007, 01:23 AM) The point is: if youre amp has no overdrive itself, you have to put another stompbox in the line which will alter your amp's sound even more. Its that the basic principle behind 'distortion'? An overdrivechannel on your amp does practically the same as a stompbox, it distorts the clean sound. And if you have a propper clean sound to start with, you are more likely to end up with a nice distorted sound then when your clean sound is of lesser quality. QUOTE I aim for Mesa Boogie or Diamond - unfortunately - too expensive but i'll wait. Ghehe, I bet more guitar player 'd like to have a Boogie Amp, however, there are cheaper alternatives...Rivera Amps for example. This post has been edited by Mer-V: Jul 22 2007, 12:55 AM |
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Jul 22 2007, 01:06 AM
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QUOTE (Pavel @ Jul 21 2007, 07:41 PM) Or a new Marshall JVM series! Check out the JVM series demonstration on Marshall official website! That amp is amazing! Btw. the only thing i think is really important is the AMP so i think getting a decent amp will solve 80% of your sound problems/goals. I aim for Mesa Boogie or Diamond - unfortunately - too expensive but i'll wait. Wow, that JVM 410 does look sweet ... and the reviews really talk up the clean channel. -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
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Jul 22 2007, 07:11 AM
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There is the argument from HiFi bods that a good (clean) amplifier is straight line with gain (and no distortion).
Because of this, to a great extent, a lot of high end hifi put very little into the signal path ie no bass boost switches, minimal tone controls (if any), no un-necessary flashing lights. Also there is a tendency to 'over' specify components - Burr Brown capacitors hugh heavy torroidal transformers etc. Some also isolate the pre and power stages in to separate amp boxes to minimise rf intereference between them. Some end up with multi box power amp setups in order to go monoblock. Indeed very often there is just a volume and input source selector on the pre amp and nothing apart from the pre amp in and speaker/s out on the power. Bringing this back to a clean guitar amp. Some amp manufacturers follow much the same reasoning and minimise anything that may add unwanted noise, or which might leech the original guitar signal, from the amp circuit. Hence some high end 'boutique' amps have input, a few tone controls, master and drive and little else. No effects loop, no reverb, no amp emulation, no digital effects, etc. Components are again 'over' specified and often point to point hand soldered. This often means that the cost of the amp goes up against a more 'mass market' amp and ostensibly fewer 'bangs per buck'. The focus though is on tone and little, if anything, else. I'm not saying this is right (though you can probably guess given my main amp is a Matchless  ) it's a viewpoint. Unlike Hi-fis distortion is seen as good with regard to guitar amps. The high end 'boutique' amps (Matchless, Bogner, TopHat, Bad Cat etc) are often valve amps and also often pure class A (as opposed to class a/b etc). The focus I think is to deliver as good a clean tone as possible that may then be pushed into OD or distortion (caveat to this, IMO, is a transistor amp - see below). (Logic being if you start with a rubbish clean sound, distorting it isn't going to make it better.) With the non 'boutique' but good valve amps (ie Mesa, Rivera, Engl, Framus, Vox, Marshall, Soldano etc) one thing that they all tend to have in common is that they can produce a good clean channel as well. Whether it is as 'good' as a 'boutique' is subjective and debatable. What the non-boutique amps do offer is usually more features, for less money whilst still giving a good overall clean tone. On the 'bang for bucks' end. In part this perhaps comes back to 'straight line with gain'. On a straight, clean path my signal pretty much only gets amplified with a minimum of interactive tone control from my amp. On a clean signal all I want basically is my guitar amplified according to a valve voicing that I like. My main amp adds very little to the signal and takes very little away apart from the overall amp voicing because the signal path is simple. In a Mesa, for instance, you have a high quality signal path but one that also starts to include more tone controls, a reverb, an effects loop, pentode/triode switching, hi-gain drive, ultra hi gain drive and so on. None of this is necessarily bad BUT and to me its a big but, all the extra bells and whistles are there largely in circuit whether you want them or not. An advantage of a minimal circuit is that you can choose whether or not to add an effect via a rack or stomp box. If you don't want it, and just to labour this point, you leave it out and it doesn't degrade your signal. The downside is perhaps a lack of versatility without adding some stomp boxes. (I say perhaps because I use my guitar's volume knob to move through clean and od as well.) Unlike a Triple Rec I won't ever get clean, od/distortion, hi gain/scooped from my amp without adding pedals. My amp does clean into OD without any stompbox and only really this. A good distortion pedal then takes it into distortion territory and adds tonal colouration (and gives me 2 channels on a single channel amp). I doubt that I could get it into hi gain scooped territory regardless of what pedal I put in front - it's just not that sort of amp. If I want ultra hi-gain then the solution for me would be to buy an amp that does hi gain (Triple Rec, Marshall JVM, Engl Powerball, Framus Cobra and so on). A second issue, though it doesn't bother me too much, is that my overall rig is pretty complicated just so that I can get versatility. I have more than one distortion pedal to achieve different types and levels of overdrive and so on. My recording studio floor looks like a snake pit of wires and it costs an arm and a leg buying decent quality leads to interface them. I could probably loose a lot of the pedals by going with a multi-channel amp (or maybe all of them with digital modelling). I suppose the issue here is what someone really values and wants from their amp - inbuilt versatility or 'pureness'. I've gone with the latter but it's personal choice. To my knowledge, and in my opinion, a valve will give a much more musical overdrive/distortion than a solid state/transistor/digital emulation. The clipping isn't as harsh, you get much nicer - and more - 2nd and higher order harmonics, the decay is smoother and less likely to abruptly finish, sustain is sweet and natural rather than hard (transistor) or zippered and processed (digital). Basically a valve waveform is extremely complex and perhaps beyond the capacity of a digital amp to reproduce perfectly. I've nothing digital emulator amps - I think they offer amazing value for money. However, IMHO, if you place any digital emulation up against the original valve amp being emulated then I am willing to bet that most people will prefer the original amp. The valve amp will sound, to most people more natural, more musical, have more tonal depth. That they can not and that the waveform produced often ends too abruptly leads to zippering - put a digital emulation on a long decay wave and you will almost certainly hear this effect...) In the case of a transistor amp they have a tendency to 'simplify' waveforms, thus you get a more basic rather than the harmonically rich waveform you'd get from a valve. A clean, undistorted guitar sound is a much 'simpler' wave form and so you often find that tranny amps do 'clean' well (ie the Roland JC 120) - where they often come unstuck is when the wave has to become complicated. (I'm not saying that no tranny can do good distortion - the Yamaha D1000 can give a v good distortion. Similarly I'm not saying that any emulation is bad - they're not but they are emulations...) (I should by the way say that I do at times use emulation - via a Roland/Boss GT8 with COSM and I also have and use a transistor amp - a JC55. They do what they do well and I like them. I just prefer my valve amp.) With regard to the voicing of an amp. Well whether someone wants/prefers a 'British' or an 'American' type voicing is up to them. It's really subjective opinion as to whether you prefer Vox, Marshall, Fender or Mesa Boogie type voicing. What is important here though is that the valves in your amp need to be the right type. Check out a Vox and any good Vox clone - they will share similar valve types. Same goes for Marshall and Marshall clones, and so on. Some valve amp manufacturers imply that their particular amp is able to cover significantly different voicings. The extent to which a valve amp can emulate more than one WITHOUT fundamentally having a change of valves is, IMO, open to question. Noticably here Randall make an amp where you can hot swop valve stages, THD also do something similar, back in the late '80s Seymour Duncan made a valve amp where you could also swop out the pre amp valve stage specifically to allow these amps to get different major voicings. Similarly its perhaps worth noting that to get a Marshall voicing that Mesa use different valves in their Stiletto then, for instance, their Lonestar. Perhaps this is part of the dilemma that MickeM faces in his search for an ultimate amp, whether to have a single particular voicing and indeed which. Not an easy question and no easy answers... Ultimately guitar amp tone is a very subjective thing. What is wonderful to one player may not be to another. At the end of the day at the >1500USD level of performance I would strongly recommend that anyone should test out as many amps as possible and think about what features they want and the voicing/s they prefer. Cheers, Tony ps sorry it's a bit of a long and rambling post -------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
Be friends on facebook with us here. We use professional, mastering grade hardware in our mastering studo. Our hardware includes: Cranesong Avocet II Monitor Controller, Dangerous Music Liasion Insert Hardware Router, ATC SCM Pro Monitors, Lavry Black DA11, Prism Orpheus ADC/DAC, Gyratec Gyraf XIV Parallel Passive Mastering EQ, Great River MAQ 2NV Mastering EQ, Kush Clariphonic Parallel EQ Shelf, Maselec MLA-2 Mastering Compressor, API 2500 Mastering Compressor, Eventide Eclipse Reverb/Echo. |
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Jul 22 2007, 11:11 AM
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QUOTE (Mer-V @ Jul 22 2007, 01:43 AM) Ghehe, I bet more guitar player 'd like to have a Boogie Amp, however, there are cheaper alternatives... Rivera Amps for example. If it goes for guitar - i am not looking at alternatives because one day i'll still buy it. So why to spend money on something else? I will wait a bit more and get it in a year or 2! @Andrew: did you try Carvin Legacy amp? It has AMAZING clean channel. I tried it when i was buying the JEM and that clean sound is just amazing, couldn't get off the amp. -------------------- "It isn't how many years you have been playing, it's how many hours." -- Prashant Aswani "PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!" -- Michael Angelo Batio Check out my video lessons and instructor board! |
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Jul 22 2007, 11:34 AM
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LOL I thought the marshall JVM was a Yngwie Malmsteen signature xD
Till I checked the website. -------------------- The coolest new community: Lockerz Wanna join Lockerz? Send me a PM with your mailadress. |
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Jul 22 2007, 12:53 PM
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Andrew, have a lok at Bogners homepage
The reason I only suggested one amp is because I think this is the one that should give you the tone you were looking for. But since you seem to have a broader interest in various brands and models I could give you my view on a few things. And I won't cover solid state amps, I don't know much about thir kind. For starters, you should figure out which tube characteristics you should go for. If we stick to EL34 and 6L6GC which are the most common ones though there are more. If you want to be albe to switch between different sorts Carvin Legacy supports EL34, 6L6GC and 5881 (it comes with a bias switch) Pre amp tubes like ECC83 (12AX7) (in slightly different variations) provides a good range of low, mids and high and are most common. there are other pre amp tubes that can be used for f.ex a vintage tone where ECC83 would work but for the true seeker of tone. EL34 comes with a sound that "breaks up", for simplicity and lack of words from my side  say - marshall.6L6GC is more, in comparance with EL34, full and thick. Read Fender and Mesa. EL34 is a moth full of grovels to chew on, 6L6GC is marshmallows. I prefer the sound from EL34's. Question: Which tubes would you prefer? Next, what kind of amp? Do you like bells and whistles or just the nessessary knobs? I for one am cut between the two, the reason is my Hughes and Kettner which is a small computer (well, it weighs in around 20 kg). If you had asked me one year ago I would have said go for less knobs! Now all I can say is I love the numerous channels and knobs and the built in effects board in my Switchblade. I only use a Wah with it. I havn't come to it yet but I will try organising the MIDI board so I have a solo sound next to the rhythm sound. Same channel only the solo channel is a bit boosted. So if I'm at bank 1 sound 1 I just move over to sound 2 in the same bank for soloing. But, havn't done it yet so I don't know how well that works. What I do today is just to switch between clean and lead sound and what's so great is that the clean sound can have say a flanger effect while the lead sound has a delay. So instead of pressing a termolo pedal off, stomping a delay and a distortion (or changing channel) all I do is press one knob on the MIDI board. (I could use a noice gate for the higain sounds since our rehearsal room has flourocent lights *grmbl*)Same with the amps I'm searching now, Elmwood modena60 lacks the knobs while the ENGL invader100 has em all.  So I'm a bit split here... Going from my old view on things to keep it simple into complicating things... knobs are fun Well, back on track. Do you want simplicity or a complex amp? How many watts? 100W and above is a bit much, though I've got a 100W myself and it sounds very good at turned up at 0.5 it only gets better and better the more I raise the volume. But a power sponge can solve all that. I havn't got one though. 5-15W is enough for the bedroom, 30-50 for pubrock. But as said, get a power soak if you happen to get a +50W amp. So, for different brands and models I'm a bit hesitating on the Vox range now since the production moved to china. But having seen british enginering with MG cars and Norton motorcycles maybe the move was a good thing The only amp from Marshall that I would concider these days is the JVM410. They advertise is as a journey between JMP, Plexi, JCM etc. Mesa Boogie, not what I'm looking for. Doesn't do it for me. I must be crazy, right? ENGL, I'm split, some 6L6 does sound great but the Invader with EL34 is theeeee best amp around. I'l keep it sofisticated and clean by using Latin stating these amps got scrotum. Rex scrotum Effects loop and external speaker connection. A must have! There are so many amps out there that are good in different price ranges. Wether an amp is over priced or good value for they money can be discussed for an eternity but what it all comes down to is wether this amp has got what your looking for or not. After you have put down the criterias you're looking for you select a range of models that fit and then it's just to head out and test play em. And be sure to crank it since that's when a tube amp is at its best. -------------------- My bands homepage
All time favourites: B. Streisand - Woman in Love, M. Hopkin - Those were the days, L. Richie - Hello |
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