I Want A New Amp!, Can anybody help me to choose:)?
mhskeide
Jan 2 2009, 01:23 AM
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From: Oslo, NO
Hi there guys

Lately I`ve grown incredible tired of my Crate VTX200S. The gain controllers barely affects the sound, the gain channel is very unclear and the crunch doesn`t kick enough ass. Enough whining. tongue.gif

What I want is a tube amp, and I`m very envious at some friends of mine which both have the ENGL Screamer 50. The price is a little stiff (12000 NOK, around 1800 $), and I don`t want to go particularly higher than this. What I don`t like so much with the Screamer, is that the lead channels shares the same EQ. I also would like the gain at the heavy channel to be more like the gain in the Powerball amp. Another thing that would be absolutely great was to have the option between low watt and regular...for instance the Mesa Boogie Express 5:25.

So please, help me and give me som advices of which amps I should check out.
Summary of my wishes (the amp must not meet every requirement)

Tube amp
tube amp with the option to change between low and regular Watt
EQ for each channel
Real heavy gain (I play much metal for instance Black label society, Dream theatre and maybe heavier)
Real asskicking lowgain (like AcDc and other 70`s hardrock bands)
Should not cost over 15000 NOK/2000 $ (estimated from norwegian prices)
Combo (I dont want to spend money and space for a cabinet as well:)

If I forgot something crucial I`ll just go ahead and edit this, but that`s the list for now.

And happy new year to every guitarplayer and musician out there smile.gif

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Outlaw2112
Jan 2 2009, 01:26 AM
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Im also looking for a new amp... a tube amp

Ive been looking at the orange tiny terror amp

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inertia
Jan 2 2009, 02:57 AM
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Well the Express won't have enough gain for you unless you don't mind putting pedals in front of it, that's the amp I plan on buying but I'll use a metal distortion for the super heavy gain.
The Bugera amps are inexpensive and have pretty heavy gain, they're 100 watts so you'd probably need an attenuator if you want to play at home, they are alot of amp for the money though.
The new bogner alchemist has a 20/40 watt mode and independent eq, I think it has quite a bit of gain, probably more than the mesa boogie express, I don't know that it's powerball level though.
You could also check out some of the Peavey high gain amps like the 6505, XXX, JSX etc, but I don't think any of those have the option to use a lower wattage.
Mesa Boogie wise the one to get would probably the rectoverb, it's from the rectifier series, it's a very nice amp, high gain combo, doesn't have different wattage though, I think it's about the same price as the Express maybe a little bit more.
The last one I can think of is the egnator tourmaster 4212 has like 6 different wattage settings, very versatile, 4 channels each with independant eq, high gain too.
The best thing to do is try out as many as possible.
I'm not sure about pricing where you are, in Canada and the US prices are a lot different because a lot of the amps are made here are so are less expensive, I'm not sure how much these amps would sell for in your country.
The egnator appears the most versatile with the very neat multi-wattage system it has, plus 4 independent channels and serious high gain.
The last one I would mention is the Hughes and Kettner Switchblade, this one has a few channels, blistering gain and also onboard effects, it's a do-it-all amp, with a serious midi pedal too, MickeM has one and a couple other forum members, it's a great amp as well
I'm sure you'll get some other good opinions from other members on here too

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ZakkWylde
Jan 2 2009, 03:04 AM
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From: Germany
Buy in Germany at Thomann.de, that's cheaper then buying stuff in Norway I think. Second of all here is a list of recommended amps:

http://www.thomann.de/de/peavey_6505_212_gitarrencombo.htm
Great Amp for Metal; Machine Head, In Flames and Bullet for my Valentine use it. It is Eddie Van Halen's signature amp so it also has a pretty nice crunch.

http://www.thomann.de/de/marshall_jvm205c.htm
Fender like cleans, best crunch in the world and the Heaviest Metal sound of all Marshalls

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mhskeide
Jan 2 2009, 12:17 PM
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From: Oslo, NO
QUOTE (inertia @ Jan 2 2009, 02:57 AM) *
Well the Express won't have enough gain for you unless you don't mind putting pedals in front of it, that's the amp I plan on buying but I'll use a metal distortion for the super heavy gain.
The Bugera amps are inexpensive and have pretty heavy gain, they're 100 watts so you'd probably need an attenuator if you want to play at home, they are alot of amp for the money though.
The new bogner alchemist has a 20/40 watt mode and independent eq, I think it has quite a bit of gain, probably more than the mesa boogie express, I don't know that it's powerball level though.
You could also check out some of the Peavey high gain amps like the 6505, XXX, JSX etc, but I don't think any of those have the option to use a lower wattage.
Mesa Boogie wise the one to get would probably the rectoverb, it's from the rectifier series, it's a very nice amp, high gain combo, doesn't have different wattage though, I think it's about the same price as the Express maybe a little bit more.
The last one I can think of is the egnator tourmaster 4212 has like 6 different wattage settings, very versatile, 4 channels each with independant eq, high gain too.
The best thing to do is try out as many as possible.
I'm not sure about pricing where you are, in Canada and the US prices are a lot different because a lot of the amps are made here are so are less expensive, I'm not sure how much these amps would sell for in your country.
The egnator appears the most versatile with the very neat multi-wattage system it has, plus 4 independent channels and serious high gain.
The last one I would mention is the Hughes and Kettner Switchblade, this one has a few channels, blistering gain and also onboard effects, it's a do-it-all amp, with a serious midi pedal too, MickeM has one and a couple other forum members, it's a great amp as well
I'm sure you'll get some other good opinions from other members on here too


Hmm, some unknown names for me that I have to check out biggrin.gif
Thanks a lot mate! And about norwegian prices, they`re generally too damn high. If you take the american price as origin, you usually can multiply that price by 2-3 dry.gif

QUOTE (Outlaw2112 @ Jan 2 2009, 01:26 AM) *
Im also looking for a new amp... a tube amp

Ive been looking at the orange tiny terror amp


It`s a quite cool head, a friend of mine has it. Great for straight-forward rock n roll / hard rock! But during a live concert it`s not pretty versatile since you need effectpedals to change your sound. And If you`re playing metal or something like that you probably want to check out an amp with more gain

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MickeM
Jan 2 2009, 01:31 PM
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QUOTE (inertia @ Jan 2 2009, 02:57 AM) *
The last one I would mention is the Hughes and Kettner Switchblade, this one has a few channels, blistering gain and also onboard effects, it's a do-it-all amp, with a serious midi pedal too, MickeM has one and a couple other forum members, it's a great amp as well

I second that! There's a 50W combo that I'm positive would do the trick.
I've played in a Dream theater cover band and was extremely happy with the sound from the Switchblade. I've used in in a coverband playing lots of 70's rock and hard rock, and it does evertything very well.

Sometimes it's got too many options but then it's a good thing the presets that comes from the factory are teriffic! So for simplicity rather than versatility one could pick a few favourite sounds and store them in a couple separate banks so they are not spread out.
Now when we're making our own music oppose to covers I like to key my sounds in on the amp itself instead of using the MIDI foot pedal. This is because the different sonds shouldn't differ too much in sound character.

A good feature is that it has a Master "overall" volume and a separate "channel volume" which comes in handy when you need all stored sounds to have the same volume.

If you concider this amp go for a 50 watter, the 100w is too loud and I had to pull out two power tubes to get it to 50. And I've got an attenuator. With the 100watt head a loud rehearsal and pub gig I had the volume at 2-3. Now with 50 watts the volume is easier to control and I get to turn up a little more than before.

It's a great amp and I love it.

Noangels also has a Switchblade and Xuestor, they might have more input.

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Ivan Milenkovic
Jan 2 2009, 06:29 PM
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You're pretty limited with built in attenuator option - not all combos have it. I would recommend Bogner Alchemist or possibly Mesa Xpress series, but I highly recommend that you get 50W combo, and buy attenuator. It's not that expensive and you have much greater array of combos that you can get.

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Marshmall0wz
Jan 2 2009, 09:53 PM
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Mesa Boogie Rectoverb Combo. I love em' cause they're much more versatile than people say (IMO) also, each individual channel has a voicing switch which is great for shaping specific sounds. Also as you like dream theatre you'll probably like the rectoverb as it's the combo version of john petrucci's high gain amp. He uses a mesa lonestar for cleans but this has an allright clean, FAR BETTER than any Crate. Hope this helps.

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This post has been edited by Marshmall0wz: Jan 2 2009, 09:56 PM


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