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 The goal for this thread is to create a database for amps that we either own or have worked with and can give personalized help to people looking for a specific sound, like a compliment to the review thread. If you need help finding a certain amp sound type or are trying to match a certain artist post here and we'll try to help. In my situation I am looking for a 2x12 combo amp, tube based, for under $1300 that has a great over driven warm distortion sound right out of the package without the need for effect units. From personal experience, what would be a good recommendation? My own recommendation for anyone looking for an amp, do whatever you can to not cut corners by getting an amp that is better than a small practice amp but not good enough to gig with - the bargain bin half stacks by Raven, Crate, and Randall all fall under this category and just suck money that you could save up for an Orange, Mesa, Black Star, etc. Let's get this thread huge
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Jul 4, 2010 20:15
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gvonpaul posted:Vox AC30. Fat chimy cleans and warm dynamic overdrive. There is also a hand wired AC15 for about the same price. I found it for the cheapest here http://www.guitartrader.com/!sL05tIViHXAT1nSHjo2s6A!/VOX-AC30CC2-30-Watt-2x12-Custom-Classic-Combo-Amp-s Every other place wanted over $1400. I'll log this for a test drive tomorrow when I go to all my local shops to check out their amps. Thanks for the recommendation.
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Jul 4, 2010 23:32
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Hogscraper posted:Mesa Boogie info Mesa is definitely a brand I am going to be looking into as well. I did find a dual rectifier head around my area used for $900 and I could pair it up with a 2x12 cabinet as well.
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Jul 5, 2010 03:34
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iostream.h posted:What kind of stuff do you play? I play alternative rock/metal and upon hearing some vox demos I don't think it is what I'm looking for and while I would love orange it is just so far out of my price range right now. Does anyone have an opinion on BlackStar? http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Blackstar-Venue-Series-HT-Stage-HT60-60W-Tube-Guitar-Combo-Amp?sku=423770 They just came out with this and from the demos online it seems to have the sound I'm looking for plus it won't break my bank account (even is a used one for a little over $700). Everything I've seen so far seems positive on this combo.
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Jul 5, 2010 04:03
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Concatenation - yea I am pretty much sold on the blackstar amp just from a logistics standpoint as the 15% discount on Guitar Center ( ) for the July sale brings this down to $764 NEW with free shipping if I have to get it from their site. It's one of the only brands actually allowing this coupon to be used. Everything I have heard on it and the price being loving amazing makes it seem like the amp for me.MrWeight - I'm glad someone got the title  it is an amazing album and Boris just loving rocks. Just Abondoned Myself off Pink is pure perfection.
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Jul 5, 2010 06:15
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Dr. Faustus posted:Peavey Classic 50 is available in various configurations. I have the 4x10" and the 1x15". I have an old Peavey ULTRA from the late 90's that has the 4x10 setup and I could never get it to sound how I wanted, I'm sellin it tomorrow on the cheap since the footpedal is missing and you need the loving thing to get to one of the channels. Not trying Peavey anymore.
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Jul 5, 2010 07:00
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Much love to all the Boris fans here! I pulled the trigger and got the Blackstar combo - the price was just too good to pass up on, the 4th of July coupon let me get everything with tax and warranty (the guitar center warranty saved my rear end on gear before and is actually one of the best warranties I've ever used) for $906. Everything I've seen and heard on it made it the only New amp in it's level that was affordable and had the tone I was looking for.
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Jul 5, 2010 19:43
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Hogscraper posted:You DID audition it before you bought it, right? Write up a review after you've dug into it for a bit. There was not a single one to be found on the whole loving east coast as far as guitar center was concerned - had to order it online. I called around every place else, nothin - I tried out some of the other Black Stars a few months ago and they sounded Ace. I'll write a full review in the next few weeks with the amp itself, it's own sounds, how it sounds with pedals like the metal core and tube sceamer, etc. I'll be using my ESP LTD Les Paul with the Active EMG's (81/85) and Ovation acoustic/electric Hybrid with actives as well. If for SOME reason this amp doesn't do it for me, which again after trying the other black stars would be a huge shock, they gave me a no bullshit 30 day return policy. I would be extremely surprised if I had to use it.
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Jul 5, 2010 20:04
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The Spider (spyder?) valve series kicks rear end in a multitude of ways from many owners who I know and have played with but I never owned one. Three Red Lights in your own words give us a quick review of it and why you love the poo poo outta it.
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Jul 6, 2010 03:55
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Three Red Lights posted:drat you Spider, drat you to hell. Thank you SO much for posting this - again from what I've heard from owners and heard it sounded ok but I don't remember seeing it maybe more than once or twice in all the bands I've seen live. I'm sorry you are having so much trouble with it, but your pain has probably been felt by everyone in this thread. I bought a Marshall JCM 2000 half stack a decade ago and was extremely disappointed with it's limitations. It was pretty much Marshall sound or nothing and did not play friendly with any overdrive or distortion effects I used. Others love the sound, but it just felt so limited to me. It sounds like for you the Spider is the jack of all trades but the master of none which is a common complaint for the amps that have a shitload of features/emulators.
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Jul 6, 2010 19:34
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Hogscraper - Yea the JCM 2000 was by no means a bad amp, just not what I was after when I changed direction music wise. Your EQ comment about the Line 6 makes sense. Twilight - The Blackstar tube 2x12 combo I just purchased is in the mail and is less than $1000 and I will be reviewing it here, from what I have heard and read you can get a great brit tone off of it for radiohead type use. I'll go learn a radiohead song over the next week or two, play it on the amp and mic it with a Shure SM 58 I have and post it on here. Can someone give me a really easy radiohead song for guitar lol, creep would be easy I guess, maybe the chorus for There There, eh I'll demo you something on it! Ferrous Wheel - I have really lost much respect for Peavey gear the past few years. While I like the 6505, I've never been able to get a good clean tone the times I demoed it - the metal sound is great but like the Marshall I talked about before, it seems like it is limited to doing one thing really well. The VALVEKING series never impressed me at all when I demoed it. Also if any bass players want to talk about bass amps, baseheads (  ), or whatever - please contribute here. Ampeg is the poo poo, but price wise it goes well over $1000 so I would love to hear good budget setups for bass as well.Going back to Peavey - I picked up a Peavey BAM! (  BAM!) 2x12 combo bass amp with effects modeling, and amp modeling, and it was from the early 2000's and was a total piece of loving poo poo that I traded for another lovely (not as lovely though) Kustom guitar amp. The BAM! had 1000 options and they all sucked, just give me one option that works! Horrible amp, I really am tired of Peavey' poo poo.
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Jul 7, 2010 00:26
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Professor Science posted:I am completely crazy about my Orange AD30TC. Blackstar HT5 is still a perfectly sensible practice amp, but it can't hold a candle to how good the AD30 sounds. I would kill for an Orange, I really mean it because I would have to find small bugs and animals to eat because the extra $1400 (2,249.00 new  ) I'd spend on the Orange would break my bank big time. Amazing amps and I bet you are crazy about that marvel. I'm going to be using the Blackstar for pretty much everything for the time being.Also, can we please leave out amp vs. amp arguments when there is more than a grand price difference between the two? It's just silly to compare Orange to a budget Blackstar, comparing it to Mesa or Bogner would be more appropriate because their price ranges tend to be well over $1500. Edit - I need the 2x12 for space purposes and that I want one piece of equipment covered for warranty. Having a half stack just killed my Altima, I don't have a van and it could only really carry that and a guitar. the 2x12 can fit in easily. Also I've never heard of Fuchs, looks good though. ruinedhero fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Jul 7, 2010 |
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Jul 7, 2010 03:48
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Schlieren posted:If it turns out the speakers are old and need to be replaced in my amp, what should I get? Celestions are cheap as hell - you can get a pair for under $200 easy and they sound great when they have a good amp behind them.
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Jul 7, 2010 04:17
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Schlieren posted:There are lots of kinds of Celestions and this amp pushes out a gigantic amount of power; what should I get? Do any of the Celestions available in the Avatar overstock link make sense? I don't have enough knowledge to tell which exact speakers would fit it best, I know the brand is good though. I'm sure if you called them they would know what would work.
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Jul 7, 2010 04:32
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Nelsocracy posted:Currently I have a Fender Silverface Champ, which is great for practicing at home. However, I need something loud enough (and with enough clean headroom) to play with a drummer or fill a small pub. I love the vintage fender clean sound (I play jazz) and prefer tube amps, but it seems that it's hard to find an amp that's the volume I want. I'm looking for a Charlie Christian, Joe Pass or Jim Hall kind of sound. If anyone as any suggestions that would be great, thanks! Also preferably not too far above $1000 used. A used Fender tube 50 watt amp would be plenty loud and under $1000 - the best bet would be to sample a poo poo load of used and new amps at your local retailers because what you want is pretty broad, which is a good thing because you have a shitload of selection. I always liked Laney's clean tone, but again you have alot of options with what you are looking for.
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Jul 8, 2010 02:40
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Schlieren posted:Sounds way too good out of this amp not to do it so I think instead I'll try to find something that can handle both reasonably well but thanks for this incredibly obvious suggestion! I really don't know of any amps that do both bass and regular. A bass amp would probably be better to use if you really need only one amp...
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Jul 8, 2010 05:03
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The BlackStar Ht-60 just came in today, after spending an hour with it I must say I am extremely impressed with the quality of the amp and with the amazing quality of the clean channel. The Overdrive channels are good, a little to middy but a boss EQ through the effects loop allowed me to get a good rock/metal tone. You don't need an outside EQ to get a great overdriven tone and the options are plentiful as there is a USA/British knob that allows you to go from 1 to 11 (ok just 10) so you don't have to go all or nothing for the tone type. I'm going to spend much of this weekend getting into the inner workings of the amp. I am amazed at the clean channel on it so far - one of the best I've heard at any amp in this price range.
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Jul 10, 2010 01:17
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BlueGrot posted:
Give us more content on this post - what rocks about it, how much does it run for, etc. I don't want this to be a show our amps thread, I want candid user reviews and descriptions.
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Jul 11, 2010 20:31
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Alakaiser posted:Do any of you guys have any love for a particular battery-powered amp? Not just for sound, but for battery life, size (definitely don't want anything too big), durability, extra features, etc. I'm looking to buy a "play this literally anywhere" amp, but there doesn't seem to be a wealth of info on the subject. Roland Cube. They have it in different styles and sizes but the micro cube I have is the poo poo for playing out at friends houses or if you want to do an acoustic act with an acoustic/electric hybrid. You can even plug a microphone into it - they really kick rear end. It takes 6 AA batteries I believe and lasts a good amount of time.
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Jul 15, 2010 02:55
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Hey gang, here's my review of the Black Star HT - 60 Price paid - $750 new Tube combo amp - 2x12 Three channels with included footswitch Effects loop ISF tone control (more on that later) Using an ESP LTD Les Paul with active EMG 85/81 pickups and Ovation Acoustic/Electric Hybrid with actives Seymore Duncan 59 pickups I'll be truthful right up front, the price was the main selling point to me on this amp. The amp retails for $900 which is already cheaper than many of the 2x12 combos that offer similar features and was THE ONLY AMP BRAND I could find that was honoring guitar center's 15% off 4th of July sale. Every other one was like gently caress that poo poo, you're paying full price bitch. I also had to order the amp because no one around me is carrying it yet in store so it was a bit of a leap of faith.I'm going to start with the negatives on the amp then go into the greatness because there is so much good on this amp that it greatly outweighs any negative. - Three channels but both overdrive channels share the same EQ. This isn't abnormal and is better than some Marshalls that have every channel share the same EQ, but it does limit the sound you can switch to and from on the over drive channels. - I personally felt an outside EQ was necessary to get the sound I wanted - the MXR placed in the effects loop with the mids toned down a bit helped give a great metal distortion that was not muddy or too high pitched. I realize that nothing short of a Mesa or Orange are really going to be perfect out of the box, but this tool really gave the amp a bigger set of balls. - For some reason Reverb is on whenver you turn on the amp and you have to manually turn it off on the footswitch. The footswitch itself uses a VGA connector which I've never see used before. - Switches are reversed because of British backwards poo poo - switches go up for off and down for on. And that's about all the bad. Here's the kick rear end parts of the amp - The craftsmanship: - IT IS LIGHT AS HELL for a tube combo. I could carry this with no problems as opposed to something like the Peavey 5150 combo which is heavy as hell. - The switches and knobs are mostly plastic but are of good quality - while I would rather have some steel/metal knobs like on a Mesa/Marshall I can see this was used to cut the price on the amp. - the tubes and speakers a very protected and not very difficult to access - Very sturdy body. Could easily take some hits with little to no damage. I'm not going to chuck the drat thing like the Mesa tests, but It feels extremely solid. The sound: - with the EQ, this has the best distortion channel on any amp I've owned. Warm, thick cutting distortion that sounds amazing cranked up. The clean channel is extremely competent and sounds great overdriven as well. - The ISF knob allows you to go to USA mode, British mode, or anywhere inbetween which changes the characteristics of the amp and allows for a great deal of tonal options which all sound good in their own way. It's one of the few tone features I've used on an amp that really hits the mark. - Very happy with the presence control, it and the reverb work perfectly for what they need to do. Bass response is great. - Mostly Pedal friendly. Plugged in a Metal Muff to get another distortion type and it sounded good. When I plugged the metal muff into a boss ge-7 EQ it made this amazing ballsy electronic type distortion which is probably my favorite. Worked great with my carbon copy. Hated the Boss ME - 5 I had lying around (multi effect board) though - just colored the sound way too much. I'm sure a tube screamer would sound good through it as well. Only thing I use in the effects loop is the eq which is loving loves. - Celestion Speakers only sound good when they are pushed by a good head unit and this unit does the job perfectly. It is amazing how the Kustom solid state with 12 inc celestions sounds so lovely yet the celestions are amazing on this tube combo. This amp isn't as good as a Mesa or Orange, but it really isn't trying to be. It was released to offer a cost-effective tube 2x12 combo with a myriad of options for practice and gigging. At 60 tube watts it gets very loud and stays clear at the same time. It totally kicks the poo poo out of amps I've tried in it's same price area, the Peavey and Marshall amps especially seemed very limited compared to this amp. If you have a large budget for an amp, go grab a Bogner, Orange, or Mesa but this amp is a godsend for anyone who can't spend more than a grand on an amp - easily one of the best sub -$1000 amps I've ever used. - edit - Forgot a score. I'd give it a 4.0 by itself and 4.5 with additional eq on the effects loop. Just a drat good amp. ruinedhero fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Jul 18, 2010 |
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Jul 18, 2010 18:20
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5150 head is great for overdrive and distortion, but the clean channel is about average. The onboard overdrive channels are great. Stay away from the 2x12 combo that weighs a ton.
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Aug 2, 2010 02:49
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Gripen5 posted:All of the Blackstar heads meat those criteria. So depending on what wattage you want... I can vouche for the black star
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Aug 2, 2010 03:56
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Three Red Lights posted:It's becasue I used to work in a live music bar and seeing bands load in with 5150s was typically the first sign that the night was going to be awful. They aren't bad sounding amps but I think its pavlovian now. I'm adding pavlovian to my list of cromulent words. What made the bands sound so bad with the 5150's? Was the gain too high or too muddy?
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Aug 2, 2010 19:35
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The Metal Zone is the most over-hyped piece of poo poo effect box ever made.
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Aug 3, 2010 02:47
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Three red lights, have you tried getting an outside eq into the effects loop (or if no loop between the guitar and amp?) the mx and boss ones work pretty well to shape tone, especially on tube. The holy grail reverb is also an amazing pedal to replace the broken one on the amp.
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Aug 22, 2010 02:08
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Tutu posted:Any recommendations for a bedroom practice amp that does great cleans? Probably going to try out a blackstar ht5 in the next few days, might have a look at a fender blues junior as well, any other suggestions? Fender Super Champ XD - it's tube amp that brand new goes for $300 and is pretty drat diverse for it's price. It has a good standard clean channel, then a second channel that emulates 12 different type of amp sounds from acoustic to metal and it even has built in effects. It's a 10 inch speaker, but it is plenty loud and the clean channel is tight as hell.
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Aug 28, 2010 17:05
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 02:57 |
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If anyone wants to get a pretty cool clean acoustic sound, try out the Boss Acoustic Simulator (AC 3 the newer one), run it though the effects loop as the first on the chain and with an equalizer after it. Use the Line Out output. The sound you can get is a very cool hybrid acoustic/electric sound. Going through my Blackstar HT-60 it has an awesome warm bassey sound. It isn't going to replace a high end acoustic guitar or amp, but it's a pretty unique sound. Don't run it in the front (guitar, effect, amp) because it sounds like total poo poo.
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Oct 7, 2010 04:25
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