What is the best amp you have ever heard or played?

[fishyfishfish]

Oh and a Demeter TGA100.
Agreed, right tool for the right job. A Wizard Metal100 in a 40 seat club aint going to win many fans on Jazz night.
Small vintage fenders seem to do the right thing when mic'ed up.

 

[dylan7620]

Man, this is a loaded question for sure! There have been a lot of amps that blew me away. Vintage Fenders and what not for cleans and a little grit. One Marshall 2203 in particular (the dude thought it was signed by Jimmy Hendrix, "No dude, that's Jim Marshall's signature screened on there..." haha. I had to crank it to where I literally thought the windows were going to shatter but man did it sound so good! A dude brought in a Mark IV short head into my work wanting to trade it in. I plugged it in and went through clean, crunch and lead and my smile kept growing with each switch. I turned around and told the people around me "I NEED this amp." It's been mine ever since.

NICE! :lol:

Seems everyone loves their mark IV's, makes me want one even more! :lol:

Dude it's so worth it. I can't think of anything that it can't do well. I go from Jeff Buckley cleans (need a new/modded reverb to get it where I want it) to some down tuned 7 string stuff and it takes it all with ease. I had some doubts with the heavier stuff being recorded since most of the clips you hear with Mark IV's are very thrashy and usually not more than a step down and the lower tuning guys tend to prefer the rectos but after some experimentation and good mixing the thing is so thick, I couldn't believe it. Mid gain tones often go unexplored and lots of people shy away from R2 but it's really one of the things that makes the IV SOOO much more than just a good clean/metal amp.

 

[94Tremoverb]

Not everyone. I could never get a sound I loved out of any Mark series, certainly not the IV. It was hard work even to get ones I really liked on R1 and Lead, and I could never get on with R2 at all. It either works for you or it doesn't! On the other hand since I can get dozens of sounds I love out of a Rectifier and a lot of people can't, if you're having trouble getting on with your Rectifier I would suggest trying a Mark series .

I'm sure there are people who can get what they want out of both, too... but not me. The two series are about as completely different as it's possible to be for amps made by the same company. If you know how to read schematics, take a look at the two and see just *how* utterly different they are - almost nothing in common whatever aside from that they both use multiple cascaded tube stages.

The two really big differences are the placement of the EQ and the presence (or not) of cathode-follower stages. Marks have pre-distortion EQ and no cathode-followers; Rectifiers have post-distortion EQ and a cathode-follower-driven tone stack (apart from the clean channel on the 3-channels and the Single/Rectoverb, but I don't really like those either!). It took me years to realise why, but these are the reasons I generally like amps that come from the Tweed/Marshall lineage and not from the BF/Boogie one.

 

[dylan7620]

^ good post.

You're right, it's not for everyone and that's the same story for rectos too. Actually, my IV is only the second one I've ever played. The first was a combo about 5 years earlier and I HATED it, for the life of me I couldn't get a good tone. The second time around I had a lot more Boogie experience under my belt and it went from an amp I didn't think twice about to one of the best sounding amps I've ever had the chance to play through. In the same respect I love my mark iv but I could totally be just as happy with a tremoverb. Both are crazy versatile and both have their own flavor. Tremoverbs IMO have only recently started to get the respect they deserve. For the longest time it seemed like there were stigmas of "it's not heavy enough like the solo heads" for metal guys and "its a dual rec (implying it's only for metal)" for they guys who like other stuff. I think of it almost like a two channel roadster/roadking.

 

[ElectricTurkey4369]

Not everyone. I could never get a sound I loved out of any Mark series, certainly not the IV. It was hard work even to get ones I really liked on R1 and Lead, and I could never get on with R2 at all. It either works for you or it doesn't! On the other hand since I can get dozens of sounds I love out of a Rectifier and a lot of people can't, if you're having trouble getting on with your Rectifier I would suggest trying a Mark series .

I'm sure there are people who can get what they want out of both, too... but not me. The two series are about as completely different as it's possible to be for amps made by the same company. If you know how to read schematics, take a look at the two and see just *how* utterly different they are - almost nothing in common whatever aside from that they both use multiple cascaded tube stages.

The two really big differences are the placement of the EQ and the presence (or not) of cathode-follower stages. Marks have pre-distortion EQ and no cathode-followers; Rectifiers have post-distortion EQ and a cathode-follower-driven tone stack (apart from the clean channel on the 3-channels and the Single/Rectoverb, but I don't really like those either!). It took me years to realise why, but these are the reasons I generally like amps that come from the Tweed/Marshall lineage and not from the BF/Boogie one.

Yeah, i was going to say that I hear ALOT of mixed feeling about the mark series. Either you love it or you hate it. It all comes down to personal preference. I have never tried a Mark amp myself, but I have heard some pretty badass clips of the IV :lol:

 

[stephen sawall]

I have a Trident, Tremoverb, IV .... all of them are pretty versatile. I could not pick one as being better than the others, just different. I have not plugged any of them in since November.

 

[ElectricTurkey4369]

I have a Trident, Tremoverb, IV .... all of them are pretty versatile. I could not pick one as being better than the others, just different. I have not plugged any of them in since November.

So what do you play at the moment?

 

[stephen sawall]

I have a Trident, Tremoverb, IV .... all of them are pretty versatile. I could not pick one as being better than the others, just different. I have not plugged any of them in since November.

So what do you play at the moment?

THD Series One Plexi (JMP style amp)
THD makes my favorite amps.

In the world of modern high gain amps ....
Fryette Sig X

At this time I have about 20 amps the ones I use the most are my THD Series One Plexi, Flexi 50, Bivalve and Fryette Sig X. The rest do not get used much at all any more.

Dynamics, focus, definition are very important for me when I play.

 

[ElectricTurkey4369]

I have a Trident, Tremoverb, IV .... all of them are pretty versatile. I could not pick one as being better than the others, just different. I have not plugged any of them in since November.

So what do you play at the moment?

THD Series One Plexi (JMP style amp)
THD makes my favorite amps.

In the world of modern high gain amps ....
Fryette Sig X

At this time I have about 20 amps the ones I use the most are my THD Series One Plexi, Flexi 50, Bivalve and Fryette Sig X. The rest do not get used much at all any more.

Dynamics, focus, definition are very important for me when I play.

Well, if you ever want to sell the IV or the Tremoverb, give me a shout. i may be me Interested

 

[stephen sawall]

Well, if you ever want to sell the IV or the Tremoverb, give me a shout. i may be me Interested

I am the original owner of both, the 12th IV made, 20 years and the Tremoverb I have had for about 15 years. I do not think I well ever sell them, but I well keep it in mind.

 

[lyman]

My favorite that I've owned is one I just picked up recently: a JTM45 clone made by Whitney Amps (Chris Whitney, an amp builder in CT). It's so responsive to picking dynamics, perfect for going from clean to overdriven when you dig in or adjust the volume knob. Very organic. Sweet and not harsh. I've got kt66's in there now but I've got a set of =c= el34's i might try in the future. I've got a gig this weekend and I'm psyched to put it through its paces on stage.

 

[YellowJacket]

Mesa Boogie Electra Dyne. Basically, it was THE sound I had heard in my head all these years. If I had $$$s, I'd own one already.

 

[Heritage Softail]

I don't sell great amps.... so when I get one, I keep it.

For a blues jamming and edge of breakup power tube burn type of amp.... my Zinky Velvet thru a Matchless 2x12. The Velvet hangs with Matchless and Divided by 13 amps for that. Even with the little 12" in the amp, still great. YT that amp. Zinky is the shizzle.... it has whaterver 'it' is.

90's and hair metal - SLO. Have not been able to play a Cameron CCV. Have heard that it is the top of the stack, but very hard to aquire.

Mesa Rectifier for 'that' sound. I will be a kid at heart until I die. Just love a Rectifier, it defined the tone of an era. There is a time and place for the chainsaw buzz and fizz, Rec has that owned !

Rivera Knuck Tre for the modern compressed metal. This amp is just stoopid. Add a sub and shake your liver loose. I played this amp for maybe 3 minutes before pulling out cash. Very reliable, not full of a zillion relays and things to go bad like some other brands.

Honorable mentions:

Express 5:25 for a great grab and go little amp.

ElectraDyne. Fun amp to play, even more fun to blast and play loud....

On the list to test drive:

Matchless 3 channel Independence, real Mark IIC+, and Sig X.

 

[droptrd]

Best amp ive ever heard/ played thru for my tastes, is the Bogner Ecstacy 101B. Though my broke *** will probably never be able to own one :lol:

 

[ixoye777]

Of all the amps I've played the 5150 tops my list for metal but the V is still amazing me 8 months later with the variety of solid tones this sucker has hidden in it.

 

[Mark Herbert]

my mark v and my diezel herbert are great especially together

 

[fluff191]

Late 80's Soldano SLO-100. Owned by Howard Leese of Heart. I got to record with it and that was really the first tube amp I had ever played through at the time and the saturation was mind blowing. I must have played an A chord while staring at it for at least an hour. :lol:

Incredible amp.

 

[stephen sawall]

Late 80's Soldano SLO-100. Owned by Howard Leese of Heart. I got to record with it and that was really the first tube amp I had ever played through at the time and the saturation was mind blowing. I must have played an A chord while staring at it for at least an hour. :lol:

Incredible amp.

I have played on Howard's SLO ..... Howard was always very cool to me. He sat in with my band when we opened for Robin Trower back in the mid 90's.

 

[JF Omalycat]

Tremoverb for me. I've always had a love/hate thing with my 2ch Rec, but the Trem I played on recently was everything I wanted out of a Rectifier and more. WOW.

 

[Don]

A friend had a '70s Fender Deluxe with a Celestion speaker. It was all wrong, but the notes "bloomed"- they got bigger as the decayed! The amp felt as if it was breathing.

My tweed Deluxe clone does the same thing! It's like a built in compressor without sounding like a compressor. I've played a gig with this amp without an overdrive pedal (I did have a Fulltone '69 fuzz pedal) and without miking it (it puts out 14 watts at most)!