Advice from those literate about Studio 22, 50 Cal, or DC-3

[JT_Marshmallow]

I am finally in an original project again so once again I have to consider the portability of a rig as well as how it cuts in the band mix. (Though it is a jazz/funk/fusion trio so I don't need obscene volume.) Last week I lugged my goddamned rack to rehearsal and I needed help carrying it, so I want to get a combo or head that is light and delivers good Boogie tone. I want to stick with Boogie because I have become an expert tweaker with my Studio Preamp and I know how to get to certain tones very well.

My budget is $500-600. I love the sound of the Mark series, but I don't need anything that versatile or feature-rich for this project. All I want is a nice clean channel and a lead channel that is very throaty and thick with mids, and can provide nice articulate lighter-gain tones. I do not need any kind of Marshall crunch or heavy chug kind of tones, and I do not want any kind of "aggressive" or "fizzy" properties in the lead channel.

So I have been investigating the Studio 22+, 50 Cal+, and actually have a modified DC-3 in the mail. I picked the DC-3 because I liked the separate tone stacks for each channel, but now I am reading that the lead channel is very "aggressive" sounding and does not have any real "in between" lower-gain kind of tones. Nonetheless I'm gonna try the DC-3 and see how it works for my style, but I am going to buy one more different amp and A/B it with the DC-3 to see which one works better for me.

I've been going through the reviews for the Studio 22+ and the 50 Cal+, but still cannot tell if they are voiced the way I would like. 90% of the reviews on Harmony Central are from 17 year olds that always start their review with "I play metal, rock, and some jazz" but of course they have no clue what "jazz" actually is. They also often complain that their amp has too much of a mid-spike, but I'm all about the ol' frownie-face mid-spike. Unfortunately I have no way of trying these amps, so I would like the opinion of some Boogie Boarders: Do the Studio 22+ or 50 Cal+ resemble that warm Mark series tone that I'm after? I don't mind if they sound a bit different, as long as they sound like Boogies! Many fusion players like Frank Gambale, John Scofield, Kevin Eubanks, and Larry Carlton use or have used the Mark amps and that's the kind of tone I'm after.

If you haven't noticed by now, I have some reaaaally stinky G.A.S. right now. :lol:

 

[rvschulz]

i can't speak about the .22 or DC-3, however i really liked my .50+ - it was 6L6 and had the EQ so ... it sounded really versatile and nice. what i did not like about it was the volume jump in the lead channel - it pointed out to me that i wanted a separate tone, not a lead channel.

for me, at the time, the answer was to run a "crunch" pedal with a Keeley mod to achieve the tone difference I wanted.

the clean was as good as anything i've ever had, including the Mark IIIs and LSC i currently have. it was more of a one trick pony without the pedals - and I did not want to carry 3/4 different pedals for crunch/gainier sounds.

all that being said, if i would have just gotten a larger pedal board, i would have saved $$$$$ in amp costs and been happy. especially playing jazz. the 6L6 .50 LOVED my 335.

 

[Whoopysnorp]

The Studio .22 sounds fairly different from the Mark series to me due to its EL84 power section. There is a definite Vox kind of a vibe to it, especially in the cleans. I really like it, though. It seems to interact with the guitar in a very lively way, and the cleans are very rich. It's plenty loud too.

I do think I need to do the lead master mod at some point, because the way I run it, the rhythm mode is much louder than the lead. I had a .22+ briefly, but the tone of this particular .22 was much better, so I kept it and sold the .22+.