Amp for 80s Pop?

[Chrismo]

Considering a new amp purchase before the end of the year, and I'm really wanting an amp that would suit an 80s Pop/Power Pop sound.

What are the contenders, in your opinion? Solid state or tube - if it sounds good and fits, I'll consider it.

[wildschwein]

Nothing says 80s more than a Roland JC120 with a line of Boss pedals in front of it!

[JayFreddy]

Originally Posted by wildschwein

Nothing says 80s more than a Roland JC120 with a line of Boss pedals in front of it!

+1. But you'll still want a JCM 800 half stack with a tube screamer in front of it for solos.

Or just get a Cube 80. I think all those sounds are in there, it weighs a lot less, and costs pennies on the dollar compared to getting all those different pedals and two amps.

[jh45gun]

Peavey amps dominated stages in the 80's from PA gear to Guitar and Bass amps.

[Tim Armstrong]

For 80s music, it's not the amp as much as the effects, so any decent amp and a good pedal board with a tubescreamer, Rat, chorus, delay and maybe a good wah pedal.

Tim

[taxer]

Yeah, the Roland Jazz Chorus or Peavey amps were very '80s.

Even small time garage bands like me and my friends had our garage filled with those things. Peaveys were everywhere and Jazz Chorus amps were the Holy Grail.

Avoid VOX amps. They were as good as dead in the '80s. Now everyone is using them again, but back in the 80s I think I saw just three bands with a Vox amp.

[Riffraff12571]

Originally Posted by Tim Armstrong

For 80s music, it's not the amp as much as the effects, so any decent amp and a good pedal board with a tubescreamer, Rat, chorus, delay and maybe a good wah pedal.

Tim

That's what I was thinking. You need to be able to get 12 different tones in a single song and 11 of them have to loaded with chorus.
In all seriousness a small rack with a preamp/processor & power amp might be the ticket.

[jh45gun]

Originally Posted by taxer

Yeah, the Roland Jazz Chorus or Peavey amps were very '80s.

Even small time garage bands like me and my friends had our garage filled with those things. Peaveys were everywhere and Jazz Chorus amps were the Holy Grail.

Avoid VOX amps. They were as good as dead in the '80s. Now everyone is using them again, but back in the 80s I think I saw just three bands with a Vox amp.

But Peaveys were not just garage bands sure most garage bands had them because they had the most bang for the buck but I have seen a lot of pro stages that had all Peavey gear on TV showing pro bands on stage. A lot of Country bands in particular but a lot of Rock bands also. For a while at least in the States Peavey was King it seemed like every one was using them. Some pro's still use Peavey gear.

[taxer]

Originally Posted by jh45gun

But Peaveys were not just garage bands ....I have seen a lot of pro stages that had all Peavey gear

You're probably right. I just never seemed to notice the pros with Peaveys. But I sure noticed everytime you got together with amateurs, sure enough there was a Peavey present. Also those padded Kustom amps I used to see quite often back then.

[Justinvs]

Originally Posted by Tim Armstrong

For 80s music, it's not the amp as much as the effects, so any decent amp and a good pedal board with a tubescreamer, Rat, chorus, delay and maybe a good wah pedal.

Tim

This.

I have a Marshall G100, a SS amp that really nails the 80 sound, but you still need effects to do a lot of those songs justice.

[jh45gun]

Originally Posted by taxer

You're probably right. I just never seemed to notice the pros with Peaveys. But I sure noticed everytime you got together with amateurs, sure enough there was a Peavey present. Also those padded Kustom amps I used to see quite often back then.

Go back to some film clips of the country stars in the 80's and early 90's the stages are full of Peavey Gear just like Fender Dominated the stages in the 50's 60's and 70's. Lynyrd Skynyrd was known for using PV gear in fact for one tour had all their old Mace amps re-done. Gary Rossington still uses PV gear Uses Penta amps now but for years used his favorite Mace amps. Some of them may use different amps now but Peavey was a big part of their lives for a long time. Your amateurs insinuation that only used PV is nonsense at one time Peavey was so popular that is about all you seen in the music stores and on stage garage band and Pro alike and Some pro musicians still use Peavey gear to good advantage. Only thing I have now that is PV is my CS 800 Power amp but if I found a good deal on a 70's or 80's Peavey Tube amp I would grab it just to have even though I have two SF Fender amps. I do not know if I would use it much but I would like to have one any way.

[Tim Armstrong]

I visited a friend who lives in Louisiana and we hit a bunch of funky old juke joints, and I'm pretty sure that Louisiana/Mississippi is like the elephant's graveyard for Peavey equipment!

Tim

[muchxs]

The '80s were practically two decades. Early '80s tones were quite different from late '80s.

Early '80s was the transition from classic rock... (it's all classic rock now) We had a funeral for disco (which still sucks ) and started dancin' to live bands again. ...through punk and new wave. One could argue punk was dead by 1980 although bands like The Ramones kept wavin' the flag well after the '80s.

Van Halen came along and re-defined tone and technique. Those who couldn't afford a Charvel butchered vintage Strats by adding a Floyd Rose.

...everyone wanted a Floyd so along came Jackson, Kramer and a hoarde of wannabes.

By the late '80s it was hair bands. Spandex, pointy guitars, racks and...

Marshalls.

Marshalls are the common denominator. More Marshalls onstage than any other brand, I don't care who you are!

So: If you want to be deeply authentic you need a JCM800 2204. You could be even more authentic and get a 2203. Get the 2204. It's too loud, the 2203 is way too loud. Back off and it will play clean...

An old Sovtek Mig or a Peavey Windsor are usable substitutes for half the dough or less.

A Carvin Legacy does your late hair band tones. Those tend to be less expensive than Marshalls.

Late '80s were The Rack Era. You can trip over a dozen or more stompboxes or stick it all in one neat rack.

Gotta have an Alesis Quadraverb. That does all your pop / hair band chorus tones.

There was a rack Rockman available for a while. Don't buy one! They have a compressed over processed tone. I guess if you're doin' early Madonna covers with plastic drum tones it would work o.k. ...

Rocktron made a MIDI controllable guitar preamp with a whole buncha presets. MIDI control of presets can be a powerful tool. Or a crutch you can't live without.

...which brings us to modern multi effects pedals. If you're gonna have a rack there's a POD with rack ears.

I didn't like the JC120 then and I don't like it now.

A Lab L5 will do all your Cars tones. The Lab Series are the only vintage solid state amps I'll endorse.

[jipp]

that could/would explain why EVH went with peavy to build his guitar and amp.
however, it was probably over money.
chris.

[muchxs]

First time I looked, it said this:

Originally Posted by jipp

that could/would explain why EVH went with peavy to build his guitar and amp.

chris.

By the time I hit "reply" it said this:

Originally Posted by jipp

that could/would explain why EVH went with peavy to build his guitar and amp.
however, it was probably over money.
chris.

[jipp]

im sorry. im bad about hitting return.. before i have completed my thought.
im sure other guitar/bass players made the transition at that time to peavy too. but EVh is the only one that sticks out in my head.. maybe because 5150 is so easy to remember.
chris.


p.s

ok i just look was 1993.. ahaha, he used a marshal in the 80s it seems.

1967-1968 100 watt marshal.

[jh45gun]

For what it is worth I have two SF amps that fell into my lap cheap other wise I would not have them due to my fixed income and the price of vintage Fender Amps. I was uncommonly lucky to do so though some still report of getting good deals like I did. I will state this if I did not have the Fender Amps I would be looking for old all tube or SS Preamp Tube output Peavey amps to own over any of the new crap made today that is not made like the old amps. I have no desire for new PC board amps. Sure Peavey used PC boards back then in part of their amps but it was more robust and easier to work on.

[muchxs]

My gf is a monster hair band fan and karaoke queen. She's self conscious about her voice but she's right on pitch and knows all the lyrics to all genres spanning five decades. It's scary ridin' in the car listening to the radio, some one hit wonder from thirty years ago will come on the radio and she knows all the words!

We have Kenny Chesney next to Nickelback next to Brad Paisley next to Bon Jovi next to Crystal Gayle next to Johnny Cash... well, you get the point. On her MP3 player. It goes from hillbilly to hardcore tune to tune.

Anyway, Bon Jovi was a little light for my tastes at the time. I'm listening to Richie Sambora (with Bon Jovi) lately. I can hear the Van Halen influence in Sambora. I think Sambora is a better musician. There, I said it! I'm still not a Bon Jovi fan but his guitar player is pretty good.

Originally Posted by jipp

im sorry. im bad about hitting return.. before i have completed my thought.
im sure other guitar/bass players made the transition at that time to peavy too. but EVh is the only one that sticks out in my head.. maybe because 5150 is so easy to remember.
chris.


p.s

ok i just look was 1993.. ahaha, he used a marshal in the 80s it seems.

1967-1968 100 watt marshal.

Yeah, I was workin' with a hair band in '93 right about the time the whole hair band thing died. Either it died or moved to Detroit, I'm not sure which.

We would have grabbed the money, too. We would have cut our hair and changed our names...

[Che_Guitarra]

Time for a guilty confession... Poison's Open Up and Say Ahh and Bon Jovi's New Jersey were the first albums I ever bought (after I was given permission to use the record player).... I denied this fact for many years

I have to laugh how it was actually considered heavy metal back then, and only just safe enough for local TV and radio... now it's just pop


For mine the typical 80's rig needs a Charvel San Dimas --> Boss CE-2 --> ADA MP-1 + Alesis Quadraverb + Boss NF-1 in FX loop --> JCM 800. At a minimum, your signal chain must be this complicated - otherwise you're doing your 80s tone all wrong

[Justinvs]

Originally Posted by Che_Guitarra

Time for a guilty confession... Poison's Open Up and Say Ahh and Bon Jovi's New Jersey were the first albums I ever bought (after I was given permission to use the record player).... I denied this fact for many years

I have to laugh how it was actually considered heavy metal back then, and only just safe enough for local TV and radio... now it's just pop


For mine (and at a minimum) the typical 80's rig needs a Charvel San Dimas --> Boss CE-2 --> ADA MP-1 + Alesis Quadraverb + Boss NF-1 in FX loop --> JCM 800. If your signal chain isn't this complicated, then your 80s tone is all wrong

You're forgetting the second JCM so you could run it all in stereo!

As far as Bon Jovi goes - Poison, too, for that matter - it's not that they were bad bands, its just that so many other bands started doing the same thing that it became almost laughable. I can't recall the exact year I first heard Bon Jovi and some of the other early Hair bands, but I thought it was great to hear guitars again after so much techno-pop that had dominated the burgeoning MTV era.

You guys remember when Motley Crue was considered a Satanic band?

(I had to edit this. Spellcheck turned Bon Jovi into Bob Jovi!)