Amp with the most Controls?

[Tim S]

The "Amp with the most Tubes?" thread by @Axis29 got me thinking.

What amp has the most external controls on it?
What amp has the least controls?

I'm counting every switch (toggle, rocker, rotary, button), slider and pot visible without going inside the amp. For amp, I'm including anything you plug a guitar (or bass) into that drives speakers or headphones.

My amp with the highest number of controls isn't too surprising: the Mesa Mark V with 58 controls.
My amp with the lowest number of controls is my Rockman X100 with 5 controls.
The mean average of controls on my amps is: 16.82

How about you?

 

[68goldtop]

Hi!

Volume, Treble, Bass and Reverb is all I need - plus an attenuator to make it work in different environments.
That makes "5", I guess

cheers - 68.

 

[Tim S]

Hi!

Volume, Treble, Bass and Reverb is all I need - plus an attenuator to make it work in different environments.
That makes "5", I guess

cheers - 68.

No power switch? No standby? If you actually count everything, you might be surprised.

 

[corliss1]

Anything Mesa is obscene. The RoadKing specifically...so many switches and routing and knobx and loops.

 

[Tim S]

Anything Mesa is obscene. The RoadKing specifically...so many switches and routing and knobx and loops.

This why I thought it would be interesting to see what limits each of us exercise (tolerate?) when it comes to controls on our own amps.

I’m especially interested in opposing extremes for multiple amp owners. Who has the highest “lowest number of controls”? Who has the lowest “highest number of controls”?

 

[aging_rocker]

Yeah, something Mesa would be my guess too.

My Katana has 19 knobs/buttons on the outside.

On the 'inside', there are squillions - here's just one of them...

 

[bigben55]

I prefer simple amps. My Valvetrain has 3 controls: gain, tone, and volume. But my Glaswerks Zingaro 50 has 13 controls, 11 knobs, 2 switches. I find myself twiddling knobs too much. It's good and bad. You can better tailor the amp to specific guitars, drive levels and volumes, but I still prefer less. Then again, I use pedals with, collectively, lots of controls, so don't listen to me!

 

[johnnylaw]

GA5 has one control (not counting power switch or player.
GA20 RVT has ten.

 

[Mike_LA]

Love my Marshall 6101 3 channel fx loops di out

 

[The Angle]

A guy I played alongside in the '70s used an Acoustic 470.
It was like the control panel in an airplane next to my Sunn Solaris.

 

[brookdalebill]

Anything Mesa is obscene. The RoadKing specifically...so many switches and routing and knobx and loops.

Amen!
I sold them at GC when they were a new thing.
I don’t need that much control over anything.

 

[wildschwein]

Anything with 4 switchable channels and discrete EQ for each channel is going to rank highly.

Seeing there is already an opinionated subtext in the thread about amps having too many knobs they only came about because that was what people wanted at the time -- manufacturers were only responding to feedback for more gain and more options. In this realm of near-Shakespearean irony once the consumers got what they wanted they didin't want it anymore. Obviously, the PA landscape has changed and we don't need the volume onstage anymore but it's hiliarious seeing these consumer cycles play out.

 

[AAT65]

JC40 has quite enough controls for me. I wish the Bright switch was a toggle instead of that little push-switch which I have to peer at to see if it's on or off!

Anyone out there with a Vox AC30BM?? Now that's a simple control layout...

 

[Tim S]

Anything with 4 switchable channels and discrete EQ for each channel is going to rank highly.

Seeing there is already an opinionated subtext in the thread about amps having too many knobs they only came about because that was what people wanted at the time -- manufacturers were only responding to feedback for more gain and more options. In this realm of near-Shakespearean irony once the consumers got what they wanted they didin't want it anymore. Obviously, the PA landscape has changed and we don't need the volume onstage anymore but it's hiliarious seeing these consumer cycles play out.

I think @aging_rocker ’s post about the multitude of virtual controls available on a Katana once you hook them to an external amp shows that on some amps the controls have just gone “underground”.
Is that a way to keep both camps (fewer controls vs more controls) happy?

 

[Tim S]

Love my Marshall 6101 3 channel fx loops di out
View attachment 984481

View attachment 984482

Did I count 9 controls just on the back panel alone? (I’d include those trim knobs because they are so accessible)

 

[Tim S]

Then again, I use pedals with, collectively, lots of controls, so don't listen to me!

“How many total controls on your pedalboard? (then & now)” would make an interesting thread over on The Stomp Box.

 

[Grandy]

I have one of these in white. I was playing it after a while at a rehearsal yesterday and had hard time figuring out how all the volume/gain knobs work. Two of them are push/pull and the footswitch only works when one is in a certain position. And master vol. only when using the drive channel to set the balance of the two channels or something like that. Too confusing... and two of the knobs come loose all the time (gotta fix that one day). I hope the next time won't take too long. The amp sounds good though.

 

[Nick Fanis]

WHAT controls?

 

[rze99]

A guy I played alongside in the '70s used an Acoustic 470.
It was like the control panel in an airplane next to my Sunn Solaris.

View attachment 984483

those were the days
It reminds me I did a stand in gig bass for a mate in the early '80s when I was just a kid really and they plugged a Stingray into an Acoustic Bass amp ...and the sound was incredible. The bottom end had my jeans shaking... I was a crap bassist really but the that tone was inspiring

 

[tele_paul]

My favorite amp.