Is there one do-it-all amp?

[doghouseman]

The Marshall 6100 30th anniversary amp will do everything but it is not what I would call ‘downsizing’.

 

[mexicanyella]

When you say gain, do you mean some kind of built in distortion circuit ín the amp?
How are the highs with your steel guitar?
I do believe in having some kind of loud clean solid state thing around, but I can't say I get what I really want to hear out of them. But I would like to replace the current one with a peavey, maybe a special 130. Some kind of poor man's steel guitar amp type of thing. (Assuming a nashville 400 isn't going to pop up cheap on CL).

The TKO doesn’t have a distortion circuit, but with a humbucker-equipped guitar, it starts getting into the gnarly zone (where it’s clean when you play soft and snarls and crunches when you dig in) when both the pre- and post-gain get up around 7. Just turning the gain up, and EQing it with guitar in mind (not a lot of lows, dip some lower mids, push some upper mids, presence to taste etc) and selecting the bright switch...that makes a fun rhythm guitar sound. I have to set the EQ differently for lap steel but it can put those timbres across well too.

I’ve never used a Special 130, but I have the slightly later Special 150, and the lap steel sounds great through that, using its clean channel.

 

[sudogeek]

I’ve got a Quilter 101 but I’m looking at the Quilter Aviator Mach 3 head. (I already have several cabinets.) 2 independently voiced channels, foot-switchable, multiple amp voicings, effects loop, and independent output controls on the line out and speaker. Looks like it would do it all for me.

 

[Eugene Wallace]

I have plenty of amps , I could do it all good enough with either an old 50 watt marshall or an old blackface bassman, maybe with a pedal.

 

[Jazzcaster21]

While we are discussing amps:
Is 15 watts loud enough for a tube amp?
I had read that 20-22 watts was "ideal" for a tube and I have a 12 watt 80s Fender Champ. It can get loud enough for the type of gigs I am doing (bars, breweries) but doesn't quite have the headroom that I prefer.
My Mesa Boogie F50 is far too loud but man, does it sound good at lower volumes. Still, I can never crank it to where I am making use of the full potential that the tubes have to offer and I am not going to buy an attenuator (not yet anyway) in order to do that so, I was thinking about a Deluxe Reverb, which is 22 watts but now, maybe a 15 watt Princeton could work??

Thoughts??

Has or does anyone here not use an amp but instead use something like the Strymon Iridium, which you can plug directly into a board and go??

Iridium - Amp Modeler & Impulse Response Cabinet - Strymon

Iridium gives you three iconic amplifiers, with a total of nine impulse response speaker cabinets that complement the tonality of the amp.

www.strymon.net

 

[VonBonfire]

While we are discussing amps:
Is 15 watts loud enough for a tube amp?
I had read that 20-22 watts was "ideal" for a tube and I have a 12 watt 80s Fender Champ. It can get loud enough for the type of gigs I am doing (bars, breweries) but doesn't quite have the headroom that I prefer.
My Mesa Boogie F50 is far too loud but man, does it sound good at lower volumes. Still, I can never crank it to where I am making use of the full potential that the tubes have to offer and I am not going to buy an attenuator (not yet anyway) in order to do that so, I was thinking about a Deluxe Reverb, which is 22 watts but now, maybe a 15 watt Princeton could work??

Thoughts??

Has or does anyone here not use an amp but instead use something like the Strymon Iridium, which you can plug directly into a board and go??

Iridium - Amp Modeler & Impulse Response Cabinet - Strymon

Iridium gives you three iconic amplifiers, with a total of nine impulse response speaker cabinets that complement the tonality of the amp.

www.strymon.net

Attenuators=moving forwards backwards. Been there done that. Still own big iron but no longer own an attenuator.

If 15-22 watts will get you clean power over your drummer in a live setting you have a very weak hitting drummer. A hard hitting drummer will require at least 45-50 watts to get on top of and maintain a clean tone. A deluxe is a nice amp for low volume settings but I can't see 7 additional watts being worth it. But I'm not you.

Musical life lesson: If you don't risk cranking up and getting told to turn down, you will never crank up. He who dares, wins. With that being said if you are mediocre or bad or lack playing dynamics then you will just annoy people with volume.

Plugging PA direct sucks IMO because you are at the mercy of the person running sound. It's great for lazy musicians cause you don't have to carry much. When I was younger and doing excruciatingly low paying gigs where the parking situation also sucked I would often do that. No point in beating my rig up for little money.
I'd just risk it and crank my boogie.

 

[InstantCoffeeBlue]

Musical life lesson: If you don't risk cranking up and getting told to turn down, you will never crank up. He who dares, wins. With that being said if you are mediocre or bad or lack playing dynamics then you will just annoy people with volume.

Plugging PA direct sucks IMO because you are at the mercy of the person running sound. It's great for lazy musicians cause you don't have to carry much. When I was younger and doing excruciatingly low paying gigs where the parking situation also sucked I would often do that. No point in beating my rig up for little money.
I'd just risk it and crank my boogie.

Not everyone wants to be deaf in their 40s-50s, thanks. So... all the countless touring guitarists who choose to mic lower-wattage amps are doing it because they're "lazy"? No. I respect SRV's playing too but the whole mystique and aura around him has taken the form of this masculinity contest where things like playing 13s and having the "balls" to crank a Twin even if it deafens your bandmates are measures of manhood instead of personal references. Some of us are tired of hearing that sh*t.

From another perspective, I play bass as well, and can tell you it gets really old when a guitarist (it's always a guitarist) shows up with a giant amp at a club gig and then keeps insisting they can't "hear" themselves even while it's deafening the rest of the band (and audience).

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

 

[VonBonfire]

No offense, but not everyone wants to be deaf in their 40s-50s, thanks. So... all the countless touring guitarists who choose to mic lower-wattage amps are doing it because they're "lazy"? Just...no. Yeah, I revere SRV's playing too but the whole mystique and aura around him has taken the form of this masculinity contest where things like playing 13s, tendonitis be damned, and having the "balls" to crank a Twin with EVMs even if it deafens your bandmates are "measures of manhood". Some of us are tired of hearing that sh*t.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Why do you feel the need to be nasty?

Ear plugs can benefit even when a band isn't that loud. Even lower dB can damage hearing over extended periods of time.

Having a loud band, a 2nd guitar and/or keyboards and maybe horns and being able to maintain a clean or edge of breakup sound and still get on top of the band for solos. Not all music was meant for the library. Not every gig has a soundman or all the instruments mic'ed. I don't care to have all my hard earned hammer on and pull off licks buried under a rhythm section. That doesn't make it a masculinity contest.

If you are tired of gigs like that then leave. Problem solved.

 

[InstantCoffeeBlue]

Why do you feel the need to be nasty?

Ear plugs can benefit even when a band isn't that loud. Even lower dB can damage hearing over extended periods of time.

Having a loud band, a 2nd guitar and/or keyboards and maybe horns and being able to maintain a clean or edge of breakup sound and still get on top of the band for solos. Not all music was meant for the library. Not every gig has a soundman or all the instruments mic'ed. I don't care to have all my hard earned hammer on and pull off licks buried under a rhythm section. That doesn't make it a masculinity contest.

If you are tired of gigs like that then leave. Problem solved.

I kinda realize I misinterpreted your post a little. Oof. Sorry man.

 

[VonBonfire]

I kinda realize I misinterpreted your post a little. Oof. Sorry man.

No worries brother!

 

[Nogoodnamesleft]

I've been trying to figure out the same and realized my future possibly lies with a small bass combo.

A couple of reasons - I tune down a bit, I rarely use the amp distortion (pedals for what I do), and there are more options in small solid state combos for simple non-modelling amps.

However, if money fell out of the money tree and landed next to me, I'd be heading down to the local shop for a Vox AC10 combo. Simply because tuned down or not, it's a magnificent little amp. I'd also buy a Sennheiser e906 to drape over the front of it. Should I ever find myself needing to play the local Enormodome or slightly smaller siblings, mic on a small amp is where it's at. The sound tech will love you (not literally).

 

[jays0n]

TDPRI classic: you ask an open-ended question and everybody responds to recommend the amps / pedals / guitars / pickups they have and love.

That’s exactly why I am reading the thread Not to see the OP get help but to hear about amps and why the presenter feels it does what they need/want.

 

[bigben55]

My Glaswerks Zingaro 50 is the most complete "do it all" amp ive ever owned. Ain't cheap though, ain't lightweight either, but it's compact. It's loud enough, with ample clean headroom, for any stage. The cleans are amazing. The overdrive is too. As is the reverb. Add footswitchable boost to either channel and you really don't need pedals, except for added tones. But the key feature is its grit/ volume controllability, and everything is interactive. You have clean vol(gain), OD volume and gain, a master volume, and an fx loop with active send/receive knobs that act like a master volume FOR the master volume.

It's not a super high gain amp, but you can get it to crunch pretty good, and the sustain and harmonic complexity are still there in spades. Thus is a knob tweaker dream amp, but for simpletons like me, there's a learning curve. It's Dumble ODS inspired, but set how I set it, its blackface cleans and bluesy OD with single coil guitars.

 

[studio1087]

Deluxe Reverb Reissue and a Tubescreamer.

 

[etype]

I'm gonna go with the Tone King, Sky King.
Like our incredibly popular Imperial MKII, the Tone King Sky King 1 x 12” 35W combo sings with definitively American blackface and tweed tones of the 1950s and ‘60s. But glassy elegance and warm bark are only the beginning. Add in fast-reacting pentode or spongier ultralinear modes, spring reverb and bias-modulated tremolo circuits, and dual Ironman II reactive power attenuators – one for each channel – and you have the ultimate marriage of vintage American tones and modern control.

Oops, missed the part about affordable. Then the Fender Super Champ X2.

 

[arlum]

I'm a huge promoter of tube amps but don't believe I've ever played through or heard of a do it all tube amp. The builds tend to be specific to a certain genre or grouping of genres. Even tube vs solid state rectification favors one or another group of genre. I would think one of those newfangled modeller guitar amps like the Kemper Profiler could pull this off if you're ok with that type of copied tonality. I'm not but many younger folks certainly seem to like them. They'd be the only type of do it all amp I can think of.

 

[Wayne Alexander]

Certainly not cheap, but amazing. 3rd Power Kitchen Sink http://3rdpower.com/kitchen-sink-6vel/ This will do everything I'd ever want an amp to do. I've played one at NAMM, it's what it's described to be.

 

[LightningPhil]

Amps are fun. Watching a film right now in a stereo that has 4 amps per channel. So that's 8, just to watch Ghostbusters.

I couldn't have just 1 guitar amp. Like a couple to play and usually have 1 in bits for tinkering. 4 combos and a bunch of small heads and custom monstrosities.

 

[cyclopean]

I don’t have a ton of experience with them, but maybe the mesa mark series?

I had a neighbor with one of those, and it’s one of the only amps I’ve played that has gorgeous fender style cleans and car roar intensely enough for metal, hardcore, or crust punk without having to use a distortion pedal.

It’s an amp that feels like it could do the ventures and Johnny cash and with a setting adjustment, turn around and do anti cimex and nuclear assault.

 

[northernguitar]

I think we have radically different views of what a loud drummer is. I can't get on top of the band mix and maintain a clean tone using a 22 watt deluxe. This is why I use Twins. Clean and edge of breakup can be maintained and you can still get out front of the mix without going full blown overdrive when needed.

All I care about is stage volume, I let the mic'ed cab do the rest. With the right PA, I could play the Enormodome with my 15W amps.