Amp choice advice, a shot in the dark...

Silverburst · #1 06-06-2009, 07:45 PM

Just to see what comes out here... I'm running around like a chicken with no head these days.

What amp or I don't know what would you advise for what I'm looking for.

How do I like my lead tone:
1. lots of harmonics
2. lot's of 'rrrrr' in the tone. I would call it crrrrrrunchy, but ironically I almost never use crunch channels because they seem to lack in all my other needs in the list.
3. Rather Smooth, not dirty/trashy.
4. Percussive sensitive, or legato friendly maybe

A good reference for me is nuno Bettencourts tone on Extreme's last album, for example Confortable Numb, which should start to play automatically here (1st track under Media):
http://extreme-band.com/site/?page_id=6

Nuno's playing technique aside please, let's avoid that discussion. My main axe, a Wasburn N4 helps a good deal to get a tone in that direction. secondary, I also need some metal oriented stuff where I'd use my Ibanez JEM7VWH or ESP eclipse I. (Metallica rhytms etc...)

So, fire away, anything. I'd love to read stuff like: "dude, you absolutely need greenbacks for that" or, pedal X tubescreamer in front of blabla was made for the lead tone you seek, or pedal Y will just get you the metal oriented stuff you'd want. I just hope I've been ignorant about some piece of a puzzle all these years

Thanks.

bammbamm · #2 06-06-2009, 08:14 PM

Budget is everything here. What are you looking to spend and what do you have now?

lynchfan6 · #3 06-06-2009, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bammbamm

Budget is everything here. What are you looking to spend and what do you have now?

Exactly,,,,,because the words you used for what you are looking for in an amp would be the same words I'd use to describe my Soldano SLO100. And,,,two of the guitars I use through it are my Jem7Vwh and Washburn N4. On a side note, Nuno supposedly used a Soldano quite a bit on III sides to every story. I'd highly recommend checking out a Soldano product,,,,it's been my dream amp for four years now.

waylay00 · #4 06-07-2009, 12:46 AM

If you like Soldano, check out a Splawn Quick Rod. It's got that nice crunchy, yet articulate feel to it. I love my Quick Rod, and Scott Splawn is an extremely nice guy to boot.

Listen to this clip all the way through (especially the end) to get an idea:

http://splawnguitars.com/DirrtyCraig_QR3gearmed.mp3

Silverburst · #5 06-07-2009, 05:18 AM

uhm, Soldano, totally didn't consider that. Gonna have a look. And indeed Splawn came up this week when I accidentally bumped on a clip about one.

At the moment (amps are comming and going, hence the chicken...):
Marshall TSL: Has a thin harsh accent in the lead channel I can't dial out.
Marshall 30th anniv 6100LM: Lead channel, definitively a step up towards that crunchy sound compared to a TSL. yet I'm missing some permissiveness and harmonics.

I was also wondering, with some right boosters or distortion pedals... would a Legacy have a good base sound for it ? Call me crazy but I sense some Vai ingredients in this Extreme's clip's base tone as well. (the less extreme Vai songs like "Live to die")

Silverburst · #6 06-07-2009, 05:25 AM

As for budget... well if I really find the amp that tottally does what I need, I'm prepared to sell some stuff and do a little hunting. Testing this thing here in Europe will be more difficult I'm afraid, but I'll have a look around.

But the price of the SLO100... holy cramps that is out of budget indeed I'm afraid.

astro929 · #7 06-07-2009, 11:15 PM

you know what, i have played so many things over the past years wanting a good sound.
i have used the voodu valve, then i went to a mesa rec. then i went to the prophecy, then back to a mesa, even went with a marshal. i spent so much money. with the vv and the prophecy , you have to deal with a rack and midi this and midi that. then when you go with a mesa head or a marshal head you get a great tone and i mean one tone, even your cleans have either a marshal tone or a mesa tone. then you have to go with so many peddles its sad.
i know ill get alot of crap over this but i play in a cover band and we play it all. from 80s rock to bubble gum rock to pantara and desturbed. i went looking for a head that could cover it all with out peddles and believe it or not i found it.
take a look at the egnater tour master. you have 4 chans and the are all great. the thing is all 4 are seperate. its 4 amps in one. with the marshal you get a sad clean because its sharing preamp tone. the egnater dose not. you have seperate pre amp tubes for each chan. you get fender clean and marshal distortion.
chan 1 for me is a nice fender clean. chan 2 is just a little over drive , think summer of 69ish. chan 3 would be like a jcm 900. very nice. think crue, van h. chan 4 is nice. think desturbed, pantera.
i have seen some bad reviews with this head from guys that go into guitar center and play for 10 min at bed room level and walk away saying , this thing sucks. well yeah, if you turn the gain way up and then the master way up its bad. at stage level i have my gain on 3 and its almost to much gain.
you should look into one. if you go to g.c. turn the think up up up. its a tube amp and it wants to be up.
for the money. you cant beat it. 4 seperate chan. no over drive pedals no nothing just tone.

astro929 · #8 06-07-2009, 11:22 PM

i just looked at your last post. you said about getting a few peddles to boost and all that. i would look at something that you dont have to do that with. why drop over a grand for a head and then another 400.00 to make the thing sound good. thats what got me looking. i hate to be on stage and have to fight with 4 or 5 peddles.
they are out there just keep looking. i wouldnt get anything until you play something and in your head say, aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh thats the one. you will be again trying to sell what you have just bought , looking for another.

Silverburst · #9 06-08-2009, 07:02 AM

hey Astro929... man I've been trough the exact same stuff. switched 2 times to rack, went back to an amp with pedals bladibla. rack, cool and versartile, but I always found that the marriage between preamp X and power amp Y would never be the same match as in a head. Then I asked myself, heck, why does everybody needs to spent all these extra $$$ in pedals to get an amp to sound good. Why not just have these kinds of circuitry integrated in an amp itself ?

Now, also why I'm looking back, I might like the freedom of a more 'open' option amp that can be topped with different flavors of pedals to say so. And I start to wonder why some amps are made the way they are and meant to be topped with extra flavors.

I've just checked these egnaters. Actually they are really affordable! So I'll have to check them out. the 6100 I have also has an indepedendat tube for clean, some for crunch, some for lead etc. pentode/triode omde options end several sound modes, so versatile in terms of seeking the tone I need (and when I'm there I'll probably will never touch all these optino switches again), now that's again where I get stuck, as I come closer to what I want witch correct combinations of these switches, at a given point, Im stuck and juuuuust don't get where I want to get.

Question is, will this egnator get me to the tone I want, even with all this options. It looks good for sure, and will certainly help me stock-wise compared to amps that don't have all these things.

Do you see the type of sound I want comming out of that amp ? I'd love to test it, but it will be hard in Belgium to find one.

astro929 · #10 06-08-2009, 10:15 PM

yeah it may be hard to get to at your place.
i think you could get the tone your looking for with it. i dont really use alot of the extras on it but its nice to have. i like that when im playing a place that is small, say 100 people kinda club. i can turn the watts down and still get a good break up.
you can go to our myspace site and listen to our demo songs. lead and rythem was done with the egnater. the only peddle that was used was a slight delay for space. i think i paid 1000.00 us for mine and then 499.00 for the cab but im not sure i like the cab yet.
i just wanted something that i could set it and forget it. another thing that i do use on it is a sonic maximizer. take a listen and see what you think. we didnt do anything real heavy on our demo but you can get a good feel for the sound
www.myspace.com/amishroadrage1

Silverburst · #11 06-09-2009, 03:58 PM

hey Astro, nice material you have there, and indeed quite a variety of sounds from that Egnater. I only would have expected a heavier sound in the Enter Sandman cover

but I did hear some rectifier-ish tones in some tracks.

Just received a mail that the benelux importer here stops with Egnater. too bad. In germany they are, strangely enough, about 400$ more expensive. Always horrible these US to EU prices.

rastachild · #12 06-10-2009, 07:42 PM

one thing to note: on the new album, nuno was using a prototype of the new amp he released this year with randall, if i'm not mistaken. you may want to start your search there if you are truly trying to emulate his tone.

Silverburst · #13 06-11-2009, 08:29 AM

Hey Rastachild. Thx, indeed. the NB King 100, but it hasn't been released yet anw ill take a while when it would be available here, however I'd like to give it a try. Supposedly it's a hotrodded Marshall-type with a Rat-kind-circuit inside. I'm looking at the legacy again with certain overdrive pedals. I've heard quite impressive clips of it.

astro929 · #14 06-11-2009, 01:15 PM

thats funny because bruce egnater is the one doing the randal stuff as well so you cant go wrong with his stuff, he has a great grasp on tone. before egnater and randall he was doing all of rocktrons stuff.