Help me choose a valve head please!! - Valve Heads

[mginty]

Hey guys,

Ive saved about $1400 just to get an all valve head. I already have a Laney 4*12 with Celestion vintage 30's.

Ive been looking at Marshall and Laney (Marshall JCM2000 and Laney VH100R) but i cant decide!!

Please help me by giving your opinions and maybe suggest some other amps i might look at.

Thanks,
Mark.

[one less than none]

it all depends what kind of sound you are looking for .... have you a large music store you can take your guitar to and try some out ?

[Carlo]

I tried out my friend's Laney VH100R head a few weeks ago and I was very very impressed, much better than the JCM2000 by far, IMHO. *It's got plenty of gain and a very good clean channel, to suit almost any style.

I liked that baby so much that I'm highly considering a Laney VC50 (50 watts is more than enough for me ) *I'm just hoping that it can deliver the same quality tone as the VH100R....any opinions on that one? *I can't find a place where I can try it out. *I just want to be really sure before I order it over the net.

That's my opinion, but I would suggest trying one out before making any final decisions. *We all hear things differently

[robochimp]

Carlos,
* * * * * * * * * *There IS a difference in tone between a 50 and 100 watt version of the same amp. I forget the technical reasons why, being kind of a doofus on such matters, but maybe someone who REALLY knows what they're talking about will help me on that one.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Also, as I'm sure you're well aware,there can be vast difference in tones and sound quality between two of the exact same model amp,just as with guitars.As the old saying goes,"try before you buy."Some will argue about the AMOUNT of difference, but I won't. I'll stay out of THAT one:innocent:, thank You.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * I hope I didn't come off as too much of a blowhard, here, I just think that sometimes hearing something we already know can be helpfull, just as a reminder.

[Carlo]

RoboChimp- I totally agree. * I'd like to try one, if I can find a place that sells them here *

[7 Dying Trees]

Go try a bunch of them out in your local store, don't underestimate 2nd hand old amps either! They may not look shiny and new, but some of them have that "magic" quality about them. Find the one you like most tone wise, even if it doesn't have insane high gain in it. You can always find a way round that with a distortion pedal, or some modification to the amp (like building in fx loops).

As far as the 50w vs 100w argument goes, it basically boils down to this: a 100w amp is loud, but so is a 50w, except to get the 100w amp in that nice region of power tube saturation you need to play it very loudly. Both versions will have the same preamp though, so your only considerartion is how much power you'll need. Basically 100w is nice and will give you a nice amount of headroom, but will take more volume to overdrive the power stage. a 50w will hit the power tube saturation faster, but will have less headroom. And you can always get a set of earplugs....

[one less than none]

the volume differnce between a 50w and 100w head is only about 3db anyway

however as mr trees points out the power tubes will distort more easily in a 50w head (this is a large component of the brown sound and bluesey type od)