Modeling amp or tube amp -- help.

[jclogston]

Hi -
I need advice on my next amp purchase.
First some background. I live in an apartment and I play for leisure. I play play mostly old school metal, i.e., testament, metallica, megadeth, king diamond.
Anyway i have owned several amps, the last 2 being a mesa boogie nomad 45 and a tech 21 trademark 10. I liked the nomad alot however at the time i felt that i wasn't really using it to its full potential as i couldn't crank it up. But despite that, i still liked the lower volume sounds it had (from my understanding preamp distortion plays a huge part in mesa boogie amps). So i sold it and ended up with the tech 21 tm10. Not a bad amp, but after a year with it, the clean sounds were very dull sounding to me. As a result i sold it and am now ampless.
So now looking for the "next amp". I was looking at modeling amps, namely the vox ad15. I tried it out and it sounds pretty good. However, i stopped by my local musicgoround and they had 2 mesa boogie rocket 44 for $500. Don't know if that is a good price or not, but i have always been interested in picking up subway rocket. Granted the rocket is larger and higher wattage, the price looks attractive considering i have seen some subway rockets go for over 500.
So the question is, which should i go for? New modeling amps come out every other month these days. As for mesa boogie amps i know they will keep its value with time. With that mind, is it worth the investment in getting the tube amp?

any insight or other advice is greatly appreciated,

jeff

[wildealien]

if you really wanted, you could get another Mesa and a Marshall PowerBrake (or similar product). with the power break, you can crank the amp up, drive the tubes as hard as you want, and have the power break eat up the volume.

i used a Tom Scholz (spelling?) Power Soak on an old Fender Super Reverb 100w 4x10. i'd have the volume on 8, and with the Power Soak cranked, it was bedroom level quiet.

[JESTER700]

Why not a modeler to add to your own amp? You can disable cabinet simulation in the modeler and just use it to get a boatload of sounds. And something like a V-Amp is only $100.

[bob mclaughlin]

As for you living in a apartment and love METAL, I just bought a Line6 Spider II 210 Combo and the amp is just amazing. The clean is crystal clear and the distortion is just bone crushing. Great tones at low volumes (no fan) or crank up the 120 watts and blow dry your hair!!! At $399 its the best amp for your $$. Warning, if you try one you'll buy it............

[Drew]

Used to own a Rocket-44 myself - great sounding amp, very Mark-II/IV like. It isn't quite as flexible as a true mark, but I really enjoyed that one.

-D

[jclogston]

Hey Drew -
What type of setting did you use in, i.e., apartment, band, house?
I ask b/c i am curious to see if you can get good sounds at low volumes....

thanks

jeff

[Drew]

In my parents' place at first, then in my dorm room, with semi-regular gigging on the side.

Volume wise, the thing I've always loved about mesas is while like any tube amp they really come alive as you turn them up, they really do sound remarkably good at low volumes. So, while I LIKED turning it up, I didn't feel like I had to to get great sounds.

As for gigging, well, this thing's a LOUD amp - I don't think I ever had it over three and a half or four on stage, and I used to play with some pretty loud groups. So if you want to play out with it, you should have enough power on hand.

Tonally, I think this thing hit it's "sweet spot" at 2.5-3, for me. The poweramp added a bit of compression and saturation at this point, but didn't become outright "crunchy," and I've always been a fan of smoother distortion sounds.

I spent most of the time playing in the Countor mode for distortion - the normal was great, and could even make my strat cop Clapton's "woman tone" it was so thick, but I preferred the darker contour sounds. I ran the gain 8-ish or so (it's not a super high gain amp, gainy but if you want recto-like saturation this isn't it) with treble and muids around 7 and bass around 4, and got fairly good results. The clean was great too, and when I A/B'd this thing against a Nomad (ironically, the amp I was deciding between, and the amp I now own), I actually slightly preferred the Rocket's clean.

If it helps, the reason I ended up selling it was that I was really looking for a three channel setup, so I could get a good distorted rhythm sound and still have a (volume) boosted lead tone on tap, and after some flirtation with a TSL head I eventually came back to a Nomad 45 2x12, which gave me similar lead tones coupled with some great crunchy rhythm sounds.

-D

[Gresh]

I have to recommend a modeler in your situation. I have tube amps in my studio but when I need to practice or work out tune ideas I almost always fire up my POD Pro. I run it through some powered monitors or via headphones and I'm golden. I've got presets that I like and can get the general flavor of any sound I'm searching for. I don't need authentic tube amp tone for those purposes. That's what the tube amps are for.

That being said, I don't like modelers for playing live. I just haven't been able to get it to sound "real" enough, even with a tube power amp and tons of electronic help (sonic maximizers and a g-major), just not the same thing at all to me. If I had absolutely no choice and had to pick one thing for all purposes, I'd be hard pressed not to hang on to my POD Pro though. It is just so flexible and good for recording. But I'm glad I don't have to make a choice like that...tubes rule in the long run and they always will (they're just too cool to go away).

[rgr]

My advice would be; if you are an aparment jammer and play at low volumes 90% of the time, go modeling, they can emulate a cranked tube amp at any volume and the new modelers sound great.

If you play live and/or at "real" volumes where you can get all the good from a tube amp, there is no substitute for the real thing.

-R

[revsharp777]

Last week, I decided it was time to upgrade my practice amp at home. I ended up getting a Behringer V-Tone 2x10 combo. It has incredible versatility & it models the sound of tubes very well. At 60w, it's loud enough for small club gig, yet it retains a great tone for practice volumes. Overall, the V-Tone series is a great bang for the buck.