Am I missing out on anything with boutique amps?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Metalhex
  • Start date Start date
Beyond Black said:
I thought I was happy with my amps, until I scored the ones that sound 20% better. :D
Now, for the tones I dig, these beasts have crushed anything else I’ve tried, rendering me virtually free of GAS, for amps anyway…
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There in lies the problem with most boutique amps, it’s buy to try. Which means that if you guess wrong, you can start chastising the dragon. Hence why I see a number recommending an amp fest.

I did the same thing you did, but for od pedals, started with the $100 ones, then the $200, then the $300, then the $400. For me I did hear a difference and love the Kingsley pedals, so for me it was worth it, but I had to buy to try.

Back to amps, it’s really hard to balance chasing tone and just enjoying why you have. As others have said in this thread. Glad you found an amp that works for you. Just up to each person if they want to make the jump and try the next level. I did with a Soldano hr25, which I love, but really have no desire to go to the next level. The hr25 sure doesn’t thump like a 100 watt amp and I have never heard an slo100, but sometimes ignorance is bliss. :)
 
braintheory said:
But many of those riffs would sound terrible if the gear wasn’t up to par. Like if a singer with a bad voice sang a great melody. If the voice is bad, most listeners won’t get past the voice
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I agree. For me, faster more intricate metal like Thrash and some DM sound better with clarity, note separation, articulation, punch/weight to the notes, and grind and aggression but with some warmth. Of course if we're talking layered, edited, mixed, enhanced studio recorded stuff then it's a moot point. But sitting in front of a 412 in the room rocking out some riffs, I notice a big difference between say a 6505 and a Wizard or an Engl and a Fryette and the enjoyment level is definitely higher with the later of both examples.

Can you rip some killer metal riffs on a Marshall 8100 VS that costs $200, absophuckinglutely!! But those same riffs through the same remaining signal chain will sound and feel leagues better through a Wizard or D60 to me. The tone just flat out sounds better and I feel much more connected.
 
RaceU4her said:
Maybe I’m a lucky one, some sort of asshole or just can’t hear for shit but I get as much joy playing my crates as I do my Cameron and Hermansson. amps like the 6505+, DSL, rectifiers have been on countless classic records and toured with for decades by the biggest bands, if you cant do it with one of them its not the amp. Me personally id rather have those three amps for the price of any one "botique" amp
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It's not just you.....the law of diminishing returns kicks in hard and fast past around the $1K-ish mark


I've played many ridiculously expensive amps that were absolutely stellar, but there's no chance in hell I'd pay the typical asking price for one myself
 
The best part of the world of booteek?
Selling the used gear on Reverb.

When is the last time anyone reading this sold something on there?
The fees are officially completely over the top.
HOLY SHIT MAN.
I sold a 2k guitar yesterday, it's been a while
since I've solding anything that big so I
didn't notice it on like pedals or..steel dilldo's.
Cuz' they shove that "Etsy" right up your ass man.
 
Dino 939 said:
The best part of the world of booteek?
Selling the used gear on Reverb.

When is the last time anyone reading this sold something on there?
The fees are officially completely over the top.
HOLY SHIT MAN.
I sold a 2k guitar yesterday, it's been a while
since I've solding anything that big so I
didn't notice it on like pedals or..steel dilldo's.
Cuz' they shove that "Etsy" right up your ass man.
Click to expand...

I've sold a boatload of my gear on Reverb. I hate the fees, but my shit moves fast there.
 
Do you like frozen pizza and cocaine?

c2f71b48-a8d4-4270-8799-4c76ed97d86d.be5697d26fa2eaeaf862570ec4cb1d3e.jpeg
 
It really depends what you want. The cost increase for some of these high end amps have huge diminishing returns like others have stated. But speaking for myself, while most all of them may sound the same live to an audience, the way they sound and feel to me make spending the extra $$$ worth it.
 
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Krull said:
Boutique amps have turned out to have little to no benefits and will have you getting a new one every 6 months, probably for a long time.
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Yeah if you're chasing the newest thing, well there's always something new. But the 6505+ is what it is and has earned its rep, so it's easy to just be content and melt faces with it.
 
Devin said:
It's not just you.....the law of diminishing returns kicks in hard and fast past around the $1K-ish mark


I've played many ridiculously expensive amps that were absolutely stellar, but there's no chance in hell I'd pay the typical asking price for one myself
Click to expand...
 
Dino 939 said:
The best part of the world of booteek?
Selling the used gear on Reverb.

When is the last time anyone reading this sold something on there?
The fees are officially completely over the top.
HOLY SHIT MAN.
I sold a 2k guitar yesterday, it's been a while
since I've solding anything that big so I
didn't notice it on like pedals or..steel dilldo's.
Cuz' they shove that "Etsy" right up your ass man.
Click to expand...
And that’s exactly why you sell a 2K guitar for 2.2K.
 
MetalHeadMike said:
I agree. For me, faster more intricate metal like Thrash and some DM sound better with clarity, note separation, articulation, punch/weight to the notes, and grind and aggression but with some warmth. Of course if we're talking layered, edited, mixed, enhanced studio recorded stuff then it's a moot point. But sitting in front of a 412 in the room rocking out some riffs, I notice a big difference between say a 6505 and a Wizard or an Engl and a Fryette and the enjoyment level is definitely higher with the later of both examples.

Can you rip some killer metal riffs on a Marshall 8100 VS that costs $200, absophuckinglutely!! But those same riffs through the same remaining signal chain will sound and feel leagues better through a Wizard or D60 to me. The tone just flat out sounds better and I feel much more connected.
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Like most gear the prices of the 8100 Marshall valvestates are way up, now they are in the $500 and $600 range, pre Covid around $300. You can even buy a preamp pedal replica of one, which blows my mind.

I totally agree with you on the 8100 not feeling or responding like a tube amp. When I play through my 8100, I feel like I have to work for it.
 
John 14:6 said:
I think you can get modern metal sounds with pretty much any decent sounding and inexpensive amp. To my ears there is not much difference in the sound of one modern metal band's tone from the next one. I am sure some people will say the same could be said of 80's metal, but I would disagree with them. The guys in the 80's were serious tone chasers and EVH, Lynch, Malmsteen, Lee, Sykes, DeMartini and all the others sounded very different from each other. I think most of the guys who buy high gain boutique amps are into the 80's stuff and that type of music is what I usually see demoed on videos and clips of that kind of gear.

When I plug into my $2799 Friedman Small Box 50 watt head it always makes me smile and I know where the extra money went. Best amp I ever played and I bought it six or seven years ago. Before that I would flip amps constantly and loose money much of the time. And I had owned plenty of amps prior to getting the Friedman. I bought it used and saved some money and figured I could always sell it and get something else if I did not like it. I quit tone chasing once I found what I was looking for.
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I don’t agree with this. There’s no reason a brutal, modern metal tone can’t be as good or complex as any other type of tone, it just turns out to be that most of them aren’t. I’d say a iic+, colisuem, Rev 1 Uberschall, early revision Rectifier and maybe a few others can achieve a brutal, modern metal sound that is as good a tone as any ‘80’s stuff, just a different flavor. Just because many modern metal guys aren’t as big tone chasers doesn’t mean that the op or the others shouldn’t be. I will agree though that most modern metal tones aren’t very good probably because most don’t care enough. Like anything else you want exceptional tone, get the exceptional gear, but if you want something just good enough to get the job done then not hard to do
 
blackba said:
There in lies the problem with most boutique amps, it’s buy to try. Which means that if you guess wrong, you can start chastising the dragon. Hence why I see a number recommending an amp fest.

I did the same thing you did, but for od pedals, started with the $100 ones, then the $200, then the $300, then the $400. For me I did hear a difference and love the Kingsley pedals, so for me it was worth it, but I had to buy to try.

Back to amps, it’s really hard to balance chasing tone and just enjoying why you have. As others have said in this thread. Glad you found an amp that works for you. Just up to each person if they want to make the jump and try the next level. I did with a Soldano hr25, which I love, but really have no desire to go to the next level. The hr25 sure doesn’t thump like a 100 watt amp and I have never heard an slo100, but sometimes ignorance is bliss. :)
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Gotta pay to play usually sadly. I was lucky to live near ultrasound studios where I was able to try a huge fraction of the boutique amps out there and that’s when I realized how most of them fell short and nowhere near as good as the best vintage amps. Only a few boutique amps here and there have imo really been something special

Ignorance is bliss doesn’t work for me personally. I prefer truth in information over bliss. That’s why I tried a dumble, hopefully eventually a trainwreck. Can’t afford them, but in a league of their own. I used to also have a Kingsley Minstrel
 
7 Stringer said:
Try James Peters. God damn good business man, strait and honest with awesome communication.

And his amps are fucking amazing.
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Had a Peters Body Hammer and it was a KILLER amp! James helped me trouble shoot it and sent me replacement parts even though I had bought it used.
 
Monkey Man said:
Interesting! I dig your taste man.

I've always felt that Matchless have the most-sublime edge-of-breakup tones; they sound like a straight DI signal is blended in tastefully.

The there's Park. To me they sound like mellowed / matured Marshalls; just a bit of class added if you know what I mean - creamier, less harshness.
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The Matchless circuit is very efficient like a Vox but opens up a lot more. Very loud. More punch than traditional AC combos and sounds great. As far as boutiques go, it's an option.

Park's boutique Plexi is smoother and seems to fit a niche for Plexi owners looking for a tamer unit voiced slightly differently for more Plexi options.

Boutiques have their place. I see plenty of rigs with commercial gear and then a boutique mic'd up in the middle somewhere. I guess a layer of something to help distinguish it from other tones. If Josh Homme can do it with a Peavey Decade practice amp, then I am sure there are some nice combinations here that can work.
 
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