Thanks … I’ll go check the PT15IR too
The Splawn caught my interest as it’s rare to find in U.K. and is well priced , unfortunately being a 7 hour drive from Glasgow to Southern England means I won’t get to try in person
, hence the request for opinions This. It’s up to your ear as to the winner. I’m lukewarm on Splawns as I liked the QR but didn’t care for the Nitro. Kinda flat n sterile to me.
Living in the UK, have you tried any of the Dover amps? I have heard some really good things, but never actually had a chance to play one (or seen one in person here in the US)The Splawn caught my interest as it’s rare to find in U.K. and is well priced , unfortunately being a 7 hour drive from Glasgow to Southern England means I won’t get to try in person
Dover still pretty rare in U.K. too at the moment , being made under sub contract by Victory Amps as far as I know .
Agreed over 40 years later and still such surprisingly hard amps to rival. I went through so many expensive boutique amps just to later realize they all sounded worse when compared to those Marshall’s
I'll second the Helios. Over a good Marshall too.
Helios is really good amp, especially for a non-vintage amp, but I wouldn’t take it over a good old Marshall unless volume is a constraint. It does do obviously way better at lower to medium volumes. As much as I liked the Helios I had I sold it because I had some Cameron modded Marshall’s at the time that just imo were better in AB comparisons. I actually liked though my Helios a little more than the Gower’s I had at the time. I think the Helios & Telos had the best quality tone of all the Bogner’s I’ve tried. Maybe since they’re the only PTP ones. Definitely way more raw and organic. Not polished or dark like they’re other stuff. Wish they made all their amps like those 2
Lots of great choices out there these days, but I have to agree…if only I’d have bought a totally stock early 70s SL earlier, I’d have saved a metric ton o cash. Amazes me every time I plug in.
Yes we kinda both learned the hard way about that. You know I hate to be a negative Nancy, but I can’t disagree more with this thing so many guys say about “lots of great choices these days”. Really of the countless boutique amps I’ve gone through and compared to vintage amps, I really gotta say in reality for me I’d say “lots of meh, overrated choices these days, but if you dig deep enough you can find a few here and there that are the real deal like Alessandro, Gjika, Schroeder, Naylor and a few others”. I used to when I was younger for whatever reason just assume that the latest and “greatest” boutique amps must make all the vintage amps obsolete, so didn’t even bother considering them for a while sadly, but I learned later on, just would’ve saved a lot of time and money if I figured it out sooner
Honestly, a vintage blackface or drip edge Bassman, for 1k and a boost or two in front will put many boutiques to shame. And that price is 1/3 the cost of a cheaper boutique.
There are a lot of vintage sleepers. Those old Sovtek’s MIG’s with a boost are a hell of an amp for the price imo (got mine for $400 back in 2014). A good vintage Gibson or Gretsch amp boosted I like even more than many of the Blackface’s boosted. Those old Ampeg’s, particularly the Gemini II was one the top 10 best clean to light breakup amps I’ve had (paid $380 for the one I had). Super warm sound. My Vibroverb has the best cleans imo of the blackfaces, but sadly not great besides cleans
Those old low wattage 50s/early 60s amps, talk about a tone where the amp sounds like it’s gonna blow….gotta be the inspiration or partly of the Trainwreck amps.
They don’t all have that “about to blow” sound imo. The tweeds to me are definitely that sound (I always described like they sound broken in a good way), but some of the Gibson’s and especially that 5w Gretsch combo I’ve been borrowing stay pretty tight and clear even dimed. In fact when I boost the Gretsch (maybe back off the volume just a little) it’s plenty tight, clear and mean (just not big sounding). I can feel very satisfied even using it for what most guys on here are into. In some ways it’s the most nasty amp in my house currently