Home player amp…EVH LBX-S, MT15, 5150 Iconic, Friedman JJ??????

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I don’t play out anymore or care to. Sold my tube amps a year ago. Been playing through my Yamaha THR 30…which I love. It really does sound great. However, l do miss that big tube tone but the THR is all I now have. So….thinking of getting back.

Im a classic rock player, EVH, Def L, Sabbath, Cream.. Also Love a saturated hi gain tone. I hear good and bad about all the above. My goal: great tone at home volume and higher when wife is out. Head and a 2x12 cab. I was told that many 50 or 100 EVH heads actually sound better deeper and fuller than the smaller ones at home volume. I do not like bright amps….smooth, hi gain..not bright fuzzy. Heard the MT15 sounds like a transistor radio until it’s turned up to an unacceptable home level. I actually did enjoy my old HRDLX with a Bogner Red and Blue pedal…might even consider that as well.

So…give me some thoughts. Not concerned about a budget
 
If you aren't concerned about budget, get a big boy amp of choice and a powerstation.

If you really do want a lower watt option for the sag and compression at lower volumes, get an SLO30 or Friedman PT20 wildwood or a Top Hat Emplex Junior.

All the amps you have listed in the title are modern metal amps, super high gain and don't excel at classic rock. The closest is the JJ, and that STILL has too much gain, and is way fizzier than the classic rock oriented amps I mentioned.


If you want high gain metal tones, get a high gain metal oriented amp like a Fireball 25 or whatever, but if you want classic rock tones all of those amps are not going to give you what you are after.

The only people that post after me disagreeing are going to be people who play modern death metal, and they're going to say "well, the LBX gets good classic rock tones on the clean channel with a nice boost." And honestly you can do that with a katana.

If you want BOTH classic rock and high gain tones, and budget really ISNT a concern, get a wizard MC25 or Bogner 3534.

Honestly NONE of the amps in the title are going to do the tones of the bands you mentioned besides maybe the EVH stuff with EVH.
 
You said bright but not painful, Bogner Helios or JE-100 Friedman come to mind. You could get the jcm800 mini 20W and still do some damage since it’s big boy tube loaded and not EL84s like other lunchbox sized amps. Last amp to come to mind would be a 50W EVHiii of your preferred flavor. They’re a lot of amp for the price and can cover a lot of ground.

Beyond that? The good old run of the mill 6505II coming out soon will cover a lot of ground.
 
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To clarify, I play a lot of Van Halen, DefLep stuff. So I love classic rock and I LOVE hi gain….BOTH.

I DO NOT like bright fizzy tone.

Thus, I was thinking the EVH series or Iconic would fit in. The way the world is, no one seems to have anything in the stores so doing a lot of YouTube listening.
 
Find a Jet City 20 watt amp and get it modded.

I sold most of my big amps and use my modded JCA 20 99% of the time. I do run through a wet dry wet rig when I want that massive wall of sound.
 
Splawn Super Sport EL34 or 6V6 may do the trick . I tend to play at somewhat loud in the house volumes though and the volume loop works really good if I don't attenuate to much. The Splawn will do all those bands tones you play.
 
psychodave said:
Find a Jet City 20 watt amp and get it modded.

I sold most of my big amps and use my modded JCA 20 99% of the time. I do run through a wet dry wet rig when I want that massive wall of sound.
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I’ve heard you mention this before. Not everyone knows Cameron on a personal level to pick his brain to make a JCA20 sound like a CCV. I’m sure if you posted schematics in plain view, many would love to follow suite. A 20W lunchbox CCV would be on everyone’s wish list.

I can’t count how many amps people have bought to send to X modder only to be sold the following week in the classifieds because it wasn’t what they expected.

It’s easy to mod an amp. It’s hard to know how to tune an amp. The former doesn’t guarantee anything.
 
hammered said:
Splawn Super Sport EL34 or 6V6 may do the trick . I tend to play at somewhat loud in the house volumes though and the volume loop works really good if I don't attenuate to much. The Splawn will do all those bands tones you play.
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Yep... what Hammered said... Splawn is one of your best bets out there and more affordable used.
 
glpg80 said:
I’ve heard you mention this before. Not everyone knows Cameron on a personal level to pick his brain to make a JCA20 sound like a CCV. I’m sure if you posted schematics in plain view, many would love to follow suite. A 20W lunchbox CCV would be on everyone’s wish list.

I can’t count how many amps people have bought to send to X modder only to be sold the following week in the classifieds because it wasn’t what they expected.

It’s easy to mod an amp. It’s hard to know how to tune an amp. The former doesn’t guarantee anything.
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I made an extensive post in early 2020 (once the Covid lockdown happened) with close up pictures, all details of my JCA20 (including all of the power section mods that people had no idea about). I kept telling people it was there and I believe only one or two people tinkered with it. I have since deleted it to prevent some mod sellers from capitalizing on it. That said, there are a few guys selling kits to do various mods on the amps with instruction. I think one guy is Epic. 👍

For the record, I haven’t spoken to Cameron in like 18 months. 👍
 
If you wanna play with a drum and bass. Get a line 6 spider jam. You can record. Layer tracks. And yes. Tons of various tones and effects.
It’s not my garage full stack. But it’s really a great amp.
 
Love my EVH 50 w6l6's but if you want classic rock, it has to be a Marshall of some sort.
 
Another option might be the Bluguitar Amp1. I've got the Mercury Edition- it's really good, and great at low volumes. Plus they can be had used at a reasonable cost. Does a few great flavours of Marshall.
 
psychodave said:
I made an extensive post in early 2020 (once the Covid lockdown happened) with close up pictures, all details of my JCA20 (including all of the power section mods that people had no idea about). I kept telling people it was there and I believe only one or two people tinkered with it. I have since deleted it to prevent some mod sellers from capitalizing on it. That said, there are a few guys selling kits to do various mods on the amps with instruction. I think one guy is Epic. 👍

For the record, I haven’t spoken to Cameron in like 18 months. 👍
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Epic/Bryce is somewhat on hiatus, but can still do custom orders. Another name that is doing/selling mods but one to stay away from, is Mark Sedlock aka Mark Marshall. Mark has burned quite a few dudes, and I have not had great experiences with him personally. Bryce is a top notch dude on the other hand. Just my $0.02

Spinning off that, Jet City has sort of re-launched, and can build custom 2 channel 20 watt heads for around $700. Worth looking into.
 
glpg80 said:
I can’t count how many amps people have bought to send to X modder only to be sold the following week in the classifieds because it wasn’t what they expected.

It’s easy to mod an amp. It’s hard to know how to tune an amp. The former doesn’t guarantee anything.
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Ohhh I feel a bit attacked here. I am definitely guilty of this. I sent a Quick Rod to Jen Kruse and couldnt sell it quick enough when I got it back. I wanted a little bit more saturation and since I had a Nitro at the time too, I figured I would take a chance. I got some advice from a local tech here that said "I can mod amps but most of the time if it isnt doing what you want find an amp that will or if its close to what you want get a pedal that will take it the rest of the way".

There are too many amps on the market that you should find something close to what you are looking for. That is of course if you have an amp and mod(der) already in mind like a Jet City or Marshall Origin.

I have to agree on getting a Power Station and a full sized amp. I played my last show 3 years ago but I continue to buy full sized amps just to use at home. I had such a bad experience the EVH LBX II that I have sworn off amps with EL84's. I reneged on that and got a JJ jr. and it lasted me about 3 weeks. Not a bad sounding amp at all but I felt like it was missing something. I would use a plug-in or modeler over a 20 watt amp honestly
 
glpg80 said:
I can’t count how many amps people have bought to send to X modder only to be sold the following week in the classifieds because it wasn’t what they expected.
Click to expand...

Hehe, I've been on the other side of that too. Buddy of mine had a 68 Super Bass clone, and wanted a high gain mod on it, to do GnR stuff and other 80's hard rock stuff. So I offered to give it a basic 'one wire mod' and PPIMV, with a few preamp tweaks. Sounded incredible. Asked to be paid in bourbon and a cigar, which he delivered very well in that regard. He loved the amp, raved about how it did the sound he was looking for spot on.

A week later he traded it for an AxeFx or something lol. Initially I was disappointed, but changed my tune after a minute because hey it's his gear and he's free to do what he pleases. He came out ahead in terms of paying me for the work, but we all flip gear so it's all good.

I remember making a fake sh!t post on another forum calling him out (he was in on it and we thought it was hilarious), and led on a bunch of dudes that we were actually feuding over it lol
 
beej said what I was thinking-try a Bluguitar Amp 1. I like all the music you mentioned and it does it well. I have the first version and have been happy with it. Add an overdrive and its pretty cool.
 
Depends what other stuff you currently have. If I had to deal with volume concerns I'd just play through IR's most of the time, and at that point a good mv and wattage is not much of a concern. However if your looking for a "living room amp" modded jet city's 20w rock at reasonable levels. That being said el84 amps have their limitations.
 
If it's for home and for some low-volume jamming, why not some dirt pedals + pedal platform amp? A lot of ways to tweak your sound.
 
If you want easy at-home volume playing, the EVH Iconic has a 1/4 power switch that also alters the Master Volume sweep to make it much easier to precisely control at low volumes so it doesn't just leap from zero volume to full pants flapping at the slightest touch.

As for your preference for darker tones, with some amps, turning dials doesn't do much, but the Iconic's Presence control is hugely impactful to the amp's sound and it's very easy to get some pretty rich and dark tones out of the amp if you turn the Presence down to 9 or 10 oclock. You still get the touch sensitivity and gain clarity from the 5150 circuit, but you can easily dial out the slicing high end if you want.
 
guitarplayer said:
I don’t play out anymore or care to. Sold my tube amps a year ago. Been playing through my Yamaha THR 30…which I love. It really does sound great. However, l do miss that big tube tone but the THR is all I now have. So….thinking of getting back.

Im a classic rock player, EVH, Def L, Sabbath, Cream.. Also Love a saturated hi gain tone. I hear good and bad about all the above. My goal: great tone at home volume and higher when wife is out. Head and a 2x12 cab. I was told that many 50 or 100 EVH heads actually sound better deeper and fuller than the smaller ones at home volume. I do not like bright amps….smooth, hi gain..not bright fuzzy. Heard the MT15 sounds like a transistor radio until it’s turned up to an unacceptable home level. I actually did enjoy my old HRDLX with a Bogner Red and Blue pedal…might even consider that as well.

So…give me some thoughts. Not concerned about a budget
Click to expand...
I'd say you might want to look into the Bluguitar Amp 1 Iridium model, has 4 channels: Clean(Fender), Vintage(Marshall Plexi), Classic(JCM800 Marshall, Modern(High gain Engl/Mesa type). It's a 100 watt amp all by itself to drive speakers or you can send the signal to an IR for direct recording or playing without have to run the amp on a load for quiet playing.

It's cheaper than the Splawn and about the same price as the Iconic and you get multiple amp tones in it. If you want the to have a big amp for when you do want to crank it up then Splawn and the Iconic amp come back into your purview. Also the Friedman BEOD deluxe is a fantastic Marshall pedal into and IR or clean amp pedal setup.
 
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