My Hermansson modded vintage Laney PA with enormous partridge transformers. It has the raddest clean, sparkly, yet kind of defined and touch sensitive. Just great clean channel.
Then, the magic begins..
Channel 2 is his 3 gain stage mod
Channel 3 is his 4 gain stage mod
Channel 4 is his 5 gain stage mod
Just an all out killer tone machine
Also has many tone shaping controls
It’s is a fire breather if epic proportions, massive tight bottom end. Defined and articulate high gain.
Does all sorts of music extremely well. Henric is very gnarly.
VIVA LA HERMANSSON!!!!
Friedman SS100 modded - unbelievable amp, this and the Hermansson fall under the never going anywhere category, played a lot of other friedmans and for whatever reason, this one just shines, Dave is a genius, even Charvel Dan agrees with this statement and everyone knows that whatever Charvel Dan says becomes the absolute truth and THE LAW.
Matchless Chieftain - just amazing cleans, heavy yet weightless, warm yet crisp, thick and round, yet defined, just truly amazing cleans. I tried most of the matchless amps, and I liked this ones feel and tones. There are a few others that are also magnificent. The independence and DC30 are also great. For killer cleans, it’s matchless, two rock or vintage fenders. I would love to have a two rock for cleans, but currently, they are a bit out of my price range. Those lower wattage two rock don’t sound nearly as good as those 100watt models, regardless of the claims by two rock.
Mesa mk3++ no/black stripe kicks some serious ass, this thing is a true metal machine.
Nicks schmidt era CCV clone with Cameron transformers that he built for himself, great amp. Nick knows amps and tone.
Honorable mention
And last but not least, the first amp I truly ever developed a severe case of GAS for, the MIGHTY PEAVEY BACKSTAGE PLUS! One of my friends older brother was a local
Guitar legend. He went by the name Razz, as in razzle dazzle. He was only 4 or 5 years older than me, but yo me, this man was a god. He dated and slept with the hottest girls, drive a bitchin ride, and had a handful of charvels, this was the 80s and he had the real deal. Every once in a while, I would build up the courage to knock in his door while he was practicing. I would hear, “enter,”’from within. I would hesitantly walk in. At this point, I would be close to speechless as I watched him blaze uncontrollably, effortlessly tearing through eruption while looking so cool doing it. His long hair danced in the breeze from his fan. His walls were covered in Ratt, VH, and the sports illustrated swimsuit girls like Elle McPherson, Kathy Ireland, and others. I was now dizzy being in the presence of someone so cool and adopted a semi retarded stutter. I focused in on his amp and the magical tone coming out of it, “hey r-r-razz, is that a p-p-p-peavey b-b-b-b-b-backstage plus?” Razz says, “for the 29th time, yes it is, now beat it, not done practicing yet and my girlfriend is coming over to fuck (this is so incomprehensible to me, that I almost black out) don’t let me catch you little pervs trying to peek through the curtains again!! “Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh razz, I would NEVER do that!!” (Of course, my eyes were glued yo the window trying to catch even the slightest hint of a bare tit) Razz goes, “your coke bottle glasses were directing a beam of light against the curtain so I know you are one of the pervs!” I tuck my tail between my legs and leave the room, now enveloped in a powerful shame spiral. In my head, “peavey backstage plus, must get one, peavey backstage plus, must get one, peavey backstage plus, must get one, BUT HOW !!?”
I thought the peavey backstage plus was the greatest thing I’d ever seen. There were two Marshall half stacks in the room, yet the peavey was what I most wanted I. The world. He played a delay and distortion pedal and it sounded really good at the time.
Don’t tell me none of you guys idolized some local player when you were 10 or 11 years old. I’m sure you wanted the gear they played.