Top 5 amps of all time that you have owned and why?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MadAsAHatter
  • Start date Start date
1.Hermansson Jcm800 5 gainstsge Marshall
This can do anything .
2.Wizard MTL2. Just fills the room like no other
3. Diezel Herbert mk 1 . A 2009 I have just blows away most amps I try still
4. Mark 3 ++ green stripe . Sold the rest of my mark Amos . It’s perfect version
5. Marshall jmp2203 . Still the standard
5 killer brands
 
Last edited:
IIBornotIIB said:
2.) Early Komet K60, straight-in through a ‘72 1960B with Pulsonic Greenbacks, it can go from great big cleans to wild gain - all through riding guitar volume. It’s just a fun stallion to ride! Bonus: ability to use a number of different power tubes.
Click to expand...

I've been wondering about Komet amps. I know Ken Fischer was involved in the initial designs and their shop is about 30 minuets from my house. What I really want to know is how much gain they have and how loud they get before starting to break up. I'm sure it's different for each model, but most videos just show them off playing clean.
 
uhhh

Mesa Marlk iv-hmmm mmm
Peavey 6505, favorite varieties have included lickliter modded one, platinum voodoo amp modded one, and probably just the regular ole thang
DAR FBM100-fucking true unicorn magic amp
daul recto=my rackmount is tight as what you want whatever your persausion
idk others
 
1. Carol Ann OD3r - should never have sold it, an epic amp!
2. Bogner Goldfinger 45 SL - my current amp and not a million miles away from he Carol Ann, does everything I need really well
3. Bogner 3534 - My first Bogner, loved the clean, loved the blue channel, struggled with the Red channel
4. Bogner Ecstacy 101b - Too much amp for me, preferred the smaller version
5. Two Rock Traditional Clean - only did one thing but it did it very well, great clean sound but still not as good as the OD3r
 
1. Friedman BE 100 Deluxe

One of the first amps I ever plugged into and went "THAT'S IT!!", still has that effect more than any others I've owned so far. I just can't get a bad sound out of it and every time I plug into it I'm in heaven.

2. Hermansson Modified Dual Rectifier

One of the craziest amps I own, gushing with harmonics and saturation, super bitey and aggressive but in a very unique way.

3. EVH 5150iii EL34 100 Watt

Out of all the EVH 100 watt variants I've played through this one for me just does it the best, super versatile and each channel does its own thing perfectly. Chugs like crazy and feels great to play, with or without a boost. Just fun.

4. Tone King Imperial Mk ii

Being honest my default zone is Modern Rock/Metal but I love vintage stuff and those older sounding tones too. This amp is just straight up fun to play, the attenuator makes it even more playable and crankable at home and it's light too. Tones sounds wonderful from clean to fairly gainy when cranking the volumes, having it being 2 channels with one being more blackfacey and the other being more tweed styles covers pretty much anything I'd want in that space.

5. Two Rock Traditional Clean

Mayer. Only reason this isn't above the tone king is that it's less versatile (somewhat of a one trick pony), but for that thing when you want it, it is MEGA.

Honorable Mention: Bogner Uber Ultra MK2 - Need to spend more time with this as I only got it about 2 months ago.
 
MadAsAHatter said:
I've been wondering about Komet amps. I know Ken Fischer was involved in the initial designs and their shop is about 30 minuets from my house. What I really want to know is how much gain they have and how loud they get before starting to break up. I'm sure it's different for each model, but most videos just show them off playing clean.
Click to expand...

They’re quite responsive to guitar / pickups / guit volume / picking hand attack… so, there’s fairly wide range of gain available. If you’re looking for something that can do metal / thrash, it’s not that, from my experience. They start power section break-up with volume around 10:30/11, and it goes from there. Yes, they’re considered loud by many, but no louder than running something like a 60W Boogie Mark II (A, B, or C) at 5 on the Master - which is kinda where I live, normally. It’s a very dynamic amp with great harmonics, and IMHO just pure tone. The K60 is tube rectified, so there’s great sag/feel. They make a K60 HD which is solid state rectified and a bit tighter (never personally played one).

Here’s one video that’s a little gainier than most out there. Settings all appear to be around noon. [ I push my volume, treble and presence closer to 2 o’clock - but depends on guitar]:

 
Last edited:
1. Bogner Ecstacy 101b
2. Mesa Mark IV
3. Armored Sabot v3
4. Blackface Racktifier (Rev F)
5. Peavey 5150

Honorable mention: Diezel Einstein.

Only reason it didn't make the top 5 is because I feel like the other 5 have one GREAT sound that defines them. The Einstein has a bunch that are almost as good as the others. Individually by itself, I'd probably pick the Diezel over the other 5 if I needed a do-it-all amp. The 101b would be a close second, but I tend to prefer American sounds for more sounds than the more British side the 101b leans. I didn't care for the VH4 or Herbert nearly as much as the Einstein, either.
 
IIBornotIIB said:
They’re quite responsive to guitar / pickups / guit volume / picking hand attack… so, there’s fairly wide range of gain available. If you’re looking for something that can do metal / thrash, it’s not that, from my experience. They start power section break-up with volume around 10:30/11, and it goes from there. Yes, they’re considered loud by many, but no louder than running something like a 60W Boogie Mark II (A, B, or C) at 5 on the Master - which is kinda where I live, normally. It’s a very dynamic amp with great harmonics, and IMHO just pure tone. The K60 is tube rectified, so there’s great sag/feel. They make a K60 HD which is solid state rectified and a bit tighter (never personally played one).

Here’s one video that’s a little gainier than most out there. Settings all appear to be around noon. (I push my volume, treble and presence closer to 2 o’clock - but depends on guitar:)

Click to expand...

That sounds fantastic. To this day the best Youtube amp demo I've ever seen was Pete Thorn playing through a Trainwreck Liverpool. I couldn't believe how good it sounded.

How much do the Komet's run new? Guessing they're in Wizard territory.
 
1. Dual recto rev e chrome face… classic for a reason
2. Bogner Uber ultra… just incredible. I play low tuned chug stuff and this nails it.
3/4 tie…. Wizard mc 6l6 and monomyth vintage modern. The wizard fills out the room more. The monomyth is so god damn pissed off though without any pedals and the Wizard needs one for me.
5. Hermansson single recto… so much fun to play.

Waiting on my iic++ SRG from Mike B at Mesa. We will see where that ends up.

I really want to play a hell razor… get that and an mtl in the stable. Maybe a traditional monomyth skeleton key.
 
Torgo2003 said:
How much do the Komet's run new? Guessing they're in Wizard territory.
Click to expand...

The SRP’s range from $3K for the “baby” K19 up to around $6K for their newest model, the MK80. The K60 is $5K. Their build quality, component selection and service is among the best. Mine is 22 years old and operates flawlessly.
 
@MadAsAHatter , we’ve got to get your Hellion loaded with some KT66’s. They really take the amp to different level. They pretty much destroy the EL34’s with that circuit.

Honored to be on your list!
 
MadAsAHatter said:
I've been wondering about Komet amps. I know Ken Fischer was involved in the initial designs and their shop is about 30 minuets from my house. What I really want to know is how much gain they have and how loud they get before starting to break up. I'm sure it's different for each model, but most videos just show them off playing clean.
Click to expand...
I had a K60 and it had to be very loud to break up much. But once you get it cooking and has a good amount of gain, but it not like a tight percussive gain. No metal chugging with a Komet. They have an amazing tone, but it is more of a searing vintage gain.. very touch sensitive and dynamic, but again. they need to be LOUD. Like big stage loud. Attenuation is a must in almost any practical situation if you want to get the amp in it's sweet spot.
 
IIBornotIIB said:
They’re quite responsive to guitar / pickups / guit volume / picking hand attack… so, there’s fairly wide range of gain available. If you’re looking for something that can do metal / thrash, it’s not that, from my experience. They start power section break-up with volume around 10:30/11, and it goes from there. Yes, they’re considered loud by many, but no louder than running something like a 60W Boogie Mark II (A, B, or C) at 5 on the Master - which is kinda where I live, normally. It’s a very dynamic amp with great harmonics, and IMHO just pure tone. The K60 is tube rectified, so there’s great sag/feel. They make a K60 HD which is solid state rectified and a bit tighter (never personally played one).

Here’s one video that’s a little gainier than most out there. Settings all appear to be around noon. [ I push my volume, treble and presence closer to 2 o’clock - but depends on guitar]:

Click to expand...


Jdub said:
I had a K60 and it had to be very loud to break up much. But once you get it cooking and has a good amount of gain, but it not like a tight percussive gain. No metal chugging with a Komet. They have an amazing tone, but it is more of a searing vintage gain.. very touch sensitive and dynamic, but again. they need to be LOUD. Like big stage loud. Attenuation is a must in almost any practical situation if you want to get the amp in it's sweet spot.
Click to expand...

I already have a number of high gain amps, but not much dedicated to vintage crunch. That's what initially brought me to look at Komet amps. I was poking around for something that was geared towards the light breakup to overdrive sounds. The video @IIBornotIIB posted is around the amount of saturation I'd want out of that style of amp.

My typical bedroom volume is about 100-105 dB from 2 meters away last time I measured. For me that's a good balance to let my amps open enough to sound good, but not destroy my ears in 5 minutes. Still though, a 60 watt fully cranked for power tube saturation may end up being a bit much. I went look at their page again and see they have a couple of lower watt offerings that may be a good match. The Komet 19 looks pretty appealing.

I messaged Komet a bit back and they said I could make an appointment to stop by their shop to test drive some things. I may do that one day, but want to be in the ready to buy mode before I do. I don't want to waste anyone's time if I'm not prepared to make a purchase right then.
 
RedPlated said:
@MadAsAHatter , we’ve got to get your Hellion loaded with some KT66’s. They really take the amp to different level. They pretty much destroy the EL34’s with that circuit.

Honored to be on your list!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wanted to leave it as EL34 for the time being when I sent it to you for the updates. Didn't wat to make too many changes all at once. It's been a bit so I'm thinking it may be time to give some KT66's a go. Any particular brand you recommend? Or if you have spare set I could cut out any guess work and buy straight from you.
 
1 Soldano SLO 100 (still own)
2 Bogner 101B (still own)
3 JCM800 2210 (in rare green, shoulda kept it)
4 Friedman SmallBox (sold it - miss it, the plexi channel could nail VH tones with a boost pedal)
5 Cameron modded Chupacabra...aka, the Chupacameron (yes, I had that amp for several years and it was the most angry sounding thing I've ever owned, especially through blackback speakers)
 
- 67 Dual Showman, modded by Dumble with Ultraphonix+Gain+Fat boy tremolo - It's the best JTM100, with the most clarity and note separation, harmonic content, sustain and dynamics I've ever heard. My all time fave.
-66 Bandmaster, modded by Dumble with Rockphonix+Gain - This one is more aggressive, like an early 70s 50w, and nails the live Jimmy Page tone on "The song remains the same" album. Same qualities as the Ultraphonix above, but a bit more aggressive and more miss, and almost same clarity, note separation, harmonics, sustain and dynamics.
-59 Bassman Ri, modded by Dumble with La Tostada circuit - With volume from 1-5 is tweed Bassman gain. From 5 to 8 is on JTM45 territory, and from 8 to 12 is so much gain that it gets almost lo-fi fuzzy, with without losing definition. Same massive low end as all the other Dumble amps, best clarity, harmonics, sustain and dynamics than anything else, other than Dumbles. Best sounding Bassman I've heard. And I've heard a lot of them.
-74 Marshall SL, modded by Mark Cameron with Ocean mod - This is my favorite Cameron ever. It's bright, punchy, super dynamic, feels incredible playing, and can go from blues to Meshuggah without the need of a boost pedal. This is how I always dreamed of a Marshall sounding like. Clarity, punch, harmonics and a low end bigger than life, without losing it's classic overall tone.
-79 Marshall SB, modded by Hermansson with the 5 Gain Stage mod - This is one of the best surprises for the last few years. Henric managed two make an amp that can go from blues, to classic rock, hard rock, and to extreme metal without the need of anything pushing or EQing the front end of the amp. Henrics choice for components made this thing absurdly versatile, and pretty much unbeatable on the extreme metal territory. While the Cameron Ocean manages to maintain the Marshall DNA, even on its extreme settings, the Hermansson Marshall morphs into this almost sci-fi sounding doom machine, with incredible note clarity and a humongous and absurdly tight low end. Must be heard to be understood.

I'll have pics up soon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top