What amps have you been surprised by and not looking to sell?

  • Thread starter Thread starter hendrixman01
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Mesa Badlander 50 rack head. It's the only amp that I own now but I have kept it because it sounds great!

Then again....you never know when the GAS strikes again.
 
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Jet City JCA 50

highly mod-able. cheap enough to soak money into mods and still not feel fucked.
 
tlp1234 said:
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Are the pickups on your guitars Wylde USA pickups or Dimarzio? If it's Wylde USA pickups, what models are they? How do they sound? I used to a Wylde USA L-500XL before. Great collection of amps & guitars!
 
In terms of amps I expected to be good, and were even more awesome than that high expectation, Diezel Herbert Mk1 and ENGL Savage Mk1 specifically come to mind. Those both seriously blew my socks off and are "forever" keepers for me.

There are a few others I had "meh" expectations for that surpassed that expectations, but I know if times were tough or if I got a good offer, I'd let them go. On the other hand it'd take me losing an arm to trade/sell the Herbert or Savage.
 
After the demos I expected the Bogner Telos to be a swampy mess but talking to the Bogner guys they said it was a JTM45 with a switchable front end.

So impressed. Just a great Bognerized Marshall with a front end that can go from Tweed Twin to JTM45 to 1959 and really good FX loop. 6L6 means it doesn’t get honky.

Like the original, it can get a little bass heavy…but the tone is FAT.
 
Hamer95USA said:
Are the pickups on your guitars Wylde USA pickups or Dimarzio? If it's Wylde USA pickups, what models are they? How do they sound? I used to a Wylde USA L-500XL before. Great collection of amps & guitars!
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Thank you Sir.

Those pick-ups are JBE/Joe Barden. As with many things......people seem to either love or hate them.

Speaking only for my ears at the moment, they are crisp and full with a tight low end. They are very immediate responding and hide nothing. However, that is what I hear, and someone else will probably hear something different....guaranteed. Some folks report they are "too hifi", some find them too strident & sterile and hate them.

I went on a quest for noiseless pickups for my strats and teles 4 years ago. It was a rabbit hole indeed. I thought my search ended with Kinmans until I played a friend of mines tele with a Barden set. My search has ended for now. No, they don't have the sound of a true single coil, but they don't have the noise either.

Actually, it's been so long since I played anything with true single coils, I've forgotten what they sound like.

They other side of it is the fatigue of trying so many different noiseless pickups. That aspect alone has killed any further curiosity for me at the moment ;)
 
I would never sell my Marshall Satriani JVM. I sold one in the past, and really regretted it, so bought another. I would also never sell my Diezel VH4 nor D-Moll, and I'm pretty confident I wouldn't sell my multi-watt Dual Rectifier.
 
My grab-n-go TECH 21 Trademark 60. I understand why Les Paul used this amp in the jazz clubs in New York.

It's light and consistently sounds very good.
 
VHT d60; I bought it on a whim from an HCAF seller for like $800, thinking I'd try it out for a month or two and re-sell. 15 years later, it's probably seen more use than any amp I've owned.

Peavey delta blues; bought it pretty cheap locally because my cover band was playing some tiny pubs & I needed a small workhorse amp. Going on 4 years with that one, it's just fun to play.
 
I was actually really impressed by the Marshall jcm 900 dual reverb and I'm not really a Marshall kinda player. It wasn't my amp (wish it was), but I played it through a high quality cab and it kicked ass IMO. Also the peavey VTM-60, but I did sell it, doh!
 
A late 90's Rev G Triple Recto I recently picked up. Friggin monster!
 
Rdodson said:
After the demos I expected the Bogner Telos to be a swampy mess but talking to the Bogner guys they said it was a JTM45 with a switchable front end.

So impressed. Just a great Bognerized Marshall with a front end that can go from Tweed Twin to JTM45 to 1959 and really good FX loop. 6L6 means it doesn’t get honky.

Like the original, it can get a little bass heavy…but the tone is FAT.
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You’re going to like what Bogner’s got coming down the pipe
 
Mesa California Tweed.

One channel, and it's a clean channel... Somehow made it onto my never sell list.
 
Mesa Stiletto Stage I. Expected the worst, but really enjoying it. With an OD808X out front, even Fluid Drive sounds good
 
MusicIsLife said:
Randall 667. I was expecting to be underwhelmed. Then I rolled in some different pre tubes and swapped out the JJ EL34s for Tungsol, gave it a proper biasing, and through my V30 4x12 it just roars. Big iron, thick PCBs. It's my primary gigging amp.
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Second that one I’m running kt88s sounds HUGE
 
itsgoodnow said:
Landry G3 100 watt. I heard some good feedback from a friend. It was marketed and demo'd heavily for the brown sound. I got the amp and, no disrespect to bill, visually I hate the font and all that shit. I plugged in and discovered an amazing modded marshall tone that with some slight adjustments did a great AIC impression along with amazing thrash tones (and also got quite modern for that voicing). I bought the amp for like 1700 dollars. It has outlasted amps 3 times as expensive.
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Yup !! Mine has survived all other amps except my JMP and 800's and I do agree the front looks like crap! These belong in a Marshal style front panel.
 
Mesa Boogie Single Rectifier Series 2. Always had a love/hate thing with Rectos. Picked one up off of Craigslist and it just suits me.
 
Panhead5 said:
Yup !! Mine has survived all other amps except my JMP and 800's and I do agree the front looks like crap! These belong in a Marshal style front panel.
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There are two Landry’s on the guitar center used site right now that I’ve been drooling over. Would love to pull the trigger on one of them
 
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