What makes an amp perfect for you?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Smash
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Suhr PT100se
Great Fender-ish clean, and modded Marshall crunch.
Love it.
 
Yehuda said:
Bogner xtc? Trying to think of other amps that fulfill those criteria- my Steavens poundcake falls in that category, although the mk2 one I tried is different
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Without wanting to derail the thread, what was different about the two Poundcakes and have you tried a mk1?
 
Jimty said:
Without wanting to derail the thread, what was different about the two Poundcakes and have you tried a mk1?
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Mine is a 25th anniversary and sounds kinda like an xtc but more German- the other one I played was @braintheory ’s mk2 and it was more raw sounding for sure
 
Jimty said:
Without wanting to derail the thread, what was different about the two Poundcakes and have you tried a mk1?
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We compared my mk2 to his 25th anniversary Poundcake. Neither of us tried a mk1 or 3. I found the 25th sounded more modern, wet/saturated, easier to play, smoother, polished and preferred it for playing leads and more single note-y stuff. It was to me sort of like a better XTC. I found the Mk2 more open, dry, raw and gritty (more Marshally) and was my preference for powerchords and more rhythmical type stuff. Both are great, but they were surprisingly very different from each other
 
Bram576 said:
Ass, mids scoop in a way that sits just right in a mix, presence and high end that is cutting, dynamics. Boosted early recto been the perfect one for me so far. For rhythms at least.
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That is the sound of highschool. Love that shit. Still never played a recto.
 
Working input jack.
I can appreciate most tones and will generally find something viable on any amp.
Though articulation and clarity under high gain are probably at the top of my wish list.
 
Thanks for the info on the Poundcake guys - great to know. @Yehuda sent me down the Steavens rabbit hole when he posted about his 25th - really great sounding amps - but I couldn’t find out much about how the Poundcake varied over the years. Really good to hear from those who have first hand experience
 
Bram576 said:
old recto plus tc style boost hangs with ANYTHING
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Not many amps hang with IT IME. The TC’s are great with them. I have an original one. My 2 personal favorites with it are a Klon and Fortin TS808 (the one thing Fortin did well lol)
 
Bram576 said:
Really want to try a klon, never have.
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I find they color and keep things transparent in just the right places, tighten without being surgical, and get along well with almost all my amps, so I think that's a lot of the appeal. The real Klon has a lot extra details to its sound that would probably be considered too cork sniffer-y to get into here lol, but lots of Klones get the overall flavor right and functionally just as good, some better with things like noise levels and such
 
braintheory said:
I haven’t tried any piece of gear that really is perfect or has it all, but that’s also makes it more interesting and is the reason to have so much stuff. I believe there’s always trade offs like Marshall’s having great midrange, but often not as good low end or wizards having that more neutral midrange, but amazing almost everywhere else, etc

I like all the qualities others mentioned too, but for me the most important qualities I look for are the ones that many here would call cork sniffery lol. Things like tonal complexity, what’s going on around the notes, details like that is where the magic happens for me. This is generally the biggest Achilles heal in high gain and modern amps and sort of a paradox for me because modern high gain is my favorite style, but the amps that tend to excel most in those qualities I want are typically either vintage gear (which can sound dated/old) or non-high gain amps (not for metal). In a perfect world I’d want a modern high gain amp with the 5D quality of the one real Dumble ODS I tried. One can dream…
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I feel like I am similar to you, just a very retarded imbred cousin of yours that will accept a lot less perfection (and probably can't decifer those things) if I only have to have one amp to maintain and play. I don't want a stable of amps. Everytime I have more than one, I like to figure out which is best and move the other. Except my little randall solid state. It is a very versatile amp that sits on the floor lonely. It isn't really worth selling, and I will probably give it to whichever of my bastards decide they want to play guitar first.
 
Smashedguitaris⸸ said:
I feel like I am similar to you, just a very retarded imbred cousin of yours that will accept a lot less perfection (and probably can't decifer those things) if I only have to have one amp to maintain and play. I don't want a stable of amps. Everytime I have more than one, I like to figure out which is best and move the other. Except my little randall solid state. It is a very versatile amp that sits on the floor lonely. It isn't really worth selling, and I will probably give it to whichever of my bastards decide they want to play guitar first.
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I like those Randall’s for solid state amps. I try to narrow down my amp collection too, but I like to hold on to anything that does something no other amp of mine does, no matter how specific, but when I’m a bit older and more settled I’ll probably narrow down 8-10 amps to keep and sell the rest
 
If I can get the sounds out of it that I want; it's the reason I purchased it.

If I had to pick a fav of all my current amps, it would have to be my Engl E651 Artist Edition 100. For hard rock / thrash.

For prog, it's my JP-2C; for versatility it's my JVM410; for raw openess it's my 1959HW.

Hoping my '76 Super Twin will give me the Fender tones I want, and my inbound custom Ceriatone clone of a Vox AC-100 MkII will surprise me with a unique Vox tone nothing like the AC30 or AC15.
 
My perfect amp:

Chan I: No available gain, just pristine...Piano like cleans. JC120 style...Clear and round with some "bounce". Never breaks-up.
Chan 2: Vox or Hiwatt style pushed cleans to just breaking up...enough snap for early AC/DC (Jailbreak era) style tones...enough warmth for blues
Chan 3: Raw, open, nasty rock tones from Neil Young to Thin Lizzy to Buckcherry...Organic 70's Marshall style vibes...Lots of upper mid bark
Chan 4: 80's metal up to Metallica - straight hard rock and metal. Punchy and aggressive with just the right shades of saturation and compression
Chan 5: Modern metal with silly amounts of gain, crisp sizzle in the top end and thick, rock solid lower mids and bass with both crack and thump

Of course this will NEVER happen...But you asked. In some ways the Supernova and VH4 accomplish 80% of this. so I run them together.
 
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Gain-wise, there's a sweet spot between dry & saturated that I love. I like that level that doesn't feel like quite enough at low volume, but comes to life when you start to turn it up a bit; kinda makes you dig in and play every note with intention. Enough gain to fill the space I need sonically, but not enough for any slop in my playing to hide behind. Any amp that can give me that, without being too harsh or boomy, and not get buried in a band mix, I can roll with.

I've got several amps that do that. Overall I'd say the Deliverance is the one that achieves it the best. While it would be nice to have a great clean channel or FX loop, I don't really need those things, and have never missed them while playing it. I've used it in a lot of band and recording situations, and it's always given me a great sound easily.

It's hard to call it the perfect amp, as I've got other that I really love, that aren't so lacking in features & sound much better at reasonable volumes. Out of my current stable though, it's the one that comes first to mind.
 
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