Hi,

This is quite a detailed post but I'm hoping that someone may have experience of what kind of amps work well in this kind of setup..

Im looking for a 100w (maybe loud 50+?) valve head for rehearsals and gigs, for a pretty loud 3-piece using lots of pedals and fx. We like hydrahead, instrumental postrock and change sounds quite a lot within a song. At some points my guitar doubles over a loop. Im using a G&L asat junior (dark mahogany sound/high output single coils)

Ideally it would have one really sweet channel with a loud clean and headroom, but maybe 2 channel or bridging/patching options like on a vintage head, and an fx loop.

I may also want to have the option for running loops from one dl4 looper to a separate 2x12 cab for extra clarity (and to help our drummer stay in sync!!). At some stage I will be adding an echoplex pro and already have a midi footswitch and replifex which I want to use.

I have a mesa boogie subway blues 20w combo that I love the sound of (and used to own a 50/50 that sounded good with a RAT as preamp!!)
The subway is probably only suitable for home use unless it could be incorporated into some kind of amp switching setup with an extra cab. Any thoughts on how that could work?

My budget will probably lead me to buy off ebay..
I have considered:

Ampeg v4 (seems loud and sweet but maybe not practical due to maintenance, weight and lack of fx return)
Sound City 100/120
Sovtek mig100h
mesa studio pre with either peavey classic or mesa 50/50 power amp.
Also possibly carvin quad pre that has lots of fx loops
Laney 100w head
Peavey 5150?
Any other good options?

they all seem to all go fairly cheap..

Im not so much of a fan of combos as a main amp, though twins are nice and a rich harmonic clean sound that can take od pedals is the main requirement.

Also the rack thing can be a bastard but mesa seems like good value and options there! Neither of those preamps has midi but a simple switch for channel and fx would be enough. I will most probably add an A-B-Y switch anyway!

I will probably have to go for a cheap marshall (300w) cab at around £200 but would prefer a couple of orange 2x12s Any recommendations on 2x12 or 4x12 cabs?

Any advice from the more experienced out there would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks

I'd say the Ampeg is a good bet just because the ones I#ve used have a really good EQ on them so you can get quite varied sounds. You'll need a good distortion pedal if you want overdriven sounds though.
Peavey 5150s just sound bizarre to me, kind of fizzy like a Boogie Dual Rectifier does. They sound good on their own but they seem to get lost when the drums and bass start. Maybe thats just the sounds people use them for though?
I use a Sound City 120 at the moment but its been modded quite drastically as the originals are just really loud with no real character of sound. Its like running your guitar through a very loud hifi. If you can get someone to play around with it though they're awesome.
Have you considered a Hiwatt?

Thanks for the reply. Are you in Lords? I got the gringo sampler a while ago..
Ive heard very good things about the ampeg but Id be worried about having to replace caps etc, and no fx loop means one more pedal on the floor. Also isnt it 80 pounds in weight? Maybe I should start doing press ups..
I would consider a Hiwatt, and played some newer ones on denmark street but even used they seem too expensive!
What kind of mods did you have on the sound city?
Any experience with the 100 watt mk3

If you are genuinely into having options with your effects, and you are on a budget, I would consider a rackmount sort of preamp/power amp setup. You can drop in a power amp for each cab you want to send a different feed to, and you can run your feeds to the speakers through what quickly becomes a bewildering set of tonal options (fuzz BEFORE preamp INTO octave INTO delay with tap one INTO amp one and taps 2&3 INTO phasefuzz out to cabinet 2 AND a stereo direct line to PA, etc.). Plus, on a budget, you can get two decent rigs instead of trying to get one to do everything for you.

I have had a lot of fun getting a good tone out of my little 30 watt combo, patching some effects into it's loop, micing it, and sending a combination of the mic'ed amp and a direct patch off the effects loop to my cheap PA system. I like solid state amps for effect feeds, if I want them to come through clearly. Good for smoking pot in space, anyway.

waterox wrote:Thanks for the reply. Are you in Lords? I got the gringo sampler a while ago..
Ive heard very good things about the ampeg but Id be worried about having to replace caps etc, and no fx loop means one more pedal on the floor. Also isnt it 80 pounds in weight? Maybe I should start doing press ups..
I would consider a Hiwatt, and played some newer ones on denmark street but even used they seem too expensive!
What kind of mods did you have on the sound city?
Any experience with the 100 watt mk3

My sound city is now a 2 channel job and the channels are slightly different to each other. The old 'bright' channel now has a different pre amp stage (bear with me because I don't understand all this myself) so its voiced more like a Marshall JMP and its possible to get a good amount of gain. Those sound city's are basically 2 great transformers and a simple amp and a good modifier can do anything with them. If you're in the UK PM me and I'll give you details for Euclid which is a chap called Joe in Leeds. He's built amps for us in Lords (hope you like the sampler CD BTW) and he built Phil Manleys custom head in Oneida/The Champs/Trans Am and if you saw US Maple on the UK tour they were using a prototype 200 watter he built.
also, yes, V4s are really really heavy.

Thanks. That sounds like a good idea and would allow me to put in an fx loop as well.

I really liked the sampler and will be sending a demo to gringo pretty soon.. I played a gig with soesa about 10 years ago in my first ever band!! Its really cool that they're still going strong. I really like some of the transam stuff, and saw the amazing us maple at supersonic for the first time. (Along with circle, zombi, final, thrones, isis etc) so it seems I would be in some good company with a Euclid. pm sent

The pre/power amp setup still looks like an option. Probably it will just come down to cost as some of that gear can be had for peanuts. Stereo power at 50 that can be bridged to 100 is also a useful thing and allows a switching setup (at 50). Kurt Cobain got some pretty good sounds out of a mesa studio pre and a solid-state power amp!

I would suggest the V-4.

A <$100 (don't know lb. conversion) trip to a competent tech should be able to set you up with an effects loop. These amps are *so good* for how cheap they are (at least over here - $350), and *so* versatile. They're a great "base" if you're going to pile effects on top of each other. LOUD clean, more headroom than anyone needs, and a very responsive EQ section. My only beef with them is they seem to lack a kind of "sparkle" on the high-end that 50w Traynors and, say, Marshalls have. Pair that with a cab with efficient, high-wattage speakers, and you'll be all set.

I've never played through Sound City's, Sovteks, or Hiwatts, but I've heard more than plenty. Hiwatts sound really plinky; Sovteks and SC's CAN sound good, I imagine, but rarely do to my ears - they just sound flat.

Maybe look into a Music Man head, too - there should be a thread on here about them.

Redline wrote:http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15224

Dibs! I just sent a PM to this guy. This amp will probably end up here at Electrical. Sweet!

Steve, you are a lucky MF'er. That's a nice price for it being in such good condition cosmetically. Of which I'm sure you're well aware.

But that's a 50W head, not 100.

The 100W JMP's sell for more like $1100-1200, or more, in not that good of shape, all the time on eBay. There was one for under $1K a couple weeks ago, and I had a shot at it, but it sold within about 15 minutes of appearing in searches.