Cheap inexpensive amps live debate

[Rupe]

This thread is a joke. How can you guys be serious about cheap amps? If I can't sit back in my recliner and take in the sights and smells of a $3000+ boutique amplifier, several handwired/handpainted boutique fuzz pedals, and an untouched R9 Les Paul, why should I even bother? Why would anybody own an amp that has no potential to elicit "oooohs" and "ahhhhhs" from forum folk? These things are status symbols people...wake up!!! My new Two-Rock amp DePergo Strat are soooo cooool (my forum buddies said so) that I may actually start learning how to play.

[VitaminG]

This thread is a joke. How can you guys be serious about cheap amps? If I can't sit back in my recliner and take in the sights and smells of a $3000+ boutique amplifier, several handwired/handpainted boutique fuzz pedals, and an untouched R9 Les Paul, why should I even bother? Why would anybody own an amp that has no potential to elicit "oooohs" and "ahhhhhs" from forum folk? These things are status symbols people...wake up!!! My new Two-Rock amp DePergo Strat are soooo cooool (my forum buddies said so) that I may actually start learning how to play.

that's the spirit! It's nice to take the old axe out of the hermetically sealed climate controlled glass case for a spin every once in a while. Rock some Brown Eyed Girl on that bitch!!

[chrisolson]

LOL, Rupe... yes, an Uberschall for a Top 40 cover band is indeed slumming it even by today's standards...

I got to mess around with some fairly nice stuff this last year. It didn't make me happy at all.

I'm back to using a Line 6 Spider Valve MK II head now, and couldn't be happier. The MK II is head and shoulders better than the old one, can get updates (which I have), and is louder than I can ever hope to want/need/whatever... The update adds a pile of great effects too.

After trade-ins of gear I wasn't going to use, I ended up getting the HD and the FBV MK II for about $600, and then came across a POD X3 w/FBV Shortboard MK I for $250 just in case I get bored.

[clifffclaven]

LOL, Rupe... yes, an Uberschall for a Top 40 cover band is indeed slumming it even by today's standards...

I got to mess around with some fairly nice stuff this last year. It didn't make me happy at all.

I'm back to using a Line 6 Spider Valve MK II head now, and couldn't be happier. The MK II is head and shoulders better than the old one, can get updates (which I have), and is louder than I can ever hope to want/need/whatever... The update adds a pile of great effects too.

After trade-ins of gear I wasn't going to use, I ended up getting the HD and the FBV MK II for about $600, and then came across a POD X3 w/FBV Shortboard MK I for $250 just in case I get bored.

what kind of stuff are you playing with the spidervalve? Im thinking about one.

[chrisolson]

what kind of stuff are you playing with the spidervalve? Im thinking about one.

"All the greatest hits from the 80's, 90's, and today!!"

Mostly 80's & 90's hard rock/metal - hair stuff mainly, but some AIC thrown in for good measure. I like the head better than the combo - it really smokes through a closed-back cab.

[Frigo89]

I still like the SLO...

hahaha, as for live goes, I will wind up grabbing a backup, likely a Solid State Randall or something, something that won't asplode if the Soldano desides to shit itself

[jgcable]

Its not about how you stand by your car.. its how you drive your car.
I can make my $70.00 used Crate practice amp sound better than some douch hacking away on an SLO any day of the week suckas...

[jgcable]

Let me qualify all my posts to the thread I started.
I own high end amps. I love high end amps. I have owned many of them. My favorite is the SLO100 but I have a soft spot for the Bogner Ecstacy 101B and I am a big fan of the Engl Savage, and those VHT Frayette's. Of course there is Matchless. I love every amp they make.
My point is that high end and expensive doesn't always = great live tone.
I know guys personally who own and play through $2000+ amps who sound like canned ass. The only thing they know about their amps and high end guitars are what they read in the owners manual. They don't know how to dial them in. Many guys buy these high end amps and guitars thinking they will become better players and sound better. WRONG.
Give me a decent el cheapo amp and guitar and some chops anyday.
Back in the old days when guitar players were great (or had to be in order to even get a gig) we played through anything we could afford.
Only the pro's could afford high end gear. Heck.. most of the music stores didn't even carry the high end professional gear and at that time there was no internet or cell phones or any way to actually see or hear pro gear unless you went to a show. At that time we all were thankful that Carvin was around and at least had pro amps we could see in a catalog and buy direct.

[Aldrich fan]

I have Hughes & Kettner Edition Tube 20th Aniv. that does a good job for not a lot of dough. Has anyone tried that Jet City 50watt? I've seen them going for $499 new and a 212 cab for about $200. That's tempting.

[Grim]

I can essentially boil my tone snobbery to this:

If I like my sound, I tend to like my playing.

It is as simple as that for me. If I'm comfortable with the sound I am hearing, I'll be more confident, more adventurous, and more entertaining that if I wasn't happy with my tone.

The last "gig" I played was in a Toronto bar, and I used my Custom 24 and ash deluxe strat into a Hot-Rod Deluxe. Worked like a charm. Expensive guitars, but that amp I got for around $600. I had a TS-9 in front of it and it was a great tone. I could have used my Mark V into a 2x12, but I didn't. I think the Deluxe sounds fantastic for hard rock/classic rock, and I plan on keeping and using it for quite a while.

Bottom Line : If you like your cheap amp, why not? and if you're playing rock, you owe yourself to check out a HotRod Deluxe (Yet I reckon most of you around here probably already have owned one at some point.) for cheap, durable, consistent tone.

[clifffclaven]

"All the greatest hits from the 80's, 90's, and today!!"

Mostly 80's & 90's hard rock/metal - hair stuff mainly, but some AIC thrown in for good measure. I like the head better than the combo - it really smokes through a closed-back cab.

good to know. thats what we play. I borrowed a 112 version of the first spidervalve when it came out for a gig, thought it sounded pretty good, but didnt really have time to mess with it.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

I'm a big fan of the Crate Powerblock.

[roodyrocker]

Lets not kid ourselves here, If someone is playing a Soldano SLO live and doesn't sound better than another guy playing through a cheapo-name your brand here-amp then one of two things are wrong here. Either the first guy doesn't know how to dial in an amp or his tubes are spanked. No one here has mentioned some of the things that go along with owning and gigging a high end tube amp. I think of these high end tube amps the same as a high performance car. Sure, any car can get you from point A to point B. But a performance car can do some things better and always requires more maintainance and tuning than the average car. Unfortunately many tube amp owners buy the amp and just play it paying little to no attention to such things as tube life. A friend of mine is a tech and in 2011 we still see original tubes still in an amp coming through the shop when the amp was built back in the 80's! The other issue live with these high end tube amps is they are much more sensitive to voltage than a SS amp. I've run into this myself live. The little clubs we gig in do not always have consistent clean power. Big arenas are set up for this but the clubs we play in we're usually lucky if we don't pop a fuse between running lights and power amps! This is not to say that you can't get good tone with cheap, SS, no name amps because you can. But if the conditions are right I would expect something like a Soldano or Bogner to smoke anything in its path every time. They really do sound that good! Anyway, I've used cheap stuff before just like everyone else here. At one time I ran two Crate 1x12 combos in stereo. Not only did I have a cheap rig but I had a cheap stereo rig One of the more impressive cheap setups I've heard is the Randall RH200 head into a Randall 4x12 Jaguar speaker loaded cab (I think thats what was in there). Its an amp I bought so our other guitar player/singer in the band at the time could have something to play through. Its a two channel amp plus I threw a $39 Boss DS-1 pedal in front of it to turn it basically into a 3 channel amp. the other pedal I put in front of it was an H2O which has chorus and delay in one pedal. With that setup we had a rig with good sound and some commonly used effects and that Randall 1/2 stack was very light! So yes you can sound good with these rigs but no I don't think they sound as good or better than the good high end stuff, generally speaking. Of course the price is much lower which is the real bonus here.

[chrisolson]

good to know. thats what we play. I borrowed a 112 version of the first spidervalve when it came out for a gig, thought it sounded pretty good, but didnt really have time to mess with it.

I had the 2x12 Mk I, and thought it was really cool at first, but got tired of the handcuffing effects, and ended up using only the Plexi mod with a Boss Super OD in front of it. It still sounded great, but I got bored. I hadn't really given the Mk II a thought when it came out, but was at Music Go Round one day, and the Spider IV was about all they had besides some Crates & Fenders. I thought that little bugger sounded pretty good, so the next time I was around GC, I tried the Spider Valve Mk II. Much more dynamic! The models were much better this time around. I tried the HD, and then the combos. The HD really cooked with a closed back cab. Way better than the combo IMO.

[Endrik]

It all depends what you want to do. I like playing with good amps which necessarily aren't 4K boutique amps. Good sound makes me feel better which makes the overall performance better. I like when the amp reacts to every nuance of playing and has great dynamics. Good amps are WAY better than average amps in that department. I'm not Jeff Beck but that doesn't mean I wont give my best to play with the best feel and tone I can at a moment, I want the amp to deliver that. Some amps just bring out your personality better than the others. For me music is personal, a live performance is intimate, a communication. I don't want to make big compromises when I'm speaking to other people with my instrument.

Also when you are using a bunch of crazy effects, the amp makes a huge difference. It's even more evident when it comes to bass amps. Usually a bass amp makes a lot less difference than a guitar amp, you need a good player and a bass and it will sound great, most amps will do the job. But when you use a bunch of effects on a bass, a lot of amps sound utter shit. In one of my experimental projects the bass player has carefully sculpted many cool sounds with different pedals and with his big and clear Ampeg SVT sound. There have been some lives or even band practices when we had to use some other gear. Even with some pretty decent bass amps some of the sounds with octave, fuzz and phaser pedals have been muddy and with no good definition. With his Ampeg or some other good amp, the sound is always clear and punchy. During at one of the live shows when he had to use his bass synth effect with a local amp at the festival I only heard some incredibly high-pitched and ringy "swoosh-swoosh" sound. It's never the case when he uses a really good amp.

When a cheap amp gets the job done that means that this amp is good for that purpose but that doesn't mean it will satisfy all the needs in the world.