Help an 80s metal guy find a more modern amp

[Brandenburg]

used randall RG 80/100es.. great 80's sound but imo i love mine. has aggressive distortion/nice cleans and the sheer brute force to dominate..lol..they are very reliable as well.. only downsides is that they are somewhat limited in tonal variety and you really have to use them with a footswitch

[data187]

I would go with a used line 6 vetta 2 or hd147 head. I've owned both before and they sound way better than any of their lower end spider or even flextone lines. The vetta 2 is super versatile but the hd147 has some of the most brutal metal tones. The only downside to these amps is that they are not that pickup/volume sensitive so you can't dial down the gain/distortion by lowering the volume pot on your guitar. They also don't do the tube semi-clean sounds (a la hendrix) well.

[jspeed]

used randall RG 80/100es.. great 80's sound but imo i love mine. has aggressive distortion/nice cleans and the sheer brute force to dominate..lol..they are very reliable as well.. only downsides is that they are somewhat limited in tonal variety and you really have to use them with a footswitch

+1

Been a Marshall guy for years, but those Randalls are pretty animal.

[DonP]

If Marshall is what you want, I'd guess a Mode 4.

[TKEblue]

My frater Vass brings a dang good point. I have the spider valve 2x12 and I can vouch for its awesomeness over the vypyr and regular spider. I like the mushuggah and kse settings.

I also have a B52 100w head that sounds pretty legit. Bought it used for like $100 a few years ago. Haven't used it much, got it as a backup but I was very impressed. No bells and whistles like the orhers, just reverb.

[Jackson8090s]

A great solid state head I found in a pawn shop Crate Flexwave 120H , no processor needed sounds great for metal. You can pick em up fairly cheap $100-130 depending on condition . Here ya go , http://www.musicgoroundcoloradosprin...-amp-120-watts

[thetruthguy]

I think the Jet City amps (22h and 50h) would fit your bill. Blackstar makes some great import stuff. Both can be very 80s sounding. DeMartini got a lot of his sound from Soldano SLO and the Jet City amps are very similar, even designed by Soldano.

[PowerTube]

Forget the Spider series. Go to Guitar Center's website and grab a used Flextone II that's listed in either "Great" or "Excellent" condition.

In my humble opinion, the overdrive sounds on the Spider really suck. The Flextone and Flextone II had Modern Hi-Gain, which is the best thing Line 6 ever produced.

This can be had for mot much over $100.00.

[Kempo Bulldog]

I picked up a used Blackstar ID30 TVP for under $250 shipped on Ebay. There are several different wattages to choose form and you can get a lot of great tones out of them. Definitely a fun amp. Check out the demos on You Tube.

[themisfit138]

I know you said solid state, but you should really check out the Marshall JVM. It is a pretty awesome metal amp.

[RampantLion]

I tried out a few Line 6 amps and then tried a few others at Sam Ash and Guitar Center... I decided to find a great tech to repair and clean up my Ampeg SS-140C combo. If you've ever played one, you probably know why.

[Ripley7t]

Blackstar ID series, Peavey Bandit, XXL, Marshall Valvestate, even though it has a tube, etc.

[VoiceX3]

I've played (and owned) a couple Line 6 Spider amps and they just never did it for me. The tone is "Eh" and didn't really cut to well. I know Musicians Friend was blowing out the Bugera 333xl combos for like $350 not too long ago, so you might be able to find one on the cheap the Ebay or Craigslist. I know it's a tube amp, but if you have the chance to play one I think you'll like it. Channel 3 can deliver brutal metal tones for sure. You get the bonus of the crunch channel which can get the George Lynch/Jake E Lee tone. The clean channel is lively and not sterile like today's SS amps.

I know where you're coming from with those old SS Ampegs, but the modern SS stuff, to my ears doesn't come close to that tone. I'd keep fixing the old one if you want that tone, you won't find it anywhere else.

[RampantLion]

Yeah, I really wanted to find something I loved, but it was a stretch. The Line 6 amps seemed more like toys, having a massive range of sounds, but none that were flawless. More like something I'd have fun with, but I don't think I could just use it day in and day out. The SS140C is massively heavy, but it's worth repairing. The cleans are as good as I've heard and the distortion with the mids down to 0 are exactly what I love.

I've played (and owned) a couple Line 6 Spider amps and they just never did it for me. The tone is "Eh" and didn't really cut to well. I know Musicians Friend was blowing out the Bugera 333xl combos for like $350 not too long ago, so you might be able to find one on the cheap the Ebay or Craigslist. I know it's a tube amp, but if you have the chance to play one I think you'll like it. Channel 3 can deliver brutal metal tones for sure. You get the bonus of the crunch channel which can get the George Lynch/Jake E Lee tone. The clean channel is lively and not sterile like today's SS amps.

I know where you're coming from with those old SS Ampegs, but the modern SS stuff, to my ears doesn't come close to that tone. I'd keep fixing the old one if you want that tone, you won't find it anywhere else.

[sytharnia1560]

Yeah, I really wanted to find something I loved, but it was a stretch. The Line 6 amps seemed more like toys, having a massive range of sounds, but none that were flawless.

with something like the ID series you need to get the "right" one....while I was looking for a new amp I tried shit loads of stuff and the ID that was 2 x 12 sound so much better than the 1 x 12 one (I ended up with the jet city 22h...like was mentioned earlier. Does 80's ratt etc perfectly)