Greetings everyone.
As I am sure is shown by my post count, I'm new here. I've been playing guitar off and on for a couple years now, and am now at a point where I'm no longer ashamed to plug my guitar into an amplifer for fear that others might hear my horrendous playing. I've recently found myself in search of an amplifer, as my previous one, a solid state something that Google has never heard of blew its power transformer, and I was told that parts couldn't be found for it. Somewhere along the line, I decided I'd had my fill of solid state amps and amp modeling on my computer and decided it was time to get a real amplifier - one that was all tubes.
Thus far, I've only looked at some Marshalls and some Mesas, admittedly because Metallica and Dream Theater have used them, repsectively. I suppose I should try some other brand of amps, but some of the tones that Petrucci had at the latest Dream Theater gig were just so **** beautiful-we wants it, precious.
In my search for amplifiers, I've mainly been taking my guitar to various stores that let me demo the amps they have and just a few riffs on my guitar while fiddling with the knobs in search of a tone that I like. I found a shop in town that had a used Single Rectovereb 1x12 combo with an extra 1x12 cabinet. Cleans where eh, but when I got the volume turned down on the distortion channel so that the store's front windows stopped vibrating louder than the amp, I fell in love. "Oooh, that's....Yeah. That's aggressive". I ran out of time and they had to kick me out of the shop so they could close for the day. I was going to go back to put money down on the amp, only to find out that someone else bought it. ****.
I've played some other Rectifiers at Guitar Center, including a Triple, a Single, a Roadster and a Road King. Thus far, I've not found that same awesomely aggressive tone that the Rectoverb had. I've also played with a 5:25, and I think it was a Lonestar, but thus far, I've not found a tone I like. I'd pick up the Road King anyway, because with all those knobs and switches, there have to be some awesome tones inside it, somewhere, but it is beyond my budget and credit limit currently, unless I can get a deal during one of Guitar Center's sales or something.
So at this point I'm feeling a bit stuck and uncertain what to do. I've no use for the Wal-Mart amp that came with my Wal-Mart guitar. Now I know some people are going to tell me to get a better guitar before looking at an amp. While I'd love a newer, better guitar, my current one plays comfortably enough, and I know from demoing amps and guitars at the various stores that a crappy guitar sounds a lot better through a good amp than vice versa, in spite of how bad a player I am. I will acknowledge that my cheap guitar has cheap pickups that probably sound worse than most other pickups out there, and am tempted to change them out, but I remember that the rectoverb sounded awesome, even with my cheap pickups. I'm feeling tempted to try changing out the pickups in my guitar with something better before demoing anything else and see if maybe I can find a good tone that way. Or perhaps there are some other good tube amps I should try that aren't as costly as the Road King.
What do you guys suggest?
As I am sure is shown by my post count, I'm new here. I've been playing guitar off and on for a couple years now, and am now at a point where I'm no longer ashamed to plug my guitar into an amplifer for fear that others might hear my horrendous playing. I've recently found myself in search of an amplifer, as my previous one, a solid state something that Google has never heard of blew its power transformer, and I was told that parts couldn't be found for it. Somewhere along the line, I decided I'd had my fill of solid state amps and amp modeling on my computer and decided it was time to get a real amplifier - one that was all tubes.
Thus far, I've only looked at some Marshalls and some Mesas, admittedly because Metallica and Dream Theater have used them, repsectively. I suppose I should try some other brand of amps, but some of the tones that Petrucci had at the latest Dream Theater gig were just so **** beautiful-we wants it, precious.
In my search for amplifiers, I've mainly been taking my guitar to various stores that let me demo the amps they have and just a few riffs on my guitar while fiddling with the knobs in search of a tone that I like. I found a shop in town that had a used Single Rectovereb 1x12 combo with an extra 1x12 cabinet. Cleans where eh, but when I got the volume turned down on the distortion channel so that the store's front windows stopped vibrating louder than the amp, I fell in love. "Oooh, that's....Yeah. That's aggressive". I ran out of time and they had to kick me out of the shop so they could close for the day. I was going to go back to put money down on the amp, only to find out that someone else bought it. ****.
I've played some other Rectifiers at Guitar Center, including a Triple, a Single, a Roadster and a Road King. Thus far, I've not found that same awesomely aggressive tone that the Rectoverb had. I've also played with a 5:25, and I think it was a Lonestar, but thus far, I've not found a tone I like. I'd pick up the Road King anyway, because with all those knobs and switches, there have to be some awesome tones inside it, somewhere, but it is beyond my budget and credit limit currently, unless I can get a deal during one of Guitar Center's sales or something.
So at this point I'm feeling a bit stuck and uncertain what to do. I've no use for the Wal-Mart amp that came with my Wal-Mart guitar. Now I know some people are going to tell me to get a better guitar before looking at an amp. While I'd love a newer, better guitar, my current one plays comfortably enough, and I know from demoing amps and guitars at the various stores that a crappy guitar sounds a lot better through a good amp than vice versa, in spite of how bad a player I am. I will acknowledge that my cheap guitar has cheap pickups that probably sound worse than most other pickups out there, and am tempted to change them out, but I remember that the rectoverb sounded awesome, even with my cheap pickups. I'm feeling tempted to try changing out the pickups in my guitar with something better before demoing anything else and see if maybe I can find a good tone that way. Or perhaps there are some other good tube amps I should try that aren't as costly as the Road King.
What do you guys suggest?
