Mesa Quad and a solid state power amp

[Razor]

I was thinking of getting a solid state power amp for my Quad. I can't afford a Mesa one right now, and as we all know, changing power tubes can be costly at times, so are there any relatively good solid state poweramps out there that will do the job without compromising the sound?

Thanks

 

[mr_fender]

Solid state power amps won't really compromise the sound. The biggest problem is they won't do much of anything to the sound. They are too clean and transparent. They are designed to be as linear as possible. The signal coming out of a tube preamp can often be pretty shrill and harsh sounding. A good tube power amp does a lot to really sweeten up the tone.

A friend of mine has a 200 watt Samson power amp he uses with his Bass rig and has pretty good luck with it. It was pretty cheap too.

You might want to pickup a good EQ to put between your Quad and a solid state amp to give you more options in the way of tonal shaping before the super clean output of a solid state power amp.

Retubing does get pricy. I used to have a 2:90. It sounded fantastic and was ridiculously loud, but those 8 power tubes would put quite a dent in my wallet.

 

[Razor]

That is what I was thinking about as well. Getting a parametric EQ as the quad already has a graphic one, and placing that in front of the power amp.

Yep, my thought exactly. Chances are power tubes won't last longer than a year, maybe less, although I AM aware of the advantages of tube power amps, all that comes at a price, so right now I need something cost effective.

 

[ytse_jam]

mr_fender gave a good answer. I think some good solid-state poweramps are designed also to colour the tone and not to be exactly transparent though. It's the case of the MosValve MV-962 I own, which I think works great with my Studio Pre. You have to try one of them if you can. They're cheap (got mine for 170 euros used) but they're considered among the (if not just the) best sounding solid-state guitar poweramps, specially the models MV-962 and its newer version, the MosValve 1160 (both by TubeWorks, a former Genz-Benz division I think and both out of production). I'm not saying that 'cause I own one, I just got one after I read/heard those things :wink: Just read some reviews at harmony-central.com, even you can't just rely on them... well, sincerely I did when I bought my Mesa Studio Pre and that MosValve poweramp, but I couldn't be more satisfied.

 

[t0aj15]

so are there any relatively good solid state poweramps out there that will do the job without compromising the sound?

I use two ART SLA-2 poweramps, one in my stereo sound system, and one in my W/D/W guitar rig. They are powerful, small, and very quiet. If that's to much power they also make an SLA-1 with the same specs at 1/2 the power. See it here:
http://www.artproaudio.com/products.asp?type=85&cat=8&id=105

 

[scottcrud]

I had a Studio Pre with a Peavey solid state power amp, 400 watts, and used a 15 band eq with it, it was pretty cool sounding, very similar to Tommy Victors tone on Prongs Cleansing cd.

 

[ak47]

Actually, I have always found that a good tube preamp through a solid state power amp is fine for achieving a slammingly good metal riffing tone!

... and didn't Kurt Cobain run his Studio pre into solid state Crown power amps?

 

[dmt]

My quad sounds fine running through a Ampeg B2 combo. Thats all solid state.

 

[jrhaze]

back in the days.. when I was short on the $... I've use a quad with a Peavey 120/120 and also at one time a peavey 60/60.. or maybe it was a 50/50 ? they looked pretty chezy but they sounded pretty good and I think today the go pretty cheep.. and they are tubes.. I think one of the 50/60's used the EL84 power tubes.. but I also used a old Crown DC300 for a few gigs with a Studio pre and 4/12 half back stereo cab.. and I remember it was sounding pretty good... I think you can pick up these old crown 300's now for about 150/200 bucks and they will give you some bang for you bucks.. if your putting a quad in the front end its going sound pretty good..
Good luck

 

[Razor]

Thank you all for the valuable information. I've researched on all the aforementioned power amps, and they all seem to be able to do the job here, so I'm sure to pick up one of these.

@ak47
Yep I was just thinking the same thing. DUnno which poweramp he used though.

@Dmt
Isn't B2 a bass amp?

@ Jrhaze
My dad uses a Crown poweramp for his home stereo, and he seems pretty pleased with it, so I will

 

[mr_fender]

My quad sounds fine running through a Ampeg B2 combo. Thats all solid state.

I was going to suggest that. Bass amps can be a great alternative. You'll likely get more "tone" out of a bass amp. Solid State Ampeg and Eden amps sound fantastic. PA style power amps are going to be flat and sterile, which is a very good thing for music reproduction. For a guitar amp, you want some coloration, musical compression, and non-linearity. The wide frequency response of bass amps makes them great for many different instruments.

 

[dmt]

@Dmt
Isn't B2 a bass amp?

Yeah the B2 is a bass amp, a decent one at that. Mine is loaded with a 15" speaker so its got plenty of kick. I run it in stereo with my Simul-Satellite. The Quad replaced a few distortion pedals and now feeds both amps some killer tone.

I think the bass amp on its own sounds better sometimes than the tube Simul-Satellite. But then again I like my bottom end.

 

[mr_fender]

But then again I like my bottom end.

That's what she said...

 

[helen_bach]

Hi!
I used to have a full SS rig I would use at one point. Had tube issues on the road, and got pissed and sold the tube stuff, bought SS. Went back to tubes, got irked again, etc.

MosFET type amps are a bit more tube like, so you can typically get a bit more of that response form them. Not all SS power amps are equal.. some are really "stringent" when it comes to response. FRFR, and they won't budge from it. To some, this can be perfect, as they craft their tone and feel the "reliability" of the tone is worth it. Chris Poland of OHM: (ex-Megadeth, **** the Machine, etc) uses a Bogner Fish with a MosFET type power amp on the road for the whole reliability side of things. I ended up with a hybrid in the end for the very same reasons.

Now that I am strictly studio work though.. well.. each day has tube heads calling to me. The full circuit interaction and flow versus split pieces is another story too. Try stuff out. Bring guitar, bring pre. Bring cab if you can. Or, if you have the ability, buy used, try, resell.

Certain power amps are known to be more guitar friendly, such as the Carvin DCM150. Single space are more rare, 2 space less so. Ton of choices!!!

 

[t0aj15]

1. For a guitar amp, you want some coloration, musical compression, and non-linearity.
2. The wide frequency response of bass amps makes them great for many different instruments.

1. That's strictly your opinion. I don't care for coloration, compression, or non-linearity in my poweramps, that's why my tube poweramps are almost all 6L6 based amps. They are generally the cleanest most uncompressed of the tube poweramps IMO. Even when they do start coloring and compressing it's at deafening SPL's that few of us use. I prefer my tone to emanate from the guitar/preamp combination with the poweramp/speaker combination being as clean and unobtrusive as possible. That's one reason I do like SS linear poweramps mated to tube preamps.
2. IMO that's much to general a statement to be true. Some bass amps are good all around amps and some aren't.

 

[Razor]

@Dmt
Isn't B2 a bass amp?

Yeah the B2 is a bass amp, a decent one at that. Mine is loaded with a 15" speaker so its got plenty of kick. I run it in stereo with my Simul-Satellite. The Quad replaced a few distortion pedals and now feeds both amps some killer tone.

I think the bass amp on its own sounds better sometimes than the tube Simul-Satellite. But then again I like my bottom end.

I'm not really familiar with bass amps. Then again, I'm a guitar player, though I have to ask. How do I go about connecting the Quad to the Ampeg? Does it have an FX return where I can plug the Quad, so I can bypass the ampeg's preamp, or does it go directly into the B2's input?

 

[dmt]

There are several ways each with advantages/disadvantages.

The simplest is to connect your signal from the Quad into the "Poweramp In' jack. Pretty easy there...

The second is you can connect it into the FX loop input. Similar effect. Both bypass the amps tonestack and volume.

the Third is to go through the front input. This goes through the whole tone stack and you have to be careful with your volumes. I prefer this approach since I get to tweak the EQ and GEQ for some extra punch. Its probably not as good for the amp but I prefer it. Honestly I haven't had a chance to play with the whole setup cause of my ******* roommates.

 

[Razor]

It does sound interesting though. And having an extra EQ is always a bonus. You can never have enough tone shaping possibilities, though one thing that puzzles me about running the quad through a bass amp (and speaker) is how will this affect the tone. Will the highs be clear? Doesn't a bass amp have a different frequency range from a guitar amp. I'm sure I won't be lacking on the bottom end part of the sound, but highs are as we all know very important.

 

[dmt]

The highs are there. Trust me. It sounds FANTASTIC. You just have to learn how to use the EQ.

 

[Razor]

Okay thanks. I will consider this.