NAD Is Coming Soon - Too Many Choices?

[soundchaser59]

New "USED" Amp Day is coming soon to a basement near me! But there are too many choices.

My current budget is under $999.99 (preferably shipped). I've already sold a guitar and my big amp, so I need to replace the amp soon. Research has narrowed the field of candidates to this non-exhaustive list:

Mesa (Nomad, F100, DC5, Express 5:50, Stiletto, Triple Rec (a bit too lold?) and Lonestar)
Rivera (Clubster, Chubster, Quiana, Knucklehead)
Dr Z (Maz 18, Z38, Remedy)
Fuchs (Blackjack 21, or some Fuchs-modded Fender or Traynor)
Various vintage Fenders (silverface is what's recommended)

Experiences good and/or bad? Primarily concerned about tone, of course, but also concerned about age of components and build quality. Head or combo doesn't matter to me. No lunchboxes, no chinese wonderware, no blue night lights, don't do any metal or high gain, EL84's are not my first choice, and single channel is not my first choice.

Any help from the bleachers?

 

[SonicProvocateur]

My friend just bought 2 Dr. Z's in the same trip. A Monza combo (f*n loud.) and a Remedy head (f*in louder). Both are amazing, and if you have the extra coin for a near pure clean tone/like to just use pedals for your OD sound, I would go for that. The Remedy is the perfect Marshall replacement IMO being 6V6 powered and taking pedals so well (it really did blow my mind how loud it was of pure clean until it tried to break up then I hit it with the BB-pre), but their preamp section is nowhere near as controled as a Mesa. If you want a signature Mesa sound, stick with a Mesa. Plus Mesa's are very refined across the board. You may wanna try one of the DC amps. They are pretty awesome without getting a Mark amp.

Edit: both Z's were $1200+

$0.02 delivered.

 

[screamingdaisy]

You gave us lots of examples of what you don't want, but no indication of what you do want...

 

[soundchaser59]

You gave us lots of examples of what you don't want, but no indication of what you do want...

I want all of the amps listed in my post above.

 

[screamingdaisy]

You gave us lots of examples of what you don't want, but no indication of what you do want...

I want all of the amps listed in my post above.

To play in a country band?

Rockabilly?

Disco?

 

[soundchaser59]

dont do metal, no high gain, everything else is on the table.......classic rock, blues rock, funky jazz rock, lite fusion, blues.......

main interest is with clean sustain, and OD that does not have the "swarm of mosquitos" fizz in the sound.

The main contenders seem to be Mesa, Rivera, and some modded stuff like a Fuchs modded Music Man. If Dr Z had a 2 or 3 channel amp I could afford, I probably woulda done that by now.

Anybody able to compare DC5 or DC10 vs Dual/Triple Rec vs F100 vs Nomad 100 vs Express 5:50 vs TA30?? There seem to be a few Nomads and F100's out there right around the $600-800 range. But are they too old? Reliable?

 

[mbman]

dont do metal, no high gain, everything else is on the table.......classic rock, blues rock, funky jazz rock, lite fusion, blues.......

main interest is with clean sustain, and OD that does not have the "swarm of mosquitos" fizz in the sound.

I had an Egnater TOL50 that woulda filled the bill, they don't pop up to often though.

Anybody able to compare DC5 or DC10 vs Dual/Triple Rec vs F100 vs Nomad 100 vs Express 5:50 vs TA30?? There seem to be a few Nomads and F100's out there right around the $600-800 range. But are they too old? Reliable?

Outta the amps mentioned above I'd check out an F100, wasn't too fond of the Nomad stuff. Age of gear never bothers me plus it's always good to know a decent tech

Martin

 

[screamingdaisy]

dont do metal, no high gain, everything else is on the table.......classic rock, blues rock, funky jazz rock, lite fusion, blues.......

main interest is with clean sustain, and OD that does not have the "swarm of mosquitos" fizz in the sound.

Electra-Dyne... although you'd need a pedal to boost it for high gain fusion, it'll do the classic/blues thing all day long. Great clean channel, great overdrive. More like a Plexi than other Mesas, and the Vintage High channel is more like a modded Plexi than your typical buzzy preamp sound.

EDIT - I just realized that totally blows your $999 budget.... I have seen a few going as low as $1100 on the used market.

 

[soundchaser59]

That's interesting, because I had discounted the ElectraDynes thinking they were single channel amps. I'll have to do that research again and take a closer look. Maybe I can give blood and scalp tickets or something for the extra money.....

 

[soundchaser59]

Outta the amps mentioned above I'd check out an F100, wasn't too fond of the Nomad stuff.

I do have a good tech available here locally, and he works on Mesa.

You're not the first one to say the F series is better than the Nomad or the DC's. Why do you say that? I've not heard either one, but I figured the Nomad would be more versatile?

 

[SonicProvocateur]

Have you looked at one of those shiny new amps that Avatar is making?

 

[soundchaser59]

I looked, interesting.......but I'm trying to stick to one of the more mainstream quality brands this time. I've been learning some lessons about resale value. Hope I find an amp I wanna live with for several years, but.....ya never know.....

I would be interested in hearing opinions on the Nomad 100 head. I really like the idea of having 3 channels.

 

[ifailedshapes]

I looked, interesting.......but I'm trying to stick to one of the more mainstream quality brands this time. I've been learning some lessons about resale value. Hope I find an amp I wanna live with for several years, but.....ya never know.....

I would be interested in hearing opinions on the Nomad 100 head. I really like the idea of having 3 channels.

Nomad opinions are available on this board. You just have to search for them. The general consensus is that it's okay at lots of things but not great at anything.

Here's a suggestion that will throw a wrench into this thread: Line 6 DT50! These new LIne 6 amps are the real deal, and to make things better, they're coming out with a DT25 next year, which will be under your $1,000 budget. Here's a demo vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZbR0PE5dTQ. It's 45 minutes long, but it's split into 3 parts. The first part is what would apply to this conversation.

I'm guilty of being a total Line 6 hater, but they've really been impressing me lately. Seriously, watch that video and then see how you feel about Line 6 amps from here on out.

 

[YellowJacket]

Electra Dyne 1 x 12 combo. The 27" Combo is probably best for what you want. Just make sure it have the gain trim switch and clean trim level installed so you can balance the clean 'mode' with the 'dirty' modes.

Clean is like deep rich fender cleans but you can do from skinny surf (with amazing on board reverb) all the way to rich dry rock tones.
Vintage Lo is classic rock / blues / overdrive / alternate clean, all depending how you set the amp up.

Vintage Hi is a thicker blues tone all the way into oldschool 80s metal as well as some harder rock tones. I've got my Electra Dyne to do the Greenday Dookie 'wall of strats going through 100 JCM800s punk tone. I LOVE it!

To explain how the amp works: It has one set of EQ controls plus a gain trim switch and a clean trim knob on the back. Mesa says that the amp has 'one channel with three footswitchable modes'. What they MEAN is that there are three tones or 'channels' available in the amp but you only have one set of controls with which to dial in sounds. The knobs control ganged pots, so as you turn a knob, you are actually adjusting the settings on three pots, not one. Basically, you have access to three distinct tones in a live situation and you can control them via a footswitch.

The Volume (gain) has a drastic effect on tone so Mesa added the gain trim switch to increase the usability of the amp. If you turn the gain trim switch to 'clean', you effectively turn the volume back 3 clockface hours. This means you can run the volume up at 2:30 or 3:00 and maintain clean headroom while having a lot of distortion on hand for both vintage lo and high. If you put the gain trim switch to 'lo/hi' it trims the gain back in those two modes. This mean you can get overdrive on the 'clean channel' for great bluesy tones while vintage lo becomes and alternate clean channel and vintage hi is an alternate and more complex blues tone. Believe me, this amp does a lot of awesome tones. I think you might find it a very attractive option, even for the $1,100 used it costs.

This video will explain it better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLpk6H5YX3A



The amp is really cool overall. The preamp sounds like a clipping power amp. I don't know how Mesa did it, but it is really awesome.

 

[Release]

I just bough my first Mesa a few weeks ago (Express 5:50) and I couldn't be happier. It'll do everything you ask for and you can find them used in your price range.

 

[TimeSignature]

I've got a Rivera Knucklehead Reverb. Its amazing, however, it only sounds good at ear bleed volumes so if you are thinking of playing small venues or practicing at night skip over this amp! Trust me.