Opinions on the Heartbreaker?

[Artiefufkin10]

New poster here looking to upgrade from solid state to a really decent tube amp.

I've been eyeing up some used Heartbreakers I've seen around lately and wanted to get some general opinions on that amp from those who've played it.
Are these amps desirable?

I play in a rock band and we cover stuff like Zeppelin, Beatles, Hendrix, but I would like the versatility to be able to do some "harder rock" stuff like Alice & Chains, Queens of Stone Age, etc.

My main guitars are an Ibanez JS1000 and an Epiphone Les Paul. Do you think the Heartbreaker is versatile enough to get me these tones?

I know the Heartbreaker doesn't have the most footswitching options...is it more sensible to splurge for a Mark IV?

 

[boogieman75]

I love my heartbreaker for blues\classic rock tone! But you may need a pedal to get close to AIC out of the HB. I also have a dual rec which to me, having the 2 is the best of both worlds. That being said the HB loves pedals. I am mainly a strat guy and the last time I plugged in my hamer, I was getting some GOVT MULE tones on channel 2. Channel 2 is supposed to be the britisharshallesque channel on the HB. Last night i tried the boost on the blackfacenderesque channel which is the mark I "liquid" lead and WOW! I am also slaving out of the heartbreaker into the DR at the moment. Good Stuff

I am also using a wah as a tone filter and love the results I am getting.

love the heartbreaker!

(I could possibly live without my DR but you would have to pry the Heartbreaker from my cold dead hands....)

 

[sixlicks]

I like mine .

 

[Artiefufkin10]

THanks for the feedback guys. A few more questions, do you feel like its an amp that you can pretty quickly get what you want out of it?

For example, I'd like to have a decent rhythm crunch available and a good lead tone available at my disposal. I'm not a big fan of pedal distortion, but it seems like there's more variation on crunch using just your volume knobs on tube amps.

thanks!

 

[Tweeked]

I really like my HB too.It's really a good live amp,but in the studio it's
unbeatable.So many tones! With the ability to use 6L6's,EL34's,6V6's
and GZ34 or 5U4GB rectifier tubes,you can get the amp to do pretty
much whatever you need.It wont do the extreme gain metal sound.
If British crunch and Boogie MK1 lead(or vice versa)works for you live
the HB is a cool amp.One more caveat: If you plan to take this
thing to gigs It's very heavy(85lbs).

 

[LPClassic]

I love my 2 amps, as states is very versatil but limited on the high gain but can be done with pedals.

Personally the cleans are great but to me I feel that if you are doing early beatles it may not be as clean/high tone wise.

Best thing is try one and see if that what if you like.

Also at the beginning keep in mind that you may not like it (that happened to me) you have to read the manual and test, after that you know how it works you will be able to get a lot out of it, but take a little time to learn it. Hope you can try one to see if that is what you like and looking for. Good luck.

 

[stash49]

The HB was my second Boogie. Everthing an HB can do, other boogies can do better-it's kind of like a very elaborate Mark I. I sold it, and never missed, although I have some very fond memorys of really great gigs with it. I posted a clip last year. I was at the beginning of my mesa addiction. I'd never go back now, I've moved on to the hard stuff...I do miss that little heart shapped logo-that was was cool.[/i]

 

[Tweeked]

Grab the manual at the Mesa site.Pretty complicated amp if you don't know what you are doing.Wanted a mkI,the HB is that and a lot more.