Should I get a Stiletto head?

[regotheamigo]

I already have a Lonestar head and it's just the most amazing amp that I have ever heard, but it can't really do the high gain lead stuff to well. Maybe if I went and got a overdrive pedal with it maybe, I don't know. I am looking for an amp strickly for lead tones . Is this possible with the Stiletto? I play stuff like Hendrix, Eric Johnson, Clapton, Vai and such. I am looking to switch back and forth between the two. Like clean and dirty chord stuff on the Lonestar, and lead work on the Stiletto. If you own this amp let me know your opinion. Thanks

 

[musicbox]

man, thats alot of money to spend just for one sound. the stilleto is a two channel head... if you look in the right places, and experiment, im almost 100% certain you could find a pedal, whether it be boutqiue, or something modified, thatll meet your ideals.

 

[jpage]

I don't think the Stiletto is the head you are looking for. I brought it home and spent a couple of days with it. It's not a super high gain head, but neither are (most of) the tones you mention. It is suited well for AC/DC grind and you can get a pretty close Brown Sound EVH tone also. Led Zep is in there too. I thought the amp was simply too piercing. I've played Marshalls and know the difference between el34s and 6l6s, unlike alot of those who have wrote this head off. But really, this thing will bite your forehead off! I'm sure that you could tone it down a bit with different tubes/speakers/eq et al but that was my end opinion.

For the Clapton and Hendrix, I think you want a more traditional Super lead head, maybe a RI or a clone (www.metroamps.com, www.voodooamps.com) with an attenuator and a fuzz for the Jimi and a Tube Driver for the EJ violin tones. The Vai stuff is a different beast altogether from the others you mentioned but I'm sure you could achieve something close with some sort of screamer type OD that bumps your mids.

You also might want to look at substituting el34s for the 6l6s in your Lonestar, since most of the tones you mention are el34 based (well, early Clapton anyway). I plan on picking some up today and if you like I'll post my thoughts later after I spend some time with them. I actually might make clips of the two if I get ambitious...

 

[regotheamigo]

I don't think the Stiletto is the head you are looking for. I brought it home and spent a couple of days with it. It's not a super high gain head, but neither are (most of) the tones you mention. It is suited well for AC/DC grind and you can get a pretty close Brown Sound EVH tone also. Led Zep is in there too. I thought the amp was simply too piercing. I've played Marshalls and know the difference between el34s and 6l6s, unlike alot of those who have wrote this head off. But really, this thing will bite your forehead off! I'm sure that you could tone it down a bit with different tubes/speakers/eq et al but that was my end opinion.

For the Clapton and Hendrix, I think you want a more traditional Super lead head, maybe a RI or a clone (www.metroamps.com, www.voodooamps.com) with an attenuator and a fuzz for the Jimi and a Tube Driver for the EJ violin tones. The Vai stuff is a different beast altogether from the others you mentioned but I'm sure you could achieve something close with some sort of screamer type OD that bumps your mids.

You also might want to look at substituting el34s for the 6l6s in your Lonestar, since most of the tones you mention are el34 based (well, early Clapton anyway).

I plan on picking some up today and if you like I'll post my thoughts later after I spend some time with them. I actually might make clips of the two if I get ambitious...

Yeah man that will be cool, I would love to hear how the Lonestar sounds with EL34'S