Stereo rig - which amp?

[b0nkersx]

I have an RKII. I'm looking for another amp to mesh with it to round it out. I don't have the money for it, but there's a great store nearby that has a lot of nice amps in a really cool environment for me to try. I'm capping the price range at $2k. I currently have the following stuff:

Gibson Les Paul w/ stock pickups (guitar is 20 years old, I don't know what pickups they are, but I'm changing them out with Duncan Jazz/JBs or some DiMarzios)
Schecter C-1 Limited w/ EMG 81/85
Mesa RKII
Fulltone OCD, Maxon OD808

I'm looking into another amp to run as a stereo rig. The three I have been looking at the most are the Stiletto Deuce/Trident, Mark V, and 5150. I'm not limited to these three. I have two heavy rhythm sounds (ch3 vintage/ch4 modern), a gained out crunchy lead (ch2 brit with everything dimed but presence and boosted), and a loud ominous sounding clean tone (kind of like a bell toll).

The 5150 has a price advantage but the disadvantage of only being able to do one kind of sound. The Stiletto can do two sounds but does both really well. The Tite Gain mode would work for my rhythm and lead sounds. The Mark V obviously has a large versatility advantage.

My influences include bands like Tool, Parkway Drive, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Rage Against The Machine, Metallica, Opeth, Killswitch Engage, System Of A Down, Russian Circles, and Megadeth. Really any kind of hard rock, punk, and metal from the 70s until now. I'm open to suggestions. Thoughts?

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

I think I might be able to help...I've been toying with mixing amps A LOT recently.

There are a few things you need to decide. How do you want to route effects? How many sounds are you going for? Which amp will define your CORE sound?

I'll run you through these things with my specific setup.

I'm currently running a three amp rig live...Mesa Roadster, Bogner Uberschall, and Mesa Mark IV. It's fun :wink: There's a lot going on behind the scenes, but **** it comes together well. I always have two amps running at a time.

My main amp is the Roadster for it's versatility...I can get all my core tones out of the one amp. It goes into it's own 4x12. I them layer two other amps with the Roadster, depending on the sound I'm going for. Here's a breakdown of my three main sounds.

-Clean: The Roadster runs wet with an MXR Carbon Copy in the loop. I use the Mark IV on the second cab, and it runs dry. Roadster does a darker clean, while the Mark IV does a pristine bright fender clean.

-Rhythm: Roadster goes to Channel 4 w/ an Maxon OD808 boosting the front end, and I switch from the Mark IV to the Uberschall on my Second 4x12. BROOTAL sound here...I completely see why Tremonti likes this combination. The two amps have similar sounds, but they each grind differently in the mid range, and the Uberschall is sonically shifted down in the spectrum...REALLY fills things out. If I want a slightly tighter and brighter rhythm sound, I go back to the Mark IV on the Lead Channel. I'm mostly with the Uberschall right now though.

-Lead: Roadster is on Channel 3 w/ Maxon and Carbon Copy. I switch the the Mark IV Lead. Beautiful lead sound.

I also have some intermediate crunch sounds, and wet and dry versions. All is controlled by one touch of the Voodoo Labs Ground Control Pro.

So, basically it comes down to what you'd like to achieve. If you want to run two amps ALL the time for ALL your sounds, I'd make sure the second amp is versatile aswell. That is why I have the Mark IV in my setup....I could do without the Uberschall, and the Mark IV could be the 'second sound' for everything my Roadster puts out. I sadly can't say that for the Uberschall...it's kind of a one channel amp. SICK one, but yeah. I figure the 5150 would be much the same way.

So Mark IV would obviously work.

The Stiletto is definitely a possibility. It has a GREAT clean, and a great high gain drive. It should blend well with a rectifier, though I have never tried it myself. You'd probably want an EQ in its loop to get both alternate lead and rhythm sounds out of it on the go.

You've also got many other brands to consider. Bogner Ecstasy, VHT Sig X, the ENGL line, a Marshall? Layer amps really allows you to do alot, as you can overcome the shortcomings an amp usually has with the second. An amp that you might have hated by itself might just be the perfect compliment to what you have now.

Just a final addition...I hope you're already setup for, or are planning on MIDI switching. These sorts of setups are REALLY a pain in the put otherwise, especially if you have different functions and pedals you want to switch on each amp for different tones.

ENJOY, and let me know if you need anything else!

Eric

 

[b0nkersx]

Thanks for the informative post! I'll start with a few things you've said.

There are a few things you need to decide. How do you want to route effects? How many sounds are you going for? Which amp will define your CORE sound?

I don't use a lot of effects. I have the OD808/OCD as a boost for my RK, but other than that I run dry, so this isn't a huge issue for me. I have a 10 band EQ that I noodle around with at times but I don't use it when I turn the amp up. I have five sounds in general.

Basically, the five sounds are this:
Evil, ominous clean (ch1); Shreddy gained out lead/rhythm (ch2 with boost) or classic rock crunch (ch2 without boost); Heavy chunky midrangey rhythm tone (ch3, think Tool); and teh br00tal metulz (ch4). The RK will probably be my core sound (at least to begin with) because I'm familiar with it and I love the sound across all four channels.

So, basically it comes down to what you'd like to achieve. If you want to run two amps ALL the time for ALL your sounds, I'd make sure the second amp is versatile aswell. That is why I have the Mark IV in my setup....I could do without the Uberschall, and the Mark IV could be the 'second sound' for everything my Roadster puts out. I sadly can't say that for the Uberschall...it's kind of a one channel amp. SICK one, but yeah. I figure the 5150 would be much the same way.

So Mark IV would obviously work.

I would like to stick to two amplifiers. The 5150 is attractive to me because of the price, and the sick metal sounds it puts out. The reason it is also unattractive is because it's (like you said) a one channel amp that does excellent metal sounds, but it would only enhance half of my sounds. The Mark V is very appealing because it ultimately has six sounds (three channels with or without EQ) that I could blend with each sound on my RK.

The Stiletto is definitely a possibility. It has a GREAT clean, and a great high gain drive. It should blend well with a rectifier, though I have never tried it myself. You'd probably want an EQ in its loop to get both alternate lead and rhythm sounds out of it on the go.

About the EQ: maybe. I tend to use the same sound for rhythm and lead a lot depending on what style I'm playing. For example, when I play teh br00talz, I stay on channel 4 for rhythm and also use it for my tapping-based leads. I use the gained out Brit mode when I start doing sweeping/shredding because of its incredible clarity. When I play Led Zeppelin, though, I generally stay on channel 2 for everything. It generally works because I turn the mids to 10 on every amp I've ever played for rhythm and lead (I actually have the mids dimed on all four channels).

I figured the Stiletto would work well in this manner, since I preferred the Tite Gain for rhythm and lead when I played it. I like to stick to really open sounding leads (Van Halen, Jimmy Page, lots of clarity and mids) instead of the searing kind of stuff (Santana), which is what attracted me to the Stiletto and 5150 and Mark V. Extreme on the Mark V sounds pretty sick for the kind of leads I play.

You've also got many other brands to consider. Bogner Ecstasy, VHT Sig X, the ENGL line, a Marshall? Layer amps really allows you to do alot, as you can overcome the shortcomings an amp usually has with the second. An amp that you might have hated by itself might just be the perfect compliment to what you have now.

Yeah, that's really the thing. I'm trying to get as many suggestions and opinions as I can as to what amplifiers to try out, but I really don't want to spend over $2000, cause I need to replace my car in the next few years. The Sig X looks great, but I don't know anybody in the area with one, so I would have to buy it blind. I can do that if I hear a lot of sound clips and opinions on it, though. It really looks killer and I've been reading about it a lot.

I like the ENGL line also for its br00tal tones but I'm not huge on its other tones (at least on the amps in the $2k price range). The Bogner is pretty far out of my price range. The only Marshall I felt like I really clicked with was the Kerry King JCM800, but that's something I've considered also. Most other Marshalls are more money than the amplifier you get, too.

Just a final addition...I hope you're already setup for, or are planning on MIDI switching. These sorts of setups are REALLY a pain in the put otherwise, especially if you have different functions and pedals you want to switch on each amp for different tones.

You bet. Thanks for all the help, man.

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

Btw...if you haven't seen my video yet, here's Mark IV and Roadster together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5W5_roi_gg

Eric

 

[b0nkersx]

Sick. I like that a lot. Nice bike, too. I actually have an Afterburner 412B on order, too. I can't wait to give it a run.