What is the best amp you have ever heard or played?

[JOEY B.]

I haven't been one of the fortunate ones to actually use a real Mark IIC+ myself. I hope to one day though!

" I see " says the blind man. :wink: It's all good.

 

[jackio]

I played a ragged old marshall head through a 'dragged-down-the -street' 4x12 in a distant shop about 10 years ago. A strat. A lead. It was just so, something. Warm and focused and gentle and raw all at the same time. The guy in the shop said it was one of his workmates, but he wasn't sure what it was and his mate was off work. I wish I had looked closer. It may have been a JTM. I wish I had one now.
Otherwise my THD lonestar with a small valve in it, though I play my LSS out or my Super Champ if its a pub. But I search ebay for old marshall amps. Though I may never buy one. Or maybe I will...can anyone lend me £2500 ($2505)? No?

 

[markwayne]

The 3 I've actually played (in no specific order):

An old Hiwatt 1/2 stack w/ Fane speakers....just in your f'ing face power rock; I know why Pete Townshend used these :twisted:

Oh man! I had almost forgot about my Hiwatt year.

I was asked to take the place of a guitar player with a substance abuse problem back in the early eighties. When I got to the band's rehearsal space, there was an old Hiwatt, 100 watt half-stack with a power soak sitting on top already set up in the corner. Their lead guitar player had just left his gear after they canned him and he asked them to store it there! They called him and asked if I could use it for practice. I left my Marshall and pedal board in the car that night. I ended up playing through that amp for the next year or so. I remember buying the guy a beer at our first gig (he became our sound man) and he told me I could use the amp as long as I was in the band. That rig definitely helped redefine my idea of great tone.

 

[RR]

The 3 I've actually played (in no specific order):

An old Hiwatt 1/2 stack w/ Fane speakers....just in your f'ing face power rock; I know why Pete Townshend used these :twisted:

Oh man! I had almost forgot about my Hiwatt year.

I was asked to take the place of a guitar player with a substance abuse problem back in the early eighties. When I got to the band's rehearsal space, there was an old Hiwatt, 100 watt half-stack with a power soak sitting on top already set up in the corner. Their lead guitar player had just left his gear after they canned him and he asked them to store it there! They called him and asked if I could use it for practice. I left my Marshall and pedal board in the car that night. I ended up playing through that amp for the next year or so. I remember buying the guy a beer at our first gig (he became our sound man) and he told me I could use the amp as long as I was in the band. That rig definitely helped redefine my idea of great tone.

WHY DID YOU GUYS HAVE TO MENTION HIWATT?

all the Classic amps:
Hiwatt DR series
Marshall JTM45 and Plexi Super Leads
AC30 Vox
Black Face Fender Deluxe, Super Reverb, ...
Bassman Tweed, (actually, most case I prefer Black Face over Tweeds except the Bassman).


... and a Behringer. :lol:

 

[Friedmett]

The best amps I have heard?

Well the amps of Jimi Hendrix, Metallica, Ritchie Blackmore and alot of others.

The best amp I have played?

The ones I still got are most likely the best. I got my Marshall 2104 combo '78 50watt by chance back in 2000 and I still love the sound of it. Nothing compares to it. It took around 5 minutes on Low channel for me to ask for the price.

I still got my old Dean Markley I-20 signature 100watt tube rack amp and I use it as a poweramp for my favorite higain Mesa/Boogie Quad preamp. Together with a 1922 Marshall cab it sounds great for a homerig. Those 2 setups covers my needs for tones pretty good and I don't really have any other amp in mind exept a Mesa poweramp for the Quad.

 

[DarkCloud]

I was wondering when someone was going to mention Hiwatt.

For my top 3:

-Hiwatt DR103. The amp loves pedals and stays mean & clean with a ton of aggression. I first started out with a 1979 50 watt combo, but the 100 watt head is even better though hard to stay in the same room when fully opened up. These amps are also capable of great clean tones and can take pedals without losing much clarity. Tone controls that really work.

-Marshall 4010 JCM 800 combo. For some reason this 1x12 combo 50 watt is magic in a box. Mine has 6550 tubes and really has an excellent overdriven tone. For some reason, I did not like EL34 in this configuration. Many people have asked to purchase this amp from me

-Fender 6G3 Deluxe: I own and love my 1955 tweed Deluxe, but the 1962 Brown Deluxe really kicks some butt. Great vibrato as well.

Honorable mentions:

Watkins Dominator: Tried to talk my friend out of his with no luck. Fantastic amp!
Gibson GA-8 Gibsonette: Imagine a tweed Champ with a double the watts and a 10" speaker. Great amps.
Soldano SLO: My favorite of the hi gain set. Love the Boogie Mk III I have, but the Soldano seems a bit more up my alley.

 

[BENNY]

hughes and kettner Duo tone. kick myself for not buying it.

 

[Telemaster]

I sat in with my old band a while back...the guitarist handed me his Eric Johnson Strat which was plugged into his Fuchs 50/100 ODS w 2 x 12 cab. I was amazed at both the Strat and the Fuchs. And I though my Lonestar short stack was killer! The Fuchs wins. Odd thing though...HE recently switched to a Mesa and put his Fuchs up for sale!!!! If I only had the bucks!

 

[Rampage]

This is a hard one, but I would probably say the Cameron HG Jose JMP I was able to hear firsthand. I would not mind owning one, but they are pricey and really need some volume to kick in the tone, a luxury I do not have.

 

[MarshMesa]

I haven't really played enough amps to know which I would like the best, but I think the one I've been most impressed with was a Hiwatt head I heard years back. Hiwatts are quite around where I grew up, and hearing one definitely changed how I looked at guitar amps.

I really love my current amps but I'm sure there's always a better amp out there. I'm not one of those guys who wants just one sound though, and that's why it's more complex for me. I like to have a variety of distortion sounds. I like the Marshall sounds, I like the muffled distortion sounds, I like the Mesa sounds for dirty modern indie rock.

The only amp that I could not dial in a good tone was the Dual Rectifier solo head. It probably just wasn't my thing. I probably had the bass up too high, but even with an overdrive clean boost, the amp never sounded how I wanted it too. I definitely like my DC 3 head much, much better.

 

[ifailedshapes]

Mark V, hands down.

The Fender Super Sonic series gets an honorable mention for priceerformance.

 

[Deathf***ingmetal]

Mmm I haven't had the opportunity to play the high-end beasts that some of you have played (Soldano, VHT, Bogner...), so my choices are:

a) Early 90's Dual Recto; amazing amp!!!
b) Early 90's AMPEG VH-140C, which I currently own. The best solid state amp EVER!!!!

 

[glassjaw7]

I've played TONS of great amps over the years, but the standouts for me are:

Early Bogner XTC- liquid sustain and chewy vibe and "bloom" like no other amp I've played/heard

Bogner Shiva-Played both the EL34 and 6L6 combos and an EL34 head. I love these amps! Same as above, but the Shiva has a little more of a raw sound compared to the XTCs. Still has that Bogner chew and bloom.

Vintage JTM-45 (I think) with lay-down transformers--mostly just cool to play such an iconic amp 8)

Vintage Fender Bassman- plugged in a few pedals (OCD, Lovepedal Eternity, Bag of Dicks fuzz) and jammed out. Sounded phenomenal!!!

Diezel VH4--2007 model if I remember right. Amazing compressed metal crunch and fluid lead sounds. SUPER responsive and tight. Amazing amp across all 4 channels.

Dr. Z --can't remember the model of the combo I played, but it was really excellent for clean to mid-gain sounds. Probably the most touch-responsive amp I've played. Tons of texture for chords. Borrowed it from a blind guitar builder (true story) for a wedding gig.

Mark IV--both my buddy's early 90's IVa and my '05 IVb make the list. I am IN LOVE with this amp!!! The lead channel is an iconic classic and is just out of this world, dripping with tone! Great transparent fx loop, tons of eq options and clarity and cut. My friend's older Mark IVa seemed to have just the slightest bit more elasticity to the feel and tone and seemed slightly more "worn in", while mine has a bit more growl and bite. Both amazing.

Friedman modified Dual Rectifier-My old amp. I've talked about this amp here enough already. Purely awesome and probably the best rectifier I've ever played.

Early blackface Dual Recto--(rev F maybe?) This amp started my quest for tone and my recto love. If it had the versatility of my modded recto, it would have topped it. Undeniably awesome crunch and balls out rock/metal tones. They don't make em like they used to. (and yes, that includes the new multi-watt versions)

Soldano SLO with all factory mods--hated the first SLO I played at a GC in MN. It sounded like a fuzzy, garbled mess and left me wondering what the hype and high price was about. Fast forward a few years and I was able to crank up a freshly tubed new one. Holy balls!!! Amazing. enough said. Just have to crank it up a bit, and then it's thick and juicy and just perfect.

Engl Invader 100- Amazing versatility across all 4 channels. Super brutal and tight for metal, and a nice clean. Killer crunch for rock too. I think Engls are just about the best modern metal machines you can get. (except for Fortin)

And now for some amps that didn't live up to my expectations

Elmwood M90 and M60. I just didn't like the voicing on these amps. I couldn't dial out this harsh, fizzy sound and I tried both heads with a couple different cabs/speakers.

Cornford MK50. Heard so much about these amps being "game changers", but when I played a new one I was quite uninspired. It sounded nice and smooth, but seemed to lack character. Dunno...just found it boring. I'd like to try one out again though...

Egnater Tourmaster Love the few module amps I've recently played and the Renegade. The Tourmasters I've played sound like balls.

Marshall JVM. Really not a bad sounding amp at all, but it has a generic tone to it, if that makes sense. :? It's really versatile and useable but it lacks that real Marshall tone and special character that IMO they haven't been able to achieve for quite awhile now... However, Mike Fortin can modify these to sound amazing!

Amps I still would like to play
Mark V. Played one for about an hour at a GC and liked it, but I want to spend some real time with one to get to know it better. I can already tell that the clean and crunch sounds are an improvement over my IV, but from what I heard so far, the IV has a better lead channel. Hard to pinpoint what makes it sound better to me...just has that "dripping with tone, get lost for days in your sound" kind of lead channel. The V seems a bit dryer and just different. Really nice tones from what I could tell, though...

IIc+. Gotta see how it compares to my IV.

20th Anniversary Bogners. I must get my hands on a 20th XTC with EL34s!!!! Seems like it has the potential to be, dare I say, my be-all, end-all amp. :shock:

The rest of the Diezel lineup. Considering how much I love the VH4, I'd love a chance to play the rest of the lineup.

Friedman Marsha and Naked. Had my eye on these for a few years now. I have to get out to LA to try all this **** out!

Cameron CCV. The mythical beast that has become a legend. I have to experience one eventually.

Suhr PT. Heard great things...


Wow, what an indulgent and excessive post. :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

20th Anniversary Bogners. I must get my hands on a 20th XTC with EL34s!!!! Seems like it has the potential to be, dare I say, my be-all, end-all amp. :shock:

Honestly, the 20th Anniv. Ecstasy was a huge disappointment for me. I bought one new about a year and a half ago; bought into the hype and thought I loved it, after selling my 101b. The 20th sounds great at low to medium-high volumes, but when really opened up, it just didn't deliver for me. Definitely wasn't a bad amp, but very fizzy when you got it going. Doesn't record well either, IMO.

 

[Vigo1999]

hummmmm tough one, but mines were:

played
dirty:

- Mesa MKIIC (dont know if it was a + or not, dont remember) driving a 4x12 Mesa cab with steel grille at a recording gig in a studio here in Rio.
- My MKIII blue stripe and 1x12 thiele cab and 1x12 open cab, both with EVMs12
- DC-3 on clean channel with gain at 8 pushed by a fulltone fulldrive II

clean:

- very old Fender bandmaster
- mesa caliber 50+ head with the same 1x12 cabs above
- Mesa Blue Angel 2x10" combo monsta-tone modded (thanks Andy!!)


heard
dirty:

- Bogner XTC 101B
- Ronnie Le Tekro's sound in the Intuition intro
- Michael Schenker lead tone on the One Night at Budokan album (especially the neck pu sound)


clean:
- Rivera K-Tre
- whatever SRV used on Sky's crying version of Little Wing (that HUGE open G chord he strums at the beginning is simply amazing!!)

 

[THTH]

Dirty- My 1979 Marshall 2204 JMP MkII lead, sounds like Strangers in the Night by UFO

Clean- Friend's 1964 Fender Deluxe Reverb, chimiest amp I've ever heard

For gigs I use either my MkIVb widebody combo or Triaxis/Coliseum 300 rack setup.

 

[Heritage Softail]

For great punchy cleans to the edge of breakup, as well as great angry pissed off grind, my IIC.

Push a variety of cabs, with a spread of guitars, it does just about everything. A tele and compressor in class A punches great. Very dynamic amp.

 

[Jackie]

Best small/practice SS amp I've ever heard is the Yamaha THR. Sounds great out of the box, has editor so you can tweak it more if you want to. I rarely make extreme statements like this, but IMO it ***** over any small practice amp a la Crate, Ibanez, Peavey etc. And it looks cool too :mrgreen:

 

[gtrdaddy]

I like BF/SF Pro Reverbs with the Cesar Diaz mod. Killer loud and great natural OD. Very Loud...still half a Twin!

I like BF/SF DRs with a Red White and Blues Eminence....Half the Pro Reverb, same tone and killer breakup without the volume.

I like Traynor YGM-3 amps. The old hand wired and new hand wired reissues......with out the stock P12Q-very nice at low volumes clean, but is a mismatch on this amp for pushed OD sound. Answer: Red White & Blues. To die for sound when dimed; creamy smooth distortion. One channel. One amp. One sound. Ooofah.

 

[exbest182]

I recently ditched all my gear in favor of the 5150 III... Don't know what it is about it but I love it more than any other amp I've played .. I've owned 7 different Mesa heads, 4 marshall heads, and several others, and this one just does it for me... My favorite amp hands down.