What were the amps you've owned leading to what you have now

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wow.. heres what I can remember in order:

Gorilla something
Little crate tube amp combo
Some Crate 2x12
Then I got kinda serious with playing...

Peavey Classic 50
DSL 100
JSX
Rectoverb Combo
DSL 100 Again
Line 6 POD XTLive with peavey classic tube power amp (I was in a cover band and needed cheap flexibility)
Laney GH50L
Mark III
6505+
JCM 800 2210
Splawn Quickrod
Engl Blackmore
2 Channel Dual Recto
 
1. Crate 15 watt Toneblaster
2. Marshall Valvestate 100 Watt head and matching cab
3. Mesa 2 Channel Triple Rectifier and Traditional 4x12 cab
4. Roland JC-120 (at same time with TR, used for cleans and wet signal)
5. Mesa Rectoverb combo (JC120 for cleans)
6. Mesa Tremoverb Head with 4x12 Standard Cab (JC120 for cleans)
7. Mark IV long head (JC120 for cleans)
8. Rack Stage: Triaxis/2:90/ADA MP1 (JC120 for cleans)
9. Paying Dept Stage: Line 6 Vetta II combo
10. Currently: Mesa Roadster head/Basson 2x12 cab/Roadster 2x12 cab
 
Primarily a Marshall guy, but in my quest for different tones, I came across Mesa.

1. Peavy Stereo Chorus 2x12
2. Marshall 2203 (not reissue)
3. Marshall 1987 (reissue)
4. Marshall 1959 (JCM 800)
5. Fender Bassman (Sligo Amps clone)
6. Vox Berkeley III (60's solid state)
7. Vox AC-30/6 (1959-1962 with blue bulldogs and red grill cloth)
8. Marshall Major (keeps up with the Triple Rectifier)
9. Traynor Bassmaster (70's)
10. Epiphone Valve Jr. (head and cabinet)
11. Mesa 3ch Triple Rectifier

Numbers 1, 3, 6 are gone. I find myself running my 100w heads with only two of four tubes so I figured why have the Plexi reissue? Sold that and bought the Triple. It was a great purchase! :twisted:
 
started off with some little 3 inch speaker in a fuzzy box
fender special 15 starter
Boss GT3 > home stereo
Line 6 Guitar Pro > laptop > stereo
Crate gfx30
Peavey bandit 1x12
Line 6 spider 2 2x10
Tom Shultz Rockman (still own and love for those "silent/she's sleeping" jams)
Mesa TOV 2x12 (still own)
Mesa Maverick 4x10 (just bought today :D )


Thats my progression of amps over the 8 or so years now...
I'm looking to run the Mav as my clean amp and the TOV as the heavy. I'm also loving the EL84s volume/gain cranked on the Mav so I might toy with running the lead pushed on the maverick for thick tone and vintage high gain on the TOV to cover the girth.
 
I'll skip the crap I bought in high school . . .

1. POS Crate GLX15 (15 years ago).
2. Engl E530 preamp (1 year ago).
3. Peavey 6505 head (six months ago).
4. Mesa DC-3 head (two months ago).
5. Mesa Single-Recto head (last month).
6. Mesa Mark IV rackmount (a couple weeks ago).
7. Soldano SLO100 (someday!)

I actually just put my 6505 on Ebay. Then, immediately took it down when I realized, it STILL has its uses! Almost sold the DC-3 too, UNTIL I got an A/B/Y switch. Holy crap! The DC-3, with almost ANY other amp, utterly PWNS the sh*t out of ANY other SINGLE amp! If you can possibly manage to do so, NEVER SELL YOUR AMPS!!! ESPECIALLY, your Mesa amps. All my Mesas sound different, and they sound ridiculously awesome when played TOGETHER.

I always feel a bit pained when I see people here who've sold their Recto to buy a Mark IV, or vice versa, or whatever. I still own every amp listed above. Play any two Mesa amps together with an A/B/Y switch, and they sound f*cking ridiculous!!! I've been copying the that double-Mark IV trick that what's-his-name uses: setting one Mark's GEQ in the classic 'V' and the other in an upsidedown 'V,' but instead, using a Mark IV and a DC-3. UNF*CKINGBELIEVABLE!!!
 
MF said:
geez some of you folks are real gear hounds. this is what i've owned in my 15 years of playing:

-some no name 15W practice amp i bought when i first started (traded)

-Peavey Studio Pro 1x12 combo (still kicking, though the speaker is ripped and the input jack is pretty much shot. I played this thing for over 10 years in various high school and college garage bands)


-Marshall MG100HDFX head/MG412 cab (sold a few weeks ago. For a solid state it had incredible tone)


-Fender Ultimate Chorus 2x12 combo (traded last week - loved the cleans but i couldn't tweak a good distortion out of it no matter what combo of on board gain and pedals i used)


-Mesa Boogie 3-CH Dual Rectifier head/Randall R412CB cab (god i love this rig!)
mesa-and-randall.gif



- Vox Valvetronix AD100VT 2x12 combo (bought last week after trading in the Fender. It's pretty versatile, which is what i was looking for in a home/jam amp because i don't feel like bringing my main rig to every little session i go to. Still figuring things out on this one)



I've been doing a lot of buying and selling and searching in the past year or two now that i'm back in a steady band and have a reasonable source of income. Before that i was complacent in my crummy gear.

I think that cactus in the picture needs a little water.
 
aside from the 12 watt practice amp and DOD American Metal FX pedal I had for 6 months when I started playing....

I owned 4 successive Marshall JCM 800's

4212, followed by another 4212 after I blew up the first one by listening to the guy at the music store for how to set the impedance (*****).


Then I had a JCM 800 head, non master lead series....took that back same day. AC/DC distortion.....not gonna do it.

30th anniversery Jubilee combo....sounded just like the head I took back. It lasted a couple more days tho because the store was closed on sunday.

2 more 4212's.

5 years ago I bought an ADA mp1 because I coudlnt find anyone to fix my marshall gain channel, so i ran it clean with ADA. I loved this set up.

Bought a 2 channel dual rec. I will never go back. I dont use the ADA anymore.
 
Started with a Hughes & Kettner Attax100 transistor and after a year or so, I started with tubes. After some testing I found that Marshall was my sound, so i bought a 'versatile' TSL602. Replaced tubes (all new and V1 became a 12AT7 instead of the stock 12AX7) and speakers and after some months I swapped with a DSL100. Sold that and bought a Marshall Club & country 4140. I placed a bid on our local 'craigs list', just for fun, but it got me a JCM800 :wink:
Then some guy wrote me an email because he wanted to change his Blue Angel for my club&country. Well, least I could do was give it a shot and it was not that hard to decide, so I do have a BA now. The JCM800 has been modded by CMW amps and now is a JCM888.
So for me it is a dual setup
 
For awhile I goofed around with Boss Pedals and fx racks before I got any "real" setups because I was a keyboard player dabbling in guitar.

After that:

ADA MP-1/Tube works Mos Valve 962
Digitech 2101/Tube Works Mos Valve 962 (Still own, will probably sell)
Mesa Rocket 44->Express 5:50->F-50->Mark IV (Still own)
Randall RM4/RT2-50(Still own)
Crate V3112 (Still own)
 
heh

first amp was a Gorilla 10 watt :lol:
A Peavey with a black widow (around 65 watts I think?)
One of those marshall microstack P.O.S.'s
Carvin 100 watt head
An Ampeg combo guitar amp (SVT120 maybe...120 watts???)
{EDIT~ VT120 TriAx series Ampeg combo}

Then a slew of garbage/newer solid state amps borrowed or begged.

Then I finally bought my first real amp, Solo 50 head.
 
Some sort of small SS Fender 15 watt combo.
Peavy Bandit 2x12.
Fender Performer SS 100 watt head with a Crate 4x12 cab. (still have the head, surprising good for a solid state)
Mid 70's 100 watt Ampeg V-4 head. (still have)
Epiphone Valve Junior (still have)
Series 1 ROV combo. Run it with a 2x12 Basson and a verticle Fender 2x12. (luv this rig)
Ampeg VL-502. (bought used and took back two or three days later. Not my cup of tea)
 
Started off with crap, as I used to only sing before I took guitar seriously.

Line 6 Spider III Head
Mesa Dual Rec 3 Channel
Mesa Triple Rec 2 Channel (have now)

I plan on keeping the Triple forever and adding a whole bunch of amps to that list 8)
 
Don't remember the first one,..15 watt something (1960's)
But after getting back into guitars only in the last 5 years or so,..
Fender Stage 100
Mesa Nomad 45
Marshall AVT275
Fender Blues Jr.
Mesa Lonestar Special

I have kept the best two!
 
1) some Yamaha combo that I eventually bought an ADA MP-1 preamp for
2) Marshall JCM900 50w Master Volume
3) Marshall JCM900 100w Dual Reverb
4) Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Solo head (current)
 
i wouldn't call a couple of them 'amps' but for a while i just used modelers into a PA...so here goes

1) Some kind of Zoom multi-fx board...old school. had double expression pedals built in. all plastic crap though...hated it...somehow it was lost/stolen

2) Marshall MG30fx. Still have this one...works well for small gigs or stuff where you just don't feel comfortable taking the mesa.

3) Podxt...still have it, but haven't touched it since the Mesa came

4) Marshall MG100hdfx...great for what it is...nothing more.

5) Carvin Legacy head...bought off ebay...worked for 10 minutes...hasn't worked since.

6) Mesa Roadster...haven't looked back since
 
What a trip down memory lane trying to remember this:

1. 1979: Something called a "Stage 15". Solid state, starter amp.
2. 1981: Crate - the one that actually looked like a crate.
3. 1984: A Traynor combo with a 15" speaker.
4. 1987: Mesa Boogie Studio .22
5. 1990: Mesa Boogie 50 Caliber+ Head with 2x12 roadready Mesa cab.
6. 1996: Mesa Boogie DC-3.
7. 2002: Mesa Boogie F-50 in wood and wicker.

All but the last 2 are long gone.
 
Sweet Jesus you've all had a lot of amps!

I was primarily a bassist for five-ish years and went through:
1 Gallien Kreuger 1000RB (Busted)
1 Gallien Kreuger Backline 600 (Also Borked)
And then I ended up with a Mesa M-Pulse 600

Guess it's only natural that when I started playing guitar, I went through:
1 Marshall MG-250 DFX (still use for at-home practice)
A friend's p.o.s Randall Head
And then ended up with a Mesa Roadster Head / Avatar cab :)
 
Wow, you guys have some serious stuff!!! That's awesome.

Ok, I only had a few, so mine is easy to remember.

1984: Some POS 50W SS amp
1989: ADA MP1 - ADA T100s - Soundtech (2) 2X12 split cabs with EV
1998: Some crappy practice amp
2007: Marshall MG10 practice amp
2008: Old Fender head with Marshall 1960BX cabinet
2008: Mesa 3ch DR with same BX cab.
 
Yeah, it's pretty impressive seeing how many amps some of y'all have had. Mine's a shorter list, as I tend to stick with stuff for a while. I wish I had a couple of them back, like the Gibson and that MkIII. But I'm pretty happy with what I kept in the end (*), as in these are the amps I probably will not willingly let go of. Here's my story, in order of acquisition (edit: with approx. year added):

  • 1980: Gibson GA-9 (or something like that -- an amazing little 60's era 4-knob tweed 1x12 or 1x10 combo)
    1983: Guyatone, either a Flip or a Zip 1x12 tube/solidstate hybrid POS (ugh)
    1985: Carvin XV-112 Combo
    1988: Fender Bassman silverface head
    1989: Mesa Boogie MkIII 60 watt head
    1992: Marshall JCM800 2204 50 watt head*
    1994: Marshall JCM800 2203 100 watt head (a backup)
    1995: Fender Deluxe Reverb, 1965*
    2007: Mesa Boogie Lone Star Classic 1x12, 50/100*
 

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