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

[Lmy68s]

I wish I would have hung on to that pair of Silvertone 1482s and that early fulltone Deja vibe.

 

[woodbutcher65]

My first Mesa was about the third or fourth amp I ever owned, and I've never been without a Mesa at any point since about 1997. Over the years I've had about 40 various amps, with Mesas being the most numerous.
My very first guitar amp was a Heathkit TA-16, if I remember correctly, that came with a Framus archtop guitar and the pair was sold together at a garage sale. I got my money back out by selling the archtop for what the set cost me, and some time later traded off the Heathkit amp after I'd found a 1973 Fender Pro Reverb in a dusty corner of an even dustier pawn shop.

The Framus MAY have been a Sorella model, and it had interesting mother of toilet seat fingerboard inlays that ran across the full width of the fingerboard. Ironically that guitar has gained more in relative value than the Fender amplifier did. Did I bet on the wrong horse?

The Fender Pro Reverb was my first real amp and I still have it today. Or most of it, anyway. It was the subject of some very experimental modifications and fully rebuilt as something different at least twice.

About 1989 I got my Mark IIA and kept it until 1997. A few years later I got another Mesa and since then it's always been one Mesa or another in my amp pile at all times. At this moment I have five Mesas.

 

[Lysgaard]

In the past:
Roland DAC 15
Session Rockette 30 (great clean amp by the way)
Marshall 4211 JCM800 (100w combo)
Marshall 9001 preamp with 9005 50+50w poweramp
Rocktron Voodoo Valve with Fryette/VHT 2/90/2 poweramp
Marshall 1959 SLP RI
Fender Prosonic Head
Fryette Sig:X head

Current:
Marshall JMP metalhead 1959 from 1980
Fender Blues Deluxe with Jensen speaker
Mesa Boogie Mark V:35 head
Mesa Boogie Rect-O-Verb 50 Single Rectifier

Current cabs:
Marshall 1960AX 4x12 Greenbacks,
Mesa Boogie Rectifier 2x12 horizontal,
Mesa Boogie Thiele Road Ready (1xC90)

On the wishlist
Mark VII
Dual Rectifier
Marshall 2203 (ok if it is a reissue)

The amps that I want back:
Marshall 4211
Fryette Sig:X

 

[Nick Athanasatos]

I think my first amp was the probably the best amp in the world..a Marshall 50 Watt Head Metal Face Plexi with Marshall 4x12 Cabinet from a friend who bought it new a couple of years before.That 1974 or 1975 that I got it.
My father re united with my mother and he was taking the whole family to Greece and Germany to visit the other parts of his family for pretty much the whole summer. I made the odd decision since * didn't really get along with my father to stay home and take over looking after the Laundromat my mom looked after to get $ to buy that friends Amplifier. $450.
When the Laundromat was closed at night we started playing in the Laundromat untill about 11-11:30 Pm.
The owner Bobby an American Irish guy was the greatest coolest guy.
Great echo in there. I used to point the cabinet facing the back of the Laundromat and head towards us playing with it on full.Greast amp like Hendrix's Machine Gun was what came out of it.Then one day no sound..I took it to Andres on 48thSt NYC for repair and it never had that magic again.
Eventually I ordered a Mesa Boogie Combo Hardwood Simuclass when they were making the Mark llC+..and sold Marshall.What Mesa Boogie sent me was one of the first Mark llls instead...I was not happy with that amp.That shity Rythmn 2 and almost no Reverb especially bothered me..a failure.
Later I got a Mark lV Hardwood Combo which is an amp that I'm happy with as it does everything good but never again an amp as magical as the 50 Watt late period hardwired Marshall.

 

[harrisonguitars]

Living in rural North Carolina, we didn't have a lot of amps to choose from back in the late 60's. Two music stores within 50 miles. I had a Sears Silvertone, the old 1484 piggyback. Sounded great when it worked. Would blow a fuse in a heartbeat with correct stated voltage. So I kinds of learned to work on tube amps with that one and old tube TVs. Then came a Univox, yep the big blue one with 4 10" speakers. Man that amp rocked better than a Marshall to me. 6L6 power tubes were hard to come by but that amp got me going in music until someone stole it out of my trunk. (May they get what they deserve.) Then a 1973 Fender Deluxe Reverb Silverface. Awesome amp for 22 watts but not loud enough for outdoor gigs back then. I then tried Music Man, Marshall, Fender Professional, and used a solid state Peavey Musician III for years because it was loud, reliable and sounded good. I though I'd never would ever find my "sound" until Mesa/Boogie came around. It really just spoke to me and that's all I've used since 1992. I love my Triaxis and 2:90. I have two of each and it really does everything I need. Still, can't beat the sound of an old Studio Preamp.

 

[bandit2013]

My first tube amp was a Fender Deluxe Reverb. Wish I held onto the Les Paul Spotlight. That was a sweet guitar. Had to sell it due to divorce. Sold the Robin a few years later. Had a Marshall MOSFET-100. This was a step down from the Fender. Also had a Mesa Boogie Mark III (blue stripe) and Mark IVb. Had a Stiletto Duece stage 1 for a week. Felt it was weak compared to the Royal Atlantic so I traded it in for another Royal Atlantic so now I have two. Also had a Carvin V3MC. Not bad for an EL84 based amp. Gave it away to a friend.

 

[mojodelic]

Past:
'74 Fender silverface Champ
'65 Blackface Deluxe Reverb (long, painful story)
Cream board Blues Jr (")
Twin Reverb
Marshall DSL- something
Blackstar Club 40
Blackstar 20
Blackstar EL34 10

Present:
Marshall SV20C
Fender Blues Jr (Tweed w/Jensen)
Fender Pro Jr IV
Homemade (Mojotone) 5F1
Mesa Cali Tweed 2:20
Pignose

 

[4mulacar]

The amps I’ve owned: 1971 Peavy Vintage with Cerwin Vega 12”, 1977 Fender Twin with JBL 12”, 2- 1965 Fender Bandmasters used on with my Hyak (pseudo stereo) had these for at least 15 years was getting one of them repaired at a shop in Seattle where it was was seen by a member from Death Cab for Cutie who offered up the first Mesa Boogie I ever played through lol I avoided the amps due to their price and my fear I would be hooked. Needless to say I bought the second one after searching for a rack mounted unit in a 1-12” cabinet (wanted a second red stripe) bought it and got a rack mount to put it in.

 

[VisaL]

order as far as i can remember

1. Peavey Classic 20
2. Mesa Subway Rocket Reverb
3. Engl Screamer
4. Carlsbro Top50
5. Marshall 1987x
7. Fender Twin Reverb
8. Thd bivalve
9. Hiwatt Dr103
10. Mesa Mark 4
11. Mesa Mark 3
12. Marshall Superbass
13. Marshall jtm45
14. Marshall 1974
15. Marshall Silver Jubilee
16. Marshall jcm800
17. Mesa Single Rectifier
18. Mesa Mark 2b
19. Mesa Mark 4
20. Fender Deluxe Reverb
21. Fender Bandmaster
22. THD Univalve
23. Marshall JVM410
24. Marshall Silver Jubilee
25. Fender Pro Reverb
26. Yamaha RA-100
27. Mesa Studio .22
28. Mesa Dual Rectifier
29. Mesa Mark 3
30. Diezel VH-2
31. Marshall JCM900mkIII

Some of which I still have. It was early on when I could only afford one amp at the time, but at some point i realized instead of all the time changing amps it’s good to have a few. I have my dream amps now and havent bought many past 10 years or so.

 

[DrKev]

Oddly, it's the amp I never had that brought me to Mesa!

In my earliest years (early 90s) I had a Crate combo, then a Fender Performer 1000 (holy loud, Batman!), then in my 15 years of gigging I used smaller Laney combos (EL84s, British voiced, 10" Celestion speakers). Coming to the end of the gigging years I had a classic soul band and really wanted a Deluxe Reverb Reissue for vintage style cleans but I never got around to getting one. I tried some Jensen speakers in my Laneys for more vintage tones and they were nice for cleans but my overdrives and distortions suffered. But I soon realized that all my favorite players had Fender-like clean channel with Celestions, so that was the way to go. Andy Timmons and Dominic Miller particularly impressed me with their Mesa rigs. Needing to be public transport friendly, a Lonestar was out of the question for me. But I read that Dominic Miller used a pair of Express 5:25s as a lighter weight rig on a Sting tour with an orchestra and I was sold.

I found a 2010 1x12" Express in British tan, in rough shape but mostly working and at a great price. I literally scrubbed it clean, got rid of the cigarette smoke smells, new grill cloth, fixed the non-functional Contour control, and tried a few speakers and I love it! I just grin from ear to ear, every time. I have a G12M Greenback in there right now and the amp does a better job for me than a DRRI could ever have done, and it has the 5 watt mode, and it's a few pounds lighter than the DRRI too!

Sometimes I think it's more amp than I need, and I know I can flip it and come out a few hundred bucks ahead, but there is literally nothing else out there right now in my budget that could make me happier.

 

[Throttlegtr]

I started playing electric at 8 years old and I’m 68 now. I had an old cheapo Harmony 1X8” to start followed by the Sears Silvertone 2X12” (with the head stored in the cabinet). From there, I moved to a Plush head and 2X 15” cab (big mistake)! Then I got in my first regularly gigging band and bought a new Fender Super 6 Reverb amp which I had for two years until it was stolen from my practice space. At that point, I moved away to the U of Miami and attended while Morse and the Dixie Dregs were there and just had a small Peavey Bandit in the dorm. I graduated and moved back to MD and picked up a Carvin Quad X preamp, a power amp and a 2x12” cab. Then moved to a digitech processor, followed by a Boss into the same cab. Then picked up a Mesa Mark V-90 combo, but didn’t like the black shadow speaker in it, so I got a MK V-90 head and a Mesa 2X12 vintage 30 cab. Loved the sound of that by comparison. Then because of arthritis, got a Line 6 Helix (still have it) followed by a Boss Katana Artist MK I and later a MK II Artist. I missed the Mesa sound so now I’m using a Mesa MK VII combo (the speaker sounds way better to me than the one in my MK V-90) and I A/B it with the Tonex pedal when I gig to get Vox and Fender tones. I have a pedalboard with all the pedals that goes both in the front of the Mesa and in the F/X loop depending on what effect it is. This is my gig rig now. For practice, I have a Positive Grid 40 amp at home. That about does it. I’m sure that being 68, I left something out, but that’s my best recollection - GS (instead of GAS) is starting to creep in - gear senility!

 

[Throttlegtr]

I just remembered that between the Mesa V-90 and the Helix, I had a Marshall JVM 410H and a 4X12 1960 cab. I didn’t bond with the tones - it must’ve been the tubes, but I couldn’t find those creamy lead settings you get with a Mesa. I knew I’d forget something!