Recommendations Needed for High gain amp and cab

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Harley90

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Hi all, after having a good many amps I sold everything a while back and got a Kemper, its great but I feel the need for a high gain, quiet, amp with a lot of the touch feel input, I pick with a lot of dynamics and looking for that amp fingers interaction kinda thing. Not a fan of pedals.

I'm just a home player with occasional jams at a friends house. I have a Yamaha THR's for quick demo stuff

I pay play Van Halen, Megadeth, Green Day, Rammstein, Airborne, ACDC. The sound I most like is EVH 1st Album but love them all.

Guitars I play are mostly Gibson Les Pauls, EVH Wolfgangs
I have 2 single V 30 cabs ( closed back)

So the questions, What amps? Cabs? What would y'all recommend?

Budget up to 2500 but would love to spend less, a lot less. just a hobby after all :)

Looking at :
3rd Power Citizen gain, dirty sink (head / cab or combo)
Morgan MVP23 ( head/cab or combo)
EVH 15W Stealth Mini head
Peavey MH6505
Splawn (20 watt head)
Bogner ( the smaller stuff- several available)
Amp 1 ( mercury or iridium)
Victory

For a cab was considering port city 2/12 or sticking with what I got.

Thanks for any advice!
 
I would personally go for the EVH or a Splawn but not the small bottle stuff. I'd get the EL34 50w versions of either of those. The EVH will be more compressed, modern and easy to play where the Splawn will be more open, smoother and articulate. The Splawn's don't jive well with Vintage 30's due to some weird mids overlap but I like the Port City idea as well as cabs from both EVH or Splawn.

There were a few super cool Splawn clips floating around recently if you need any.

A DSL would work too :D
 
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In all truth, there are a million ways to go here but bang for the buck it is tough to beat the EVH 50 watt stealth or EL-34 version. I would grab one of those with the matching cab and be done with it if I had to. Probably will be the most cost effective route if you go new as well.
 
Of that list the 3rd Power will have the best touch sensitivity by a long shot..imo at least. Haven’t played a Morgan but have owned EVH and played a few Splawns. If not the 3rd then I’d go Splawn ahead of the EVH. Just my preference.
 
I honestly really wouldn't recommend any of those amps you listed. I could go into reasons why, but to save time my top picks for your description would be either a Naylor, Marshall Jubilee, Monomyth, Dover DA-20, Engl Artist Edition, Engl Inferno or maybe even the Mesa/Boogie Badlander 50. All those amps except maybe the Badlander have great master volumes, so would be a great fit for your needs imo

Sounds like your current cab or Port City should be solid choices. I remember the Port City's being pretty nice
 
BluGuitar Amp1 iridium seems to be really nice... I've really liked every demo I've seen on the internet video wise. I am considering getting one to use as my main rig.
 
Duke of Metal said:
BluGuitar Amp1 iridium seems to be really nice... I've really liked every demo I've seen on the internet video wise. I am considering getting one to use as my main rig.
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Never tried the Iridium version but had the regular one as well as trying the Mercury version and didn't keep it. They were very very impressive at first, mostly due to the size, practicality and features, but the feel was off imo (probably from the lack of a real transformer), they didn't sound or cut through good at all to me when my friend's band used them live nor did they sound good in the recordings from them. Seemed very promising, but needs work imo
 
311splawndude said:
I would personally go for the EVH or a Splawn but not the small bottle stuff. I'd get the EL34 50w versions of either of those. The EVH will be more compressed, modern and easy to play where the Splawn will be more open, smoother and articulate. The Splawn's don't jive well with Vintage 30's due to some weird mids overlap but I like the Port City idea as well as cabs from both EVH or Splawn.

There were a few super cool Splawn clips floating around recently if you need any.

A DSL would work too :D
Click to expand...

This. I’ve owned 4 Splawns over the years and played through several. Came from the Mesa Mark world and loved the comparative articulation / string separation / dynamics of the Splawn sound and feel. FWIW, all 50 watt Splawn variants are ‘Drop B+’ by default (the power switch on 50 watters gives you Pentode / Triode) and they are MUCH ‘greasier’ than the 100 variants - while still retaining that characteristic Splawn articulation. The mid cut/boost and old/new voicing switches provide significantly increased flexibility with various cabs and speakers. Some Splawns can be pretty picky about cabs and speakers (some folks really don’t like the QR with Vintage 30s). But the switches will give you a mix of high and low mids that will compliment just about any speaker or cabinet you want to run. Having played my whole life and gone from late 80s rack gear through a decade of Mesa Mark series and then through everything from Bogner to Bray, my 50 Watt QR is my ‘Desert Island’ amp. It’s a Swiss Army Knife of tone. I can’t imagine anyone on this board who couldn’t get an ear to ear smile within 15 minutes of knob-turning and switch-flipping. FWIW, I am 99.9% sure Mike Himmel’s ‘Eruption’ tribute vide was recorded with a 50 watt QR (The stills of the Marshall Logo head are not the amp used for the audio track):
 
I pay play Van Halen, Megadeth, Green Day, Rammstein, Airborne, ACDC. The sound I most like is EVH 1st Album but love them all.
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Hard tones to get with small bottles, but the Friedman PT-20 sounds HUGE and nails that type of driven marshal hard rock / light metal. You could get a used PT-20 and quality 4x12 for under $2k. You would crap yourself.

Assuming a local cab find, that is. Those are crazy expensive to ship. I know that sounds stupid for a home player, but it's perfect. You're not going to have to haul it around and it'll sound amazing, so different than a 1x12. Then you could could take the two 1x12's to your buddies and use them both with the PT-20 (assuming they are 8ohm), do a little mini-stack thing.
 
Thanks! all great responses....any opinion on Splawn 6l6 amps? ( their 22 watter) buying in the next 20 days or so, still not landed on anything specific but now researching these recommendations. Thanks very much again....correction 6v6. Thanks!
 
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Not aware that Scott Splawn has a 6L6 offer but he has several 6V6 offers - namely the Super Sport.

I made this for someone else to help simplify the menu a bit so I'll just paste it here. I'm not a dealer and have no affiliation with Splawn so I'm not trying to sell you anything FYI.

Nitro - 100w (KT88s) - 2 channel - kind of its own thing. Can also be ordered with EL34s
Nitro SS - 50w (EL34s) or 22w (6V6s) - shared EQ 2 channel - lunch box or combo - Gears*
Quick Rod - 100w or 50w - 2 channel - original circuit - Can also be ordered with KT88s
Super Sport - 50w (EL34s) or 22w (6V6s) - shared EQ 2 channel - head or combo
Competition - 50w (EL34s) - single channel version of QR - can also be ordered with 6v6s
Street Rod - 40w combo version of the QR
----
Pro Mod - since retired - Quick Rod with KT88s
Super Comp - since retired - Single channel Nitro
* I think the web site may have a typo as I don't think the Nitro SS would have Gears.
Gear 1 = Plexi
Gear 2 = JCM 800
Gear 3 = Hot rodded JCM 800

Seems a bit confusing. That only really becomes important if you are buying a used one. If you buy a new amp from Scott you can pretty much bank on whatever combo of things you want from above, in a custom headshell with custom tolex. He now also offers the options of B+ switch, mid cut switch, old new switch.


I dig these guys clips a lot. Kyle is on here a lot posting vids and comparisons including EVHs and his beloved Badlander as well as a host of other amps.




These amps can do AC/DC too - the Quick Rod will be a bit more versatile and have a dedicated clean channel
 
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