Bogner Ecstasy Red mini. So many rave reviews. I tried it over and over. Fizzy muddy mess. Hated it no matter what I did. I was so happy when I traded it.
After that, any "vintage" multi hundred (if not thousand) dollar whatever. I don't care who used it on what album. No pedal is worth amp...
It's mostly my wallet. As a teen, I'd buy what I could afford. I tried plenty of brands with zero clue about the differences. It didn't matter. Strings were strings.
These days, I buy what's on sale ahead of time. My guitars vary in scale length, tuning, 6 and 7 strings, so I can mix and...
Yes, a friend/band mate had a 60. I made him buy it because I had enough amps. Back then, I had no idea what the switches did. We flip them til we liked the combination. That amp through my XXX cab was a great pair. I liked it more than his 5150s.
PRS MT15 or Archon
Peavey ultra series family
Kustom double cross
Even cheaper
Peavey Transtube series family
Marshall G50/100 or MG100
Line 6 spider, something without menus
Sonic stomp/maximizer are basically a 2 band equalizer. Lo contour is either 50 or 100 hz. Process is either 5k or 10k hz. It varies model to model. The newer pro adds a 675hz control.
Prs has only shared tiny bits. There is at least one hand drawn mt15 out there. It's only the lead channel and not 100% correct. I've seen insides of most the archons and the mt100. The USA built amps with turret style boards could be traced easily. I wish there were more schematics out there...
There are some EQ graphs here. The California has a wildly different graph and I'm wondering if it's actually correct.
https://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?p=280780&hilit=California#p280780
Try a 470p coupling cap, or add one in series like most 5150's. You will loose a bit of gain.
As for "adding some high end cut to give more articulation", do you mean less fizz? A small cap 1n or so to ground before or after the tone stack is an easy way to cut the fizz.
I have not found a "best" that covers all situations. Jack location, enclosure shape, proximity to other connections means various plug styles are needed. I use 3 different styles. There is no need for them to match.
The Ultra series covers decades and uses the same basic circuit. Triumph PAG, Ultra 120, Rockmaster pre, Ultra Plus, Triple XXX, JSX, 3120, XXX II. They are tighter feeling and a bit more polite compared to the 5150 series. If you're into boosted high gain metal then it's splitting hairs.
It's...
Each channel starts with a couple of tube gain stages, a cathode follower, and then the amp is full of operational amps until the power tubes. The hot channel has almost a traditional FMV tone stack, but it's wired up with a dual gang pot and labeled contour. Then comes the active tone controls...