Am I bored with amps or reaching the end of my tone journey?

MadAsAHatter

MadAsAHatter

Well-known member
It's not that I’m so much bored with amps, just that there hasn’t been a whole lot of new stuff that really grabs and holds my attention. Admittedly other amps would have really big shoes to fill with what’s already in my stable and in my eyes not a lot is up to the challenge. I do still want a SonicTone Patriot when I can afford one. The modded Recto’s from Ground Zero and Hermansson have caught my eye for the moment. But outside of that nothing has really made me perk up or hold my attention long enough to say I need me one of those. Especially on the production amp / things you can buy at Sweetwater or GC side. To me it’s just more of the same with slightly different features, and nothing that I don’t already have covered.

On the other side of the coin, I truly enjoy what I have and love the plethora of tones my stable has to offer. That lets me admire new amps without feeling any need to be chasing the next big thing. It’s also lead me to my new hobby of building amps. They may be clone kits of tones I already have covered, but I get to say I brought that amp to life.

I’m still going to admire all the new up and coming gear, but I don’t know…. Maybe it’s just a sea of carbon copies out there. Or maybe I’m reaching the end of my tone journey. Either way I’m pretty satisfied with what I have.
 
Im content with what I have and haven’t bought anything new that I feel would benefit me or my tonal desires in a long while. As they say the more you play what you have the more you appreciate what you have which prevents unnecessary purchases. A lot of what’s out there is just rehashed same old same old. I’ll also go and say that times are tough for our family and needs have transferred to other things of higher priority. I’m just not buying expensive gear anymore like I used to because I’m happy with what I have.
 
I think there is some overlap here with a post I added to a pickup thread a while back. Not unlike general ‘types’ of pickups (passive/active - single coil/Humbucker - vintage/hot - Alnico/Ceramic) there are general ‘types’ of amps - and then the variants within those types: Fender clean / Marshall crunch / modded or boosted Marshall / modern hi gain. Once you are in the ‘family’ of amp that you know your ear and style gravitate toward, the differences become very subtle.

Anyone can hear the difference between a Duncan ‘59 and a Duncan DIstortion. But the difference between a Duncan ‘59 and a Duncan Whole Lotta Humbucker is pretty subtle - as is the difference between a Duncan Distortion and a JB. I think the same is true for amps. Once you know what you are going for, most of the offerings in that camp have a lot in common. Throw an EQ in the loop, and add some post-production, and you can get really consistent tones from most amps from the same camp.

I am recalling an A/B video clip with Mesa Badlander and an OG JCM800, and you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. Of course, the Badlander has a lot more on tap and is more versatile - but the core sound was there. I still have a hard time telling the difference between an EVH with 6L6s and an EVH with EL34s.

I agree that once you have identified the sound you are hearing in your head - and getting pretty darned close to it in the room - new gear is less and less compelling.
 
I´m definitely getting to the point where it´s easy to refrain from buying more amps. Most stuff would just be more of basically the same. I don´t think I´ll ever stop buying guitars, just because I love them, but amps seem to be settling in for the long haul.
 
I’ve run into a similar problem- I think the reality is that most current production amps don’t hold up against the higher tier amps I’ve tried- I’ve basically decided that I won’t buy amps that aren’t on my wishlist any more since almost all the new stuff has ended up getting sold fairly quickly- some exceptions obviously. I used to think I was just picky, but when I’ve tried stuff like Hermansson, Gower, etc, I’ve realized that a lot of the really great stuff is just a little more expensive then 3-3.5k production amps. As far as current production amps, these are some that I liked (I know you have a bunch of these)

Monomyth skeleton key
Headfirst alta
Ground zero hellion
Redseven leviathan
Bogner Uber ultra
Carstens empire
Mezzabarba mzero od

- I wouldn’t put any of those in the highest tier of my rankings with stuff like wizards or 2c+, but a lot of them still hold their own and are priced well
 
MadAsAHatter said:
It's not that I’m so much bored with amps, just that there hasn’t been a whole lot of new stuff that really grabs and holds my attention. Admittedly other amps would have really big shoes to fill with what’s already in my stable and in my eyes not a lot is up to the challenge. I do still want a SonicTone Patriot when I can afford one. The modded Recto’s from Ground Zero and Hermansson have caught my eye for the moment. But outside of that nothing has really made me perk up or hold my attention long enough to say I need me one of those. Especially on the production amp / things you can buy at Sweetwater or GC side. To me it’s just more of the same with slightly different features, and nothing that I don’t already have covered.

On the other side of the coin, I truly enjoy what I have and love the plethora of tones my stable has to offer. That lets me admire new amps without feeling any need to be chasing the next big thing. It’s also lead me to my new hobby of building amps. They may be clone kits of tones I already have covered, but I get to say I brought that amp to life.

I’m still going to admire all the new up and coming gear, but I don’t know…. Maybe it’s just a sea of carbon copies out there. Or maybe I’m reaching the end of my tone journey. Either way I’m pretty satisfied with what I have.
Click to expand...
After all the amps i had and tried it's still the good old 2203 with a boost for me. I'm waiting for another JP-2C though :D 🤷‍♀️
 
Having had over 150 different amps over the years (tried many more), most recent gear in general just tends not to be that interesting, at least purely in sound, maybe interesting in practical features (who cares lol). Unfortunately the top tier stuff I’ve tried is mostly either expensive (from demand), rare or both (usually)

There’s plenty of other rabbit holes (speakers, pickups, guitars, pedals, tubes, etc.). I found it to be mostly the same story if you want the best stuff, but there’s at least a decent amount exceptions/hidden gems there since I think most guys focus so much on amps and don’t usually judge guitars based on sound
 
MadAsAHatter said:
It's not that I’m so much bored with amps, just that there hasn’t been a whole lot of new stuff that really grabs and holds my attention. Admittedly other amps would have really big shoes to fill with what’s already in my stable and in my eyes not a lot is up to the challenge. I do still want a SonicTone Patriot when I can afford one. The modded Recto’s from Ground Zero and Hermansson have caught my eye for the moment. But outside of that nothing has really made me perk up or hold my attention long enough to say I need me one of those. Especially on the production amp / things you can buy at Sweetwater or GC side. To me it’s just more of the same with slightly different features, and nothing that I don’t already have covered.

On the other side of the coin, I truly enjoy what I have and love the plethora of tones my stable has to offer. That lets me admire new amps without feeling any need to be chasing the next big thing. It’s also lead me to my new hobby of building amps. They may be clone kits of tones I already have covered, but I get to say I brought that amp to life.

I’m still going to admire all the new up and coming gear, but I don’t know…. Maybe it’s just a sea of carbon copies out there. Or maybe I’m reaching the end of my tone journey. Either way I’m pretty satisfied with what I have.
Click to expand...
I'm still amp whoring a bit, but I've got all of my bases covered. There's a small handful of higher end amps I haven't tried but I'm not really lusting for them either.

Now, have you gone down the self recording/home studio/pro audio rabbit hole? Because that's a much deeper and more expensive tone journey than guitar tone. And at the end of that path lies insanity, bankruptcy, and divorce. But it's a lot of FUN!
 
None of the newer amp brands interest me enough to spend the crazy amounts they're asking for them. They're basically all just modified versions of a Marshall or SLO and I feel like that's been beaten to death for years. The fact that they also want like $4000 for one makes them even less appealing. A Jose Modded Marshall is something that's been around for like 40 years at this point. Adding a few extra switches and a cool logo and slapping a huge price tag on it is ridiculous.

Same goes with all these pedal companies releasing the same designs we've had since the 80s and putting a cool graphic on it and then asking 3x the price of the current production Ibanez. All these companies are good at is creating lots of hype behind their products with YouTubers who have never played the original versions.

Agreed with @braintheory - I think I'm up to like 125 or so now? The only ones that ever seem to keep my interest for long are the smaller lunchbox sized amps and only if they have big boy power sections. I don't know why but I've always loved smaller heads like these and it always baffled me that no one was really doing them years ago except for Krank. Smaller heads, means I can have more of them! Of course, I say this and I literally don't own a single lunchbox amp because I still haven't found one that doesn't have too many compromises... But they're fun to try at least :LOL:
 
Last edited:
I'm also at the point where there's not much else that I'd like to try....I'm mostly an amp whore.....I like a Charvel or similar SS type and once I have 1-2 that really check the boxes, I have no need for any more. 2 USA Charvel/Jacksons I'm good, with a couple Jap LP clones to fit that niche.

Got 3 vintage Marshalls that are my fav amps straight in or boosted, an MT 100 that gives me a modern tone for a change up; and a 68 Bassman. Only things out there that I'd still like to try is a a real Jose Marshall, Langner and maybe a Metalhead Marshall.
Other than those unicorns, I'm good.
 
MatrixClaw said:
None of the newer amp brands interest me enough to spend the crazy amounts they're asking for them. They're basically all just modified versions of a Marshall or SLO and I feel like that's been beaten to death for years. The fact that they also want like $4000 for one makes them even less appealing. A Jose Modded Marshall is something that's been around for like 40 years at this point. Adding a few extra switches and a cool logo and slapping a huge price tag on it is ridiculous.

Same goes with all these pedal companies releasing the same designs we've had since the 80s and putting a cool graphic on it and then asking 3x the price of the current production Ibanez. All these companies are good at is creating lots of hype behind their products with YouTubers who have never played the original versions.

Agreed with @braintheory - I think I'm up to like 125 or so now? The only ones that ever seem to keep my interest for long are the smaller lunchbox sized amps and only if they have big boy power sections. I don't know why but I've always loved smaller heads like these and it always baffled me that no one was really doing them years ago except for Krank. Smaller heads, means I can have more of them! Of course, I say this and I literally don't own a single lunchbox amp because I still haven't found one that doesn't have too many compromises... But they're fun to try at least :LOL:
Click to expand...
That’s the problem: if these amp or pedal copies at least sounded almost as good as the original’s they were copying I’d be happy, but they just sound like sterile/filtered versions of that sound when compared to the originals, which YouTuber’s and most aren’t doing

Lunchbox amps look really cool. I’ve got a bunch of Alessandro’s, but they’re really 50-60w amps that are just as heavy as typical amp of that power, just smaller in size

The only worthwhile current production high gain amps for me so far have been a Wizard Hell Razor (very expensive) and an MLC Silenoz, which is very specific sounding and won’t be for everyone. For non-high gain it’s Alessandro and Gjika, which also have the problem of being expensive and hard to come by
 
Depends what your needs are. For most cover band players tone is a journey since that's about getting a good approximation and variety of other's tones. For people who mainly play their own stuff I think tone is more about a singular destination and finding something that is the most direct path to it. Of course there can be a few side roads leading there, but for the most part it's a one way street for those working on their own voice.
 
I know I'm not particularly enthused by anything right now from an amp perspective. I'm looking to change something just for the sake of change, but because of that I'm not looking to break the bank. I have been on the one channel, British thing for awhile, but I may be ready to check out something else for a bit.
 
These days I find myself looking for builders who can put two amps in one. Room is more expensive than tone right now.

Recently got a Fender Showman that has both the brown panel and black panel circuits in one amp. I'm tempted to find someone to use Headfirst PCBs and combine an MCII and an MTL next.
 
japetus said:
Just play some shitty amps with a real low output guitar for awhile. Then to back to playing your nice amps and you will feel the love again.
Click to expand...
I spend hours every day on shitty amps because my nice ones just set off my tinnitus and I can’t turn them down properly.
 
When I have no music goals, I start looking at my gear for something to add/change.

When I have music goals, I have more gear than I know what to do with.

I passed the point of having what I “needed” a long time ago and have been enjoying life with the cherry on top for quite a while, so even if new shit doesn’t excite me, I have nothing to be bummed about because I already own gear I spent decades staring at, wishing I owned.

I don’t have a singular tone in my head of what I think is the ideal tone and I think that conclusion came at the same time I realized I sound the same no matter what I’m playing through. I used to get all hung up on if I preferred 5150’s or Dual Recs, like I HAD to make a choice on the matter. While there’s things I appreciate about both amps, the fact was I was making the point I was intending to make, musically, with either amp and should have been focusing on making more points, not purchases.
 
Last edited:
Yes when you get older and have enough equipment the focus will hopefully turn to being a better player and not being distracted by knob twiddling. These days I just plug in and play. So simple. I sound much the same through any amp within reason. It's not the amp. As I alluded to above you can't blast your ears out practicing for hours a day or you won't have hearing left. I try and preserve mine now the ringing is bad enough. So it's better to have the volume right down, spend hours practicing each day and actually get better rather than making a huge noise and getting fatigue from it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top