Am I missing out on anything with boutique amps?
- Thread starter Metalhex
- Start date
cardinal
Well-known member
Yeah, I had an '89 Rackmount. Honestly didn't think it was terribly special. Always preferred a 2204 and an SD-1.
Smashedguitaris⸸
Hack
yeah. It sounds pretty smooth to me. It has a darker gain. I had a Slo. They are good amps. But I actually liked my Soldano Avenger better. It had a lot better metal sound to me. I had a Diezel vh2 at the same time as the SLO. I think that was a great amp also. I much preffered it to the slo. But a lot of people have different preferences, and no one is really right or wrong. Nice playing.
N
Nigel
Guest
Bruce Zinky is a bro. Love that guy. Good dad, real friend, honest man of integrity.
Metalhex
Well-known member
DanTravis62
Well-known member
Sorry man, when I think of Ola, that's what I think of
That same andy sneap/glenn fricker/clayman sound that literally everyone uses to play metal now
The emgs or fishmans into tube screamer into 5150 or recto into mesa oversized vintage 30 4x12 into sm57 into neve or api preamp thing that literally every song you hear on satellite radio uses
braintheory
Well-known member
Love my ‘79 2203 boosted my klon. Tough combo to rival, but it still doesn’t do what my SLO does when compared side by side. 2 different flavors and feel imo. SLO being more saturated and liquid-y
Techdeth
RESIDENT ROCK PROFESSOR
Now I get itSorry man, when I think of Ola, that's what I think of
That same andy sneap/glenn fricker/clayman sound that literally everyone uses to play metal now
The emgs or fishmans into tube screamer into 5150 or recto into mesa oversized vintage 30 4x12 into sm57 into neve or api preamp thing that literally every song you hear on satellite radio uses
Metalhex
Well-known member
Oh, I like the Clayman sound, and to me it is borderline modern.. to me the new current stuff doesn't sound anything like that. As far as drums go, the Sneap sound grates my ears because every drumkit sounds like overproduced plastic buckets to me.Sorry man, when I think of Ola, that's what I think of
That same andy sneap/glenn fricker/clayman sound that literally everyone uses to play metal now
The emgs or fishmans into tube screamer into 5150 or recto into mesa oversized vintage 30 4x12 into sm57 into neve or api preamp thing that literally every song you hear on satellite radio uses
I despise anything djent or anything "core". The worst of the worst has to be the band Parkway Drive. Also the new band Orbit Culture, they along with so man others have that over produced sound.
Then again, I'm just a bedroom player who likes to play loud. I haven't recorded anything in a couple years.
Smashedguitaris⸸
Hack
I like death metal a lot. But i also like other stuff too. I have heard some metal core i didn't think was bad. I am not as snobbish about metal as I am about amps. I like really good riffs. I don't care if they come from a Brittany spears song.
glpg80
Well-known member
It was great. Heard a purple rack SLO at volume and I brought my modded 5150 II that dropped a few jaws. The real winner was the Bogner rev green and the avatar cabinet that sounded better than both Mesa cabinets. There was also a Fortin bones that sounded great.
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Nigel
Guest
We need a discord or telegram so we can video lounge and have actual “Rig-Talk,” kind of like our own bar. Maybe @Monkey Man can set that up and we can get philosophical about metal, tone and wild nights of misspent youth lol.
Smashedguitaris⸸
Hack
Memory colors things. Getting a bunch of amps together, there is no bullshit. You find out really quick which are better. I would like an ampfest. I know i have people close to me, Rotting Corpse, Mhenson, among others that could host a pretty decent ampfest just with their amps.
japetus
Moderator
I am ready
Ventura
Well-known member
Haven't read all the replies - but will put my 2 cents in...
I try to remind myself that some of the very best guitarists "ever" made the best music on the worst fucking equipment imaginable (given our massive selection and variety accessible today). They invested "time" - not money. I'm not making a generalization here too broad, just keeping it simple. I try to keep this is mind - and also know the psychology of "buy expensive means I'll focus more on my serious playing" which is just effective marketing at its finest mixed with some quasi corksniffery bullshit.
Why do I have Diezels and Bogners?? Well, nothing sounds like a Diezel and I went FULL circle finding that out the long way (like, 14+ years or so??); and every time I played a Marshall type amp, or a Marshall, or an Orange, a Peavey, a Cornford, a Hiwatt, a Fender, a Mesa or whatever else I've had/owned/tried - I always had this thing about trying to dial in weird saggy chewy mids. Well, lo-and-behold, I plugged into a 101B years ago - and realized I didn't need to fuck with anything on the controls to get it to where I wanted it to go - the "base tone" I was trying wring from all the other aforementioned amps was right there - on tap - ready to go. So Bogner it was.
And the two (Diezel vs Bogner) are so opposite one another in both feel and tone - but I love those two ends of the spectrum - and alas - this is why I own them both.
Would I be just as happy with my old JCM or Peavey Classic30 ?????? Maybe. Hard to say. Parallel universes. Would I have had just as much love for the guitar?? And know that time-in is the key to skill, and skill is the key to tone??? Yes.
/end
I try to remind myself that some of the very best guitarists "ever" made the best music on the worst fucking equipment imaginable (given our massive selection and variety accessible today). They invested "time" - not money. I'm not making a generalization here too broad, just keeping it simple. I try to keep this is mind - and also know the psychology of "buy expensive means I'll focus more on my serious playing" which is just effective marketing at its finest mixed with some quasi corksniffery bullshit.
Why do I have Diezels and Bogners?? Well, nothing sounds like a Diezel and I went FULL circle finding that out the long way (like, 14+ years or so??); and every time I played a Marshall type amp, or a Marshall, or an Orange, a Peavey, a Cornford, a Hiwatt, a Fender, a Mesa or whatever else I've had/owned/tried - I always had this thing about trying to dial in weird saggy chewy mids. Well, lo-and-behold, I plugged into a 101B years ago - and realized I didn't need to fuck with anything on the controls to get it to where I wanted it to go - the "base tone" I was trying wring from all the other aforementioned amps was right there - on tap - ready to go. So Bogner it was.
And the two (Diezel vs Bogner) are so opposite one another in both feel and tone - but I love those two ends of the spectrum - and alas - this is why I own them both.
Would I be just as happy with my old JCM or Peavey Classic30 ?????? Maybe. Hard to say. Parallel universes. Would I have had just as much love for the guitar?? And know that time-in is the key to skill, and skill is the key to tone??? Yes.
/end
Monkey Man
Super Moderator
Do you need a host computer that remains on all the time for this Nigel?
What about if it was just voice and not video? Same procedure to set up?
Not sure if admin would be happy about it if it were done. I mean, he paid for the site and Discord is free...
I think you can get modern metal sounds with pretty much any decent sounding and inexpensive amp. To my ears there is not much difference in the sound of one modern metal band's tone from the next one. I am sure some people will say the same could be said of 80's metal, but I would disagree with them. The guys in the 80's were serious tone chasers and EVH, Lynch, Malmsteen, Lee, Sykes, DeMartini and all the others sounded very different from each other. I think most of the guys who buy high gain boutique amps are into the 80's stuff and that type of music is what I usually see demoed on videos and clips of that kind of gear.
When I plug into my $2799 Friedman Small Box 50 watt head it always makes me smile and I know where the extra money went. Best amp I ever played and I bought it six or seven years ago. Before that I would flip amps constantly and loose money much of the time. And I had owned plenty of amps prior to getting the Friedman. I bought it used and saved some money and figured I could always sell it and get something else if I did not like it. I quit tone chasing once I found what I was looking for.
When I plug into my $2799 Friedman Small Box 50 watt head it always makes me smile and I know where the extra money went. Best amp I ever played and I bought it six or seven years ago. Before that I would flip amps constantly and loose money much of the time. And I had owned plenty of amps prior to getting the Friedman. I bought it used and saved some money and figured I could always sell it and get something else if I did not like it. I quit tone chasing once I found what I was looking for.
311splawndude
Well-known member
Wow. Really great advice all around in this thread and I read all the replies. I too would probably be in the camp that says if you are happy with your tone you don't really need to start spending thousands of dollars for the hell of it. There are some exceptions obviously. If you have lots of spare cash and want to try other things then by all means. If you are not happy with the current quality of equipment or tone then by all means.
I'm not really a tone chaser or amp flipper so the advice these other guys are giving you is really the best. Why? Because some of these guys have been through long lists of amps - as demonstrated in that other recent thread.
My first tube amp was a Peavey Valveking and that was about 10 years ago. I knew it was a starter amp and it knew it was average tone. But as a beginner, it was perfect for me. Then a Splawn Quick Rod popped up on my local Craigslist and I was so intrigued I just had to have it. It was a boutique amp and not cheap at $1,400 used. But when you compare the tone or the transformers or the pots or ___(list goes on)____, I would say that jump was worth it. Punch, tone, build quality, clarity, mids, etc that I never had in the Valveking. But guess what - my next amp purchase was a used Mesa RectoVerb for $490. I play that amp the most.
I'm not really a tone chaser or amp flipper so the advice these other guys are giving you is really the best. Why? Because some of these guys have been through long lists of amps - as demonstrated in that other recent thread.
My first tube amp was a Peavey Valveking and that was about 10 years ago. I knew it was a starter amp and it knew it was average tone. But as a beginner, it was perfect for me. Then a Splawn Quick Rod popped up on my local Craigslist and I was so intrigued I just had to have it. It was a boutique amp and not cheap at $1,400 used. But when you compare the tone or the transformers or the pots or ___(list goes on)____, I would say that jump was worth it. Punch, tone, build quality, clarity, mids, etc that I never had in the Valveking. But guess what - my next amp purchase was a used Mesa RectoVerb for $490. I play that amp the most.