Amps that have surprised you

  • Thread starter Thread starter Audioholic
  • Start date Start date
Audioholic

Audioholic

New member
What is one (or some) amps when plugged in surprised you, either for the better or worse....?




Me, I was expecting the Alchemist to be much better then I found it to be, by a large margin.
 
I thought the Splawn NITRO was going to be so kick ass.........

NOT! :thumbsdown:

had it for a weekend......GONE!! :yes:
 
For the money, the Blackstar HT-5 surprised the hell out of me. :rock:
 
5150 and my Diezel Herbert both rocked my world when I first brought them home.
 
Egnater Renegade and Mesa Electradyne both blew me away! Finally got to play a Mark IV shortly after that and it also kicked ass! Biggest surprise was the VH4 though...wow.
 
Ampeg J20 was killer.
6505+ wasn't as good as I had hoped.
 
fender M-80 - was not expecting that from a fender. take it good or bad either way.

alchemist was a huge letdown.

splawn QR's - ive played 3 of them, didnt like the tone at all - was not "wierd mids" based

metro 50 watter - what marshall tone is all about. i definately want a decent marshall 100W metro kit. great sounding amplifiers

VH4 - only got to spend a few minutes with one. was a great experience. definately gassing for a VH4 in the future.

my 5150 cranked to 6.5 in a church with nothing but a guitar. still nothing has floored me that much.

5150 combo - what i think all the 5150 heads and 5150 II's should have originally sounded like. great amplifier.

bugera when they first came out - first one i ever saw was in a buddies repair shop. what a POS.

fender 5150 III - love/hate relationship. i would not own one unless someone gave me one, then i wouldnt mind.

herbert - what a huge letdown. in some ways simillar to a VH4 - but in other ways its way off.

mesa stilletto - 5 seconds was as long as that amplifier stayed on. definately nothing i knew i could coax out of it.

mesa single rectifier - it actually didnt sound that bad once i used code001's tips for dialing in a mesa. had i not known the right way to set it, it would have sounded like ass. a decent amplifier but not for me at all.

SLO 100 - i just expected more from that amplifier. it was nothing more than a cleaner/clearer sounding than my 5150 II at 3x the price and alot less features.

original fender vibrolux - people speak of fender cleans. i was pretty let down. it was a great clean tone, but lacked the spank of a carvin early model blue voodoo clean and the fullness/3D character of a marshall. sounded surprisinly great with a metal zone in front of it :lol: :LOL:

frenzel FM800 - great, great cleans. what fender and marshall cleans are all about. i want one of these preamps very badly.

vox EL84 push/pull - vox cleans are awsome for blues jams. a buddy has one. totally floored by what i have heard/exierienced. a few people know my intentions with this.

5150 EVH block letter - great amplifier except when its time to retube. these amplifiers depend too much on the preamp types to get tone. if/when its time to replace the preamp tubes, your tone drastically changes.

crate blue voodoo - had the chance to demo one this year. great noodling clean tone - not as bluesy as the fender i played or a marshall. was really surprised at the spank and jingle that clean had. the lead channel sounded like ass.

peavey vypyr - best practice amplifiers out there i think. if only the build quality and design was better on the larger ones.

axe-fx - i hate toying with knobs. and it lacks the punch factor that i like with amplifiers - at least i couldnt get it how i liked with the amount of time i spent playing a friends over at his house. reminded me how much i hated tweaking my G-major

laney GH100TI - silky smoothe gain, silky smoothe cleans. a vanilla shake reminds me of that amplifier - totally out of this world and an amplifier all its own - really cool. i did not expect that from such a guit head.

randall collossus (sp?) - there was one traded in at a GC - and surprisingly it nailed dimebags tone to a T with nothing but the amplifier. that was pretty cool experience - granted the tone wasnt tubed it did sound cold and sterile. but i didnt expect that at all

marshall DSL/TSL - a great platform amplifier - wasnt expecting what i heard though.

marshall JVM - what gained marshall tone is all about - it sounded great i thought. but i would never want to own one.

marshall vintage modern - there must have been something wrong with the one i demoed. i couldnt get it to gain up even with the volume dimed. for some reason i was expecting it to be closer to yngzaklynch's VM. i hope to get a second chance with one in the future.

i think that is all that i have played :)
 
Uberschall Twin Jet: a big letdown with KT88s. With EL34s it does its job with no problems though!
 
Bogner Alchemist.... I was hugely disappointed. Even had the money to buy one on the spot in my pocket and walked away with nothing. I recently purchased the Egnater Renegade and I love it after my first weekend with it. :rock:
 
those Jet City heads sounded pretty good for chinese gear when I played one at GC.
Engl Powerball V2 was a complete disappointment. just like most of their amps have been for me :-(
 
Those Tweed looking Roland Blues Cube's. Certainly wasn't expecting much, but plugged in a Joe Perry LP into one of those years ago and it sounded fantastic!
 
Mark V. It doent suck but I think all the hype ruined it for me. It made me go "meh" :no:
 
Laney GH100L. Heard great things about them but you never really know until you sample something first hand, figured it was just people saying/justfying they loved it because they bought it dirt cheap (the 'poor mans Marshall' tag it gets). Thing blew me away (in a good way), nevermind the price.
 
Baron. That amp was next to Larry, Fortin, and Camerons and it held it's own very well I thought and has a great price.

Mesa Tremoverb. Very cool amp.

Genz Benz Black Pearl. Very cool amp that takes pedals real well and has a great dirty drive.

Carol-Ann. I had that amp wrong due to some dork's reviews that I should not have listened to.
 
Egnater Rebel 20... I was blown away by the sheer tone this thing has... I've since gotten the Rebel 30 combo because I'm too lazy to carry a head AND a cab... :) its just slightly lighter than a Road King II head... LOL!
 
psychodave":1tg1vzpk said:
Splawn QR. I was expecting another goofy Marshall clone. It sounded great. Thick, smooth with gain and tone. I still consider getting one.

Fortin Meathead: I wasnt sure what to expect. The amp does it all and then some. All with tone.

+1 on the Splawn. Killer amp....I'm still not sure why I sold mine....or haven't grabbed another one yet :lol: :LOL:
 
Never heard a Quickrod in person.
Wouldnt mind to check one out.
But I know I didnt care for the Nitro when I owned one.
 
Mailman1971":8g4uduoc said:
Never heard a Quickrod in person.
Wouldnt mind to check one out.
But I know I didnt care for the Nitro when I owned one.

When I first got mine, I thought it was broken....until I cranked it up :D

It was definitely a Holy Shit moment :lol: :LOL:

If you're looking for a hot rodded Marshall, and can play with some volume, the QR is a steal.

FWIW, I didn't dig the clean channel, but I didn't care :D
 
Back
Top