stratotone
Active member
Great subject, eh? Had a friend of mine over last weekend who plays guitar but is a lot more into the guitar stuff than amps. We hung out and played guitars and stuff. I thought his take on the amps above were pretty interesting. He's around my age (40) and grew up playing 80s metal like me. Since he is immune to rig-talk hype, thought it would be interesting to see what he thought of some of my amps.
SLO - Had this running through a JCM800 Marshall cab w well worn 75s. He liked this a lot too... kept playing RATT riffs with a big grin on his face. Friend was amazed how quiet the amp was at high gain settings.
Uber (first revision, one of first 100) - this was through same cab as the SLO. Was hard to tear him away from this one also.
Marshall Silver Jub - he didn't like this as much. Didn't have the gain or the modern goods the other amps had, but liked it for it's own thing.
Mesa Mark III Coliseum - This one made him play whitesnake riffs.
Had it hooked into a Bogner 4x12 slant. He was killin' on it. A bit noisier than the other amps... and I blew a freakin' fuse - tubes are old, and I cranked it. Interesting note - I put it up to five and couldn't go any further on the master. It kept getting LOUDER AND LOUDER - I kept waiting for it to start compressing. This amp is a beast.
first year Rackmount Recto and matching cab - He liked it, but preferred the Uber.
2004 101B Bogner XTC w/matching cab - My favorite amp, he liked it but not as much as some of the others. The high gain wasn't as much to his liking.
So, in my friend's estimate:
1) tied - SLO and Uber
2) mark III coli
3) XTC
4) Recto
5) jubilee
It was pretty cool hearing someone else play through the amps while I just dialled them in and enjoyed. We were mainly listening to the high gain stuff, if it was an overall 'which amp does the most' then the XTC would have won by a landslide.
Pete
SLO - Had this running through a JCM800 Marshall cab w well worn 75s. He liked this a lot too... kept playing RATT riffs with a big grin on his face. Friend was amazed how quiet the amp was at high gain settings.
Uber (first revision, one of first 100) - this was through same cab as the SLO. Was hard to tear him away from this one also.
Marshall Silver Jub - he didn't like this as much. Didn't have the gain or the modern goods the other amps had, but liked it for it's own thing.
Mesa Mark III Coliseum - This one made him play whitesnake riffs.
Had it hooked into a Bogner 4x12 slant. He was killin' on it. A bit noisier than the other amps... and I blew a freakin' fuse - tubes are old, and I cranked it. Interesting note - I put it up to five and couldn't go any further on the master. It kept getting LOUDER AND LOUDER - I kept waiting for it to start compressing. This amp is a beast.first year Rackmount Recto and matching cab - He liked it, but preferred the Uber.
2004 101B Bogner XTC w/matching cab - My favorite amp, he liked it but not as much as some of the others. The high gain wasn't as much to his liking.
So, in my friend's estimate:
1) tied - SLO and Uber
2) mark III coli
3) XTC
4) Recto
5) jubilee
It was pretty cool hearing someone else play through the amps while I just dialled them in and enjoyed. We were mainly listening to the high gain stuff, if it was an overall 'which amp does the most' then the XTC would have won by a landslide.
Pete
