Comparison of 26 tube amps (clean, crunch, rock & metal)

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Speeddemon":2sl8fue4 said:
Great stuff!
And quite recognizable from some of the amps that I own or know well.

I agree that big iron/glass makes quite a difference; the PRS MT15 surprised me.
While the Mini Rectifier can give the illusion of sounding big, it's a bit 2 dimensional.
I'm comparing the Isolated Rock samples, where some of the differences perhaps better noticable. And the EVH 5150III EL34 50W turned out to be pretty much the standard that I compared others to. That one sounds awesome. In comparison to the EVH, I noticed that the Mesa Mark V:35 did still exhibit the 'smallish' EL84 tone for instance.

On a related note:
Do you also find that the Engl Ironball, while big sounding for an EL84, is quite dark? I find myself running mine with Treble and Presence around 2'oclock and sometimes even higher.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts! It's always interesting for me to see how everyone percieves things differently. To me the EL84 don't sound 'smaller' per say but each amp certainly has it's own voice. I personally feel like the EL84 amps (especially the ones with 4 of them) have plenty of low-end. That always becomes especially apparent when I plugin my Grandmeister Deluxe 40, it sounds immense and it can handle a lot of resonance. But again, that's just how I percieve it. The Mark V can sound very tight so I agree with that, but I feel like that mainly has to do with how the preamp was voiced. Now, having said all that, there are some amps where I totally agree with the smaller amps sounding a bit smaller. The LBX is one of them. I think it sounds great and it has enough low-end, but it certainly doesn't have the same amount of low-end as the 50w version. The resonance control just does less.

Also agree about the EVH since I think it sounds glorious! So huge!

I like to crank my mids and treble on the ENGL amps a lot fwiw as I think it really opens them up. With all settings at noon they can be a little scooped and dark but the Ironball seems to have slightly more mids than the Fireball, if I remember correctly.
 
I think some of the EL84 amps really do hold their own against the big bottle/big iron amps in this shootout, personally. I find these EL84 amps work especially well in a studio environment like this where you can get to crank them to just the right level to get the power section working, but not too loud where the EL84's start clipping/compressing too much and sound too narrow/farty/thin.

That being said, though, the full-size amps do have a certain 3D quality to them, especially on the distorted samples. That booste Dual Rectifier... damn!

I have the exact same opinion as you do with the EVH. I absolutely love mine as a studio tool, but it just *barely* has enough low-end with the resonance knob cranked (IME) at a level where you can get the speakers moving a little. Any more than that, say, at full band levels, and any trace of low-end depth is gone.

I would love to try some other EL84 amps out there, but right now, I have my eyes set on an MT15 for home recording.

Like I've said before, I really like your videos, man. This must've been hard work! Cheers for posting, man!
 
Rex Rocker":b84rll8x said:
I think some of the EL84 amps really do hold their own against the big bottle/big iron amps in this shootout, personally. I find these EL84 amps work especially well in a studio environment like this where you can get to crank them to just the right level to get the power section working, but not too loud where the EL84's start clipping/compressing too much and sound too narrow/farty/thin.

That being said, though, the full-size amps do have a certain 3D quality to them, especially on the distorted samples. That booste Dual Rectifier... damn!

I have the exact same opinion as you do with the EVH. I absolutely love mine as a studio tool, but it just *barely* has enough low-end with the resonance knob cranked (IME) at a level where you can get the speakers moving a little. Any more than that, say, at full band levels, and any trace of low-end depth is gone.

I would love to try some other EL84 amps out there, but right now, I have my eyes set on an MT15 for home recording.

Like I've said before, I really like your videos, man. This must've been hard work! Cheers for posting, man!
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I think I agree with just about everything you said there! I'm currently a 'studio musician' so it makes sense that those little amps work very well for me. I do absolutely realise that it will be very different for someone who plays with loud drummers or on stage etc. About the 'dimension' thing, I think (not sure of course) what you're hearing is the extended headroom of the low-end. So the low chunky bits are basically louder with most of the 100w amps. Am I describing that accurately?

The MT15 really does sound like a 50w amp tbh. It's also pretty heavy so the transformers must have some size to them although I'm not an expert when it comes to those things....

Anyway, I appreciate the comments!! :)
 
Welcome to the forum and thank you for sharing this great video! Very well done and useful :)
 
glassjaw7":25m4tfl1 said:
Welcome to the forum and thank you for sharing this great video! Very well done and useful :)
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Thank you! It's good to be here!
 
Guitarjon":1ai9kr2n said:
I think I agree with just about everything you said there! I'm currently a 'studio musician' so it makes sense that those little amps work very well for me. I do absolutely realise that it will be very different for someone who plays with loud drummers or on stage etc. About the 'dimension' thing, I think (not sure of course) what you're hearing is the extended headroom of the low-end. So the low chunky bits are basically louder with most of the 100w amps. Am I describing that accurately?
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It's the headroom, you're right. But it's not just the low-end not being as squishy, the high-end is also airy, open, and present without being harsh. At least that's what I notice about the 50W EVH, the Dual Rectifier, and the 50W DSL.
 
Rex Rocker":2vu43ao3 said:
Guitarjon":2vu43ao3 said:
I think I agree with just about everything you said there! I'm currently a 'studio musician' so it makes sense that those little amps work very well for me. I do absolutely realise that it will be very different for someone who plays with loud drummers or on stage etc. About the 'dimension' thing, I think (not sure of course) what you're hearing is the extended headroom of the low-end. So the low chunky bits are basically louder with most of the 100w amps. Am I describing that accurately?
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It's the headroom, you're right. But it's not just the low-end not being as squishy, the high-end is also airy, open, and present without being harsh. At least that's what I notice about the 50W EVH, the Dual Rectifier, and the 50W DSL.
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Ok, yeah, I guess it's just the preamp that you're hearing without a lot of coloration of the power amp. If you put the masters low enough on the small amps you also get this but I always like to look for the sweet spot where the power amp just starts to work a little bit. But I totally get what you meant.
 
Guitarjon":1jb6ezl7 said:
311splawndude":1jb6ezl7 said:
Welcome to Rig-Talk GuitarJon :cheers:

Rig-Talk is an awesome place :D

Disregard the current spam fest going on in a few of the threads right now regarding Fortin and Larry amps. We are just letting off a little steam.
:lol: :LOL: :lol: :LOL: :lol: :LOL:


So cool that you did this. I'm sure it was a lot of work. Looks like a great list and I look forward to checking it out tonight. Thanks for posting :yes:
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Thank you! It's good to be here. I really like the fact that there are areas here for specific brands that don't have any large forums. And it seems like there are a LOT of people here who like to talk gear so I'm already loving it :)

The video was a LOT of work indeed. I've been wanting to do it for a while but I had a Marshall phase in the last 6 months or so so I wanted to wait until I had all the Marshalls that I wanted. I hope you enjoy the comparison!
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Yep. Glad you found us.

What makes your video so great is that you took the time to list out all the time slots :yes:

Without that, it would be soooo much more difficult as a listener. So it was worth it for you to take the time to do that. To also take the time to show the settings is huge too. As a matter of fact, the only suggestion I would have had would be to spend more time showing settings info. Take with a grain of salt as you are much better player than I and I could not make a video to save my life. But after watching you play the riffs a few times I get the idea you know? For example Rectifiers are hard to see the settings I guess would be my example. I own one. Super easy to jump around the video though as mentioned and I'm sure this will help tons of people make decisions. WAY TO GO!
:cheers:
 
Small amps -

The Ironball and Tremonti MT-15 were just fantastic. My favorite of the small guys.

Pre-Amp -
The JMP-1 still holds up.

Bigger amps -
EVH 50 - fantastic amp..
6505 - legendary..
JVM - amazingly underrated..
DSL50 - always love to hear other people play these things, I can never get them to sound like this..
Ironheart - nod to this amp, hangs with alot of higher dollar amps..

Overall - I'm a Marshall guy so like almost all of them. 5150's were my main amps for years, always have an ear and fondness for those guys.
 
Just a gentle bump for all the people at home who have nothing to do. This comparison could give you a good 2 hours of entertainment ;) Stay safe everyone!

jabps":27ocictk said:
Small amps -

The Ironball and Tremonti MT-15 were just fantastic. My favorite of the small guys.

Pre-Amp -
The JMP-1 still holds up.

Bigger amps -
EVH 50 - fantastic amp..
6505 - legendary..
JVM - amazingly underrated..
DSL50 - always love to hear other people play these things, I can never get them to sound like this..
Ironheart - nod to this amp, hangs with alot of higher dollar amps..

Overall - I'm a Marshall guy so like almost all of them. 5150's were my main amps for years, always have an ear and fondness for those guys.
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I pretty much agree with everything you said there! :)
 
That was really cool! as others have said in YT comments or possibly here...Is there any ONE particular amp you find the most enjoyable to play? I'm curious about your HELIX comments as well. I'm just a bedroom hack here and thinking about going that route.
 
MisterBulbous":3ixxkvon said:
That was really cool! as others have said in YT comments or possibly here...Is there any ONE particular amp you find the most enjoyable to play? I'm curious about your HELIX comments as well. I'm just a bedroom hack here and thinking about going that route.
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Cheers! It's impossible for me to choose one favorite. I love them all for different reasons. Sometimes I feel like playing a Marshall, sometimes a Boogie. Luckily I don't have to choose. A couple of my favorites would be something like: JVM, Mini Recto, H&K and Dual Terror. The Helix is great, I love it!
 
Thanks for this! What a work. All sound great but I really liked the 5150 and the dual terror.
Anyway, a great comparison.
 
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