Favorite Sleeper amps?

[BrentSSL]

Crate Stealth, Carvin MTS 3200, Mesa Dc10, Peavey Ulta plus are among some of my favs

 

[rottingcorpse]

Marshall 8100
Marshall SL-X
Roland JC-120
Roland micro cube

 

[squank]

JSX

 

[1big1]

carvin x 60. good pedal platform. laney aor. lectrolab r 200. a champ slayer.

 

[crankyrayhanky]

agreed on Ultra +!
Krank Chadwick gets overlooked, but it sounds nothing like the other Kranks, beautiful cleans & an 800 lead side with more girth. Cool amp

 

[AmpliFIRE]

Carvin MTS? that was prob the worst amp I've ever owned (along with a Lee Jackson Metaltronix). Can o' Bees...

On another note, the Carvin Quad preamp and X100B are good sleeper amps.

Also:

- Rivera TBR
- Straub Cantus
- Naylor SD (not sure if this is a sleeper...)

 

[aizenx]

Marshall JMD
Traynor YCS50

 

[BSRIAudio]

Sovtek Mig50H and Mig100 are beasts. Not so cheap any more now that the sludge scene has started worshipping them.

 

[tschrama]

Peavey Rockmaster preamp

 

[Dave L]

Rivera Knucklehead K55 and K100, the old two-channel ones without reverb. Best cleans in the business and a very nice JCM800-ish lead channel. Boosts on both channels and a fully active loop. Build quality second to none. They´re neck and neck with, for example, a Custom Audio OD100 Standard for maybe half the money.

 

[Racerxrated]

Crate Stealth is the cheapest out of most of those that have been mentioned....and yes they sound good. Very crispy/edgy tone....JCM 800 ish in the mids and plenty balls. 6V6 for the 50 watter and 34s for the 100. Clean, loop and 2 switchable gains. Lee Jackson designed and they sound better than his other amps, Metaltronix or Ampeg. I've had a few of them that I've paid less than 200 for. Craigslist MPLS has one right now for 250. Jeff Blando of Vince Neil/Slaughter used to be endorsed by them years ago and hoards them. I sold one to him on eBay a few years ago. Nice guy. Friend of mine runs sound out in SD during Sturgis...ran for Slaughter. Jeff had 2 JCM 800 stacks on stage...but the Crate was miked up behind the Marshalls lol...

 

[rupe]

Mesa Boogie Studio .22+/.50 Caliber
Marshall 3203 Artist 30
Carvin X100B

 

[Tone Monster]

VHT Deliverance

 

[tak]

Lee Jackson Perfect Connection Preamp - totally dependent on which batch your serial came from. I agree, most are absolutely horrible (I owned 7 different Lee Jackson modded Marshalls back in the 80's early 90's). Had one preamp that was good and another that I couldn't believe I was playing the supposed same model! Until Alexi Laiho (sp?), you could get these all over the place for less than $100.

Peavey TripleXXX aka Peavey 3120 - not bad at the used price - great, no, but way better than my typical Peavey experience.

Ampeg VL - Also very hit and miss. Assuming some of the same quality issues.

Hughes and Kettner Access Preamp and tube power amp - Presets are typically bad, but this combo can be incredible. I've had recent problems with H+K, so buying a used one that is quite a few years old would scare me. I played a rack rig where these were prominent for years though.

Hafler Triple Giant preamp - used to be able to find these for a steal, but last I've seen they're not worth the prices anymore.

Mesa Strategy power amp - I used to pick up these monster mono power amps for $200-300 at most.

Ampeg V4 - no longer a bargain, going for insane prices but a great pedal/preamp platform. Loud and clean.

Carvin X100 - these can be good, but I've also tried quite a few that are horrible.

Marshall 6100, JCM 2000-SLX

Randall LB103 (Lynchbox head) - not plentiful, but can be picked up cheap from what I've seen.

Yamaha DG modeling amps/preamps. I waffle on these. At times you can dial these in and they seem to sound incredible. Then after using one for a while, plug into a really good tube amp and I usually go WOAH.

 

[RockyStar]

Roccaforte

 

[shredi knight]

I'd say any amp with a standby switch.

 

[axemane]

Laney GH50L

Killer tones from this amp and can be had on the cheap.

 

[BrentSSL]

Carvin MTS? that was prob the worst amp I've ever owned (along with a Lee Jackson Metaltronix). Can o' Bees...

I have to agree but i owned one for a bit that blew on me and a horrible experience but until then it was my first tube amp and it sounded awesome

 

[BrentSSL]

Crate Stealth is the cheapest out of most of those that have been mentioned....and yes they sound good. Very crispy/edgy tone....JCM 800 ish in the mids and plenty balls. 6V6 for the 50 watter and 34s for the 100. Clean, loop and 2 switchable gains. Lee Jackson designed and they sound better than his other amps, Metaltronix or Ampeg. I've had a few of them that I've paid less than 200 for. Craigslist MPLS has one right now for 250. Jeff Blando of Vince Neil/Slaughter used to be endorsed by them years ago and hoards them. I sold one to him on eBay a few years ago. Nice guy. Friend of mine runs sound out in SD during Sturgis...ran for Slaughter. Jeff had 2 JCM 800 stacks on stage...but the Crate was miked up behind the Marshalls lol...

this is awesome I love those amps but refuse to pay more then 300 for one lol

 

[anomaly]

Mesa Boogie .50 caliber +
Peavey vtm-120 and vtm-60
Randall - titan, cyclone, x2 rg100es, rg100ht, century 200 (very rare!)
Ampeg vh150, vh140c