GAS for another high gainer

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skullfxr

skullfxr

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Orange Thumderverb
Friedman BE-100
Fryette Pitbull UL or CL
Unmolested JCM800
Soldano hot rod 50



Which one? They ARE very different. I have something along the same vein of the first three, but there are solid differences. The JCM800 is the scetch of the bunch as everyone fucks with them, so I am hesitant. The Soldano is raw sex but harder to find in price range and I don't have anything like it.

IF this happens, under $1700 to my door. Cash would be coming pending a sale of a listing I have up, I am sure I will end up with more than one of them, but I don't really know what.

What do I play? Metal. Not hair or VH. Not my thing. Not NU metal. I also play a 'heavy' blues rock, no drop tuning djent. I don't need anything versatile. If it does one thing I want, that's fine by me. I will not gig it. I do not need a lot of features. Don't need cleans. Got Fenders for that.

I love the Fryette tone, but I have a sig x. But tight and dry tightness is sex. Thunderverb would be for doom. BE is a solid bet, but I have a feeling that the prices will fall over the coming years as more and more new models come out. Soldano is different than what I have. I really don't know.

Mainly play Jacksons with gotoh Floyds, USA/MIJ Charvels and Les pauls/SG's I have plenty of pedals.

I am a hoarder. Lmao. I just buy more and keep more. BUT that is OK with me. FML.
 
I think something Soldano would give you the most of 'does one thing really well *and* you haven't really covered that ground yet'.
It's tight, but has some chewy chunkiness going on, it's very direct, without sounding stiff or sterile and it has enough gain for the stuff you play.

The JCM800 would be my 2nd pic, but be prepared to boost it; once you move from 'rock' to 'metal' playing, my experience has been that an unboosted JCM800 lacks some gain and girth, UNLESS you crank it to insane levels.
Then there's the thing of it not having a loop.
 
For me, I am all single channel high gainers. Pure toan. Not on your list, but i would look for Soldano Avenger, Fryette Deliverance, or Henning Bottle Rocket.
 
man I keep going back to the Ceriatone Molecular... Having said that I would love to have a BE-100. Now that you can get them for about 2200-2500 maybe one day
 
I was thinking of the Avenger on the Soldano front too. However, current prices are out of the the price range, I believe.

The single channel HR's are very cool. They're basically tuned up Marshall 2203 (your JCM800) with Soldano magic pixie dust. They're very cool. However, the Avenger is more of a metal machine.

I've been looking for an unmolested Marshall 2203 lately and man is it hard to fine anything. I see someone saying "all original" on Reverb only to see extra circuit boards inside, holes in the chassis, etc. I don't mind getting one that's been modded, but I don't want to pay $1500 for a hacked up one I have to sort out. I don't know that want to pay that much for one that's all original because I want to drop my own mods on it! :) Such a conundrum!

I've been on a Boogie bend lately and have been playing lots of metal on my old MkIII and/or Quad preamps. If you don't have anything like those, they're undervalued right now. However, I wouldn't call them dry.
 
Verellen Skyhammer.

The Soldano Avenger is a cool amp for plug and play metal. I had a buddy that used that exclusively in a death metal band back in the day. The Verellen is up there with that, only the Skyhammer is a two channel. Basically, it has two gain and volume knobs and a foot switch. I freaking love this amp for doom and stoner rock stuff, but it has enough gain on tap that I can scoop it a little and bump up the gain and play metal. You should check that out.
 
This is a very simple choice for you. A serious no-brainer.

JCM 800.

Why? Well, you have a good collection of cool amps already, from a few different manufacturers but NOT ONE MARSHALL. Lol. The JCM 800 with a boost pedal is a bedrock tone for decades. It's the sound of rock, for better or worse. I've owned a few Soldanos and the only one I'd take over a decent JCM 800 is the SLO. Orange? You have one. VHT? You have one. Seriously. Get the Marshall. The only amp on your sig that has Marshall mids is....none. Not the Splawn. Not the Orange. Not the VHT.

No rock/metal amp collection is complete without a decent Marshall.
:rock:
 
I also say go for an old 800 or JMP2203 with a good boost. IMO that smokes any Friedman and I’d take it over any Soldano as well personally, but not everyone will agree with me there. IMO a boosted 2203 is very hard beat. The Jubilee’s are also a good option. Wouldn’t surprise me if that would send a few amps packing. There’s really nothing else out there that has the roar of a good Marshall when you play a big powerchord, except maybe a good modded Marshall. It’ll seriously expose almost every other amp’s comparative lack or growl/roar in comparison. That growl with its juicy mids of the late ‘70’s 2203’s is a very beautiful and inspiring thing to hear

I didn’t like the Thunderverb as much as other Oranges, although I admittedly wasn’t really impressed with any Oranges honestly whenever I AB’ed them with other amps. And like Racerxrated said, you already have a Rockerverb and a Fryette

A used Diezel VH2 may also be something to think about. I’ve not tried one, but if it’s really like the VH4 then it could a cool thing to have in the arsenal
 
I'd get the Friedman personally but I bathe in the blood of the Friedman enterprise. That is my tone, 100 times over. The BE-100 is just a great sounding, versatile amp. For second place, gotta agree on the Fryette Deliverance. I played one of those years ago and sounded killer!
 
I think you have good choices any of them. If it's any help, from my own recent experience, I picked up a 1984 JCM 800 2204 off Craigslist last week. I had never actually owned or played an old JCM800, but gone through just about everything else. So took the plunge. Fucking love it. straight in, it's ok, but boosted with OD and EQ pedals, it just punches and sounds amazing. I should have done it years ago.

Mine was fucked with. It has an extra gain stage with a volume POT on the back. It actually sounds great though with the extra preamp tube in there. I play it through a Suhr Reactive Load so I crank the Master a bit and it is so damn punchy and pissed sounding.
 
Racerxrated":1td6zzmd said:
This is a very simple choice for you. A serious no-brainer.

JCM 800.

Why? Well, you have a good collection of cool amps already, from a few different manufacturers but NOT ONE MARSHALL. Lol. The JCM 800 with a boost pedal is a bedrock tone for decades. It's the sound of rock, for better or worse. I've owned a few Soldanos and the only one I'd take over a decent JCM 800 is the SLO. Orange? You have one. VHT? You have one. Seriously. Get the Marshall. The only amp on your sig that has Marshall mids is....none. Not the Splawn. Not the Orange. Not the VHT.

No rock/metal amp collection is complete without a decent Marshall.
:rock:
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Agreed! :thumbsup:
 
Fortin evil pumpkin or Larry Dino, that's what I'd get if I were you.
 
Another on to consider. I just picked up a MB Royal Atlantic and I am quite impressed with it. Has some killer tones.
 
Out of those options , the 800 would be my choice. No question. Like others have said though , they are NOT able to get you into metal territory without a boost. With a boost , you’re golden. I also wouldn’t overlook the 2 channel JVM. They got a lot of forum hate , but they ridiculously awesome amps , in my opinion. They can also be snagged for dirt cheap right now.
 
Some good deals to be had on the original Friedman BE100 since the Deluxe came out. Another amp I was able to get a good deal on was a Engl Savage 120. Both incredible amps.
 
I’m still holding out for the Armored Sabot. At $1,450, it might be the amp to get.
 
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