Top 5 amps of all time that you have owned and why?

[PBGas]

Mine has changed over the past few years from what I initially posted - in order of my favourites:

1.) Soldano SLO-100R
2.) Friedman SSv2
3.) Bogner XTC 20th
4.) Marshall JVM410HJS
5.) Diezel Herbert MK1

I wish I could have kept all of them but I wanted to try other things.

 

[67mike]

I have to revise my list I posted a while back to this ( in order of favorites

Mesa Badlander 50 head

Marshall 2204

Marshall 2555x

Marshall 2466

Marshall 2203 ( modded)

 

[Smash]

Everything besides #1 would change if I could include amps i played but didn't own

1. MGL 50 Red
Clarity and voicing the best of any amp I.have experienced.

2. Wizard W800
Most raw and open amp I have owned. Had a nasty voicing that liked to be played dirty. Amp was dead quiet even playing with a boost. No gate necessary.

3. Diezel VH2
Perfect voicing. I really loved this amp. Perfect level of compression and very modern voicing. One of the most enjoyable and easiest amps to play.

4. Bogner Twin Jet
Great round voicing. Massive amp. Very responsive.


5. Soldano Avenger
I had two of these, i believe, but the first one was a sweet amp. Maybe from 2007. It was my first boutique

 

[SoooRad]

1. Morris UK 67 - The "Marshall" of my dreams. All the pros, none of the cons.
2. Morris Sirrom - took a chance on this one sort of (as in had no opportunity to play one and only heard a handful of clips) but it was basically the perfect "hot rod" Marshall sound for my tastes. I get a nice overlap with this and the UK67, but they also each go their own way spectacularly.
3. Marshall 2100 SLX - Simply sounded great, easy to dial and had the perfect feature set for me. I could basically set every knob on 5, have the volumes set for rhythm and lead and be perfectly happy.
4. Suhr Badger 30 - Following an early stint with an SLO that I didn't fully appreciate at the time, this was my first step into a "boutique" amp, and it was really nice. It just sounded great. Really helped me hear the effect of power vs pre amp distortion.
5. Hughes and Kettner Switchblade - I was able to dial it in really great, and because of its onboard shit I was able to do many gigs with just a couple guitars, a tuner and the Switchblade head and cab.

3-5 I moved on from just because I wanted to try out greener pastures. 1 and 2 are current, and I don't see a reason for me to move on from either. If I find I start to get tired of one, I'll just switch back to the other.

 

[311boogieman]

I've been digging these older thread bumps

Brings back memories and I see some people I have not seen in awhile.

Edit: Adding the Dual Rectifier (loop mod + pre 500 C mod) - which is pretty much all I play now.

Time to update. I've gotten a couple other amps since I originally posted my list and a couple things have been bumped out the top 5.

1. Headfirst Alta 100 - still holds the top position for the same reason.
View attachment 418211


2. Ground Zero Hellion - Second place is still the same and for the same reason.
View attachment 418212


3. SonicTone Loyalist (with Culper mod on Ch4) - This one bumped the Skeleton Key. Four very versatile channels each with a slightly different voice. Can go from clean to mean and everything in between.
View attachment 418213


4. Naylor Superdrive 100 - Still holding solid in 4th place.
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5. SonicTone BA-300 - Yup, a bass amp rounds off my top 5. Two channel 300 watt all tube. It's everything I could want from a bass amp. Vintage cleans to modern grind. Channel 2 can get down right nasty sounding and I love it.
View attachment 418215


The Skeleton Key, EVO TM50, and Zinky MOFO are still keepers and are in my top 10 favorite amps. Just had a couple others come in that bumped them out the top 5.

Gat damn dude I hate you

Please let me come over. Please?

1-- Archon 100 - perfection

2-- Jvm 410 - king of thrash

3-- Savage 120 - surgical brutality

4-- Triple Crown 100 - mark iv + rectifier

5-- Deliverance 120 - dynamic as fuck

I've loving this no bullshit straight forward post of yours

Great mix of brutality too.

 

[ners]

1. Monomyth Skeleton Key
2. Marshall Plexi Reissue modded by Dave Friedman to '68 spec (regret selling this)
3. GZA Hellion
4. Wizard MCII
5. Fender Showman clone by Carl's Custom Amps (brown + black panel circuits in one amp)

Five feels like a lot to list, like I left off a Hermansson and an MTL purely because half the amps on this list are in the same range, and the Fender is obviously wildly different from the rest.

 

[VHTStark]

1) Wizard MCII KT150: Really love all my Wizards, but if I had to keep one, this would be probably better it. Clear, percussive, punchy and can get absolutely pummeling with that KT88 power section. The almost acoustic-ish response to picking works well with my playing.
2) Bogner ecstasy 101b: Love all three channels. Probably my favorite "lead" amp. A super versatile beast!
3) Mesa Boogie MKIV: My favorite of the Marks. The lead channel I feel keeps enough "classic" Mark but adds a bit more compression/gain and chunk to the formula.
4) Fryette Pittbull Ultra-lead: All these amps I knew pretty much within 10 seconds of playing, I would love them....the Ultra-lead was no exception. After years of using an eq + boost setup to get my Rev G dual rectifier to do what I wanted, the tight, aggressive and immediate Ultra-lead was a revelation.
5) Hughes & Kettner Triamp mk2: maybe a surprise pick, as this brand gets no love on here. While the amps above certainly all have a "signature" tone/response, the Kettner cops a bunch of tones very well with a bit of a hi-fi thing. Easy to play, reliable and versatile.

 

[UpInSmoke]

1. EVH 5153 100s - I've tried to sell it, I've tried to tell myself it's too generic in a modern EVH-ridden world but it sounds so awesome that I can't quit it
2. Friedman Butterslax - The clean channel is mind-blowingly cool and the angry channels have so much clarity. I prefer it to the BE100D I had for a little while
3. Fender Panoverb - From spank to skank, it's such a cool amp with a lot of mojo
4. AFD100 - While it does just that thing it does, it's incredible
5. Vox AC30 Handwired - A/B'd against a non-HW and while it lacks reverb and tremolo, the tone itself is so good

I'd give a shoutout to the Supro Dual Tone and various Peavey's I've loved: JSX, Ultra 100, VTM 60