# Like to hear about what amp you have and what you like about it



## fsone (Feb 23, 2015)

Right now I have a small Fender amp 10G it's good for travelling with and it does the job for me now. But in the future will be looking for something a little larger with more capabilities. Fender Mustang 2 or 3 or Marshall, Line 6. Theres some nice units out there what's your take.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Budget and needs?

I play 100W heads. Its a good time.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

I am still rocking the Aiken Head. I have now teamed it up with a Voltage 2x12 loaded with Celestion greenbacks. Fabulous amp and especially like the built in attenuator

http://www.guitarscanada.com/showth...fication-Tomcat&highlight=aiken+amplification


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

With the band - 

Traynor YGL1 with a Weber Blue Dog and a DHX112 cab loaded with a Silver Bell.

Good clean pedal platform, gain 3 - 4, volume 6 - 7, just enough to give the cleans some oomph.
Plenty loud for the band I'm in, I've been accused of being too loud at times, pffft.
This stays at the jam space.

At home - 

Dr Z Maz 8 head, Traynor DHX212 with a WGS Reaper and Veteran 30.

Terrific pedal platform, effects loop, pentode/triode modes, EQ bypass.
Three band EQ, master volume, cut control, lots to tweak.
Just a great amp, plenty loud. It hung in with the band for the first few jams.

Dr Z Carmen Ghia, Zbest 2x12 with Celestion V30s.

This amp came to me with a 1x12 Zbest cab, but it sounds huge through the 2x12.
Big bottom end, good amount of clean head room. LOUD!
Dummy proof, with two knbs on this model, volume and tone knobs.
You start getting into the dirt @ 11:00, I dimed it when I first got in it, the window shook. 8)

I recently retubed that amp, finding that there was a different preamp tube in one spot.
The set I installed seemed to give the amp a bit more headroom and certainly got rid of some residual noise.
I loved it before the retube, now it's even better!

Dr Z Mini

I got this in fairly recently, neat little amp.

Just a volume knob and an attenuator.
These are known to just plug straight into, crank it and then set the attenuator to neighbour pleasing levels.
There's a 10" Ramrod speaker in it from factory.

I ran this through my Zbest 2x12, it's a little monster.

With just two tubes, one preamp and one power tube, a simple layout.
I may try some other types of preamp tubes in it yet.

I'm a fan of a 2x12 since playing in a three piece years ago with a Fender Twin.
That amp is still with me too, mothballed for now.
I also have a Fender M80 SS, that I got new in the '90s.
Oh, and a Pignose, in Tweed. 8)

Well, you asked.


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## ed2000 (Feb 16, 2007)

It's a toss up at the present time between my Vox Pathfinder 15r into a 12" cab or my new to me Traynor YGM 3. The Vox does the distortion to clean tones well whereas the YGM 3 does the cleans to warm tones very, very well. Over a decade ago when I played out I used a variety of amps: Trademark 60, YBA 1 and Garnet Lil Rock into either home made 12" cabs or Traynor 2 x 12 cab. Effects included a DS-1, Vox ToneBender or Garnet Herzog.


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## sambonee (Dec 20, 2007)

Do you need : portability , volume, master volume, look?

Who are your favorite players and whet do you like about their tone?


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

I'm an FX kind of person. So I use a clean amp at home, a Traynor TMV 10 with a TC Helicon Voice Live GTX. I will likely add something to that as time goes on or change it completely. With this setup, I'm not stuck with one amp or two but many. The Mustang series are great amps if you like to play with different effects. They are so close that few can tell them from the real thing in most cases. Blind tests have been done that prove this. So that may be the way you want to go if you like that kind of thing.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

For years my main amp was a Roland JC-60--and I love it.

It held its own at many jams and other occasions.

For my bass my main (& only) amp was a Garnet Stencil humungoid tube amp thing--lots of volume.

But as time has gone on I prefer smaller amps--as I don't have the space for a dedicated area just for my gear I tend to move stuff around to different places at home--and so I go some smaller practice amps--so now I mostly use a Fender g-Dec Jr--which is fun for the backing tracks and the different sounds--which for playing at home is cool.
For bass I use a Traynor TBM-10--more than loud enough at home and it was a good price (I got it for a little less than half the new price)

If I were to gig or jam more often I might look into a bigger bass amp (But smaller than the Garnet, to make it easier to transport) and would probably use the Roland more often--or go through a PA using the smaller amps.


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## Petey D (Sep 8, 2011)

Currently playing a Fender Vaporizer. There's not a whole lot I don't like about it honestly. Good size, not too hard to lug around. Very simple layout with vol, tone, and reverb controls. Punchy 210 config, but it'll run an ext cab if I want to change it up. 12 watts of glorious tube tone (nice clean, not too chimey, breaks up around 11:00, gets good bassman like tone when pushed hard,) good for messing around in the house, can hear me over a drummer, and good mids to cut through the mix. No sweat to mic it up if I have to eaither. Takes pedals well, I have a minimalist set up with a Wah, Tuner, OD, and Delay in the chain right now; sounds beauty. It was dirt cheap, and looks cool as hell in it's surf green late '50s motif.

The reverb is a little on the weak side. Application of volume reduces effect of the reverb, but it does have a pretty cool swampy sounding effect when you dime the 'verb and kill the volume.

Future upgrades could be speakers, tubes ( stock are Ruby Tube 12AX7's and EL84s,) and a bigger reverb tank.

Over all I'm happy with it.

Past amps ranged from 65 watt 112 ss, to 100 watt ss h/s to 50 watt digital modeler for reference.

Clip! 
[video=youtube;Hl9Ov-M3XJc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl9Ov-M3XJc&amp;sns=em[/video]


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## fsone (Feb 23, 2015)

Nice little riff petey. Good sound on the amp does it have drum or instrument background music?.


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## Chitmo (Sep 2, 2013)

Excuse the crappy tablet Pic. I am rockin a Dr Z antidote these days, just upgraded from my mini z a few months ago. Obviously way too loud for home use so I am taming it with a Rivera rock crusher.


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## Cups (Jan 5, 2010)

Yamaha DG 80. Not a sexy amp by any means. A workhorse that I've gigged hundreds of times for almost twenty years. Love this old thing. Need to build a head she'll and ex-cab for it though. Give the poor electronics a break from all that vibration.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Chitmo, just gotta train the neighbours, then sell the rivera.


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## b-nads (Apr 9, 2010)

I have a Maz18nr head that I'm running through a Two Rock 112 cab with a Celestion Gold in it.

What do not like about it is it isn't every other amp my AHDH/OCD/GAS riddled heart can get interested in. ;-)

What I like about it - it can nail most tones I want from any of the above.

What do I love about it; great portability, amazing tone, beautiful touch sensitivity, it loves Teles, it's built like a tank but is pure simplicity, has plenty of headroom, it gets me yelled at to turn down (yes, I like that), and not everyone and their dog has one in my neck of the woods.


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## Chitmo (Sep 2, 2013)

Budda said:


> Chitmo, just gotta train the neighbours, then sell the rivera.


My mini Z was too loud for home use, this thing is a monster. It's louder than the AFD100 I had! Haha I have had several Dr Z amps now and they're all crazy loud.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I dont think its louder, its the voicing. My friends Z made my Peters seem weaker than it is, all due to midrange.


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## Disbeat (Jul 30, 2011)

The clean head room is gonna make a big difference as well, the 50 watt Hiwatts I've played would crush just about any amp I've played along with.



Budda said:


> I dont think its louder, its the voicing. My friends Z made my Peters seem weaker than it is, all due to midrange.


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## Newnewf (Jan 5, 2010)

Friedman BE-100
Bogner Shiva EL34
Two Rock Sensor 22 combo
Marshall DSL40 combo

Friedman - I like the sound of the distortion from this amp. It is the tightest and most musical Marshall-type distortion I have ever heard. I like that it is a channel switcher - the clean channel is nice. I like that the different options and controls are useful and simple, you cannot get a bad sound from this amp. The effects loop is stellar. The boost is great for solos and ads the right amount of volume and gain boost. And perhaps most importantly it sounds AMAZING at ultra low volumes. This is a bedroom amp if you can believe that. This would get my vote as the best amplifier of its type currently being made. 

Shiva - Main gigging amp. It has everything you need in one beautiful package. The cleans are my favorite of any amp and the distortion is a smooth and articulate JCM800-type sound. I like that it has reverb and the effects loop is pretty good. I like the boost function on this amp a lot. The boost ads distortion and has its own volume control. You can set the boost channel's volume to match the dirty channel and you effectively have a 3 channel amp - clean, dirty, and extra dirty. It also sounds pretty good at really low volume. I have had this amp for about 5 years - a record in amp ownership for me. I guess the main thing I like about this amp is how well it cuts through the mix. I play in a two guitar band and the amp has a nice thin JCM type distortion that sounds perfect with a band. It isn't too bright like some Marshall type amps and it doesn't have too much bottom like some modern higher gain amps do IMHO. I used to have a Bogner XTC, I think the Shiva destroys it. 

Two-Rock - Relatively new. I haven't jammed with it a lot but from what I have heard so far it sounds pretty nice. I wanted a fender type amp with a good distortion channel and good effects loop. This amp fits the bill I think. I like that it is light, it has a lot of useful features, and is built very well. I wish it had reverb. I bought this amp to replace a Budda Superdrive 18 combo. It sounds better than the Budda, but not by a whole lot. 

Marshall - I wanted a Marshal sounding amp in small combo so I bought one. It is nice and portable, has built in reverb (digital, but sounds ok) and a pretty good variety of Marshall tones. I really like some of the lower gain tones from this amp - very classic sounding. I swapped the speaker for a G12T75. It sounds pretty good overall I think. Most of the people who see me and my band play live would not be able to tell the difference between this amp and my Friedman I suspect. I like that this amp doesn't cost an excessive amount.


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## Moosehead (Jan 6, 2011)

'81 JCM 800 4010(50w combo) - Great cutting through the wall of noise marshall tone, leads are never too quiet:sSig_busted:
Sounds great at 1.5-2 on the master too, play it home lots, it's my main jamming with tunes on the p.a. amp. Plug into low input for cleans & let the pedals shine.

Vox ac4tvh - I keep this at the jam space. Band Im playing with now (60's and 70's stuff) is super quiet so 4 watts is plenty loud. I think I only turn up a quarter of the way on the volume. Great drive with these smaller amps, I want more of them!

Randall es100 - Old carpet covered ss amp I traded for my pod 2.0. Get your metal fix here. Does clean and crunchy too and can blend channels but with the heavy gain of this s.o.b. why bother. And this the only amp I have that has reverb.


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## Stonehead (Nov 12, 2013)

I play a Traynor YBA-1 Mod1 with the matching YBX212 with V30's. Its got a killer old school tone and it has a very good attenuator that will take the power form 40 down to 0.1 watt without sacrificing tone. It has 2 channels which you can blend for tone shaping or run in series for more gain. It's great for classic rock, which is what i love to play. Great frigg'n amp that fly's under most peoples radar.

I also have an old 90's Fender Princeton Chorus SS amp 2x10 that I use regularly. It has a really excellent clean tone with great reverb and stereo chorus. The drive channel is absolute sh!t but it takes pedals well.

Here's a pick.








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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

I play clean most of the time except during solos. Outside of the Twin which I also have and used for years, for me the DRRI has the best clean tone.


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## Petey D (Sep 8, 2011)

fsone said:


> Nice little riff petey. Good sound on the amp does it have drum or instrument background music?.


Nope, no bells and whistles at all. Straight up simple circuit, with normal and bright inputs, volume, tone, and reverb controls and that's it. The only special feature it's got is Vaporizer mode; a foot switch bypass of all controls, sends tone and volume to max to drive the amp as hard as it can. Sounds decent, but I prefer using a pedal for drive.

Thanks for the compliment.


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## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

Is this the first vintage amp reply to this thread? I love my 71 Super Reverb. Yup, it's more awkward to carry. Yes it's old, and heavier than many other amps. It kicks butt. Plain and simple. 45W all tube with fibre hole circuit board it's simple to repair and service as needed. It'll be around long after I am gone. 4x10 combo with built in tube reverb and vibrato. It sounds so full, 3D, clear, loud, great great amp. I gig and this thing does the job exceptionally well for me. I have a pedal board too covering all the tones I need for the cover band I play in. I have other amps too that sound great, but none as glorious as my Super. For smaller gigs I have a 68 CPR that has nice Fender reverb and vibrato too. It sounds nice as well. Pretty hard to beat the prices on the early Fender SF models too. It just gets the job done, so well. My favourite, the SR.


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## pstratman (Jan 26, 2012)

I really like my Morris Grinder- the distortion channel is amazing, and you can get many types of sounds- all the way from heavy to distortion to medium distortion-everything is musical and voiced to cut. It is also warm, smooth, and totally easy to dial in great tones. The clean channel is pretty good too, just not as good as Fender which is my favourite.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

wow. lots of nice amp users in here.

Fender '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb
Valvetrain Tallboy (5F2A Princeton inspired)

Fender '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb
this is one of my favorite amps I've ever played. it has lots of headroom for cleans, and decent break up. Custom Channel is bassman voiced and loves pedals. fairly portable and does everything I need it to.

Valvetrain Tallboy
This one doesn't get played much, but its a great little amp. great breakup, loud 6 watts.


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## BEACHBUM (Sep 21, 2010)

For me the Twin is the benchmark of clean tone for what I like to play. Not much else to say about it because that's about all it does. But oh, it does that so well.



Great clean tones with my 550+ as well but the best thing about Mesas are their overdrive. I also like the selectable wattage settings (5-25-50) and selectable mode settings (clean-crunch-blues-burn) . While the Twin is a one trick pony this one's about as versatile as they come.



I've also got an SCXD with an Eminence C-Rex loaded extension cab for practice and garage jambs. Portable, lots of usable sounds, easy to dial in and very nice tube tone for reasonable bucks.


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## Louis (Apr 26, 2008)

Newnewf said:


> Friedman BE-100
> Bogner Shiva EL34
> Two Rock Sensor 22 combo
> Marshall DSL40 combo
> ...


Haha !!!..........now that we know that you have the budget , you gonna
make us a favor and get a brand new Hélios and report back to us !!


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## Dr.StringBender (Mar 1, 2014)

Probably my favorite is my tweed 2x10 5e3 clone. So simple, Tone & Volume, sweet eff all for headroom (unless you mic it) but thats the way uh huh uh huh I like it.

Switching directions for my main rig because the Tweed isn't what I would call super versatile. 

I use a Orange TH30 combo with a 1x12 extension. What's nice about this amp is the power switching options with the tube config. It can go from 7W to 15W to 30W. Lovely cleans, and very simple to dial in (notice a trend?!) Fabulous dirt channel, though I don't use that much, maybe a couple songs here and there if I need a "metally" sound, but that channel can be easily be shaped to be a pretty subtle OD tone as well. So 7W on the dirty channel gets me great tone at a bedroom level, or open up all 30W and Shake the Foundations. Would I spend nearly 1600$ on it like they are charging now? No, but I got a smokin deal on mine. $1000 for the combo brand new. I am really quite happy with it, especially running 30W. The pedals really come alive.


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## pattste (Dec 30, 2007)

Allen Old Flame 2x10

My main amp for over five years now and my only amp for the the last couple of years. The circuit is based on a Fender Super Reverb with a couple of enhancements. Handwired point-to-point, easy to repair and maintain, master volume, good reverb, excellent pedal platform.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

pattste said:


> Allen Old Flame 2x10
> 
> My main amp for over five years now and my only amp for the the last couple of years. The circuit is based on a Fender Super Reverb with a couple of enhancements. Handwired point-to-point, easy to repair and maintain, master volume, good reverb, excellent pedal platform.


Before I read your post, I thought boy, that looks like a Fender. Even the font in the name is the same.


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## Budd (Mar 4, 2014)

Have you tried a Blues JR. ? Easy to truck around , 15 watts ( strong 15 ) 
I use an old Bogen 35 watt PA amp pushing a Celestian V30 in a closed back cab I built with a Hugh's & Kettner Tubeman in front set very light . Just to get the bite I want with my guitar volume . 
It kinda comes down to playing @ home or gigs & your ears ! 
In my band I have a 1959 Fender Bassman reissue , but we are doing fairly big venues so it's the one for me ! Good luck , I'm sure you'll find what you want , there's no lack of amps out there !


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## YellowBrick (Mar 7, 2015)

You guys are going to laugh. I have a Blackstar ID Core 10. I like it because it's got OK sounds (a kazillion of them actually) while keeping my neighbours happy.

I also just built a Tweed Deluxe head but I did not realise until I switched it on how loud a 12W tube amp can be. I think I'm going to sell it soon.


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## bzrkrage (Mar 20, 2011)

Me? S/H market all the way!
Budget. What I can get for the price I can afford.
My Peavey Vintage 410 was my main for a long time.
Had a few Fender HRD 112 combos, and the such.
Now, an Ibanez Thermion 120 head on a Blackheart 412 ,great cleans (yes has clean channel) & does the mesa thing on the cheap.(at band space & gigging).








Home, H&K Tubemeister 18 w/ Cannnibis Rex 112,







Peavey Vintage & a little 5 watt Symphonic 60's trem amp.








Oh, & the Ampro thing for jams!










Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I use a JCM800 halfstack. Good times.


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## Hamstrung (Sep 21, 2007)

I've been using a Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister 36 through either a H&K 1x12 (Celestion V30) or a Traynor YBX 212 (again C V30's) for a few months now and I feel settled in that quest. Great clean and two drive channels give me all the range I need and the tone gets compliments. 

At home for practicing and just mucking around I still use my trusty G-Dec 30.


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

I play an old late 70,s Yamaha amp SS and also a Backstage 50 Peavey amp with all my groups. I have been searching for "the" sound but have not found it yet.
I only play pop,country, rock and roll and very light jazz so no need for anything over 40 watts or so. I mike them all the time and use a few pedals to colour the sound. I find these amps bullet proof and i can always depend on them. Works for me.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

At home I'm currently using my '69 Traynor YGM-2. It's a great no-frills amp that has a solid clean tone and also snarls real nice when turned up. 

For rehearsals and shows, I'm using either my Fender '59 Bassman RI or my Marshall JTM45. I really like the Bassman/JTM45 circuit and find it makes for a great pedal platform on top of having a nice, warm clean sound. My Marshall's currently paired up with a 1x12, but I'm looking at picking up a 2x12 again because I miss the fullness, especially compared to the 4x10 config of the Bassman.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

I have a few but my favourite is a Fryette Memphis 30 Combo. Both channels are awesome and my favourite lead channel of any amp I've ever owned (lots), 18 or 30 watt switch on each channel, great fx loop, the list goes on but it's a great portable 1 x 12 combo. I like it so much I've considered buying the head but it would be a bit redundant


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## -=Sc0rch=- (Mar 28, 2010)

a 1997 Peavey Ultra 112 60watt combo. Speaker changed to an Eminence Legend GB128 (50w greenback clone) and tubed with JJ's throughout. 

likes: 3 channels. The gain is very usable for all kinds of styles. Perfect amp for cover work. master volume amps and this one is loud as hell. resonance switch is cool too.

dislikes: for a 1x12 amp, this thing is heavy. The two gain channels also share an eq. Reverb is kinda of tinny but I barely use it when using an efx unit in the loop. also, if you don't clean the contacts on the efx loop of these amps often, weird volume issues happen. It's a typical peavey thing that happens with a lot of their amps from the 90's.


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## nonreverb (Sep 19, 2006)

'74 Deluxe Reverb loaded with 5881's and Jensen Blackbird for most gigs. Then I need to be louder, '95 AC30TB reissue


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