High Gain Guitar Amps........

[Anodizer]

Went out on a limb today and picked up a new amp....  I have a Soldano Slo100, Astroverb, Orange AD30, Orange Rockerverb 50, Marshall JCM900..  VERY VERY Pleased with those amps..  Has taken me years to acquire each one of those..  I'm into collecting high-gain amps..  Something about the sounds they produce through 2 4x12 cabs with Celestion Vintage 30s.....  It's like heroin for me..  I love high-gain tube amps..  However, I can't hit the sweet spot on those amps until about 3,  which is by then rattling the windows and making the neighbor's bowels empty every few minutes..  I was thinking something like the Orange Tiny Terror(all tube 15 watt) or even the Micro Terror(15 watt hybrid Tube pre-amp/solid state power amp, sounds like crap, don't bother)..  Looked at the Laney Cub(I'm a HUGE Iommi fan, but couldn't get anything close to a GH100 tone out of this amp)..  Checked out all those other brands: Egnater,  Black Star, Black Heart, etc. etc.  By the way, Bugera are absolute junk..  Stay away..  I fried one at the music store while playing it after 10 minutes..  Music store guy said "Not again......"  Some brands, I just stay away from..  They may be good amps(some Fenders) but totally not what I'm looking for..  Fender isn't exactly known for high-gain amps, let's face it..
 
Anything like Marshall/HiWatt/etc. was over what I wanted to spend..  Was looking for something around 15-20 watts..  Loud enough to gig, quiet enough for home, good enough to record with.. 
I was totally set on the Orange Tiny Terror..  Next thing I know, guy at music store says he has one more thing to show me..  He shows me the Jet City JCA22H..  I read that these were built in China, so was  immediately turned off..  Starts explaining how Soldano designs these amps, and that Soldano himself checks in to ensure quality control is happening.. How this particular amp has the SLO(Super Lead Overdrive) circuit along with a tube buffered effects loop..  BLa BLa BLa...  I tell him "Let's plug it in!!" 
 
I have a 2x12 Kustom Tuck and Roll cab..  He had a matching one at the store..  We plugged in..  Dudes, I'm serious...  This little $349 amp is brutal..  5 12AX7's in the pre-amp..  2 el84's for the power amp..  He let me look inside...  I was amazed to see no IC's or nothing of that kind..  All the solder joints looked nice and clean..  Looked beautiful inside..  These amps are all hand made..  Some amazing quality control here, especially for being from China.. 
I ran a few effects through the effect's loop..  NICE and CLEAN..  No signal loss was noticeable..  The gain was a useable all the way to the top with no compression..  Has BEAUTIFULLY creamy, smooth, thick THICK THICK gain..  Sounds like a mini-Slo..  Mini as in it has almost the same sound but not as loud(20 watts vs 100 watts) and hits the sweet stop at a much lower volume(which is what i was looking for)..  By the way, it's a LOUD LOUD LOOOUUUUD 20 watts..  Definitely will hang with a drummer/bassist/full band and have plenty of head room.. 

If you're on a budget and looking for a kick-arse amp that can contend with any other amp in it's class, I suggest you check out Jet City....

And no, I don't work for them..  I just think they make a good product.. 



I guess the Orange will have to wait till next time.. 

[phatzo]

I had a go of one of these a couple of weeks ago, it was very impressive.

[Anodizer]

I had a go of one of these a couple of weeks ago, it was very impressive.

(Image removed from quote.)

Yeah I tried one of these out...  REALLY nice clean tone, but was disappointed in the distortion..  Sounded like a Tubescreamer through a clean amp..  Great if you're looking for that kind of sound..
Not really a high-gain amp, but good sound and probably sounds good with a Big Muff or something along those lines....  

I also picked up one of these about a month ago...


Acts as a pre-amp or a 1 watt tube amp..  Sounds amazing and stupidly loud for a 1 watt amp...  Uses 1 12ax7 for pre-amp and 1 12Au7 for the power section..
The gain on this thing sounds pretty much like an over-driven JCM800...  Love H&K stuff....  Germans build good stuff....

[rpm]

You could have bought a new joystick...   

[Masherbrum]

This is what I have.  I bought it off of a friend for $100 and it had been used five times.

Orange Crush 30R

[katanaso]

What about a Power Soak, or something like it.  I remember reading about them in the late 80's/early 90's, and folks would run an attenuator on their JCM 800's.

I never shelled out the cash for a half stack or full stack, but I jammed on some 50 and 100 watt Marshall heads back then.  I found the 50 watt (was a Jubilee series) was easier to overdrive without rattling the entire room.

One friend had a tiny Gallien Krueger amp that really pushed it with good overdrive and a great crunch sound.  It might've been a 250ML, but I thought it was smaller.

[VonMessa]

I own a guitar, I can make melodic sounds come out of it that sound fairly close to what some would call music, but a guitar player I am not.

I have a few friends that ARE very good, however.

One of the used to use one of these when he was trying to be a little more subtle or when he didn't want to drag his good amps all over kingdom come for practice, etc



It seemed pretty impressive to me, as there was the ability to overdrive an actual tube AND because one could change the actual tube being used, depending upon what flavor was wanted at the time.

I won't try to say that it would EVER sound the same as a vintage Marshall head/cabinet combo, just like a synth with a B3 patch could ever sound as good as a real Hammond going through a properly miked Leslie cabinet, but it sounded a lot better than a lot of pedals that claimed to emulate a "tube" sound.

Gig-worthy in a pinch, but definitely beats lugging the expensive goods to practice or open mikes...

[icepac]

I used to modify high end HiFi amps for guitar work.

The old harmon kardon Citation series and other amps were perfect for it and my Dynaco amps and preamps were stellar for that clean "walking on the moon" riffs.

To this day, though, I haven't seen an amp that always put out great sound like the old Fender Super Reverbs.

I do like the sounds of the newer boutique "small amps" that put out huge amounts of sweet overdriven sound despite thier wattage rating.

I really like the suhr badger but can't justify buying something that expensive when I can make one closer to my needs.

http://www.suhrguitars.com/downloads/audio/stevens/SS_BadgerDemo.mp3

While that sounds very sweet, I really want an easy way to get the tone Billy Gibbons uses in the ending guitar solo that ends "pearl necklace" but it seems that tone requires some old school heavy knob turning in addition to an expensive guitar.

[Anodizer]

This is what I have.  I bought it off of a friend for $100 and it had been used five times.

Orange Crush 30R
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Amazing tone from those little Orange solid state amps....  

[infowars]

yeah dude,  you need an attenuator.

That'll perfect.  No need to buy another amp.

[Helm]

yeah dude,  you need an attenuator.

That'll perfect.  No need to buy another amp.

Yeah...this is what you need....they used to call them "power soaks" as well.   Attenuator will give you all the tone that you are looking for


Helm...out

[sluggish]

Just throw this between your amp and cab...

http://www.amptone.com/marshallpowerbrake.htm

[Anodizer]

What about a Power Soak, or something like it.  I remember reading about them in the late 80's/early 90's, and folks would run an attenuator on their JCM 800's.

I never shelled out the cash for a half stack or full stack, but I jammed on some 50 and 100 watt Marshall heads back then.  I found the 50 watt (was a Jubilee series) was easier to overdrive without rattling the entire room.

One friend had a tiny Gallien Krueger amp that really pushed it with good overdrive and a great crunch sound.  It might've been a 250ML, but I thought it was smaller.

  I remember that amp..  LIttle 2 speaker solid state deal...  I had one of those years back..  Wish I'd never gotten rid of it...  THing was awesome for a solid state amp..  Stereo..  Ran it through a old Ampeg bass cab if I remember correctly..   
I bought one after seeing Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden use one in an instructional VHS tape...  Man, so many years ago...   

[Anodizer]

I own a guitar, I can make melodic sounds come out of it that sound fairly close to what some would call music, but a guitar player I am not.

I have a few friends that ARE very good, however.

One of the used to use one of these when he was trying to be a little more subtle or when he didn't want to drag his good amps all over kingdom come for practice, etc

(Image removed from quote.)

It seemed pretty impressive to me, as there was the ability to overdrive an actual tube AND because one could change the actual tube being used, depending upon what flavor was wanted at the time.

I won't try to say that it would EVER sound the same as a vintage Marshall head/cabinet combo, just like a synth with a B3 patch could ever sound as good as a real Hammond going through a properly miked Leslie cabinet, but it sounded a lot better than a lot of pedals that claimed to emulate a "tube" sound.

Gig-worthy in a pinch, but definitely beats lugging the expensive goods to practice or open mikes...

Good buddy of mine has one of these...  Sounds awesome through his Sunn Model T....   

[VonMessa]

  I remember that amp..  LIttle 2 speaker solid state deal...  I had one of those years back..  Wish I'd never gotten rid of it...  THing was awesome for a solid state amp..  Stereo..  Ran it through a old Ampeg bass cab if I remember correctly..   
I bought one after seeing Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden use one in an instructional VHS tape...  Man, so many years ago...   
(Image removed from quote.)

One of the guys I used to play with has one of these for his bass amp. It has a tremendous sound and enough punch to fill most rooms at an average gig.

He still uses it after 20+ years