Opinion: The most versatile tube combo amp?

[butwhatif]

Yeah right line 6 , that'll tame it. Truly homogenize any style and technique.

[CaseyJones]

Yeah right line 6 , that'll tame it. Truly homogenize any style and technique.

Yeah, that's it. That's the ticket. They make a Line 6 with tubes in it, gotta get me one o' those.

To go with my SCXD doncha know?!

Anyone got a good Express patch for my Line 6?!

[skyboltone]

I suppose we should have asked the obvious first: What style of music do you play?

Oh, no. The question was, "What's the most versatile?" so the answer obviously has to be an amp that will do smooth jazz where the amp just goes, "putt-putt-putt" and the notes end up in a little pile on the floor in front of the speaker... all the way out to Rammstein / Manson / Zombie grind and beyond. So lemme guess... Line 6?!

If this was anything like the usual "which amp" wankfest we'd have three pages of everyone offering up the amp they wished they had even though their choice in absolutely no way relates to the OP's criteria.

I still wanna make a amp with a pair of 833A. We'll run them conservative at about 2KV. Drive them through a pair of Western Electric phone line isolation transformers off a 100 watt Marshall or High-Watt. About 4 zack wilde EV12L oughta do it. Put them in a 20 cubic foot box for lots of low end. We'll mount it on a trailer so it's still a combo. You pay Heyboer to build the output tranny and I'll build it. I think I still got an 8MFD 2500VDC filter cap. We'll need to find a 10 henry choke rated for that voltage and current. Use a pole pig back fed from 117V line for a PT and we're ready to go. The most expensive part will be those dam Western Electric transformers.

[JJGross]

I really can't vote for this poll because it's too open-ended a question.

I used to use a Line6 AX2 2-12 because it covered a TON of ground with built-in effects, was easy to program and was a great 'close enough for stinky bars' kind of an amp. Anyone tweaking out about the difference between an Egnater or Dumble in the setting of a bar with very iffy power supply, neon lights, refrigerators and dimmed ceiling lights on the same circuit of their beloved amp has obviously never 'slugged it out in the trenches'. The difference between a fairly decent amp and an outstanding amp is really lost in the translation between your ears 5 feet in front of it and the audience sitting at the bar in a roadhouse with chicken wire in front of the stage. Seriously. ;D

I replaced the Line6 AX2 2-12 with a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe 1x12 combo that I tweaked (no-solder mods) to what I felt was perfection for my situation. For several years it was my perfect amp. Now I use a Fender Pro Jr. since it's low output allows me to crank it right to the verge of losing control, then add my own homemade effects that I've tweaked to work best with that amp. Currently I have 2 of the PJs. One for playing out and one for a complete rebuild on a turret board with good modern components and no PCBs in sight. I expect tons of creamy goodness. The circuit itself is outstanding and can produce some of the best Fender tube sounds in the world, but the layout between the zip tied wires to the PCB heater wiring is a recipe for noise you just can't completely get around. Some can be fixed but not all.

Best amp? Geeze, please put it into context!

Outdoor gigs doing 80s rock? Best & most versatile amp I've had was a Carvin VT-2800 head with a home made 4x12 cab with Carvin British Series speakers from the 1980s. Total killer rig for that stuff, versatile and rock solid reliable. Outstanding sound quality too. I wish I'd never traded it away, but I got the better end of the deal (nice old Gibson SG).

Best Blues amp? My 1978 Fender Twin pull-boost Ultra-Linear 135w with JBLs in it with magnets almost the same size as the cone. Sucker weighed 112#. Sounded awesome outdoors at blue festivals cranked up - absolutely killer. Indoors in a bar it was worthless. Lots of haters for the UL Twins, they've obviously never had one long enough to figure it's strengths out. Not just the most powerful cleans you'll ever get but with the right simple reversible mods, a killer breakup grindy blues amp. Just happens to be the heaviest blues combo on the planet.

Best practice amp? My vote is my 78 Fender Music Man Bass amp - one of the best low watt amps for home jamming ever. Got on CL for $100 literally out of the closet since new. Minty fresh takes on new meaning. New caps in it (replaced by me) + a Weber AlNiCo 12 and it's SWEET!

Best recording amp? Cross between a Line6 POD (home), Line 6 AX2 and my old Carvin tube half stack (Line6 in the studio, Carvin live recordings). Depends on the recording and the studio or live venue in question as well as the music being recorded.

Best vibrato low watt for recording or small gigs? Magnatone 12W Audio Guild Imperial I picked up for $75 with the sexiest-swampiest pitch shifting stakny vibrato I've ever heard north of the Mason-Dixon line.

I know guys who will swear a solid state Roland Jazz Chorus is the best & most versatile amp for what they play.

Not trying to bust your stones, but ... put the question in context man, context!

Cheers,
- JJ

[RevD]

Rather a wide variety of music styles will get you many answers. For what I do blues wise, my 18 watt clone marshall (lite iib) at over half volume has all the grind and grit I can use for a smaller bar. Outdoors, half stack marshall with my plexied 78' metal panel super lead, ain't nowhere outside you can't play it and it gets the nice growley plexi sound turned up. Recording, I like the tweed deluxe, a little flubby for some but thats what its supposed to do and it does it well. Overall? Probably a deluxe reverb fender, its just loud enough, has verb and trem and breaks up pretty nice, takes pedals ok. Jazz? L5 solid state like bb uses or a polytone or Roland jazz chorus. Too many musical styles represented in the group I think to say one is best. Best is what makes you play over your potential!

Regards,


Rev. D.

[butwhatif]

Out of 30+ amps, i have recorded more trax with my '57 tweed deluxe than all the others combined. Like my U47, it's been magic in many situations.
So many sounds to choose from in it, i've subbed to it many times in the studio, to the amazement of the players working the track. It's a go-to amp when all the multi efx, modeling, infinite sounds amps ain't cutting it. The only other amps that have been able to capture this same kind of magic from my experience have been two D style amps that i built. Time will tell
what shakes out.
For jazz, a polytone megabrute for straightahead, a D style for overall contemporary, and a Pearce G2r for loud. For pedal steel, an Evans, PV session 400, or several Sho-Buds, or a tube direct for recording. .

[Rimy]

i used to own a line 6 pod xt with a atomic 212 50w all tube amp.
this was for me the most versatile amp. you can do any style with it.
the sound of the amp's are authentic to 90% no matter wich model, if it's fender, marshall, boogie or soldano. if you spend some time to tweak the sounds you can come very close to the original. anyway, last year november i sold the complete rig and build a trainwreck express inspired amp wich i like a lot more than the pod/atomic, even i got less sounds.

[rfgordon]

I agree that the question is a bit broad. However, if I ended up in a town with no amp and had to pick something for a quickie job, either live or in the studio, I'd pick some kind of older Fender--Deluxe Reverb or maybe a Pro, Super or Bandmaster Reverb. For a real classic rock gig I'd love to use a tweed Deluxe and an SM57. Oh, wait, didn't Larry Carlton use that set up for, like, a zillion Steely Dan songs? I guess that's versatile enough!

Now, if you ask me what's my "desert island" amp, I'd have to say it's my 1965 Wards Airline champ-style amp: volume/tone and three bottles: 12AX7, 6V6, 5Y3. Quiet as a mouse and records big as a house!

[Firestorm]

For a commercial amp, I've gotta go with the Fender Deluxe Reverb; the older the better. After that, a blackface Pro Reverb. But I have begun designing plans for a two-channel combo with blackface values on one side and tweed values (also Marshall, btw) on the other. Add trannies that can support 6V6, 6L6 and EL34 and that would be, like 9 amps in one. How does that sound? (Well that's ultimately the question, isn't it).

[Kregg]

Go to this link and click on the demos:

http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... 0217400000

Or (love the underrated often overlooked 59' Bassman)

http://www.fender.com/products//search. ... 2171000010

[Firestorm]

I can't understand why Fender is winning this poll (and I love old Fenders). Tweeds are two identical channels (sometimes one is "Bright"); Blackfaces are one channel nobody uses and one channel everybody uses. Then there's CBS.

I've modded a lot of those Silverfaces so the "Normal" channel actually did something. But you can't all be talking about me

[jem]

I can't understand why Fender is winning this poll (and I love old Fenders). Tweeds are two identical channels (sometimes one is "Bright"); Blackfaces are one channel nobody uses and one channel everybody uses. Then there's CBS.

I've modded a lot of those Silverfaces so the "Normal" channel actually did something. But you can't all be talking about me

I use both the channels in my DR. The reverb channel has the tone lift switch and a floor channel switch. Even that is too loud for most the gigs I do

[billyz]

There is not a gig in the world I could not do with a late 50's Fender Tweed deluxe. R&B, Blues, Country, Rock, Jazz, acoustic, Gospel. I know Because I have done them all. I guess to some versatile equals multi effects modeling cybrogtron facisimiles of something or other. To me versatile means the tone and touch response to be able to create the soul of the music. I don't need bells and whistles , in fact they get you further away from the tone.
There are quite a few amps that will do it. Most of them are simple designs that don't get in the way. If you want the sound of McRock then get a facsimile of the real thing and sound like cardboard. Or paint it with the tools of an artist to create something worthy of admiration.
I would rather have one great channel than 100 also rans.

[kingster]

I just got an Egnater Reel 30 combo that is the best amp I've eer played thru. I don't expect to use my Boogie Mk4 and a Deluxe Reverbs anymore. The Egg simply does it all, and better.

[tubeswell]

Fender BF PR with a 12" speaker - light, small, choppy, clean at low vol yet has dirt when you want it, bucket loads of verb if you want, and some sorta trem and takes pedals up front