Recommend a 112?

[Trey]

dinis64 said:

Trey said,

They sound mcuh better than the Classics

That's hilarious. News flash, sound is subjective. Just because it sounds good to you doesn't mean it will sound good to everyone else.

Too Many Wires, I'm not going to tell you to get a classic series just because I like one. You need to play through them, just like you're doing.

A friend of mine has a couple of Carvins he raves about, one's vintage, from the early 70's, maybe, I think. They don't do much for me.

No, the classics don't have seperate EQ's for both channels. I don't really care for the Accutronics spring reverb, myself. But the cleans are good and the OD channel is the most affordable old Marshall distortion I could find. And the new ones have an effects loop. I run it through 2 Celestion Blues and I can cut through at much less volume than everybody I play with. Not that it doens't have volume. It's plenty loud, especially for 30 watts.

I have some impressive (Classic sereies) testimonials bookmarked in my computer, but it hasn't been up for a while so I don't have access to them to put the links here. If one was going to go by what people say, realize that a lot of people are looking for an affordable "Holy Grail". Carvin's been around for quite some time, but I don't hear there name come up near as much as the Classics.

Personally, I'm saving for an AC30. Because, Trey, it's all Class A and it "sounds better" (HAH).

Well if you bothered to quote my entire sentence, instead of paraphrasing and taking it out of context, it would have read...


IMHO, They sound much better than the Classics and have spearate EQs, standbys, and tube driven spring reverb.

IMHO, means in my humble opinion. I didn't say it was a fact, I said they sound better TO ME. And I suggested he check them out head to head if he got the chance.

So here's a news flash for you, how about reading my entire post before you try and flame me.

[wolfengeist]

Well, I thought dinis64 was kinda being a jerk trying to roast Trey like that, but I did agree with his point. Then I found out what IMHO meant and now I just find the whole thing kinda comical. Between the brash attitude of one guy and the technical internet lingo of the other I'm not really sure which one is more comedic.

[bam]

Actually, try to make a comedian out of yourself and IMHO you'll feel a lot better :wink:

[TooManyWires]

Yeah, and either way, yelling at each other over the internet isn't going to make either amp sound any better or worse...People are different, people hear different, Different strokes for different folks....It's all a metter of preference....however, that kind of screws up the entire point of the thread then doesn't it?...It's hard to get advice if we then decide that all advice is subject to personal taste and can be completely ingnored due to it's lack of relevance since my taste might not be the same as everyone else's...

[bam]

It's hard to get advice if we then decide that all advice is subject to personal taste and can be completely ingnored due to it's lack of relevance since my taste might not be the same as everyone else's

not entirely right, I think. The major point of getting an advice from the other(s) is, that the things sold out there (and even the DIY ones) are too much that yu can't get in one place to hear or try all those stuff. Basically, these advices IMHO are to shrink that huge selection, giving the one that asks the advice a bit more focus on what are he getting.

[TooManyWires]

Sarcasm is somewhat difficult to convey online...I've actually gotten a fair amount of helpful advice from the internet, (or people on the internet, I guess...) I was just trying to say that it doesn't make much sense to put someone else's opinion down, and then turn around and give your own opinion...because it's a thread asking about people's opinions...

[Trey]

You made a decision yet, TooManyWires, or had a chance to play thru a few amps?

[bam]

[TooManyWires]

I haven't made a decision yet, but I have had a chance to play through a bunch of amps. I've played these recently:

Randall RG50TC
Peavey Classic 30
Crate V3112
Laney LC50 II
Fender Blues Junior
Genz-Benz El Diablo 60C
Ampeg Reverbrocket

- The Randall was a decent amp. It had two different gain settings on the distortion channel, but I found that they both sounded very much the same, although it wasn't really a bad sound. It did pretty much all the sounds I wanted it to as well. I'd rank it very close to the Peavey actually, I might still be considering this one.
- The Peavey was a really nice amp, it gets all of the tones that I feel I should be able to get out of the amp that I want, but like I said, it kind of lacks some features that I like, like standby and seperate EQ's. It's still in the running though.
- The crate was a pretty good sounding amp, but it sounded very much like a solid state distortion cicuit in it. It did some nice higher gain tones pretty well, but the lower gain ones were not as good sounding as some of the other sounds. So, I imagine that it'd be easier to put a hi-gain pedal, (like the Boss MT-2 that I just got and love), in front of an amp that does good low gain sounds.
- The Laney really suprised me. I've played a few of those before and really haven't been impressed, but this particular one I thought sounded really good. It had ridiculously large tubes, like...easily twice the size of normal 12ax7's and standard power tubes. I don't konw if that is standard, or would affect the sound, but I think that the amp was pre-owned, so they could have been something that someone put in after they bought the thing. It did very acceptable low and high gain sounds, and had a lot of the features that I liked, ie- EQ on both channels, and that sort of thing. It was a bit more expensive though, but I think I'd still consider it.
- The Fender was as very simple amp, only one channel, which I think detracted from it's attractiveness. It had a pretty good clean sound, and a decent low gain sound, but I wouldn't be caught dead playing the thing with any kind of level of gain that would be acceptable for playing rock music, because it just sounded like crap at mid to high gain settings.
- The Genz-Benz was an interesting amp, would do all kinds of great clean and lightly overdriven sounds, but like the Fender it's mid to high gain sounds left some to be desired. Admittedly it was a lot nicer than the Fender. It was also much higher priced than I really want to pay.
- The Ampeg was a very surprisingly nice amp. It had great clean and did very acceptable middle gain, and mid-high gain sounds. Unfortunately, it was huge. Almost the size of the 212 that I have to get rid of because it's too big, so it really wasn't an option, but it was a fairly nice amp.

I also have had the opportunity to play almost every 112 Traynor, or Yorkville tube amp that there is, the YCV20, the YCV40 (both the normal versions and both the higher end versions with the reddish-brown tolex and upgraded speaker and whatnot), and the YCV50 Blue. I hate them all, simply can't stand them, don't like them one bit. I've also played a whole whack of digital solid state crate amps, the models of which I can't remember, but they all sounded pretty well the same to me. It was a pretty good sound, but putting them side by side with one of the tube amps I was considering, they weren't much to get excited about. I also played a bunch of solid state simple Fenders, which were again very much the same sound, different from the solid state Crate's but still not as good as any of the tube amps. I also tried out a Fender Cyber-something or other....it was a 112 model. It was a fairly nice amp. Also I played a Roland Cube 60. This was a very nice amp, but it was very much geared more towards the heavier sounds, which I can do easily with the MT-2, and it's low gain sounds I didn't like as much as the tube amps. I also got to play an Epiphone tube amp, which sucked really bad.

[jdtogo]

look into the kustom 36 Coupe very nice amp

[TooManyWires]

Ok, so having previously knocked the Roland Cube 60, I went back and played it again. It's not really what I was looking for, in so far as it's not a tube amp, so that's probably why I didn't give it a fighting chance last time around. It's actually a really nice amp. It does have a fair amount of drawbacks, but they aren't all that bad. I dont like that you'd need 3 seperate footswitches to run it, (1 for channel, 1 for effects, and one for reverb/delay). I also don't like that you only have one clean model on the clean channel and then you have other clean sounds on the lead channel. Like, the acoustic simulator (which is cool, and I think potentially very useful) is on the lead channel. So you wouldn't be able to switch between acoustic sounds and distortion sounds. Which, you might not have a lot of call to do, but I think it should be available. I also don't like having the reveb and delay control come off of one knob. That way you can't get reverb and delay at the same time. The effects aren't really all that editable..if that's a word, but that's ok with me. The only effect that I really use is chorus, and I usually just like..."some"...I'm not too picky about that. It has a presence control, (which is nice). It's also significantly smaller, somewhat lighter weight, and would travel better than most tube amps. However, I thought that it lacked somewhat in bass response compared to other amps that I demoed today. (Laney LC50-II, and Crate V3112 which I found lacked bass compared to the Laney) So, given that I have a smaller tube amp (about 5 watts, volume tone and tremolo, I bought it at a yard sale and put a new speaker and tubes in it, sounds great but would never cut it as anythign other than a practice amp) I may go with the solid state Roland, for now anyways, can always trade in or sell later if I decide I don't like it anymore. It seems to be more practical for me I suppose. I guess there comes a point when you have to look past your expectations and try other things. I got all caught up in tubes, (for good reason), and wasn't seeing other good quality amps.

[Trey]

Cool, TMW, both tubes and SS have thier inherient advantages and disadvantages. I'm currently stuck with a SS pratice amp, had to sell my Carvin , but I'm able to get decent tones out of it.

Good thing is, though, now I will be more inclinded to save up for a really nice amp that will last me until I die, or discover a new genere of music(doubt that). I've got my sights set on either a new Dr. Z Maz 18 or a used, if I can find one,Victoria Tweed Deluxe. Both are realitivly lower power amps, less than 20 watts, and both can do that Classic Blues overdrive thing to a T and then some! The sound bytes on the site don't do 'em justice...

[TooManyWires]

Yeah, so I bought the Roland Cube 60. It really isn't quite what I set out looking for, but it turned out to be a nice amp. Basically, the store had both this and a Peavey Classic 30 for about the same price. This amp was far more versatile than the classic 30. It's got a bunch of amp models and a few effects. I've had it home and been playing it for several hours now, and I'm finding that I can get a lot of good sounds out of it, but it does take some frigging around with to get them the way I want them to sound. I figure that I'll get used to the amp more, and have to frig less as I go to get the sounds I want. I picked it over the Classic 30, mostly because of the travel issue. It has to survive a 24 or 25 hour road trip (including a 6 hour boat ride where I can't even be with it, it would just sit in my car unattended) twice a year and work on the other side every time, so I kind of figured that what with it's not having tubes it might make out better. I'd not be appreciative if I had to pay for a new set of tubes every time I made the journey. It shares the single EQ for two channels problem with the peavey, but, I think I can live with that. The reverb is somewhat weak, which isn't good, but I find toomuch reverb just muddies up the sound. And the effects aren't anything to get excited about, but they certainly are useable. The acoustic simulation channel is really neat, and I think very useable. I mean, you aren't going to fool an experienced musician into thinking that you're playing a high end acoustic guitar or anything, but it's a nice option to have there. All in all a good versatile simple amp. The classic 30 was also a really nice amp, it was a really tough decision to make, at this point I'd recommend either one to anybody. Thanks everyone for all your suggestions and help.

[morecowbell]

Check out the Hughes & Kettner Edition Tube. I played through one a while back and it had a really nice, chunky-yet-chimey vibe to it, almost a brown sound-kinda thing, for such a little combo amp. 1 12-inch speaker and reverb. 20 watts, I think. Been jonesing for one ever since I played it. Plus, you don't see them every day. (Which may also be the down side, since its hard to find one to try out.) Still, its a nice one, IMHO.

[ChrisK]

www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/Express/Express.htm

About $1,000