Your favourite amp

[TwilightOdyssey]

My favourites to date:

1. Splawn Quick Rod
2. Dr Z Mazi 18
3. Bruno Pony 50
4. Sommatone Slick 18 & Outlaw
5. Marshall JCM800 (2203)
6. ENLG Fireball
7. 65 Amps London
8. Komet 65 & 19
9. Ceriatone JTM45 clone
10. Hiwatt Custom 50 Lead

[dystrust]

Originally Posted by 75lespaul

Favorite amp or best amp? I'd say my favorite is a tie between my 73 100 watt completely original Marshall I had to sell just about a year ago this month and my Marshall Silver Jubilee 50 watt combo I also had to sell. What is that, the 2555?. Still breaks my heart, but I've been able to hold onto my 73 50 watt so far.

The 50W Jubilee combos were the 2554 1x12 and 2558 2x12.

The 2555 is the 100W Jubilee head and also my favorite amp. I've had one since 2001 and I keep coming back to it despite trying a truckload of other gear. I finally learned to stop f***ing with something good and I've never been happier with my sound. My roommate used to have a '73 100W Marshall (bought by Greg Martin) that was an absolutely killer amp. But as much as I loved it, I'd never trade my 2555 for it. The Jubilee totally kills it in terms of versatility, and the non-master is just too d@mn loud to really be of use to anyone.

I can't really pick a best amp because 'best' is different depending on what I need to do. While my 2555 is amazing for just about anything Marshall, it wouldn't be my first choice for recording clean parts. Of the amps I have I'd go to the JTM-50 clone (EL-34s / Tube rec) or the H&K Edition Tube for that.

[Stratman]

Originally Posted by Gr8Scott

I think the best amp overall is the AC30 due to it's ability to sound fantastic when ran in any shade of clean, overdriven and balls out dirty. I can't think of any other amp that can claim this ability. Most amps have a compromise of some sort. If the dirt is good, the cleans aren't so great and vice versa. Splawns and some Bogners get close along with some Mesa's, but that's pretty much it.

As for my amps, I'm torn.

My Bassman with the beefed up AA864 circuit in it is really nice. The cleans are just tremendous. The Dirt/Bass channel needs some tweaking to get more lower midrange in there. It has a surprising amount of gain though. The Normal/Clean channel is just incredible. Everything a man could want from a fender minus the huge reverb. One thing I'm thinking of doing is putting an AC-30 style pre channel in place of the Bass channel to see how it works out. The AC-30 tone stack is more versatile than the fender tone stack plus it uses the same number of gain stages. I wouldn't expect it to sound like an AC-30 of course, but it may sound pretty good and it could be more flexible than it is now. I could use the deep switch to add a gain stage to boot because one half of a 12AX7 is left open on this design.

My DSL-100 is a seriously nice amp, but the cleans just aren't all that great. They are really good for a Marshall no doubt, but they aren't anywhere close to the Fender or an AC30. The dirt on the DSL is flat out wicked. Loads of gain and it roars like a lion defending his turf. Cutting the C13 cap and installing some Sovtek LPS pre tubes really brought this amp to life. I still have to dial down the presence and the treble, but it has the sweet classic Marshall "throaty" tone now that unmodded DSL amps just don't have. Definitely more in line with the old JCM-800 and Mark III 900 amps now plus it has a really decent crunch channel if you flip a switch on the clean channel. I wish the crunch channel had a touch more gain though and was a bit more plexi in nature.

Figured that Edana would have been in there someplace, but...

My 'Little Jimi' from Holland is my favorite amp...

[innerdreamrecords.co]

One more vote for the AC30, tough to beat it.

[Gr8Scott]

Originally Posted by Stratman

Figured that Edana would have been in there someplace, but...

My 'Little Jimi' from Holland is my favorite amp...

The Edana is going to have a little makeover. I've been trying to figure out what to do with her to make her suit my desired tonal palette a bit better. She can sound beautiful and she certainly is a beautiful amp. I just need to tweak her a bit to brighten up the tones under gain. It seems that adding a bright cap or increasing the bright cap values is sort of a transient fix. It only brightens the signal when the volume knob is set to low volumes. The higher the volume is set, the less the bright cap can do. I need the effect of the bright cap to be continuous throughout the range of the volume knob so I can crank the amp and have the sweet smooth gain I need without any mud in the mix.

I'm also going to install a PPIMV in her to help me get a tad more pre gain out of the amp while maintaining the level of power tube distortion that it gives. The power tubes tend to get a little sloppy when pushed past 6, so I can turn down the PPIMV and get the same power tube distortion as when the amp is on 6 but the pre will be running at 10 giving the amp all the pre distortion it can possibly have.