Members metallica_00 Posted September 13, 2006 Members Share Posted September 13, 2006 Originally posted by GAS Man I often wish I had made my first amp a Princeton. They were very nice. I'd probably still have it if I had bought it first. My dumb luck, I walked into a store to find an amp that didn't carry Fenders. Walked out with a Sunn Stinger 60 for $150. It was sterile sounding and couldn't play loud without distorting. The Princeton is a great amp considering the price. Of course there are better amps, but the Princeton is a fully functional, decent sounding amp for $270. Pretty good if you ask me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vanderwaal Posted September 13, 2006 Members Share Posted September 13, 2006 Originally posted by Burningleaves Randall RG amps from the 80's might be worth a try. I have an RG80PH head. The cleans are nice and musical..reverb is deep and "surfish" and the gain on it has some ds-1 flavor. You can blend the two channels to have that "clean" distortion thing going if you like. +1 on the Randall RGs and i'd add the Sunn Alphas too. insanely good solid state amps. oh, and the original Standels. is there such a thing as "vintage solid state". better hurry before a market springs up to drive the price of "vintage solid state" amps outta reach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Virgman Posted September 13, 2006 Members Share Posted September 13, 2006 The best solid state amp ever made was the 1983 Peavey Bandit 65. Everyone else can go home now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RUExp? Posted September 13, 2006 Members Share Posted September 13, 2006 Originally posted by Edward What sounds good is subjective, though.... and as has been said above, the notion that SS is "cheap" is an artificial one. The only reason why most cheap amps are SS and expensive amps tend to be valve is because that's what the (ridiculously conservative, IMO) guitar-market demands. I mean, if you prefer tubes, cool, I like em too (though I chose a hybrid modeller as I like the sound as well as tubes, but it suits my needs better), but I wouldn't agree that tubes are automatically "better" than SS, hence I don't think you can say simple lack of price difference is a reason to go tube over SS.... Sonci properties aside, SS is, IMO undeniably more reliable, less hassle (it either works or it doesn't), and cheaper to run (not spending fifty quid revalving it every few years). Actually, I agree that tube doesn't automatically mean better. The ValveKing is the first tube amp I've had that I'm satisfied with. In the past I've owned a Fender Princeton Reverb II, Peavey Ultra 112, Carvin XT112 and an old Sivlertone 1472 model. I also have a Marshall VS100R, Marshall 5210 solid state and an old Randall Commander II, all of which sound good in there own way. To me the Bandit just starts to lose its composure at higher volumes. That probably has a lot to do with the speaker too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Twangster Posted September 13, 2006 Members Share Posted September 13, 2006 Behringer GM110 super cheap at MF's Roland MicroCube Crate RFX65 The Peavey Bandit and Studio Pro as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members garagebandking9 Posted September 13, 2006 Members Share Posted September 13, 2006 I just need to chime in again and say its nice to see so much love for the Princeton...mine has been a horse... My other vote would go to the Vox Valvetronix stuff...otherwise I have limited experience in SS amps...not a tube snob...I just tend to stick to them... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members triton76 Posted September 13, 2006 Members Share Posted September 13, 2006 I tried Fender, Marshall, Randall, Line6, Crate, and Carvin and I thought the Peavey Special 212 II was head and shoulders above the others. I was looking at 2x12s only. I always keep gain under 50% because there's so much. There are six different distortions on two channels. With one channel brighter and louder that the other for leads. I really like it especially adding a cab sim in the fx loop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jrockbridge Posted September 14, 2006 Members Share Posted September 14, 2006 Originally posted by garagebandking9 I just need to chime in again and say its nice to see so much love for the Princeton...mine has been a horse... I ran across a guy in another forum who owned ONLY a SS Princeton combo. He was trying to maximize use of a friends recording system. I talked him into modifying the combo to accept a different amp input, and purchase an Epiphone Valve Jr Head for $99. He said it was the best $99 he has ever spent. Sorry, if I sound like a tube snob...I do wish digital modeling was further along. But, despite what a lot of people are saying in their posts, good tube amp sound does not have to be expensive these days. The trick with tube is to get something low watt enough that you can REALLY CRANK IT into saturation. I know the Valve Jr Head is not a great amp for EVERY style of music. But just give a listen to what $99 can buy and why tube is king. http://www.instituteofnoise.com/L6/ampclips.asp#Epiphone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nevermind Posted September 14, 2006 Members Share Posted September 14, 2006 I have a soft spot for the red knob Fender's of the mid/late 80's - early 90's. I had a few different models through the years with the Deluxe 85 being my absolute favorite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Bennett Posted September 14, 2006 Members Share Posted September 14, 2006 H&K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Eye_Of_The_Liger Posted September 14, 2006 Members Share Posted September 14, 2006 Originally posted by GAS Man It's stupid for you to not understand that was a self-effacing joke my man. Get a clue before accusing someone of being stupid. Eghad! But besides the fact that I was making a self effacing joke, I was also stating that the JC120 does has so much clarity, that it really does let all your flubs shine through with great clarity. D'oh!I do apologize. I'm not so good at reading sarcasm sometimes. Mah-bad! But anywho.. back on the subject, has anyone on here tried those Carvin SX amps? If you believe what the catalog says, they're the be-all and end-all of tube-emulating SS amps... ...but at least I'm not stupid enough to fall for that one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Edward Posted September 14, 2006 Members Share Posted September 14, 2006 Originally posted by RUExp? Actually, I agree that tube doesn't automatically mean better. The ValveKing is the first tube amp I've had that I'm satisfied with. In the past I've owned a Fender Princeton Reverb II, Peavey Ultra 112, Carvin XT112 and an old Sivlertone 1472 model.I also have a Marshall VS100R, Marshall 5210 solid state and an old Randall Commander II, all of which sound good in there own way. To me the Bandit just starts to lose its composure at higher volumes. That probably has a lot to do with the speaker too. Yeah, i get ya. It's interesting how good some of the newer SS designs are getting, though, compared to what used to be the norm. If Vox could make my Valvetronix sound as good as it does except all-digital (there's still a couple of tubes in there, don't recall how many)..... damn, now that would be great.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Edward Posted September 14, 2006 Members Share Posted September 14, 2006 Originally posted by jrockbridge good tube amp sound does not have to be expensive these days. Definitely agreed - it's very much not the price that keeps me from wanting tubes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Richard Guy Posted September 14, 2006 Members Share Posted September 14, 2006 The Vox Pathfinder is nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members santos Posted September 14, 2006 Members Share Posted September 14, 2006 I just remembered that in the early 90s I had a SS Ampeg 60w 1x12 that had a great, warm clean channel. The drive channel was OK, but waaaaay too much gain, even at low settings - it just got lost in the mix in a band setting - and I was never a "scooped mid" guy. After that I had a hybrid H&K head with 3 channels. I really really liked that amp but ultimately found it unusable because the "crunch' channel (which sounded great, btw) for some reason was only about 75% as loud as the clean & lead channels - I literally had to dime the volume at gigs, and it still had a noticeable volume drop. Too bad, that amp had a lot of potential. While I agree that tube amps can have a certain "something" that SS often lack, I also think it's possible to get close enough that if I found the right amp, I'd not hesitate to go back to gigging with SS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stingxnj Posted September 14, 2006 Members Share Posted September 14, 2006 Pure solid state bliss...my early 80s Randall RG50 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ZenFly Posted September 14, 2006 Members Share Posted September 14, 2006 Mine. Best SS amp on the planet. not a tube in sight...so not a hybrid..does have a couple of chips, but whatever. It does everything it does very well. JC120 ? got it Marshall bluesbreaker? got it Stacks? got it Vox ac30? got that too Fenders du jour the list is "only" 17 amps long and I only use about 8 or 9 of those during a night, but they all sound great. YMMV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarsjb Posted September 14, 2006 Members Share Posted September 14, 2006 I had one of the old Peavey Bandits and loved it. Regret selling that one. Now my back up amp is a Crate GFX1200 and it is a great sounding SS amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mercedesrules Posted September 21, 2006 Members Share Posted September 21, 2006 Originally posted by Alchemist The cleans are passable for a practice amp. I wouldnt even call the gain addequate sounding. Its just a big pile of mush and noise:freak: The problem with most SS amps is that they are geared to be budget items. Very few people building high end SS, with quality cab construction, good speakers, etc. These come to mind. http://www.pritchardamps.com/pritchardamps.htmAs well I remember the Lab Series amps were quite good (built by Norlin/Moog I believe?). Still a few floating around used, but they arent that cheap. Let's play Clean! During my late-70's music career I used two Peavey "Musician" heads for 400w. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dimmypage Posted September 21, 2006 Members Share Posted September 21, 2006 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jimmy310 Posted September 21, 2006 Members Share Posted September 21, 2006 I really like my orange crush 30R. The cleans are to die for and the reverb is really good. Add a tubescreamer and you got a hotrodded twin reverb or marshall jcm 900. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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