Your Amp History

[BeerBaron]

This little Crate was my first amplifier ever. I still have it to this day and use it as a head to use with my 4x15 and Digitech GNX3. Still sounds great.




Second practice amp I picked up for $25



Thought I would step up the game a little bit and so I bought this Crate VTX 212 combo. Great little combo. Wish I still had it.



My first dip into tube amplifiers, I got the Peavey Valveking. Not the best amplifier by any means. But nothing I can really complain about.




Sold the Valveking and really stepped up my game with my current rig. Laney GH100TI and Randall RS125CX cabinet. Really plays nice and can do pretty much anything.



I picked this Peavey Supreme XL for $150 bucks. Was a really nice head and for some reason I decided to sell it. No real reason why.



Now along with my Laney GH100TI, I have my little beat in a box. My Laney AOR Pro Tube 30 watt combo. I picked it up for 80 bucks a couple summers ago and I will never ever give it up. I love it to death and it can perform anything and everything you want it to.





So Both Laney's and my Randall cabinet is my current rig set up.

[slvrsrpnt]

mmmmmm.......
I first had some weird thing from the local department store, I don't recall a name brand or it having anything but a tone and a volume button.

I then picked up a used Peavy Special 130 which was a 1x12 combo.

Then I moved up to a 2x12 Peavy combo, Renown I think it was caled.

Up next was a 100watt Marshall JCM 800, it was one of those red ones.

I somehow was dumb enough to trade it in on a solid state Crate Excalibur in the 90's for some reason

Marshall JCM 2000 TSL had a short lived stay with me

ENGL Blackmore (I still have this one) was my gigging amp in my last band.

A Micro Cube and Mustang V have been added more recently as well.

[BeanoBoy]

Started with a Sears Silvertone guitar with an amp in the case! I'm sure it sounded horrible but I loved it. I graduated to an Ampeg Gemini I. I remember taking the train to NYCs Times Square, buying the Ampeg at Manny's and walking back to Grand Central Station with the amp for the ride home. Great amp. Wish I still had it. My folks bought me a Fender Bassman and Cabinet for my High school graduation. Probably the most toneful amp I've ever owned. I used that thru my first two years of college.
I saw Traffic at the Fillmore with Acoustic amps. Loving Traffic and knowing nothing about tube vs. solid state, I stupidly sold the Bassman (DUMB, DUMB, DUMB!) and bought an Acoustic 50 watt head and 4 X 12 Cab. My tone was SQUEAKY clean and loud but eventually I noticed my friends' tube amps killed my Acoustic. I got married and sold a bunch of my stuff and dropped out of music for about 8 mos. Some friends invited me to come out of retirement ( I was about 21) and I borrowed a Traynor combo, probably around 40 watts?
Eventually I auditioned for a popular band needing a lead guitarist. Playing Springsteen, Van Morrison, The Cars, Blondie etc., I bought a 100 watt Marshall Club and Country ( Marshall's shortlived Twin Reverb type model. I still have it. My son has it now.) Great cleans, all of my dirty tones were done with a Tube Screamer and MXR Distortion +. I got a Marshall Plexi for a Heavy Rock thing I was involved in playing the Tri-State area. One trick pony, but it ROCKED! After Michael Jackson hit, the live 'big club' Rock scene died. I found myself playing small clubs and Society gigs. For this I got a Mesa Boogie 50 caliber combo. Cool amp. Very toneful and versatile. I bought a Mesa Tremoverb Double Rectifier combo for some of the larger dates we got as the money the band was commanding was pretty good. MONSTROUSLY loud. I liked the Vintage Blues channel but the amp would have been better suited for my Heavy Rock gig a few years earlier. It was cumbersome and heavy. Still don't know what I was thinking. The 50 Caliber was more than enough for the gig.
When I retired from live work, I sold both Mesas. I bought the original Line 6 AXE 2 modeling amp towards the end of my live career. Cool at first but it was difficult to cut thru the band's mix. My son has that now too. I had a Vox AD15 ( nice practice amp) for a few years until I acquired a Fender Vibro Champ XD about 4 years ago. I just sold the Vox. I still have the Vibro Champ for at home practice. I don't do much gigging/ recording these days. Any home recording I do is done with Guitar Rig, Amplitube etc. plug-ins. Any local session work ( usually for friends), I'll use the studio's amps or plug-ins. Looking forward to the Yamaha THR 10 for practice/recording.

[valued customer]

START:

 

Fender Sidekick 20 -- still own it, reliable practice amp, good reverb for a little bugger.

 

Fender Bandmaster 68, w bigass 2 x 12 ...used to run the line out from the Sidekick into this amp. oy. who needs pedals?

 

Trace Elliot Bonneville -- dark voiced, three gain voicings, versatile but more of a modern asskicker than I am. sold

 

Epiphone Valve Junior... early model, w hum. impulse buy. used rarely. wanna buy it?

 

Fender Twin 65 Reissue -- gigged once, I think, recorded with it often. Circuit board drove me and my amp guy nuts but we finally got it to stop popping resistors. Weber California's...nice. still own

 

Deluxe Reverb Reissue -- hadda have it. #1 amp. Stock speaker. no problems. all win.

 

Sano 2 x 12 30 watt tube amp -- the last great Craigslist steal... this year mind you, at...... $140. lush and thick, nice early breakup, sounds like the amp I expect to find in heaven. wouldn't sell for 1400. 1500 ? maybe. Sano tube amps are incredible if you find a good one.

 

Fender Musicmaster -- also a nice Craigslist item. Small ( two knobs) bass amp that really specializes in Champ / Princeton ish tones. love it.

 

Yamaha VR 6000 JC120ish yammy... solid state (natch) discrete stereo channels. chorus isn't quite as lush as JC, but it's a riot to plug in a good ping pong delay and listen to the space that opens up. super clean tones, loud as {censored}, great speakers, great EQ, decently quiet, lame reverb, totally unusable overdrive.

 

Trace Elliot Super Tramp Head Mk 1 -- really smooth and nice cleans, and it emulates a touch of tube breakup beautifully. Smart and completely different approach to EQ...voicings change much more subtly and interact more, or so it seems to me. Anyway, this amp can be blisteringly loud, and it holds together beautifully on the low end. just a tad fizzy when the od channel is kicked in (via foot switch) but if used only for leads, yer golden. I like this amp 25x more than the all tube Bonneville I ditched.

[Weiner_Bomb]

In order of starting out, to current. In the past ten years..

Randall RG15--don't have it anymore
line 6 pod original ---yeah, don't have that anymore
Solid state crate amp---can't remember what model, but wasnt at all impressive.
Crate Stealth 50 head--- sold it, and since regretted it. I had the old crate 4x12 that came with celestions.. sold it off, and bought it back a couple years later.
line 6 pod xt--been a practice rig for quite a while. don't have anymore.
Randall RG100ES head---it was good, but not 'that' impressive to me. That's gone.
Crate GT500H----bought it thinking I might like it...nope..
Pod X3---current practice rig
Currently converting a Crate stealth 50 combo I recently acquired into a head...I really missed that amp.

[apoxacilin]

Fender Power Chorus-->Sovtek Mig 60-->Fender Vibrochamps ('79 and '66)-->Deluxe Reverb '79-->Sovtek Mig 50

 

(I still own both sovteks and the deluxe).

 

My brother went from Peavey Basic 60-->Fender Bassman 50-->Fender 75

[HanSolo]

#1 Silvertone 1482 Combo amp - Tube type with Jensen 12" speaker. I still don't understand all the attraction of these. Turn it over 5 and it just made farting sounds and wasn't loud at all.

#2 Silvertone 1484 - Tube type twin-twelve with Special Design Jensen speakers. Just a louder versooion of the 1482. I swear Jack White's are just for looks and not miked.

#3 '66 Fender Super Reverb - God like tone but sooo heavy. I gave up on guitar for a while and stupidly sold it.

#4 Standel Studio 4x10 - Thought it would be a suitable replacement for the Super Reverb. Duh. It sucked. Early solid state turd. Gone.

#5 Black Face Bandmaster head/2x12 Fender copy bottom - Very cool tones but no reverb! The head burned up (transformer and some other stuff) so i found someone that traded me a Kustom head for it.

#6 Kustom 150 head/2x12 Fender copy bottom - Great sounding amp. Roll & pleat cover too! I added a couple switchable 100 watt piezo tweeters to the cab to get that Creedence Clearwater glass-breaking treble. Gone.

#7 Peavey Studio Pro 40 - Neat little amp, not loud enough to jam with my buddies. Gone.

#8 Crate VTX65 - 1x12 combo with lots of shiney chrome knobs and effects all over the place. Loud as hell but tinny-toned. Gone.

#9 Vox AD15VTX - Great amp. Kept it and bought ...

#10 Vox AD50VTX - Even better. Still have it.

#11 Fender GDEC - Fun little jammer, still have it.

#12 Fender Cyberdeluxe - Recently bought this NOS as 'the ultimate tinkerer's" amp. Still trying to figure it all out but the programmed amp models are awesome and it has the sparkling Fender cleans the Vox lacks.

[aliensporebomb]

Yah, I never woulda thunk it. But after I tried it, I found I can put just about anything in front of a JC and get some really awesome sounds, dirty or clean. And I'm normally not a big fan of cutting mids way back, but doing that on a JC is a different animal.

 

 

Yes! In fact, such a different animal that I realize now if I had to go to a conventional tube amp I'd have to totally rethink how I accomplish sounds because it will work completely differently.

[ae5]

first amp was a "marlboro" when i was 10 years old and got my first guitar for my birthday (24 years ago)
then i got a peavey combo amp a year or two later
then another peavey combo amp
then my guitar and amp got stolen when i was 17 with no job and it took me about a year before i got another which was an epiphone guitar/amp/gig bag package deal
then i got another peavey combo amp
then i got a 100 watt peavey head and some no name 4x12" cab
then that got stolen
then i got a marshall jcm800 head and marshall 1960a cab, then another 1960a cab
then i sold the jcm800 after having it several years and got a mesa boogie tri axis pre amp, mesa strategy 400 power amp, and ran that to the 2 marshall cabs
then i sold it all and now i just plug into a laptop and play through guitar rig (not in a band/playing out anymore and real amps are a pain in apartments)

[Ultrastick]

My first amp came with a combo guitar/amp deal with lessons by mail from US School of Music. I found this deal in the back of a comic book. The guitar was a hollowbody/electric Kay and kay amp about the size of two loaves of bread stacked up.
Off to college I went and picked up a Silvertone 1474 twin twelve along the way and played mostly Ventures music in our band. This was around 1962.

As the years ticked by I had various amps: Peavey Studio Pro, Peavey twin twelve Classic, a Boogie MKIV, Fender 4X10 Blues DeVille, and some others I can't remember. In recent years I've acquired several other amps: Palomino v32, Fender 90 DSP, Fender Princeton Chorus, Fender Ultimate Chorus, and, lastly a Fender Musting II and III. These last two are the ones I play mostly now, and the ones I grab for a jam session.

[blazingblake]

First amp Sunn beta lead didnt play it that much one time a buddy came over plugged in and it smoked lol. Second a solid state yamaha had that for years gave it away. Third Peavey rage158 had a nasty distortion. Next old gibson explorer. After that peave classic vt 50 had good clean distortion was crap, plugged Hughes and Kettner cream maching into it burned it up. Next ampeg jet 11 sold it to a buddy next airline 9013. After that another airline 9013 thats modded. Next airline 9131 head. Last is Airline 9015.

[xtchc1978]

I started out with a Univox stage 65 in the mid 80's
Not a bad amp, basic SS with reverb and tremolo and a 12'' speaker
I moved on to an Ampeg ss70c, 2x10 combo, that thing had some great cleans.
Then a crate ss 2x12 combo with g12m70 celestions.
For many years after that I used a peavey supreme transtube as a power amp with a digitech gsp5 preamp
Then I discovered tube amplifiers.
I found a silvertone 1485 6x10 at a tag sale for $25, they were not worth anything at the time. I was hooked on the tone and had to have a few more.
I went out and bought a new peavey triple xxx when they first came out and then picked up an ultra plus and a classic 30 and 50. Lots of other peavey amps, vtm, vtx, triumph etc etc....
Also a crate stealth and a mesa trem-o-verb.
Picked up a Marshall JTM 30 and a crate vintage club 50, pretty decent amps.
And then a red knob evil twin, a rivera era twin amp and an early blues deville.
I picked up some nice vintage combos a 1961 ampeg r12r and a 59 sano.
Also bought a few traynors, a yba2a and a combo, kept the head sold the combo.
Then a marshal jcm900 dual reverb.
Not too long after that a jcm800 2205 and a dsl.
About the same time I picked up a dual monoblock marshall 9100, with a triaxis phat mod and an ada mp1.
Then I picked up a bassman 10 and a black face super reverb.
And then a Soldano hr 50 and a 2 channel Mesa dual recto and a Mesa mark 3 purple stripe.
Then I bought a first year reissue of the 1959 slp and sold the 2205. I am sure a missed a few here and there.
It's a constant evolution, I went through all these amps, recorded them, gigged them, eliminated redundancy and picked what worked best for me. I have downsized my amps, what is left is in my sig and upgraded my guitar collection over the years. I do not have this many amps right now but at times it looked like this:lol:

[divebombs]

2000: First amp was a Marshall g30wr-cd $200 combo amp, sounded pretty decent for a hardcore punk at home, and I kept it for over 10 years a home practice amp, just recently sold it actually.

All the other amps I played on were borrowed or rented: Marshall JCM-900 and Plexis with 4x12 cabs, Roland combos, Crate Combos.

 Fast forward to.....

2009: My own first tube amp - MARSHALL JCM2000 DSL100 Modded. Sounded great for anything from 70's rock to early 90's Metal. I wanted something with a heavier sound though, and the head died on me, so I got...

2011: MESA BOOGIE TRIPLE RECTIFIER. Wow that was like a dream come true, but to be completely honest I tweaked it to death, changed the Power Tubes, put a 10-band EQ in the loop, a Tube Screamer in the front, an ISP Noise Gate... It never had the attack and the precision I wanted, I always sounded kind of Lo-Fi for Hi-gain. It sounded GREAT on the Orange Channel with medium-gain, but anything really Hi-Gain was wayyy too muddy. So my desire to model my own sound sparked and... I became a rackmount guy.

2012: VHT 2150 DUAL 100w/100w Poweramp with Rocktron mAXE and Rocktron Chameleon, 10u rack, played in FULL STACK (1 VHT Fatbottom 4x12 straight, and one Marshall 1960a customized cab). Man that setup is loud, agressive, the palm-muted notes are pounding and not too muddy. I'm only thinking of getting rid of the Chameleon Preamp now and get maybe an ENGL or Peavey Preamp.

[DaveAronow]

My first amp was two coffee cans and a piece of string.

 

My last amp was a 100' diameter nasa satelite dish with tnt explosions tuned and timed to the frequency of my guitar.

 

Right now mork from ork is up there baking out to me playing my repertoire of Parliament riffs.

 

I wants to get funked up.

 

Nanu Nanu.

 

 

 

 

 

[Lonnie99]

Way too many to remember, probably 50-60. First ever was in 2001 and was some model of Peavey trans tube. Some I remember we're most of the Fender M-80 line. Had a 60s Gibson GA-20 (?), currently, and far longer than any other amp is an 83 Fender London Reverb.

[kayd_mon]

Gorilla 25g
Fender Princeton 112, then a Princeton 65 running in stereo (same amp, basically, the 65 was the updated version)
Peavey Ranger 212
Vox AC15
Vox AC30

Still using the AC15 and AC30.

[bernardo gui]

1976-1982: SG Systems 610

1982-1985: Gibson Titan

1985-1996: Roland JC120 & Vox AC-30

1996: Sold all my gear....I was fed up with playing music.

2000-2001: Line 6 POD & Flooorboard

2001-2003 Line 6 Flextone II w/ Floorboard

2003-2007: Line 6 Flextone III w/ Floorboard

2007-2009: Roland JC-120 & Line 6 POD XT Live

2009-2012: Roland JC 120 & various Aanalog Pedals

2012- Present: 100 watt Fender Twin Amp

 

[phaeton]

My list is pretty short, even though I picked up the guitar in 1988.

 

1) My dad's hifi stereo when he wasn't home.  It sounded as awesome as you'd expect.

2) An old boombox I dug out of the trash.  80s boomboxes were a thing unto themselves, and this one had a feature where you could plug in a microphone and sing along with the tape.  Except I plugged my guitar into the mic input.  I eventually got clever and razored the right speaker.  I could turn the balance to the left for clean and to the right for "dirty".  This also sounded about as awesome as you'd expect.

3) G-blaster portable amp.  Got it as a pile of parts and had to reassemble it.  I experimented with different speakers and whatnot.  This also sounded about as awesome as you'd expect.

4) Quantum Terminator 25R- My first 'real' amp.  25 watts, reverb, two channels.  All the knobs went to 11 and it was covered in this funky fuzzy carpet stuff that smelled weird.  The distortion channel would make this crackling noise whenver it was turned up past halfway.  Musician's Friend refused to take it back, stating it was "a cheap Chinese amp.  You should have bought a real amp instead".  I circumvented this crackling sound by using the G-blaster as a stompbox.  This sounded as awesome as you'd expect.  I sold this amp along with an Electra LP copy (stupid!) to a bandmate who never paid.

5) 1976 Peavey Pacer SS-100.  45W, dry, fizzy distortion.  However, cranking the input makes it hit a set of Ge clamping diodes in the preamp for a softer clipping.  Works surprisingly well when a TS-type pedal hits it hard.  Otherwise, not really a whole lot to write home about, except that I still have it and it still works, same as always.  That's Peavey.

6) 2004(?) Reverend Goblin 5/15.  Switchable between 5 or 15 watts, schizo switch to change the tonestack between UK, US and Lo-Fi response curves.  All tube.  Reverb is broken (I think the tank is bad) but it's a really nice amp, especially for everyday practice and guitar-only jam sessions with friends.  My girlfriend at the time bought it for me after I just casually mentioned that another friend of mine has one and it 'sounds neat'.  I used to hate it when she'd do that ****.  Stil have it.

7) Fender BXR 200 or somesuch.  Big-ass bass amp.  Traded a friend a case of beer for it.  It had a soda spilt into the front panel, so I had to take it all apart and clean it up.  When it plays it sounds 'ok' but the problem is that the volume fluctuates on its own whim.  I tried fixing it a few times, took it to someone once but they couldn't verify the problem.  I've put it on CL a few times for $50 or $Free but had no bites.

7.5) Hughes & Kettner Edition Blue 30 and 60.  Bought the 30, liked it, then saw the 60 on CL.  The 30 was pretty beat up and the 60 was in good shape.  They were both the same $$ so I was able to return the 30 to GC (30-day return policy) and pick up the 60 instead.  I have a lot of amps now so I tried giving the 60 away to multiple friends who have picked up the guitar but don't have amps but none of them will take it.  They end up buying something instead.  Distortion channel leaves a bit to be desired, but the clean is the best solid-state clean you'll ever hear:

That's some girl's shirt on the floor, not mine.

 

8) Blackstar HT-40.  I wanted to like this amp, I really did.  However, it was too compressed sounding, and a little cold.  Turning it up louder made no difference.  Turning the gain up past 5 made it go 'smooth n creamy' instead of 'harder' like I wanted it to.  It was also awkwardly large, and heavier than it should have been.  The input jack failed on it, the cabinet picked up a really bad rattle and something else happened, I forget which.  I had it for about 3 weeks or so and returned it to GC.  Later I looked at the schematic for one and realized that it was really a SS Preamp-->Tube Power Amp hybrid, and that explained why some people say they "sound like a really loud distortion pedal".  Maybe different Blackstar models are different, but the HT-40 didn't work for me.

9) 1988 Laney AOR 3012.  30W, 12" all tube combo with multiple preamp stages and pull-boost eq pots.  Just like the one BeerBaron's got, except mine's got more 'patina' on it.  There are numerous iterations of these amps but they are very similar to a modded JCM800- Laney saw what people were doing to their Marshalls in the 80s and built one with all the typical mods.  I missed out on the 50W version of this amp on CL, and bought the first 30 I saw.  Then I saw another 50W and bought it with the intent on selling off the 30.  The 50W was "OMG TEH TOANZ" but it was also too big, too heavy, and TOO EFFING LOUD. I returned the 50 and kept the 30.  The 30 is a nice compact size, weighs 45 lbs and is pretty easy to manage.  It also gets plenty loud for playing with a drummer, and I can nail early Black Sabbath to a T with it.  It's a little darker sounding than I like, but otherwise it's pretty good.  It was coincidentally built in the exact same month that I first picked up guitar.  Here's the 50 and the 30:

10) Fender Frontman 15.  Little SS practice amp that I picked up along with an Affinity Squier on CL.  It's no world-class tube amp but it's better than it should be.  The distortion channel is kitschy and cute.  I suspect that a bigger cabinet and speaker would make a world of difference for this amp, and I keep meaning to put a 'speaker out' jack on it.  I actually run a Goodwill CD player into it and use it to practice songs through headphones on a pretty solid basis.  It doesn't sound orgasmic but it's a pretty good tool for that:

11)... a bunch of amps I've built myself.  Some chipamps, some transistor, none are tube.  Most of y'all wouldn't find them interesting but I sure have fun with them.

[phaeton]

---

Brian Krashpad wrote:

At some point 5 or 6 years ago, an internet bud, who posts here as "Boggs," was selling little cigarbox half-watt amps all wired up and ready to be installed in whatever you could find for it, I bought one and put it in an old mic box.

What's ole Boggs up to these days?  Last I saw him he was doing the chipamps and building guitars that he was calling "Camelbacks", I believe.  That was about 5-6 years ago.  I'm the one that started in on those 1/2W amps on SSS and showed him the info.