Amps that sound good....when someone else is playing it?

[wheresthefbomb]

Fender DeVille and Peavey Classic combos. I have heard so many good clean tones come out of them from other people, but I feel like I never have enough headroom when I use one, even the bigger 410/212 units. All the small indie bands who aren't using AC30s seem to use amps like these and I am constantly impressed by their cleans. Probably PA magic making me think they're louder at shows.

And though I love my X100b, every time I see/hear one in the wild I'm always like "how are they making it do THAT?" I feel like everybody gets heavier tones from them than me.

I think a lot of this comes down to expectations and perfectionism, though. I don't sound like Creston from Harvey Milk, or whatever sparkly combo toan is happening at the bar, but I'm also not trying to and I sound exactly like myself in a way none of those people could replicate.

 

[gnoll]

I got the life of me have never gotten a 5150 to sound good. Like I just can't get it to sound good

Maybe the amp just doesn't sound good.

 

[CanserDYI]

Maybe the amp just doesn't sound good.

Wrong!

 

[drb]

Maybe the amp just doesn't sound good.

As a new 5150 owner in the honeymoon phase:

 

[Chri]

idk if it's just the nature of my IRs but everyone raves about the ENGL savage plugin and how it sounds just like the real thing

I can't even get a usable tone out of it much less anything I'd want to use

Same with the EVH 5150s, I'd love a 6505+ again for how great it made me sound but every EVH, including the guitars, I've had just don't work with me

Savages (most Engls as a whole) just don't fit every guitarist. They're pretty strongly voiced, so you either really like the tones it produces, or you're left underwhelmed.

 

[gnoll]

Savages (most Engls as a whole)

I like Savage but many other Engl amps I have issues with. But yea Savage is pretty tight and direct, I suppose it's filtering a lot of bass in the preamp. So if somebody is into Rectos or something I can totally understand if they don't like Savage.

That said I haven't played any plugin based on it, nor do I want to...

 

[StevenC]

I've played a lot of amps immediately before @Lorcan Ward made them sound way better

 

[blackrobedone]

Definitely the VHT Pitbull UL. When I played it, it seemed like there was a delay from my playing to the sound coming out. Also there was a high end tearing sound that was just too annoying. And there was a Kerry King sig JCM 800. I sounded like Yngwie through it - the single coil twang king - but I'd let someone else play through it and it sounded like Hetfield.
I see a lot of Mesa comments and I'll just add the same info: turn the gain down to no more than 5 and hit the front end really hard with boost and overdrive. You can get a variety of usable tones with the other knobs, but not if you have the gain at 7 and no overdrive pedal (unless you want to sound like a Big Muff).

 

[SSK0909]

JCM 800s for sure.

At this point I'm just gonna blame post-production for existing.

Funny thing is. I've had some sweet Mesas. Had a 2ch blackface recto and an ultra expensive Mark IIC+, and I REALLY wanted them to smoke my JCM800 and justify my purchases, but once I put a tubescreamer in front of that Marshall it just made the Mesas sound so boring
The only other amp I ever owned that gave me such massive tones was my Diezel VH4, which hillariously is another amp others struggle with xD

 

[LCW]

Marshall DSL20H

 

[jaxadam]

I love how my Tremoverb sounds in the room, have had some battles trying to capture it with close mics.

This is such and underrated and amazing amp by Mesa, and probably one of my favorites. I never really got along with the Dual and Triple Recs.

I have also noticed (and I'm sure a lot of people here have too) that amps/racks that sound great in a room sound horrible in a band/live setting. I have an old Fender Power Chorus and that fucker cuts through and sounds great in a band or live setting. My Mesa rack stuff had presets that sounded absolutely fantastic on their own, but were totally drowned out or gone in a band/live setting.

 

[Paul Gilbert]

5150

 

[Emperoff]

I like Savage but many other Engl amps I have issues with. But yea Savage is pretty tight and direct, I suppose it's filtering a lot of bass in the preamp. So if somebody is into Rectos or something I can totally understand if they don't like Savage.

That said I haven't played any plugin based on it, nor do I want to...

Yup. I have the Sovereign (which is the combo version of the Savage SE) and there is a lot of low end filtered indeed (I run the bass dimed!). Good news is you'll never need a boost with it. I tried my Victroy V4 Kraken preamp straight into its pwoeramp and the tone was much thicker, instead of the razor sharp attack and precision of the Engl.

There is an interesting thing going on with the Savage. There is a voicing switch called "contour" that completely changes the voicing on the amp, making it more "conventional". To me every channel sounds better with it engaged. The Sovereign doesn't have the switch, but it's hardwired into channel 4 (to act as a lead channel) and the difference with the rest of the channels is so apparent that I've considered modding the amp to make all channels pass through that circuit.

You can hear the difference the contour makes starting from 12:00min mark:

 

[efiltsohg]

Mark series for me

 

[CanserDYI]

5150

That's funny as I find the 5150 one of the most forgiving and easy to dial in amps on the planet. This proves this to me that there's no bad amp (with a few exceptions) there just is the wrong amp for you.

 

[VBCheeseGrater]

Definitely happened to me back in the day with the older tube marshalls. I was expecting mega-chug and got delta blues or some shit. Didn't realize guys were boosting the hell out of them to get those tones. I tried a valvestate and thought "That's more like it!".

I've learned alot since, mostly from playing with other guitarists.