Opinions on amps

[Oddkid]

I was wondering what the general consensus is regarding Single Channel Amp.

I'm intrigued by the idea of having a good solid clean tone and then using effects to dirty it up, get a lead boost or add delay/chorus etc. How does it compare to having tow or three channels?

I've lusted after a three channel amp like a HT-100 or a Bugera 333XL infinium for a while for the sake of quickly swapping from clean to OD to lead channels at will. (I'm not looking to buy, i'm just interested in peoples points of view)

 

[Albionic]

I have the bugera 333xl and for me the 3 channels are very useful as I play rock covers right now but the best heavey rhythm sounds come from the lead channel. The crunch is good with an od don't get me wrong but I feel that when it comes to the song the rhythm sound is most important so you are still boosting with a pedal for leads although the fx loop has volume controll and can be used for that purpose unless like me you use a noise suppressor in the loop when doing metal.

 

[VBCheeseGrater]

Alot of single channel amp guys ride the guitar volume to go from clean to rhythm to lead. So you'll set the amp dirty, and use the guitar volume to alter the guitar signal to clean things up or go full on lead. Need an amp that will respond well to this - older marshalls are known to be used like this often. Also helps to have a guitar with good pots so it's easier to find your sweet spots.

 

[sage]

You need to ask yourself a question: Do I want to switch from clean to overdriven tones that come from a well designed signal path that includes anywhere between three and six pre-amp tubes and its own separate EQ section? Or would I rather use some transistor or op-amp distortion that comes from a wee metal box and doesn't allow for EQ shaping at the amp.

That's where it failed for me. I had a beautiful single channel amp that I loved, the Black Pearl 30. Just a fabulous amp with so much going for it. But when I wanted to enjoy it's lush, gorgeous cleans and switch to the crunch, there wasn't a pedal around that did it for me and I ended up running it with a Mesa Single Rec... Until I realized that the Mesa's clean channel, while not as beautiful as the Black Pearl, was really good. (and then ended up with a Kemper, which allows me to use a Black Pearl profile that is incredibly close to the real thing and a Mesa Recto profile that is equally beastly)

 

[Oddkid]

At the minute, i play through a JCM900 combo that i beef up with an MXR berzerker pedal for leads, i was just curious to what people think. The way i see it, single channel amps must be simple but multi channel amps have more versatility.

 

[mongey]

I used to do the clean tube amp thing with pedals for everything and it works well for allot of things. but for heavy chugging sounds I don't think it does. anything up to mid gain shoe gazy stuff its great . also good if your using a crazy fuzz sound with a nice fuzz pedal. but if you want tight and defined heavy sounds it needs to happen in the preamp IMHO

 

[glpg80]

Filled in for another guitarist in an ozzy cover band many years ago. His rig was a single channel GH100TI.

If your music is fairly complicated then riding the guitar volume knob all the time gets complicated as well. Is it doable? Sure. Is it easy while staying in time with the rest of the band? That is up to you and the music.

FWIW It was a lot of fun and a break from the 5150 II.

Option two is to use a looper with a volume pedal set to a certain level. The looper becomes your channel switcher which takes the volume pedal in and out of the front of the amplifier. I have done that in the past with success, making it easier to change "channels" on the fly.

 

[Mordacain]

This is actually what I do now and I'm pretty well pleased with it. I dig it because I actually have a lot more versatility and it makes certain things easier in terms of setup.

I have a couple of different clean amps, an Ampeg GVT5 (which is awesome, btw) and a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. Both amps handle pedals well, though they handle the same pedals differently, which is a bit interesting, but once you tweak the pedals to fit one amp you are pretty much golden by adjusting the other amps settings a bit.

My signal path is currently:

1. Blackout Effectors Musket Fuzz->
2. Bogner Ecstacy Red->
3. Hartman Analog Flanger->
4. Bogner Uberschall->
5. TC Electronics Nova System->
6. Ampeg GVT or Fender Hot Rod

With that setup I have a pretty bitchin' mix of tones:

• Doom / Sludge with the musket or David Gilmour / Pink Floyd Pulse-era with the same settings
• Hot-Rodded Marshall tones with the Bogner Red plus some JCM-style metal with the boost engaged. I can also get some good pushed clean tones rolling back on the guitar volume (the Bogner pedals are great for that)
• Modern & Classic Metal with the Uberschall
• A great core clean tone that I can effect nicely for a multitude of different tones

So far, I'm really diggin it. I enjoy running straight into the amp and I don't need to use much noise reduction at all. Best part is I can easily run a stereo setup just utilizing the other output on the Nova without have a convoluted switching system.

 

[Sephael]

Depends on how you want to do your switching. A single channel you can use guitar volume, volume pedal (even a boss LS2 with volume set different for each loop) or a boost to go from dirty to scaled back cleans without needing a distortion pedal as long as the amp has the gain on tap.

Volume drop can be fixed a couple different ways: boost in the loop, or I have been experimenting with mic'ing the cab set at two different levels at the mixer using aby pedal to select which mixer channel I was running to.

 

[Henry Terry]

I think you should keep an open mind. For years, I had the idea that I wanted only one channel, owning along the way various Fenders and Peaveys. I finally got what to me at the time was the ultimate single-channel rig, a Marshall JCM900 2100 SL-X with Marshall 1960A and 1960B speaker cabinets. I loved that thing. Then I happened upon a VHT Pittbull Ultralead and got to spend some time playing through it. It was awesome - all three channels.

 

[Mordacain]

Depends on how you want to do your switching. A single channel you can use guitar volume, volume pedal (even a boss LS2 with volume set different for each loop) or a boost to go from dirty to scaled back cleans without needing a distortion pedal as long as the amp has the gain on tap.

Volume drop can be fixed a couple different ways: boost in the loop, or I have been experimenting with mic'ing the cab set at two different levels at the mixer using aby pedal to select which mixer channel I was running to.

Yea, volume drops have been pretty easy for me to solve just with the built-in boost on the Nova System. There's definitely easy workarounds for most of the problems you encounter running a single-channel + pedals.

For me, it's a nice solution because my favorite heavy tones are from the various Boogie Mark amps but for whatever reason, I can't get the right fuzz tone out of the clean channel on those amps (or many multi-channel amps really).

It's was also much easier trying to find a good clean amp that handled the pedals I had with the tones I was trying to achieve than trying to a find a multi-channel amp that would fit all of my needs.