hey all,
for the last two years i have enjoyed my marshall mg100dfx to the full,but now my playing has matured so to speak,i have noticed a distinct lack of mids regardless of my eq or distortion settingand its highs are real harsh!anyways,i play a dean ml through a dime distortion a boss ge 9 eq and a dunlop wah,im really lookin for a warmer sound,without loosing the grittyness,are valves the way to go with the new one??iv only ever had solidstate
thanks in advance!!
"forever stronger than all"
dimebag darrell[rip]
I'm quite biased toward valves. If you play heavily distorted most of the time, though, you won't know the difference. Where valves (or tubes) really shine is when you're playing on the edge of distortion from the amp's own gain. When you play soft single string stuff, it'll come through clean, when you whang hard on a power chord it'll come through very crunchy, and there's lots of lovely middle ground. It's all controlled by your touch on the strings. That's a cool feeling.
If you just crank everything up and put distortion pedals in front, it sounds equally fuzzy through tubes or transistors, and you might as well save some money.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Personally I've never been impressed with the MG series, they sound way more sterile and harsh then solidstates should sound. As for what you need, hard to tell. I doubt there is a cheap tube setup that gives you over-the-top metal sounds at useable volume levels, and getting a big 100W tube marshall at low volumes with pedals in front of it won't work too well either.
So the big question is, what's your budget? Can we start suggesting the Engl Thunderball, attenuator and equalisers or should we suggest the Vox AD series instead?
hi guys,my budget is around £400gbp.i completely agree with you arjen,its harsh as hell!!!i was lookin at a randall 30w camo coloured amp today,any good???or what about hughes and kettner?i only need about 30-50w output now as i am goin back to songwriting,an i dont fancy buyin a powerbrake!cheers guys
"forever stronger than all"
dimebag darrell[rip]
If you only need it for songwriting (great goal by the way!) 30-50W tube power is insane without attenuator. 400GBP is a pretty decent budget that will allow you either a proper digital or proper tube setup. I don't really know what to suggest here, you can try the Vox Valvetronix series for something digital, in the tube domain there are infinite options. Fender, Peavey, H&K, Epiphone and many others offer tube amps within your budget.
thanks arjen,i suppose its a case of takin my guitar with me to see what it sounds like through the amps,you guys rock m/
cheers again
"forever stronger than all"
dimebag darrell[rip]
