The old "which amp to get?" thread question.

[beastrrr]

Hello,
Let me start by saying that this is my first post. I have read other threads here though during my research. So I feel like there are many knowledgeable people here who are willing to help a noob in need. So it is, sorry for the length.

First, the budget. Not high, I have a baby girl on the way and I am a PFC in the army. So it is at $450 and maybe a little more if I ebay some stuff I do not use. Note I am a BMET, basically I fix medical equipment and went through an extensive course on troubleshooting, and changing components, so I could work on an amp without hopefully killing myself on those massive caps.

I am looking for an amp. I plan on recording this in my humble home studio. From my research I have gathered that I want a tube amp. I would like the speaker to be a 12 inch in a closed back cab. I would prefer that to it to be a Celestion G 12h. I would like to be able to crank it up to get power tube distortion. A hot plate or weber attenuator will be necessary for me to do this in my home. I would prefer the head and cab to be separate. I still need to get a mic stand, and a sm58 if I can afford it. If not I have a carvin vocal mic that I can use until I get the sm58.

I want a heavy guitar sound. Not hive of bees metal, but heavy, mean, with palm mutes. Like mastadon with there old fully cranked marshalls downtuned with a tubescreamer. Or the first down album. Hell maybe even a the Queens of the Stone Age type sound.

I am currently using a PRS Se, which I do not really like, but it gets it done. (Wish I would have known about those agiles then) I have a mxr 10 band eq. I also have the damage control demonizer. It might sound good fed into an amp, but sucks direct. I tried those impulses to. Didn't do it for me. I need a real amp and some power tube distortion, not heavy preamp bees distortion. So I am going to probably sell that, which is where part of my 450 is coming from.

I have found that there a lot of "cheap" tube amp combos out there from various manufactures like carvin, peavey, fender, crate, epiphone, etc. I have researched these, reading reviews and listening to clips where available. It seems all of these have there pluses and minuses, and none of them really stood out as being the definitive one.

The peavey windsor studio looks like it has everything necessary for low volume cranked tone, but not a lot of good reviews, and the only sound clips I have heard sounded bad. Either from the amp or the way it was recorded. Unfortunately my local store does not carry the studio and I live almost to hours from guitar center, so running out to try is not easy.

I actually ordered the epiphone valve jr stack from musician's friend because of the great reviews and modability. Unfortunately, when it arrived the head was not working. Sent it back, received a replacement which also did not work, so I sent it all back for a refund and $30 in store credit.

Locally I have a chance to get a Randall RGT 100 1/12 100 watt combo for $230. This seams like a great deal, but it is old. I will certainly need to do a cap job and replace the tubes. Some of the original preamp tubes are still in there. I estimate this at about $150. Plus I would need to get a hot plate, about $200 used. Also, this thing is rare. Not a lot of reviews or info out there. Although, Randall emailed me schematics and the manual minutes after I emailed them for it. So, this could either be a steal, or a waste of money.

The question is do I get the randall and fix it up. Save up for the hot plate. Maybe try putting it in my closet with some pillows and stuff. Or do I drive to guitar center and get a Working valve jr and that blackheart 12inch closed back cab, grab a tube screamer for a little extra distortion, and buy the weber minimass attenuator that costs $70. And I could probably still swing the sm58. Or of course some other recommendation.

Honestly I am sick of researching and want to get onto the JAMMING, and song writing. I almost want to give up and buy a pod. LOL

If you made through all of this thanks and I hope to here from you.

[String7th]

You have nice expensive taste, $450 probably won;t get you a half stack tube amp.
Stay away from the B52!!!!!! It says it's an all tube rectifier combo for $450 but it's got the tone of a fork against a chalkboard.
Check your local pawn shop for a Mesa tremo-o-verb. Or if you're lucky, a Marshall DSL or TSL combo.

[Face]

yea kind of sounds like your hears are more expensive then your wallet....BUT.......I would definetly look into that randall your talking about, I wouldnt immediately assume that it needs re capped, new tube probably. Make sure you ask the techs for the bias range. All in all randall has been good to me in the past.

[beastrrr]

Thanks for the responses.

I went ahead and picked up the randall. Wow. IT rocks. Plenty of distortion. It is really loud though. It has a real touchy spot at 1, it goes straight from quiet to loud. I have to adjust with a feather like touch to get the right volume.

I think the tubes and caps are allright. It does hum noticably, kind of loud but you would not notice it in a situation where you could actually turn it up to 2 or 3.

I wish I could have took pictures of the guy's house I bought this from. When I walked in I see Soldano Slo-100, dual rectifier, a bunch of old marshalls, like jmps, plexi, an 800, a bogner wedged in the corner behind an old fender, guitars lined around the room and a slew of pedals in the middle of the room. He probably had like 4 or 5 4 12 cabs. Holy crap, I jizzed a little. It was guitar heaven. I should have asked him what all the amps were, but I was mezmerized and my pregnant wife was in the car waiting.

Anyways he had an isolation cab that he said he would sell me for 200 with a celestion vintage 30. Which leads me to my next question. Shoyld I pick up the isolation cab or a hot plate. I am gonna go ahead and post this in a new thread.

[Face]

Originally Posted by beastrrr

. Shoyld I pick up the isolation cab or a hot plate. .

a hot plate in a randall amp especially it being a combo will be a waste of money, you dont need to push the preamp any harder than it is to get the "sweet spot" for this tube application.