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What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 11:13 pm
by GreatAnt
I was looking at getting a twin reverb but recently got opened up to other clean amps. The sound I want is just really clean and creamy thick sound. Nothing tiny and thin.
The style I play is ambient, lovely, peaceful reflective music and I play a les Paul and tele.
I need the amp to take fuzz and od pedals really well and I hear the twin gets a bit tinny sounding with od pedals.
I'm saving for a matchless cheiftian but probably wont get that till next year do my options so far are
Twin reverb
Hiwatt
Black star artisan
Sunn model T reissue
Ac 30
Budget is $1-1.3 K
Cheers
Re: What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 11:34 pm
by Chankgeez
I'd take the Hiwatt.
Re: What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 11:48 pm
by MEC
Out of the amps you've listed I'd say the Twin is your best bet. I'd think a speaker
change could fix any tinniness you might have. I don't have any experience with
Hiwatt or Black Star but the Sunn and AC30 probably wouldn't work too well for
what you are after.
Maybe an Ampeg V4, VT-22 or B-25?
What bands do you like? What amps do they use?
Re: What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 12:03 am
by metalmariachi
Twin or Highwatt.
Alts: Ampeg VT-22 or V4 head and Labseries
Re: What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 1:03 am
by theactionindex
I play similar styles to the music you've described with my tele and a silverface twin and it takes fuzz/od/etc. very very well. No tinniness issues thus far with od, although I'm sure it depends on the od you're using, among other things. All in all, man bitches love it, and I'm sure regular bitches will love it too.
Re: What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 1:12 am
by Chankgeez
theactionindex wrote:I play similar styles to the music you've described with my tele and a silverface twin and it takes fuzz/od/etc. very very well. No tinniness issues thus far with od, although I'm sure it depends on the od you're using, among other things. All in all, man bitches love it, and I'm sure regular bitches will love it too.

Yeah, just get a Twin and a BAT Pharaoh.
Re: What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 2:35 am
by univalve
Chankgeez wrote:I'd take the Hiwatt.
Re: What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 3:23 am
by dubkitty
Twins are never bad. i've wanted a Hiwatt since i was a kid watching The Who in the Woodstock movie. you can get a broad, clear sound from an AC30--viz. The Edge--but if you want something in that or the Matchless vein look at a Laney, which is IMO more versatile. my VC30 can get into Marshall/Fender territory due to its tone stack and they're cheaper than AC30s. for SS amps the Gibson Lab series mentioned above are good, as of course are JC120s; 1960s/70s Kustom amps are deeply underrated and can HURT PEOPLE with their clean treble, and are also as cheap as chips and often come with tuck-and-roll upholstery.
Re: What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 6:29 am
by cheesecats
Re: What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 6:54 am
by theavondon
Twin if you feel like spending your dough, PA-100s are very similar and much much cheaper if you're just going for the cleans. Also, consider that you could buy at least two of those, or two JC-120s or three Lab Series heads, or about a half dozen Kustoms for that price. I used a Kustom briefly, and it really was just clean. Not much else, and not outstanding by any regards, but it sure never distorted, and had some pretty sweet reverb. Also, Acoustic Amps (the 70's ones) are pretty clean for most of the knob, and also dirt cheap. Look into the 150, I've seen them go for <$200 all day long. Plus, they're sturdy as fuck. My friend left his outside in the pouring rain for three hours, then just waited a month, and turned it on, and it worked just fine. In fact, it sounds a bit better now.
Re: What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 7:22 am
by Gunner Recall
Twin is a solid choice...I wouldn't call it tinny.
What Hiwatt we talkin? A DR103?
The others won't cut it based on your description.
Re: What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 8:06 am
by Chankgeez
I think drasp's JC-120 is still up for grabs in B/S/T.
He wants $700 for it. Not too bad. You'd even be able to afford a few pedals after buying at that price.
Re: What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 9:10 am
by Chankgeez
This just in:
drasp wrote:Drop to $650 + 50% of S&H.
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=25371
Re: What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 9:22 am
by GreatAnt
All wonderful suggestions, thanks everyone. I actually don't live in the states, but would love to spend time there snagging awesome gear which is harder to get here!!
I'm feeling twin so far, I'm just looking for something that can take OD pedals to demo song ideas instead of mic'n up a 120 watt amp!
Not sure what Hiwatt model actually, I was open to suggestions. Having not played a lot of the amps talked about here, how would you guys describe the following:
Twin Reverb
Hiwatt (twin equivalent if you will)
AC30
JC 120
Sunn MOdel T reissue (one I have played and was interesting)
My friend is selling a Twin and there's a reissue available here for the same price. The Sunn sounded pretty nice on the clean to be honest, apart from the slight hum I think my pick ups were causing, it was also a touch breaky. The Twin sounded cleaner hands down. But in saying that, the Sunn's are pretty rare around here and the distortion channel sounded pretty mean, especially when I ran some pedals through it to tighten it up.
Considering also I'm getting a Fryette UL coming my way later this year, I'm still finding it hard to make a choice on which "Clean" amp to get.
CHeers
Re: What's your best clean amp?
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 11:18 am
by DarkAxel
I'd buy the Twin Reverb
although... the best clean tone i've EVER HEARD was Selmer Treble'n'Bass my friend owns... which is basically a bassman, so buy a bassman and link the two channels... beautiful