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I'm playing with the idea of replacing both my Fender Tone-Master head and my AC15C2 with one GNARLY amp. My main amp is currently a '70sTraynor YBA-1, and I want two amps instead of three. Neither the Tone-Master or the Vox makes a GREAT second amp that I'd want to always rehearse/jam/gig with.

The AC15C2: The wattage, two 12" speakers, power and size are perfect for both home use as well as jams and rehearsels...But It doesn't like pedals
Plus, it could do with a little more low end and/or beefy speakers instead of the stock Greenbacks, which I'm not really thrilled about.

Tone-Master: Used to be the end all be all amp for me, loved it to death. Till I rediscovered vintage voiced amps, like my Traynor YBA-1. Deep thick lows, unforgiving crystal clear highs, lots of power/headroom and excellent with fuzz,...
The tonemaster is good for almost all styles of music, but it doesn't really kick-ass in one particular territory, except maybe for generic hardrock
Don't mean to slam the amp, I still really like it, especially the drive channel...I just don't like it enough to keep the amp in favor of something...better
Besides, I don't have 2998.000 dirt pedals for nothing, I'm pretty sure I'll get by without amp dirt.

My taste in music is all over the place, and so is my taste in amps. If I'll end up with $1500 to spend on this amp doesn't mean I HAVE to spend that much.

Anyway, to give you guys an idea of the sort of tone I'm after:
Pretty Girls Make Graves, Faraquet, Town Portal,...

So I don't think I'm picky, those bands don't really sound much alike, and I doubt the amps they use(d) are custom/boutique...

So this is what I was thinking, in most cases based on actual (limited) experience with these amps:

Marshall JMP/MKII: Not particular cheap these days, and maybe not even the best value for money.
Hiwatt DR504: More than I wanna spend to be honest.
Marshall 50watt Plexi: The reissue 1987x sounds nothing like the old ones, a vintage one would be WAY outa my league, and the good boutque clonese aren't available in Europe as far as I know.
Musicman HD130: Also an amp that could be had for a couple hundreds untill a few years ago
Peavey Classic 100 head: Not even kidding. The drive channel is meh, but from what I remember this amp has plenty of clean headroom, and works great with pedals.

It's not that I want to go vintage just for the sake of going vintage...I just don't really complety totally entirely dig generic made-in-china amps as much. PTP would be nice, but it's not a requierment.

Anyone have some recommendations to add to that list? Like I said, I'm not even sure yet I'm going through with this, I'd first have to find an amp that totally blows me away before I can let go of my beloved tonemaster...

why no mesa?

Yeah, a Mesa Boogie Bass Buster 200 would be like yer conservatively rated 200 watt YBA1. A Sound City or SVT offer variations of that. All work great with guitar. None of the three would have unobtanium pricing.

PGMG and Faraquet? you want a marshall or hiwatt, i think.

I'm sorry, but VOX takes pedals and sounds awesome while doing it. I've never understood why people think/say that. I'd run (and do run) pedals into a VOX over a Fender amp any day of the week.

Anyways, people are different. I'm just tired of people thinking that. We have a Deluxe Reverb where we practice and it sounds so thin and sharp on the highs, so the pedals are all highs and sound thin/whimpy too. Where's my texture? I thank the Amp God's that it's going into service next week so I can bring my AC30 and have it there instead. 90% of my demos are played through a VOX. Sounds great to me.

I think UG uses an AC15 with most of his pedals too. Might have Blue's in his, though.

UglyCasanova wrote:I'm sorry, but VOX takes pedals and sounds awesome while doing it. I've never understood why people think/say that. I'd run (and do run) pedals into a VOX over a Fender amp any day of the week.

Anyways, people are different. I'm just tired of people thinking that. We have a Deluxe Reverb where we practice and it sounds so thin and sharp on the highs, so the pedals are all highs and sound thin/whimpy too. Where's my texture? I thank the Amp God's that it's going into service next week so I can bring my AC30 and have it there instead. 90% of my demos are played through a VOX. Sounds great to me.

I think UG uses an AC15 with most of his pedals too. Might have Blue's in his, though.

Maybe it's the greenbacks...Or maybe it's just mpo

Impo nothing beats a plexi style amp (or pretty much every other old school 100 watt design I tried) when it comes to fuzz.
I've always wanted to try speakers inthere that aren't normally associated with a vox. Like maybe a loud efficient speaker that doesn't break up no matter what, and has a distinct low(mids) ephmesis....

Anyway, spending $250 on fresh speakers just doesn't make sense imo, not a chinese made combo that I'm not even sure will sound the way I want even after the upgrade

grindonomicon wrote:Yeah, a Mesa Boogie Bass Buster 200 would be like yer conservatively rated 200 watt YBA1. A Sound City or SVT offer variations of that. All work great with guitar. None of the three would have unobtanium pricing.

200 Watt, no shit? It's not an amp that'll easily pop up on my shitty local market, but I'll add it to my little watch list.

Sound city: Not a bad call, shoulda thought of that myself. Cheers.

frigid midget wrote:Impo nothing beats a plexi style amp (or pretty much every other old school 100 watt design I tried) when it comes to fuzz.

Add the Laney GH50L and GH100L to your watchlist too. Basically a Plexi when you leave the extra gain stage off, and various stages of high gain awesome when you flip it on. Pretty sure you could get a GH100L shipped to you (if you're in the US) for like $800 if you don't see one local. Not that common, but usually one of them on GC used. Like it better than my old JCM800 by miles and miles, and the Laney Pro Tube and AOR's I've heard. Not thick sounding on their own, but they get so thick with pedals I use mine for bass over my YBA1.

That Mesa is beast; it's a 200+ watt bassman type amp, plus a graphic EQ.

grindonomicon wrote:

frigid midget wrote:Impo nothing beats a plexi style amp (or pretty much every other old school 100 watt design I tried) when it comes to fuzz.

Add the Laney GH50L and GH100L to your watchlist too. Basically a Plexi when you leave the extra gain stage off, and various stages of high gain awesome when you flip it on. Pretty sure you could get a GH100L shipped to you (if you're in the US) for like $800 if you don't see one local. Not that common, but usually one of them on GC used. Like it better than my old JCM800 by miles and miles, and the Laney Pro Tube and AOR's I've heard. Not thick sounding on their own, but they get so thick with pedals I use mine for bass over my YBA1.

That Mesa is beast; it's a 200+ watt bassman type amp, plus a graphic EQ.

Actually...Those Laneys aren't too uncommon here in Europe. Made in the UK if I'm not mistaking, and usually considerably less than $800.
So yeah, thanks for the tip, definitely the sort of contender I was looking for. Another one that I knew about, but strangly enough didn't think of

Consider a SF Bassman 100 head. They have lots of high-end on the guitar channel, chimey, takes pedals very very well. Also is f**king loud with a 4x12.

I owned a couple of different SF fenders in the past, incmuding a SF twin...And though they're usually kind to pedals, there's something abou that SF sound that I don't like. Don't know how to describe it, it's like they're almost TOO clean and sharp, in a way that makes my guitar sounds a bit nasty and ploinky. Not as 'round' and meaty as my old Marshall Bassman and SuperLead

Maybe the Bassman 100 is different cause it's really a bass amp, so if I ever get the chance of trying one out, I'll definitely do so.

Get a regular (straight "Bassman" or "Bassman 50") Bassman head. Clean for days, and the SF ones don't have significant reworks over the BF models. What you're describing on the SF Twin etc sound like the ultralinear models (which I like, but I prefer the older BF-tone stack stuff). Deluxe Reverbs are what they are, and the 6V6 output section (versus the 6L6 on the Fender big iron stuff) hasn't ever sounded great to me.

But Bassman/Bandmaster heads should get you in the ballpark and they're not particularly pricey even now.

Ok, *I* consider them pricey, but being old and used to getting them for $100ish a pop for 20 years....sort of left me jaded.

Friend in Cali got a Bassman head recently for under $500 on CL without looking real hard.

I got my old Bassman for like $350 on CL 3 years ago. I miss that amp so much. If you like Plexi's you'll love a Bassman

I must have played on pretty much every classic type of fender amp, reissue or vintage, though for some reason I never came across a '59 bassman (ri) combo : facepalm:
My buddy has a mid '60s Bassman head, but it breaks up REAL fast. And not even in a pleasant way. So you guys think it might be a speaker impedance mismatch thing, or bad tubes or something?

The combo is not the head. I hate the 4x10 '59ish, but I hate that speaker combo. It's a tweed tone stack as well.

Could be a tube issue, could need service (a lot of them haven't ever been touched), could be speaker issue, could be plugging into the wrong input/settings (#2 has a -6 db pad or so for buckers).