Loudest amp?

[old mark]

I have an old - late '80's - US made Peavey Renown 400 amp rated at 400 watts RMS and they ain't kidding. 2 x 12, and it's a COMBO amp...it has a switch to take it down to 200 watts, but I have owned it for years and never had the main volume higher than 3...This thing makes ears bleed down the block...and it weighs a TON. It is also solid state but has a very good Peavey filth circuit and can sound like it's ready to explode at very low volume...relatively.



I might as well get rid of it, too...have not played it for years.

 

[Alty]

^ Love Peavey amps, very underrated, especially by newcomers learning to play electric, overlooked though sometimes means bargains for cheapskates looking for a bargain, I sold an old KBA100 a few weeks ago and whilst not one their classics, as I was testing it with an acoustic I instantly felt sad getting rid and now want another one....

 

[RG31]

What is in my avatar, Marshall JCM 2000 100 watt dsl.
No matter where the preamp gain is, MV does not go past 2 or 3.

 

[AJ6stringsting]

Three and half years ago, I got a Digitech 2112 SGS. I now have sound replicas of my favorite amps.... Now, I can have my favorite amps without lugging 12 heads around.

 

[RG31]

Three and half years ago, I got a Digitech 2112 SGS. I now have sound replicas of my favorite amps.... Now, I can have my favorite amps without lugging 12 heads around.

I have the older Vox Tonelab LE and it accomplishes the same thing. I run a line from the Vox to the return loop of my JCM.

Why there are so many that are turned off by modeling is beyond me. Try buying 12 different amp heads, gets pretty darned expensive. Bought the Vox used for $125

 

[Alty]

....

Why there are so many that are turned off by modeling is beyond me.

Probably has something to do with in the early days amps were terrible as the technology wasn't used to its best and it sticks when new tech is introduced and also a little ignorance methinks, but probably for another thread.

 

[wildeman]

Probably has something to do with in the early days amps were terrible as the technology wasn't used to its best and it sticks when new tech is introduced and also a little ignorance methinks, but probably for another thread.

Alot of people just mimic what others say on line too. My experience with modelers is, i tried a line 6 when they first came out, sounded like a great idea in theory, not impressed at all, total turn off. Then way later i tried and got a Roland Microcube, killer! Then a Peavey Vypyr, killer. Now ive been given a Mustang 2 that i did a small repair to and it ROCKS. So you are probably right about the technology catching up.

 

[Alty]

Alot of people just mimic what others say on line too. My experience with modelers is, i tried a line 6 when they first came out, sounded like a great idea in theory, not impressed at all, total turn off. Then way later i tried and got a Roland Microcube, killer! Then a Peavey Vypyr, killer. Now ive been given a Mustang 2 that i did a small repair to and it ROCKS. So you are probably right about the technology catching up.

I remember reading some terrible reviews for Line 6 (Must have been those early models) when we were looking for an amp (Ended up with a Mustang II ) and the downside to most 'Forums' is that people have an opinion but most have never tried the gear they are talking about and there's also the historic predjudice to contend with, I think that's why here and MLP (Well the Epi section ) are so good, lots of hands-on opinions.

Stewart Ward (Award Session) puts it better than I could and as he designs the things and as far back as 2003 he said:

"Back in the late 1950s transistors became commercially viable and later thought of as the way forward to provide musicians with greater performance and, mainly, lower cost products. Sadly, they were not yet ready for use in guitar amps, primarily because it was very difficult to design circuitry with a high input impedance, which electric guitars need -- valves provide this naturally. Their low impedance at the input for example, made electric guitars sound hard and the volume died away quickly when you turned the guitar’s volume down – plugging into a PA amp produces the same effect.

There were other drawbacks, far too complicated to explain here, which made it a cumbersome technology with serious limitations at that time.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, many designers of the day understood little about electric guitars, a situation which has been true until fairly recently. But under pressure from marketing personnel and accountants for cheaper and more easily made products, ‘big company’ designers would have been powerless to compensate for those limitations within the budgets afforded.

This resulted in a proliferation of horrible sounding amps that, unfortunately, earned solid state a bad reputation from the outset. Even now, some fifty years later, musicians still hold the same prejudices. I can understand that to a certain extent...so many of those bad tranny amps were sold by household names that, one would expect, ought to have known better. This remained the case until the early 1980s. Yet today, much has changed.

Solid state now offers so much flexibility and the chance to design circuitry with levels of performance, which valves can only dream of. These changes came with the introduction of ‘linear’ integrated circuits (ICs). The most well known being the TL071 family and is still the backbone of many modern guitar amps."

 

[DPaulCustom]

I remember reading some terrible reviews for Line 6 (Must have been those early models) when we were looking for an amp (Ended up with a Mustang II ) and the downside to most 'Forums' is that people have an opinion but most have never tried the gear they are talking about and there's also the historic predjudice to contend with, I think that's why here and MLP (Well the Epi section ) are so good, lots of hands-on opinions.

Stewart Ward (Award Session) puts it better than I could and as he designs the things and as far back as 2003 he said:

"Back in the late 1950s transistors became commercially viable and later thought of as the way forward to provide musicians with greater performance and, mainly, lower cost products. Sadly, they were not yet ready for use in guitar amps, primarily because it was very difficult to design circuitry with a high input impedance, which electric guitars need -- valves provide this naturally. Their low impedance at the input for example, made electric guitars sound hard and the volume died away quickly when you turned the guitar’s volume down – plugging into a PA amp produces the same effect.

There were other drawbacks, far too complicated to explain here, which made it a cumbersome technology with serious limitations at that time.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, many designers of the day understood little about electric guitars, a situation which has been true until fairly recently. But under pressure from marketing personnel and accountants for cheaper and more easily made products, ‘big company’ designers would have been powerless to compensate for those limitations within the budgets afforded.

This resulted in a proliferation of horrible sounding amps that, unfortunately, earned solid state a bad reputation from the outset. Even now, some fifty years later, musicians still hold the same prejudices. I can understand that to a certain extent...so many of those bad tranny amps were sold by household names that, one would expect, ought to have known better. This remained the case until the early 1980s. Yet today, much has changed.

Solid state now offers so much flexibility and the chance to design circuitry with levels of performance, which valves can only dream of. These changes came with the introduction of ‘linear’ integrated circuits (ICs). The most well known being the TL071 family and is still the backbone of many modern guitar amps."

Lots of food for thought here.

I've been pretty impressed with the recent run of ss amps, I have a mustang, & a Yamaha thr-10, & have played a Vyper.
All good sounding amps for their intended purpose. The thr-10 still blows me away, although not overloaded with a ton of presets, the raw tone is really quite natural, & does a pretty good job of mimicking tube tone. Still a bit pricey for a 10w amp, but a real joy to play.

I'm also pretty impressed with the recent transition to tube/ss mix (hybrid) amps, they've come a long way from the epi valve jr

 

[Alty]

That Yamaha is very cool, think they've got it right as not heard a bad word against them....its an interesting subject but not talked about a lot on most forums as most consumers just want to plug and play, which is understandable but I'm curious so tend to look for more detail when something interests me and like to get an all round viewpoint rather than some review on an advertised/sponsor driven site.

Think they (manufacturers) had no choice but to make things 'better' as it was affecting sales and reputation I would have thought, one last thing before we go OT anymore and something I read that rings true to me....

"Technology alone is not the reason for the sounds you hear. It needs the intervention of a creative person with the specialist knowledge to make good use of the benefits it brings. It’s where science meets art. Without the human input, technology is like a computer with no software... useless."

 

[wildeman]

I remember reading some terrible reviews for Line 6 (Must have been those early models) when we were looking for an amp (Ended up with a Mustang II ) and the downside to most 'Forums' is that people have an opinion but most have never tried the gear they are talking about and there's also the historic predjudice to contend with, I think that's why here and MLP (Well the Epi section ) are so good, lots of hands-on opinions.

Stewart Ward (Award Session) puts it better than I could and as he designs the things and as far back as 2003 he said:

"Back in the late 1950s transistors became commercially viable and later thought of as the way forward to provide musicians with greater performance and, mainly, lower cost products. Sadly, they were not yet ready for use in guitar amps, primarily because it was very difficult to design circuitry with a high input impedance, which electric guitars need -- valves provide this naturally. Their low impedance at the input for example, made electric guitars sound hard and the volume died away quickly when you turned the guitar’s volume down – plugging into a PA amp produces the same effect.

There were other drawbacks, far too complicated to explain here, which made it a cumbersome technology with serious limitations at that time.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, many designers of the day understood little about electric guitars, a situation which has been true until fairly recently. But under pressure from marketing personnel and accountants for cheaper and more easily made products, ‘big company’ designers would have been powerless to compensate for those limitations within the budgets afforded.

This resulted in a proliferation of horrible sounding amps that, unfortunately, earned solid state a bad reputation from the outset. Even now, some fifty years later, musicians still hold the same prejudices. I can understand that to a certain extent...so many of those bad tranny amps were sold by household names that, one would expect, ought to have known better. This remained the case until the early 1980s. Yet today, much has changed.

Solid state now offers so much flexibility and the chance to design circuitry with levels of performance, which valves can only dream of. These changes came with the introduction of ‘linear’ integrated circuits (ICs). The most well known being the TL071 family and is still the backbone of many modern guitar amps."

I can honestly say now that i have no preference between SS and tube amps. My Rolands leave nothing to be desired.