How to try out Amp

randerson

I recently test ran a few high end amps and it got me thinking - what do others look for when playing through amps for the first time?

Personal preferences on amp types aside, what are the fundamentals for you? For example I was interested in how tight the bottom end was, the range of the EQ sweep, where it started to break up naturally. Is there something else often overlooked?

ICBM

A good clean sound - as in *completely* clean, no clipping whatever. If it won’t do that with a good tone and dynamics then it’s useless to me.

RiftAmps

ICBM said:

A good clean sound - as in *completely* clean, no clipping whatever. If it won’t do that with a good tone and dynamics then it’s useless to me.

Completely agree with this.

The quality of an amplifier's OD tone is a consequence of how good the cleans are. So they 'must' be exceptional.

My other main criteria is what I call Instrument Separation - can you tell what type of guitar is plugged into it by sound alone? If so, how deep does that separation go?

For example, the differences between a Les Paul and a Stratocaster should be fairly obvious yet some amplifiers somehow make them quite indistinguishable.

For my own models, I want to clearly hear the difference between a rosewood Strat and a maple one, or if a Tele has brass saddles or not.

pintspiller

If I was buying now, it would be wattage, headroom, attenuation, DI, valve type, brand, price, weight, reverb. Not necessarily to same degree or in that order.

My current amps have no reverb and that annoys me at times. Having only one channel and no master volume or effect loop hasn't been annoying as much though.

MattBanshee

Turn it up loud, very loud. Make sure it sounds as good at gig volume as it does quieter, and this will also check for rattles and farts.

p90fool

Mail order it, gig it twice, regret it, sell for large loss. 

Haych

ICBM said:

A good clean sound - as in *completely* clean, no clipping whatever. If it won’t do that with a good tone and dynamics then it’s useless to me.

This!  My first port of call when thinking about any new amp is usually YouTube just to see if it has the feature set that I want and will do ballpark tones that I want - I know you can't get a real feel for an amp via YouTube but it'll give me a good idea as to whether I want to check one out in real life.

However, it irritates the dangly bits off me that almost all reviewers concentrate on the amp's overdriven tones and give very little attention to clean tones, if at all.

Mark1960

My suggestion would be think very carefully exactly how you intend to use the amp, and come up with a list of must haves, and a second list of nice to have. Check out what amps in your price range that tick the must haves, and as many of the nice to haves, then go to a shop that stocks them and play, taking your own guitar / pedals etc. Also listen to the reviews on line, don't rush and take your time.

PolarityMan

The highest criteria that is so important it takes up easily the top 3 slots on the list of criteria is the responsiveness / chunkyness of an open palm muted C#.
After that good clean tone, like ICBM said properly clean with enough headroom to get above a drummer and still sound clean.
After that noise floor on high gain
After that switching responsiveness
After that how well it fits in my car
After that lead and edge of breakup tones.

fields5069

Colour.

57Deluxe

p90fool said:

Mail order it, gig it twice, regret it, sell for large loss. 

you obviously not bought one from Thomann then?? Do all that  /\ and just return it!

NelsonP

Does it say Mesa/Boogie or Marshall on the front?

Call me shallow.

HAL9000

fields5069 said:

Colour.

...and weight.

Dave_Mc

RiftAmps said:

The quality of an amplifier's OD tone is a consequence of how good the cleans are. So they 'must' be exceptional.

What about a Peavey 6505? Or a Soldano? Or a Mesa Rectifier? I mean their cleans are usually considered to be middling at best, and they're industry standards for heavier tones.

Unless you're talking about lower gain OD, which is fair enough. But in my experience, for the types of OD tones I want, the clean doesn't seem to have anything to do with it.

ICBM

Dave_Mc said:

What about a Peavey 6505? Or a Soldano? Or a Mesa Rectifier? I mean their cleans are usually considered to be middling at best, and they're industry standards for heavier tones.

All those amps have perfectly good clean sounds if you dial them in properly. The only one of them I’ve come across which doesn’t is the Soldano Avenger, which is an amp with only a dirty channel - it can’t do a truly clean sound, if you turn the gain down far enough it’s too dark and grainy. 

Which makes it useless to me, no matter how good the dirty sound.

Dave_Mc

Yeah. I mean, I'm not too worried about those clean sounds, but even for me the 6505's cleans were pretty middling. I can't see it pleasing someone who wants blackface cleans, for example

I mean even the jet city, on most of them it's not really a clean channel, more of a crunch channel, and their distortion sounds are great (certainly for the price, and arguably even ignoring price).

Plus I'd usually use completely different speakers and cabs for dirty sounds than clean... obviously that's not quite the same as what we're talking about, but it does still make me wonder why a clean tone would be that important for a good dirty tone...

EDIT: Don't get me wrong, even for a high gain amp, I'd also rather have an amp with nice cleans than one which didn't, everything else being equal. But I wouldn't let middling cleans put me off if its OD channel sounded the way I wanted.

ICBM

Dave_Mc said:

Yeah. I mean, I'm not too worried about those clean sounds, but even for me the 6505's cleans were pretty middling. I can't see it pleasing someone who wants blackface cleans, for example  

No, but there are other good cleans! I find it a bit frustrating that so many people seem to *only* want that sound. I love Marshall cleans, and Vox cleans, and Hiwatt cleans too... and Mesa Rectifier cleans for that matter.

If it's middling then the solution is to dial out the mids .

Dave_Mc

LOL

Yeah, I know what you mean about the cleans- I definitely do like BF Fender cleans but I also like other cleans, too.

I guess the problem is that if you have such a wide-ranging definition for what a good clean is, that it kind of becomes meaningless Or looked at the other way, if an amp sounds bad distorted, is it "because" it sounds bad clean, or does it just sound bad full stop if it sounds bad both distorted and clean?

ICBM

Dave_Mc said:

I guess the problem is that if you have such a wide-ranging definition for what a good clean is, that it kind of becomes meaningless  

Not really - even with all those different cleans - including Blackface! - you can identify what is a good balanced sound where all the frequencies of the guitar can be heard properly and which responds dynamically without sounding flabby or harsh, even with the widely different EQ, attack and subtle harmonic distortion (not clipping) they all have.

Dave_Mc said:

Or looked at the other way, if an amp sounds bad distorted, is it "because" it sounds bad clean, or does it just sound bad full stop if it sounds bad both distorted and clean?  

Good question - for me, an amp with no good truly clean sound is useless, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad amp. The Soldano Avenger is a good example - in fact I would say it's a *great* amp, as long as you only want medium crunch to heavy distortion. I could still use it as a dedicated distortion channel in a two-amp setup.

But an amp which sounds bad both clean and distorted is just bad full stop .

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

Dave_Mc said:

I guess the problem is that if you have such a wide-ranging definition for what a good clean is, that it kind of becomes meaningless  

Not really - even with all those different cleans - including Blackface! - you can identify what is a good balanced sound where all the frequencies of the guitar can be heard properly and which responds dynamically without sounding flabby or harsh, even with the widely different EQ, attack and subtle harmonic distortion (not clipping) they all have.

Yep. I'm not just nitpicking, honest I'm certainly not saying that all good clean amps have bad distortion or anything like that. Just, much like below, that if there are some good distorted amps which have middling (or non-existent) cleans, then the whole thing sort of breaks down.

ICBM said:

Dave_Mc said:

Or looked at the other way, if an amp sounds bad distorted, is it "because" it sounds bad clean, or does it just sound bad full stop if it sounds bad both distorted and clean?  

Good question - for me, an amp with no good truly clean sound is useless, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad amp. The Soldano Avenger is a good example - in fact I would say it's a *great* amp, as long as you only want medium crunch to heavy distortion. I could still use it as a dedicated distortion channel in a two-amp setup.

But an amp which sounds bad both clean and distorted is just bad full stop .

Yep, agreed- the Avenger is one I tried too, which I thought was awesome (just luckily enough fairly soon afterwards the Jet Cities came with that so I could save some money).

And yeah LOL if they're just all bad.

randerson

Lots of great info here. Many thanks!