What amp am I looking for?

Timeline88

Would you rule out vintage Fenders? A 70s Bassman 50 (or 100...) could do the job if you've got a cab you like and you want a classic Fender base tone? It definitely doesn't tick all of your boxes but it'd be an excellent pedal platform and maybe a bit more a blank canvas than a Deluxe Reverb? Plus, you'd get a bit more heft from the 6L6s and maybe a smoother overdrive.

I had an old '68 Twin Reverb which I used as a pedal platform and regret letting it go. The sound was perfect even at 3 on the dial.

Kebabkid

At @Timeline88 - not what I'm looking for as the DRRI already does what you describe very well, especially with my choice of pedals but they're terrific amps for that.

I had a Wampler Pinnacle and Delay going through a hired Fender Twin at some backline rock gigs and was laughed at for my choice of amp by the other guitarist. I totally out-classed him with his Boss multi-fx and Mesa Boogie Rectifier!

Keefy

Kebabkid said:

Keefy said:

If your amp gives you the cleans you want, why not get your dirty sounds from a Revival Drive? It’s effectively an analog amp modeller and you can tweak the EQ to suit whatever amp you run it into.

You're the second person to mention this on this thread and so I'll look into that some more

I have the RD Compact on my main board, set up to approximate a Marshall Major. It cleans up well from the guitar volume and lets the guitar’s own tone through. The full size version gives you another channel plus more options. Neither is cheap, but imo definitely worthwhile.

Kebabkid

Keefy said:

Kebabkid said:

Keefy said:

If your amp gives you the cleans you want, why not get your dirty sounds from a Revival Drive? It’s effectively an analog amp modeller and you can tweak the EQ to suit whatever amp you run it into.

You're the second person to mention this on this thread and so I'll look into that some more

I have the RD Compact on my main board, set up to approximate a Marshall Major. It cleans up well from the guitar volume and lets the guitar’s own tone through. The full size version gives you another channel plus more options. Neither is cheap, but imo definitely worthwhile.

To use the DRRI and have something on my existing board that has the power and tone-shaping does appeal, too

Timeline88

Kebabkid said:

I had a Wampler Pinnacle and Delay going through a hired Fender Twin at some backline rock gigs and was laughed at for my choice of amp by the other guitarist. I totally out-classed him with his Boss multi-fx and Mesa Boogie Rectifier!

Yeah - I've had this happen too! Albeit it was a nu-metal covers gig with a Princeton Reverb and a Boss DS-1 Sounds like the Revival Drive is a good fit based on the comments! Good luck with the search. 

Kebabkid

Cor. Those BluGguitar 1 Mercury and Iridium models sound great but early days yet as the originals did have QC issues.

The Revival Drive looks to be a much more solid unit and I need to read up more and try one as I've only just realised what it actually does. The regular Compact looks good but the Hot Rod might be more me. However, for today, the MT-15 has stolen the show. I just wish that someone would do a 'non-metal' demo of it as whilst it might excel at that, the signature association could mean that people don't look beyond that and what else it can do and the other genres it can be used in. I must say, it's a fantastic pedal platform if you use the clean channel

TimmyO

Hamstead ? 

TheBigDipper

Kebabkid said:

Cor. Those BluGguitar 1 Mercury and Iridium models sound great but early days yet as the originals did have QC issues.

The Revival Drive looks to be a much more solid unit and I need to read up more and try one as I've only just realised what it actually does. The regular Compact looks good but the Hot Rod might be more me. However, for today, the MT-15 has stolen the show. I just wish that someone would do a 'non-metal' demo of it as whilst it might excel at that, the signature association could mean that people don't look beyond that and what else it can do and the other genres it can be used in. I must say, it's a fantastic pedal platform if you use the clean channel

Re AMP1 "QC issues". Nothing worth worrying about. The first production run (including mine) had a fault with the potentiometer shafts for the custom controls (the little pots on the side that you "set and forget" once you've decided how you like them). They weren't robust enough, and people turning the pots hard left or right could break them (most didn't, but enough did) and then the pot would be in a fixed position. The fix was a new set of shafts from Bluguitar (or JHS, the importer, in the case of the UK) that anyone could replace themselves in 15 minutes with just a Philips screwdriver to open the case. These were f.o.c. and JHS will still send them today to people who aren't the original owners. I broke one in the first few weeks of ownership (I bought it on eBay, so not the original owner), JHS sent me a new set, I changed them all and haven't had a problem since. No-one who has replaced them has reported a repeat occurrence. 

The RevivalDRIVE oozes build quality. I've got the standard "2 sides" version, not a compact. 

Kebabkid

A goodie is the Suhr PT-15 but once again, slightly out of my price range.

I'm thinking, stay with the DRRI and clip the Bright Cap as my OD pedals already sound good but there's the odd clip or metaliic clang.

ICBM

Kebabkid said:

I'm thinking, stay with the DRRI and clip the Bright Cap as my OD pedals already sound good but there's the odd clip or metaliic clang.

Or use the Normal channel. If you need reverb, jumper to the Vibrato channel and set the reverb level higher than normal, the treble low, and use the volume control to bring in the reverb. (Same with tremolo.)

Kebabkid

ICBM said:

Kebabkid said:

I'm thinking, stay with the DRRI and clip the Bright Cap as my OD pedals already sound good but there's the odd clip or metaliic clang.

Or use the Normal channel. If you need reverb, jumper to the Vibrato channel and set the reverb level higher than normal, the treble low, and use the volume control to bring in the reverb. (Same with tremolo.)

Ooh, really? I'd prefer to do that than muck around with a new amp under warranty.
Thanks

ICBM

Kebabkid said:

Ooh, really? I'd prefer to do that than muck around with a new amp under warranty.

Yes really . Use the Normal channel as, er, 'normal' to set up your basic tone, with the guitar/pedalboard connected to input 1. Connect input 2 to Vibrato channel input 1 with a short patch lead. Set the reverb up high - probably not full, but experiment - the treble low, bass to where you would have it normally, and introduce just enough volume to get the amount of reverb you want.

The two channels on BF/SF reverb amps are out out phase, so you want to avoid setting the volume controls too close to the same or it can thin the sound out, but that won't be what you need to do for this anyway.

Wazmeister

Cos, my first thought was the Suhr PT15…

west

Ive got a Revv g20 im very happy with , it aint got cleans like my Rambler but its very useful especially with the 2 notes stuff included ...

DannyP

monquixote said:

vivalacoulter said:

What about a Fender Supersonic 22?

I got one recently and seems to hit on most the points you’ve raised.

That's a good shout. 

I had one and they are pretty decent. 

They have the classic two channel amp problem of doing really clean and smooth saturated gain, but not much between the two.
The second channel can do lower gain sounds, but I wasn't all that convinced by them.

The other problem is that the footswitch sucks.

On the contrary - the lower gain, Stonesy / edge of break up rhythm stuff is where a Supersonic 22 really shines.

Gain one at 11 o'clock, gain two at 8 o'clock.

russpm

Blackstar HT20R MKII would fit the bill and has FX loop. Really good amps for the money. Lovely clean channel with two voices and gain channel with two voices.

Kebabkid

Thanks everyone for your comments so far.

Based on specs, demos and budget, I've shortlisted a couple but I really need to try them to be 100% sure.

Cheers 

monquixote

DannyP said:

monquixote said:

vivalacoulter said:

What about a Fender Supersonic 22?

I got one recently and seems to hit on most the points you’ve raised.

That's a good shout. 

I had one and they are pretty decent. 

They have the classic two channel amp problem of doing really clean and smooth saturated gain, but not much between the two.
The second channel can do lower gain sounds, but I wasn't all that convinced by them.

The other problem is that the footswitch sucks.

On the contrary - the lower gain, Stonesy / edge of break up rhythm stuff is where a Supersonic 22 really shines.

Gain one at 11 o'clock, gain two at 8 o'clock.

Each to their own, but I found those type of sounds very poor relative to just putting an overdrive pedal into the clean channel. 

It's so close to being a perfect amp in form factor and features, but has a number of annoying flaws (I owned and gigged one for a couple of years).

The reverb is noisy
The foot pedal is massive and 4 buttons only one of which (channel switch) you probably want to use
The foot pedal uses a DIN cable which is hard to replace and means you can't just use a 1 button switch for channels, or control it from an MFX / switcher.
The supplied footswitch cable is weak and prone to breaking and if it breaks it often cases a short which blows a component and breaks the channel switching (luckily a cheap fix)
The footswitchable fat boost on the clean channel makes it work much better with pedals but has a massive volume jump which makes it unusable
It has a design fault which means it either has an intermittent loud "pop" on channel change, or a momentary drop out.

All of the above meant I ended up using it on the clean channel without the footswitch so I would have been better off with a DRRI.

That said it does look and sound good for the price and it served me very well.

Wazmeister

Cos, what are you current thoughts mate ?

Kebabkid

Wazmeister said:

Cos, what are you current thoughts mate ?Wazmeister said:

@Wazmeister ;;;;;;Well, as mentioned, the thinking is to have a spanky clean channel, as good or if not better than my Deluxe Reverb that takes pedals well. The lead channel should be versatile but capable of EVH. If it does other classic or 80s rock in between, great but my OD pedals can handle that.

So, with that, I think that the Suhr PT15 is probably the amp to rule them all with its range of sounds that I would use. I'm not bothered by the IR version and so one of those would be great with my Mesa Cab, but a used one is probably still outside of my budget for now and they look a little complicated with lots going on inside, too, and so I'd worry about service and repairs.

The Friedman Runt 20 is the one I really want to try as it ticks all the boxes but I just need to try one to see if the headroom for both channels is enough, but I do not want to go to the bigger 50W. There's a combo on here for a good price and this is so well spec'd and simple that it deserves an audition. The also say that the
JJ Jr is a good one to try for a more Voxy flavour on the cleans rather than the Fendery one presented by the Runt.

The PRS MT-15 was the surprise of the lot. The Clean Channel was a massive surprise and so good. Given its small size, power, headroom, the fx loop and price, I'm probably looking at this more as a pedal platform and an improvement/alternative to the DRRI. However, the lead channel is good and capable of classic rock or big Toto, Journey leads but it has narrow use for me and at the end of the day, is geared towards the heavy stuff. Ideally, I want an equally good and useable clean and dirty channel and that's one of the reasons I moved on the Mesa Mark V:25 as I wasn't dialling in what I wanted on the lead channel and hated using just one side of the amp. Now I have the DRRI and it does the one side that I wanted so well, I now want the other side!!! DOH

Others that were mentioned like the PRS Sonzera, the Marshall DSL or a JTM-45 might be good and if they're in store and available to try, I'll give them a whirl. The others, aren't for me or the Revival Drive. However, owning an FM3 at some point still appeals and maybe in a couple of years when used prices come down in price like they have for the AX8 and Axe-FX units, but I'm not yet ready to go on a modeller rig journey

Redplate's look interesting but are hard to find and the Tone King Imperial II isn't quite the spec I want but I like the sounds I've heard. I understand that I can get around the lack of FX loop issue with some current products that address that e.g. JHS Switchback

I've spoken to Peach Guitars and a visit and booked appointment is probably the way to go for the choice they have and I could try all the above.

As I said, thanks to everybody who commented and some interesting suggestions and over the Summer, I'll see what's what but if I end up staying with the DRRI and my pedals, that's ok, too.