Visited the shop to try high gain heads for my daughter. Left empty-handed!

De_Batz

Went to RichTone to annoy the hell out of them for the afternoon. Succeeded in that mission, at least. The brief is to get sounds like MCR, Slipknot, Pierce the Veil and so on. Her guitar is the Schecter Demon with own-brand active pickups. I took a couple of mine to 'round out' the test...

The shortlist:
Marshall DSL 50 (UK one, late production)
Marshall JVM 205
Peavey 6505 Reissue
Randall Lynchbox
(Bogner Alchemist).

The cab: Marshall 2045 with Tayden High Brits (50W Greenbacks)

Guitars: JJ Retro, Schecter Flying V and Demon
DSL 50: This amp sounds great and would be my choice by a distance. It's not massively high gain, although still too much for me on the Ultra side. Good 'clear' distortion, and enough chunk with the Deep switch in to do the modern high gain thing.
JVM 205: Didn't work! Switched on but tubes not lighting up...
Peavey 6505: Has a superb high gain distortion sound with the down-tuned Flying V, but we couldn't get much 'in-between'. I can imagine owning this for that one sound, but it didn't match the Marshall for those mid-gain rhythm sounds. 
This particular example was really noisy. 
Randall Lynchbox: this was the dark horse, and the guy in the shop mentioned that he hadn't enjoyed it particularly. It had the best set of clean and low gain sounds, but something was way off with the gain. It didn't have anywhere near as much as I expected, and the channel was quiet relative to the clean. It might have suited me (with a more classic guitar), but wasn't doing the sounds she wanted at all...

So we like the DSL best, but the reverb wasn't working...

And we walked out with all our money and no high gain head. 

But we may be back for the DSL if the reverb gets sorted. Watch this space!

noisepolluter

May as well just order a current production DSL100? Fairdeal music regularly have great Marshall offers and are really good to deal with 

Neilybob

Interesting!

I would love to try the Lynch amp :sigh: Sheffield is a long way for me. 

I'd recommend a Orange Jim Root head if you can find one. Sold mine earlier last year with matching cab as I've moved away from playing that genre of music. 

ICBM

De_Batz said:

But we may be back for the DSL if the reverb gets sorted. Watch this space!

Don't. Reverb faults are one of the less common issues with those... there are many much more serious ones, even on the very late-production ones where they'd improved the PCBs. If you really want a DSL, the current Vietnamese-made ones are better-made and far more reliable.

The JVM fault is more of a surprise, but from the description it's probably just blown an internal fuse - they do sometimes, even with no real fault, if the particular valves have an unusually high startup draw. They do sound immense as well (when working .)

For that kind of music you may need to try a Mesa of some sort too - it's not my kind of thing so I don't know which models, but something from the Mark series with a graphic EQ on it or something from the Rectifier series (but not the Maverick or Blue Angel), most likely.

Stevepage

GAK have a used Peavey JSX for £499 at the moment. I’d recommend that over the ones you’ve tried. It’s certainly more versatile than the 6505. 

Wouldn’t bother with Mesa unless you have a huge mound of cash to spend. You can’t get new Mesa’s at the moments so the used ones are inflated 

Jetfire

So I've been watching the richtone page for months and I see they have a couple of Laney Iron heart combos in there. I'd have gone for them too. 

revsorg

This sound appeals to me, don't know if it's the correct kind of thing:

monquixote

Get the current generation DSL and use it with a Boss SD-1 to tighten it up.

(The reverb is crap)

jasonbone75

I think given all the info presented I'd agree with Stevepage on this in that budget range. I have a 6505+ and it is noisy as are all of them (have a 5150III as well which is much quieter and a lot more versatile!!).

De_Batz

Neilybob said:

Interesting!

I would love to try the Lynch amp :sigh: Sheffield is a long way for me. 

I'd recommend a Orange Jim Root head if you can find one. Sold mine earlier last year with matching cab as I've moved away from playing that genre of music. 

It's an interesting thing - sounded great across the range on the clean channel with that particular cab. The distortion sounds felt a bit 'distant', somehow, perhaps they need a tighter and brighter speaker to shine. We'll have a look at the JR Terror if we can!

De_Batz

Jetfire said:

So I've been watching the richtone page for months and I see they have a couple of Laney Iron heart combos in there. I'd have gone for them too. 

Definitely a thought. As we had the cab, we were aiming the search at heads. But we may do a second trip with those on the radar. Mark at RichTone said that he thought those were good amps let down by a mediocre speaker, but I have had the 120 and 60W heads on my radar. 

We were a bit short of time for a second round, as I'd only 'booked out' an hour-and-a-half for us with the diary management team at home. 

jca74

Wouldn’t bother with Mesa unless you have a huge mound of cash 

...and a roadie to carry it

darius

5150 surely worth a try? 

6L6 version probably.

And there’s the Stealth and EL34 versions for different flavours. 
And 50W or 100W. 

Squareheadedfreak

PRS MT15, Orange Dual Terror, Marshall 20w Silver jubilee are good high gain lunchbox heads worth a look at!

Although worrying so many issues with heads there!

Failing that, a small good modeller, would be able to dial in all those bands tones out of one package, FM3/helix etc 2nd hand in that price range

Jetfire

De_Batz said:

Jetfire said:

So I've been watching the richtone page for months and I see they have a couple of Laney Iron heart combos in there. I'd have gone for them too. 

Definitely a thought. As we had the cab, we were aiming the search at heads. But we may do a second trip with those on the radar. Mark at RichTone said that he thought those were good amps let down by a mediocre speaker, but I have had the 120 and 60W heads on my radar. 

We were a bit short of time for a second round, as I'd only 'booked out' an hour-and-a-half for us with the diary management team at home. 

Ill be honest, I dont think Marshall are really used much for modern metal these days unless you'd be looking to boost it.  That being said, the SC800 head is fantastic.  The Ironheart has a boost built into it as well as the JVM (the red settings are mint...) Curve ball for you, look at the Hughes and Kettner GM. 



This guy has a great channel so well worth exploring for all metal options. 

 

webrthomson

@sherpa_man was selling a Diezel DMoll on here recently for not very much, If I wanted a superb clean and brutal dirty, I’d buy that!

 Plus before Jim Root used Oranges he played Deizel Herberts for quite some time and the DMoll is a baby Herbert, right down to the mid cut.

TTBZ

JVM205H does high gain very nicely  



Both guitarists in While She Sleeps used to use them before they switched to Kempers too. 

I use my Studio Jubilee for everything, the lead channel with a boost in front can go as heavy as you like. It's a bit like an 800 but more saturated and thicker/darker.

Kebabkid

Unless they didn't have one, I'm surprised the PRS MT-15 wasn't on the list. 
Some places are doing them new for £399

donbot

How about an Engl Ironball SE? Sounds great, loads of features including reverb, delay, noise gate, built in attenuation and silent mode with headphones plus a few IRs.

Great little monster 

Cols

De_Batz said:

But we may be back for the DSL if the reverb gets sorted. Watch this space!

You can get a brand new DSL40 2x12 combo for £399, which is a ridiculously good bargain.

https://www.fairdealmusic.co.uk/collections/electric-guitar-amps/products/marshall-dsl402cr-40w-2x12-combo-amplifier

The reverb is more of a subtle wash than sproingy goodness.  It’s surprisingly portable with the stock speakers (which are quite lightweight, and sound fine), or you could use it as a head.  If you replace the stock speakers with upgrades, it will sound better but hurt you when you pick it up.

ICBM

Cols said:

If you replace the stock speakers with upgrades, it will sound better but hurt you when you pick it up.

... unless you fit Neo Creambacks. (Or other neos.)