Ditching digital and no idea what to do next

Kurtis

octatonic said:

If you want a pristine clean for a pedal platform then look at higher wattage amps.
You want headroom.

Two Rock are an obvious choice here.
But so is a Twin Reverb, or going downmarket a Hot Rod Deville.
Or a Mesa Lonestar.

Personally I don't like completely clean amps as pedal platforms.
I think amps sound best when they are pushed into overdrive, which means they need to be just under the edge of breakup before the pedals are turned on.
Amps with huge headroom that aren't pushed into overdrive by the pedals, but rather the gain comes from the pedal and sits on top of the clean amp never has the sound or the feel I'm going for.

But YMMV.

Totally agree about clean amps. Everything sounds better with a bit of grit. 

sgosden

you tried any of the synergy stuff. or new Friedman IR-X ?  can get plenty of different sounds within the bounds of whatever hardware you have (without endless options of modellers) + has knobs you can play with .

Boromedic

I was tempted with a Marshall Jubilee 25 or one of the Studio 20 watters, having watched a few online videos on their construction I'd have concerns at their longevity. 

The Friedman 20w series are seriously well built and only a few hundred quid more used. I'd buy one of them tbh, the Runt looks and sounds great. Only downside would be the boost is not footswitchable. 

Rkphilpot

Jonathanthomas83 said:

snowblind said:

I'm going to say the answer to everything is a HiWatt and a few pedals. Pretty much nothing you can't do with that.
Unless for some reason all you want is a muddy compressed mess with no definition that is.

That comes with its own problems...the fanboys all say that modern Hiwatt's aren't as good as the old ones and I don't want an old one! Can they get nice and bright like a Fender Twin?

I played the HiWatts at the Guitar show and they blew me away, I'm buying one as soon as I raise the funds. Granted I didn't have the old models to compare them to but irrespective of the old models, these new ones are outstanding amps within their own right. I put a fuzz pedal into it and the whole of the orange amps booth stopped playing.

strtdv

Snags said:

Based on the 5w Lionheart I'd be surprised if you ran out of clean headroom on the 20w. Unless you're a total hooligan.

I gigged a 20w Lionheart head and matching 2x12 for years. If you mean REALLY clean rather than starting to compress a bit it actually doesn't have that much clean headroom, certainly if you're keeping up with a drummer. 
I've bought the 5watt version to replace mine but I still miss the 20 watt one, might buy another one sometime

strtdv

The obvious choice is surely a Twin? Pedals can get you whatever amount of gain you want. It won't have the tight bass at high volume that a modern high gain amp through a closed back cab will give you, but it'll work for 99% of situations

Catthan

I'd recommend the Suhr PT15-IR. 3 legit tones, a tuned power stage to work with the built-in loadbox, decent IRs. 
Based on the 3 broad requirements of a American clean, a British crunch and a modern lead. you can also have the Kraken you like running through the FX return into the power stage, load, IRs etc.. 



 

Boromedic

Catthan said:

I'd recommend the Suhr PT15-IR. 3 legit tones, a tuned power stage to work with the built-in loadbox, decent IRs. 
Based on the 3 broad requirements of a American clean, a British crunch and a modern lead. you can also have the Kraken you like running through the FX return into the power stage, load, IRs etc.. 



 

I happen to have one for sale..... Conveniently.....