What are your favourite recorded solid state amp tones?

bingefeller

Modelling amps do not count nor do hybrid amps.  Has to be 100% solid state amp.

For me, it has to be Ty Tabor's Lab amp on the first four King's X albums.  




Second would be Akira Takasaki's Peavey Supreme 160 heads on Loudness Welcome To The Slaughterhouse album.  He used the same heads on Once and For All, but the sound quality is a bit shit.

FRockStar

Billy Gibbons recording 'My Head's in Mississippi' with ZZ Top on a little Marshall 5005 Lead 12 combo comes to mind. Loved that track when it came out! Dirrrty 

bingefeller

I never knew Billy used SS to record with, always thought he was a valve only player. Sounds great though!  

Babones

Greg Ginn (Black Flag)

monquixote

Every 80s clean tone via a jc120

ThePrettyDamned

I love the piano like, chorused tone on welcome home by Metallica. Probably a jc120. 

thermionic

Probably my favourite band ever, Welsh 80s post-punk legends Y Cyrff almost always played through two Peavey Bandits. I can't say for certain that they didn't use any other amps when they were in the studio, but all their records have that punchy clean tone which proved to me that you didn't need overdrive to sound exciting and edgy.



If they look familiar, Mark and Paul later went on to form Catatonia, and Mark had moved on to Marshall stacks (and a distorted sound) by then.

bingefeller

thermionic said:

Probably my favourite band ever, Welsh 80s post-punk legends Y Cyrff almost always played through two Peavey Bandits. I can't say for certain that they didn't use any other amps when they were in the studio, but all their records have that punchy clean tone which proved to me that you didn't need overdrive to sound exciting and edgy.



If they look familiar, Mark and Paul later went on to form Catatonia, and Mark had moved on to Marshall stacks (and a distorted sound) by then.

I quite like their music, never heard of them before now.  Love that post-punk tone too.  

ICBM

Hard question, because I bet there are a *lot* of recorded tones that are solid-state, but you would never realise unless you know.

Some known examples...

Paul Weller's early Jam sounds were done with a Peavey Backstage.

The Beatles in the Magical Mystery Tour era used early Vox solid-state amps.

Both The Edge and Neil Finn used Roland JC-120s as well as their better-known AC30s.

Robert Quine used a Peavey Bandit with an EV speaker.

Wilko Johnson used to use HH amps.

merlin

monquixote said:

Every 80s clean tone via a jc120

+1. I'm also partial to a bit of Dweezil's tone coming from his Peavey Wiggy. 

Bygone_Tones

ICBM said:

Hard question, because I bet there are a *lot* of recorded tones that are solid-state, but you would never realise unless you know.

Some known examples...

Paul Weller's early Jam sounds were done with a Peavey Backstage.

The Beatles in the Magical Mystery Tour era used early Vox solid-state amps.

Both The Edge and Neil Finn used Roland JC-120s as well as their better-known AC30s.

Robert Quine used a Peavey Bandit with an EV speaker.

Wilko Johnson used to use HH amps.

agree, Id struggle just to name any never mind pick out a favourite. Only one I can think of is Dimebag Darrell. Pink Floyd also used HH amps, but on what I do not know.

bingefeller

merlin said:

monquixote said:

Every 80s clean tone via a jc120

+1. I'm also partial to a bit of Dweezil's tone coming from his Peavey Wiggy. 

Yeah the Wiggy era - totally forgot about that one!  Didn't he use that one his Automatic album?  

merlin

bingefeller said:

Yeah the Wiggy era - totally forgot about that one!  Didn't he use that one his Automatic album?  

Yes he did indeed. Not a shit sound on that recording! 

xSkarloey

I have read that Eric Clapton  used Session 30w combos on his mid 80s August album. Years since I heard it, so I can't say either way if he got a good tone or not. 


It's said Pagey used a Vox Super Beatle for Whole Lotta Love. Maybe other stuff too. Isn't that a transistor amp? 

ICBM

Skarloey said:

I have read that Eric Clapton  used Session 30w combos on his mid 80s August album. Years since I heard it, so I can't say either way if he got a good tone or not.

Unfortunately that doesn't help, as it's quite definitely the worst sound he's ever had on record .

Skarloey said:

It's said Pagey used a Vox Super Beatle for Whole Lotta Love. Maybe other stuff too. Isn't that a transistor amp? 

Yes. He also used Rickenbacker Transonic amps at one point, but I'm not sure what (if any) recordings they're on.

pintspiller

Wilcox Johnston of Feelgoods used HH like @ICBM said, as did Danny Ash of Bauhaus, and a lot of punk/new wave band from the era.

richardhomer

Reputedly Mark Knopfler used a JC120 layered with various Fender amps on some tracks on the first Dire Straits album.

I don't know which ones specifically - but  that album represents some of my favourite ever Strat tones.

xSkarloey

@icbm Ugh. I've just checked out some of El Clappo's August on YT. This is particularly horrible. Sounds like a heron choking on a large fish.

In fact the whole production to my ears is horrible. Good old Phil Collins again I'll wager.

richardhomer

Skarloey said:

@icbm Ugh. I've just checked out some of El Clappo's August on YT. This is particularly horrible. Sounds like a heron choking on a large fish.

In fact the whole production to my ears is horrible. Good old Phil Collins again I'll wager.

That album features one of my favourite ever pieces of guitar playing - the 'one note' solo on Holy Mother is just astonishingly powerful. If a guitar solo is judged purely on goose-bumps - and there are few other reasons for them to exist for me - it could possibly be the best I've ever heard.

Yes the production is terribly '80s' - but Phil Collins coaxed guitar playing on August (and its precursor 'Behind the Sun') which was more vital/fiery than anything EC had done since Layla. 

They may may not have aged well sonically - but from a playing perspective, I think EC was well and truly back on form.

ICBM

I'm afraid I found the whole thing unlistenably awful. I got another copy of it recently and my opinion hasn't changed. Sorry!

thomasross20

I always did like the sound of the King's X stuff!
ZZ Top using SS amps is a revelation - is that true? They always sounded great!