Best Solid State Amp for gigs

Grunfeld

thomasw88 said:

MattBanshee said:

A friend's band gigs regularly with an Orange CR120 head into 4x12 cab, and it actually sounds pretty good even at volume, using drive from the amp itself.

I've used these at a number of gigs and festivals.   I don't mind using them, but they lack any type of responsiveness that you get from a valve amp.  

That baffles me. 
I gig regularly with a CR120 head and 2x12 -- last night being no exception -- and I can't think of anything that I'd get from a valve amp that I'm not getting already.  
What is "responsiveness"?  For me, I can set any amount of tones and gain on the amp, and I can open out or back off the guitar's volume pot.  And I can dig into the strings or gently play and noodle.  And of course I can turn pedals on and off.  I hear a response with all of these and for me, I don't notice any difference between how the CR120 responds and how either of my two current valve amps respond. 
Is there some style of guitar music which demands "more responsiveness" that I've just kind of missed over the years?

Grunfeld

duplicate

erky32

Voxman said:

erky32 said:

Voxman said:

erky32 said:

when I got into serious gigging (pub/wedding sized) in the 90's my best amp was a Marshall vs8080, later added a matching 1 x 12, and I sold that to go valves & bigger cabs. Since then I've had/gigged loads of valve & ss amps, but I still look back to the days of my 8080 which was hassle free, had great sound,drive & volume for the job, lightweight. Certainly with an ext cab it covers most needs , sounds great - and I wish I'd never moved on from mine!! (I do keep a 8100 head in reserve nowadays tho!)

The 8080 has no extension cab out socket - how did you add an extension cab - did you modify the amp, if so what did you do?  Did you have to change the 8 Ohm internal speaker?

Hi @Voxman  , no i dont recall doing any mods, at that time (around '97) i just bought a matching 1x12 cab and plugged it in, so there must have been an ext spkr on my amp. Easy enough tho if you were interested in that amp, being ss they are impedance tolerant down to 4ohms, so you could make a parallel link to another 8ohm.spkr.

Weird - the 8080 definitely had no extension cab out (I have one).  I can only think it must either have been a later version of the Valvestate and not an 8080, or it had been modded.  Did you buy the Valvestate new?

Aye, I bought it new, and it was definitely a Valvestate 8080, (I think they were quite new on the shelf when I got mine, there was another 8040 as well at that time) & I definitely didnt mod it or fudge any DIY connections, it was a straight case of buying an extension cab and plugging the two together. Whether or not they changed the version I dont know. But I tell you what it was a cracking gig amp! Never let me down until some metalhead thrash guy borrowed on a joint gig - and he blew the speaker!! I quite often see them for sale over here in France for absolute steal price , usually circa100€, and I'm always tempted to buy one!

ICBM

If you bought it new in '97 it wasn't a 8080 - they came out in '91. The VS100R replaced it in '96.

Voxman

ICBM said:

If you bought it new in '97 it wasn't a 8080 - they came out in '91. The VS100R replaced it in '96.

+1 - cannot possibly be an 8080 if it had an extension cab out. 

HAL9000

thomasw88 said:

MattBanshee said:

A friend's band gigs regularly with an Orange CR120 head into 4x12 cab, and it actually sounds pretty good even at volume, using drive from the amp itself.

I've used these at a number of gigs and festivals.   I don't mind using them, but they lack any type of responsiveness that you get from a valve amp.  

I've got it's little sister,the CR60C, and at jam nights I've had people either believing it's a valve amp or at least asking the question.

However, I do have to admit to being pretty underwhelmed at first but now that I've got it 'dialled in' and found where the good sounds are I'm very pleased indeed.

ICBM

One of the gig venues near where I am has a CR120 as part of the house backline. A friend of mine who is a pretty good player and whose own amp is a Mesa Lone Star Special has played through it… he thought it was a valve amp until I told him .

Kebabkid

I used a Roland Cube 60 for years. Loud, light & can run an ext.cab (8 Ohm), line out, built-in fx.

These are different and IMHO much better sounding than the GX and newer Cube 80s. Bloody reliable, too and can be had used for between £90-120. They take pedals really well.

ICBM

Kebabkid said:

I used a Roland Cube 60 for years. Loud, light, can run an ext.cab (8 Ohm), line out, built-in fx. This are different and IMHO much better sounding than the GX and newer Cube 80s. Bloody reliable, too

I hate to say this, but the Cube 60 is the only one of the modern Roland amps I've seen for repair. Not many of them, admittedly. (Two I think.)

cruxiform

I used a VS100R for over 10 years and it's the only amp I regret selling. The three channels meant I played with only a wah pedal and a tubescreamer. If I had the space I'd buy one again.

bingefeller

The Orange CR120 certainly sounds "responsive" here:



Listen to any recent live King's X gigs.  Ty is using a CR120 and sounds as great as he did when he was using his Lab Series L5 solid state combos or his Mesa rig.  SS amps are every bit as "responsive" to volume changes, hitting the strings harder etc as valve amps.  

Kebabkid

ICBM said:

Kebabkid said:

I used a Roland Cube 60 for years. Loud, light, can run an ext.cab (8 Ohm), line out, built-in fx. This are different and IMHO much better sounding than the GX and newer Cube 80s. Bloody reliable, too

I hate to say this, but the Cube 60 is the only one of the modern Roland amps I've seen for repair. Not many of them, admittedly. (Two I think.)

Jeez. Well, me and a mate must've been lucky then. Neither of us ever had an issue and my one is still being used in my Ska band by the guitarist. Oh well.

What was/were the issues, if different?

ICBM

Kebabkid said:

Jeez. Well, me and a mate must've been lucky then. Neither of us ever had an issue and my one is still being used in my Ska band by the guitarist. Oh well.

What was/were the issues, if different?

Not lucky… just not unlucky . The failure rate must be very low - just higher than other Rolands seem to have.

Same issue both times - blown IC power module. There may have been a third, I'm not certain.

TTBZ

bingefeller said:

The Orange CR120 certainly sounds "responsive" here:

It does! Even though it's just a camera mic recording it sounds pretty decent. Guess I need to try one! Does the clean take pedals well?

thomasw88

Grunfeld said:

thomasw88 said:

MattBanshee said:

A friend's band gigs regularly with an Orange CR120 head into 4x12 cab, and it actually sounds pretty good even at volume, using drive from the amp itself.

I've used these at a number of gigs and festivals.   I don't mind using them, but they lack any type of responsiveness that you get from a valve amp.  

That baffles me. 
I gig regularly with a CR120 head and 2x12 -- last night being no exception -- and I can't think of anything that I'd get from a valve amp that I'm not getting already.  
What is "responsiveness"?  For me, I can set any amount of tones and gain on the amp, and I can open out or back off the guitar's volume pot.  And I can dig into the strings or gently play and noodle.  And of course I can turn pedals on and off.  I hear a response with all of these and for me, I don't notice any difference between how the CR120 responds and how either of my two current valve amps respond. 
Is there some style of guitar music which demands "more responsiveness" that I've just kind of missed over the years?

Dude, I'm not a cork sniffer at all. Would love a SS amp if I could get 90% of the way there.

 Haven't so far with the CR120.    I also  prefer the Yamaha THR100 which I've got, which to me reacts exactly like a valve amp, and has a much nicer clean/breakup tone.  

The orange has a good drive channel and a usable clean channel but personally I find it a  bit too clinical for my liking, it lacks the warmth of my other valve amps and the Yamaha.   Can't describe it any better than that.

samzadgan

@ICBM  pretty sure mine is 8 ohm out...and has the older scorpion speaker. Although, at rehearsals I just ran it through an 8ohm 4x12 and it sounded glorious. Mind you the speakers in the cab are a little mid heavy and barky...could be v30's but not sure...either way through better speakers I can only imagine it would even be better.