If you could design your own amp..

DrJazzTap · February 2014

Oooh this has got me thinking, I'd go for a 50w head (which could be scaled back to 25w, 15w and 5w). Clean channel 50% tweed sounding 25% blackface and 25% Vox chimey. Overdrive channel in a vox/marshall vein (leaning more towards Vox 70/30). Adjustable boost for solos which flavours the amp in a kind of dumbleesq squishy blanket for the overdrive channel and a clean boost for the clean channel (mini pots maybe for micro adjustment).
Seperate reverb levels for each channel. Footswitch for reverb, fx loop, boost and tap tempo for the onboard tube tremolo.
All of this wrapped up in an oldschool tweed head.
(oh and this must be no more than 10kg

)

And i thought my ideal amp would be relatively straightforward!

grungebob · February 2014

3 channel slo 20 would be mine but with an active or passive eq option

samzadgan · February 2014

mine would be very simple as i prefer to use pedals...so the amp would be:

Power: 120w, with ability to drop down to 60w and 30w
Overall: 1 channel with a lot of head room, 2 inputs "Normal" and "Bass"
Controls: Volume, Gain, Bass, Mid, Treb, Depth/FAC, Presence
Tubes: 12AX7's and EL34's or KT66's
No effects loop or anything fancy

i think what i am explaining is something between the Matamp GT1 and an old Fender Bassman. As far as looks go...i really like the look of Matamps.

EdGrip · February 2014

Something about the size of a Princeton Reverb, maybe a bit bigger, that I can still put on the passenger seat.

Blackface cleans, reverb, Princeton tremolo. Bit more power than a Princeton - 25Wish. Basically I'm describing a Deluxe Reverb with Princeton trem and control layout. Boring. Might have to look up the Trem-o-Verb.

What I've long wanted to try (or see someone else try) is a DR504, but about 25W. Great big transformers, same kind of vibe, power on tap for the low strings, just... a bit less of it. So you can get the overdriving Hiwatt vibe at a jam session. Also, it would have Fender reverb and trem.

JayGee · February 2014

Tremelo aside you've just come pretty close to describing an Express 5:25... :-)

DamianP · February 2014

I leave it to guys like Steve Crow and Adam Grimm. My electronic/sonic design chops are meagre in comparison.

Gassage · February 2014

I'd want 2 x 12.

I'd want great cleans and attenuation.

The ability to break up sag and compress when pushed.

No FX loop, no bells or whistles.

Looks to die for with ubertweed.

A great tremolo.

Oh wait a min- I have this- the EC Twinolux.

frankus · February 2014

One of these:

but with the props at the side upgraded to these:

ThePrettyDamned · February 2014

Changed my mind - I'll keep it simple.

A 6505+ but with 3 true independent channels.

Fez · March 2014

I have two ways of looking at the so:

1. 50Watt EL34 based clean channel, Crunch Channel, separate Lead channel each with independant tone stack, gain and volume controls, serial effects loop, no reverb, easy biasing.

2. 50watt el34/6l6 based single channel non master volume i.e clean pretty much all the way up. Serial fx loop. Basically a platform for pedals as there are so many drive/distortion pedals out there this would be an amp to capitalise on that.

digitalscream · March 2014

digitalscream said:

Mine would be the (as yet un-made) Jet City JCA50H FLEX. Basically, fully MIDI-controlled preamp (parameters and switching) with all three Soldano channels (Lucky 13 clean, SLO crunch and overdrive), with the effects loop after the master volumes (like the JCA22H, as opposed to the other JC amps where it's before the tone stack).

The only mods I'd make to the stock one - should it ever see the light of day - would be to drop the loop level down to instrument-level, and maybe EL34-ify it.

Having now played a few gigs with my new band, I want to take this back. I already have the perfect amp, and that's my JCA50H. Got all sorts of complimentary comments on my sound last night, and it's almost entirely a consequence of the limitations of the amp; for example, if I had the FLEX version, I'd no doubt go too far with the gain on my rhythm sound and the clean wouldn't end up the slightly-broken clean I get when riding the guitar's volume control.

I'm sticking with what I've got. Which is good, because I've got two of them...

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If you could design your own amp..

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