Hi All
Hope you can help me
I have tried loads and loads of big tube amps that I love but I now want something that has tubes to go in front room that has multi Channels and built in reverb, I don't want to use any pedals as I hate leads all over the place.
I want to play clean all the way through to metal
I don't really want to have to mess about with biasing when I change tubes or have to go to the trouble of taking amp to a tech to get serviced and wait for a month with no amp so that prob leaves me with something with EL84s
Before I just cave and buy a Powered Kemper + FS does anyone have an idea of something that will fulfill my admittedly long list of demands
Budget - up to what the kemper rig would cost so about £2k I guess
Thanks
A
Comments
Kemper and decent studio monitors sounds like it might be the way for you.
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Admittedly I've never tried a Kemper but the AX8, although awesome was too complex for me plus I couldnt quite get the amp in the room sound I liked through it.
I have heard reports that it doesn't sound as loud as a 100W valve amp in a gig situation, which I don't doubt, but I'd guess it would probably be enough given that I usually play at around the volume of a 15W amp.
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When compared side by side the Express sounds less refined with a hard to control low end boom on the clean channel, the Mark V feels, looks and sounds higher quality of build, for example the graphic EQ sliders are much higher quality on the Mark than the Express where they can be a little loose and sloppy in thier movement.
The drive sounds on channel 2 sound better on the Mark than on the Express, despite it's name the Xtreme mode can get some great lower gain tones that can be dialled in to work really well with the clean channel, it can be set to sound just like you switched on a mild overdrive pedal when switching from channel 1 to 2. Walter Trout used this mode for his snarly blues tones.
However, the Express has some features that the Mark doesn't such as footswitchable reverb and seperate jack sockets for all the footswich functions so they can be controlled from a floor device like a Helix if you want to.
The Mark has the cab clone for direct recording or connecting to a PA (never tried it though) and a headphones out.
Of the two I would recommend the Mark V 25 or 35 over the Express which is now discontinued anyway. One thing I like about the 35 over the 25 is the solo boosts on each channel and the larger footswitch with more options.
Dialling in the Boogie needs a different approach that some other amps as well, rather than startIng with controls at noon and tweaking from there, I start with all controls at zero, the work up from there starting with the treble, sometimes I can end up with all tone settings below noon. Also, keep the gain control under check if the master volume is low as things can get too stuffy and compressed sounding until the master gets opened up.
Great amps which reward some time and effort dialling in and can get a very wide range of tones, the crunch mode does a good Marshall flavour overdrive as well.
Or a Helix.
Or an Axe FX 2/3.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
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