what was your game changer?

[BlixaFan]

hey guys,

so i was wondering, what was the big change with regards to your amp rig, that changed the game for you completely, and resulted in you either playing more, or otherwise being pleasantly surprised with your improved tone?

I own a 5150iii running through an Orange 2x12, and a Marshall SV20 running through a 1960 Lead 4x12, and I recently, after seeing Tool live, thought i'd run my guitar into both as a sort of "stereo" rig let's say. and HOLY crap, i;ve never heard my guitar sound so good! the blend of the high gain from the 5150iii and the lower/medium gain and clarity from the SV20 is a match made in heaven! when i need a little more gain from the SV, i step on the OCD (volume up, gain down) and get that extra push that sounds glorious

[zhivago]

Without a doubt, the Suhr Rective Load IR and a pair of Genelec monitor speakers.

https://www.suhr.com/electronics/tone-t ... e-load-ir/

I can play at the edge of breakup and push my amp with pedals into any shade of overdrive, at any sound level I like.

Our neighbours love me!

[JamesSGBrown]

Twin Reverb- no other amp eats pedals the way it does, loud enough for any situation, and my back is now damaged beyond repair.

Actual most game-changing bit of music gear though is my Universal Audio Apollo Twin interface. For anyone who records their own music, it's the one bit of gear I'd recommend to everyone (along with an SM57).

[sessylU]

Dunno if there's been one specific thing, but a few:

Gigging regularly with a borrowed Roland Cube instead of my usual amps taught me an awful lot about gainstaging different dirt pedals, but mostly taught me that getting a good, "realistic" tone was far more important than fancy expensive rigs, and that there's a lot of value in a small, predictable, reliable amp that sound people know what to do with. I'm pretty confident now that I could gig with whatever amp I could get my hands on.

That rolling back on the gain or dirt was usually the better way to get a heavy sound, also that mids are where the heavy is at, so don't scoop them.

Finding my dream amp, a Matamp 1224 with a Matamp 412 cab with Celestion G12H75 Creambacks. I got the head second hand and by luck it is pretty much exactly how I would have wanted it spec'd if I'd bought it from the factory. It's quite simply the best amp in the world.

Currently, I basically ignore the first point above and I've gone back to playing with a ridiculous and complicated stereo setup, with the Matamp doing what it does well on one side (big, beefy, softly-blooming tone, loads of mids and bass) and a Jet City 5212 (clone of a Lucky 13, basically a super clean, 50w Bassman) on the other side (clean, jangly, not quite scooped and not quite super bright, but definitely covering a different palette to the Matamp). This was probably a mistake.

[sessylU]

And another one to add, that is only sort of related and is kind of anathema to the gear-loving nature of internet forums, is to solve issues compositionally instead of hoping that some combination of gear will fix it. So, for instance, if your part isn't working or sounds off, work out what's wrong with what you are playing. Do you need to get out of the bassist/keyboardists/whatever's way or go up (or down) an octave? Do you need to be playing full chords here or would tenths work better? Would open/barre chords work better? Is what you're playing actually adding anything to the song or should you drop out/find something else to do? Do you need all those notes?

[Dr Tony Balls]

Understanding that amps generally sound better when you turn them up substantially. This means sizing your amp to your needs (no one really needs a 100 watt amp) and riding the master volume as minimally as possible. At equal volume levels and with equal circuits, a 20 watt amp with less influence from a master volume control will sound better than the same 100 watt amp with more influence from the master volume control. Size your shit to your needs.

[s_mcsleazy]

fane speakers.

[marqueemoon]

So this turned into a long post about my amp journey. TL;DR I like lower power (15-22W), a darker voicing, and some rectifier sag.

My gateway amp was a mid 60’s 12W Vox Cambridge Reverb which I bought in the late 90’s. What I didn’t realize when I first bought it was the aftermarket 10” installed didn’t really suit it. Fortunately I kept this amp, but it was *just* not quite loud enough for gigging with a 4 piece band. More on this later.

Having used a Bassman for many years I knew I was on to something by dropping the power. The Bassman was simply too loud to get in the sweet spot for the kind of gigging volumes I was going for.

My next amp was a Dr. Carmen Ghia head, which was *plenty* loud, but very stiff sounding and bright. It was completely intolerant of any slop. This amp taught me to play more cleanly, but I eventually got tired of its taskmaster nature.

By this time I had formed a 3 piece and decided to experiment in dropping the wattage even more and bought a VHT Special 6 head (6W 6V6). It was actually loud enough, but got too mushy and harsh at typical band volumes. The major light bulb moment with this amp though was for the first time I bought a speaker tailored to the sound I was looking for. I ordered an open back 1x12 and put a WGS G12C/S. This gave me a noticeable bump in volume and really helped smooth out the shrill top end.

Ultimately I decided I was tired of the Carmen Ghia’s demanding nature and that I needed something with a bit more headroom than the Special 6. After a bit of research I found myself drawn to the Filmosound thing, and specifically the At Mars Specialist.

So… I took a risk and just bought one (used) on
Reverb. This is the amp that was the true game changer for me. Princeton-like power, but with an aggressive edge.

Then I joined a new band which is a more regular gigging thing. I wanted reverb and tremolo and a little more polite sound
I could dirty up with pedals in a portable package. Enter the Swart AST. Since I was now confident in my love of more modest power I finally said goodbye to the Bassman to pay for it.

The Swart and the At Mars are my two go-to amps. They’re similar in a lot of ways (both dual 6V6, no master, and a single tone control), but different enough to have their own voices. Both sound incredible miced.

And the Cambridge Reverb that started it all? Well earlier this year my family pitched in on a gift certificate for a local music store and I used that to buy a Celestion Gold for it to bring out the mids, minimize the boom, and smooth out the top end. Now this amp *does* have enough enough volume and cut to gig with, at least in certain situations, and is back in the rotation!

[MattK]

When I was a kid in Tasmania the only amps anyone had were "loudness boxes", cheap solid state junk that sounded like crap if you cranked them. Other than seeing big-name bands live, I never experienced a tube amp at all, not even in stores where I was too intimidated to try anything out. I stopped playing in my 20s and left it aside for 15 years. Flash forward to visiting San Diego in the 2000s for work, I had got back into guitar a little and went shopping for used bargains, the store offered me a Princeton Reverb to try things with and oh my god, that's the thing I have been missing. Ironically I mostly play through a little Vox ss Pathfinder 15R at home now, but I have a nice Peavey Classic 30 clone and I understand the amp is half the instrument now.

[i love sharin foo]

Understanding that amps generally sound better when you turn them up substantially. This means sizing your amp to your needs (no one really needs a 100 watt amp) and riding the master volume as minimally as possible. At equal volume levels and with equal circuits, a 20 watt amp with less influence from a master volume control will sound better than the same 100 watt amp with more influence from the master volume control. Size your shit to your needs.

You have good advice and I’m certainly not saying that you are wrong. I, in general, agree with you. BUT the biggest revelation to me was a bass heavy amp with multiple speaker cabs moving a lot of air, regarding low end response. Down tuned, with dirt boxes tuned for max low end output, anything other than a cranked up, high wattage amp with a solid supply of speaker surface area, just doesn’t sound good enough. My favorite amps are 4-6 watts, but there’s a place for a high watt rig. I use a pair of 120 watters for that

[OffYourFace]

My first Marshall. It was a '77 2204. I wish I kept it but I had to try other things and didn't have the money and space to keep everything.

Up until that time I had only used Fenders. The quicker response, the dynamic feel, the bigger midrange and the tighter bass was what I was missing in my life.

[redchapterjubilee]

When I bought my Mesa Mark I rig a dozen years ago after years of cheap solid state and value 90s Crate and Fender tube amps. I cheat outrageously on it these days with tweed and silver panel Fenders (esp. for recording) but often come back to it because I know exactly how to get out of it what I want in different spaces.

Second place would be the Suhr RLIR. Took the guesswork and the antagonism out of recording at home.

[Fiddy]

The first time i played a Twin Reverb i was like Wooooh!

All that air being pushed, and all that sparkle.

[stevejamsecono]

Amp gain.

I'm currently back to using pedals for the sake of convenience, but amp gain basically unlocked all the sounds I really wanted and I still intend to use it on recordings at the very least for the foreseeable future.

[Chippertheripper]

Plugging into an orange the first time was a total revelation. Something about the way the drive is more square wavey than anything else really satisfies.
That, and a real 6g15 outboard reverb were complete aha moments.