Need some advices!! Guitar amplifier purchase

[tjphoenix]

Hi all,

After 10 years of hard playing, my marshall MG10 has finally died on me.

Throughout the 10 years, I have gotten some good guitars and effects (Ibanez jem 7v, fender american deluxe strat, boss GT-10), and guitar amp is the one thing I never upgraded.

Now given that the amp has died,I figured it's time to get a new set-up, and I have the following questions. Any advices on these would be greatly appreciated!!

Personally I am a simplistic person who does not want to spend much time tweaking knobs or changing connections. All I want is a good sound from the most basic set-up, and I can just pick up my guitar and play, and use my techniques to compensate any tone variety.

I have currently laid my eyes on Mesa Boogie Mini Rectifier and Mark V 25, but a bit uncertain cos I'm staying in HDB and fear that they might be too loud for room use. I tried Marshall SL5, it's a great amp and cost less than mesa, but I just felt that there is something lacking in the tone from my perspective.

Should I just get a monitor speaker and stick to my GT-10? or should I get a good amp, and discard the multieffects? Since I really do not want to get too caught up with all the cables and mess in between a guitar and amp.

I do a wide variety of music, including Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Dream Theater, classic rock such as Guns n Roses, Randy Rhoads, and jazz & blues, funky stuff as well. I also want to use the amp for home recording.

Thanks

 

[LadyInTears]

ever thought about going the fractal, kemper or bias route?

 

[tjphoenix]

Hi， I thought of those, but I just fear that it will make the set up more complicated. As I want to have a simple but nice set up.

 

[subversion]

In your opinion, what makes a good amp?

 

[fade2b14ck]

I was gassing so much for the mini rec. but at 25 watts i would think it would be impossible to get a good sound at bedroom volume. For most valve amps you really need to crank up the volume knob to get the valves working for a good sound.

I'm using a HT5, even at 5 watts my volume is never past 10oclock. My advice is to look at something 5 watts or lower.

 

[tjphoenix]

I would just think a good amp would be one where at the turn of knob I can get the tones I want, which are basically a clean, overdrive and a distortion, of course a little reverb would be nice too.

- - - Updated - - -

I was gassing so much for the mini rec. but at 25 watts i would think it would be impossible to get a good sound at bedroom volume. For most valve amps you really need to crank up the volume knob to get the valves working for a good sound.

I'm using a HT5, even at 5 watts my volume is never past 10oclock. My advice is to look at something 5 watts or lower.

I was having the same thought, but the mesa tone was so nice, that's what made me still think about it!

 

[bobby182]

Hmm, if you want a mesa tone without having to blow 1,500 on a mesa mini rectifier (honestly speaking, fuck the mini rectifier, get either a Dual or a Triple if youre serious about tone), you can always look at getting the Mesa Throttle Box. Its fantastic, affordable, and sounds great without blowing the bank. When used with a Marshall JCM, it blows the roof off. i use one, and its great.

You seem to have pretty alright gear, why not consider an affordable tube amp head? Orange Tiny Terror is a good choice. Marshall makes pretty good amp heads too, the DSL 15H or 40H are good options. Youll just need to top up a bit to get a good matching cabinet.

Otherwise, you can also consider getting some good combo amps, like a used Marshall AVT or a Peavey Rage series or smth.

 

[Godspeed64]

Hmm, if you want a mesa tone without having to blow 1,500 on a mesa mini rectifier (honestly speaking, fuck the mini rectifier, get either a Dual or a Triple if youre serious about tone), you can always look at getting the Mesa Throttle Box. Its fantastic, affordable, and sounds great without blowing the bank. When used with a Marshall JCM, it blows the roof off. i use one, and its great.

You seem to have pretty alright gear, why not consider an affordable tube amp head? Orange Tiny Terror is a good choice. Marshall makes pretty good amp heads too, the DSL 15H or 40H are good options. Youll just need to top up a bit to get a good matching cabinet.

Otherwise, you can also consider getting some good combo amps, like a used Marshall AVT or a Peavey Rage series or smth.

How can you recommend a 100W amp, a 40W amp, a 15W amp, a hybrid amp, and a solid state, in the same breath?

How can you imply a 25W Mini Rectifier is a wimpy option that isn't "serious" and recommend a 15W Tiny Terror, or even a Peavey Rage? I know the quality of information you can get on soft has deteriorated over the years but at least don't resort to relentless name-dropping.....

To the OP, invest in an amp; using your MG10 for ten years is ten years too long, it is like using the same set of stock strings for ten years.
If you rely on pedals for distortion, invest in a good, less-coloured clean tone. If you want a channel-switching amp, then you can consider some versatile options like the Laney Ironheart, or the Mini Rectifier as you said.
Personally, I find the rectifier to be too bloated in the mids (I'm a Vox fan), but it could be a solid starting point to achieve similar tones to the ones you aspire to have.

And evident from this thread itself, please take all advice with a pinch of salt, including this one. My suggestion is to try out amps yourself, and then READ up on those amps before you consider buying. Some may suffer reliability issues from manufacturing, noisy reverb, or overheating, or faulty parts, etc.

 

[bobby182]

I guess being a senior member gives one the arrogance to belittle the contributions of other members, even when they're trying their level best to give honest advice based on their own experiences and equipment they've used over the years.

Nevertheless, I wont resort to name calling other users here. Im not uncivilised.

Based on the info that tjpphoenix gave us about his budget (i.e. ability to spend 1,500 or more on a mini rectifier) and his circumstances (hdb bedroom), i offered him all the info that I know about amp heads in that price range, and good ones at that, IRREGARDLESS of whether theyre solid state, hybrids, tubes or whatnot.

If I have done something wrong here, kindly delete my account, and ban me from soft. I'd really rather have no further part in this. Don't bother replying as well, ugly users like you cheese me off.

 

[jeff0603]

Sorry if off topic but why did you survive on a MG10 despite having such wonderful guitars/effects??

 

[fade2b14ck]

If I have done something wrong here, kindly delete my account, and ban me from soft. I'd really rather have no further part in this. Don't bother replying as well, ugly users like you cheese me off.

That's abit over-reacting. I'm sure Godspeed64 didn't mean to diss your advice off but he does have a good point.

You mentioned you understood his circumstances ie hdb bedroom. In the first place, are 40W, 100W full fledged gigging amp heads fully usable in a HDB setting? Chances are you would not be able to get much out of the amps at bedroom volumes.

- - - Updated - - -

To the OP, I would get a good cabinet so I can have to option to switch amp heads about. Given the genres you play, I would prolly recommend one with Celestion v30s in there.

 

[Godsmen]

Agree with ladyintears bro, fractal or kemper would be your best bet.

 

[Godspeed64]

To me, the issue is the bipolar nature of the advice. We must understand that Soft has a very young music community, and musical identity. Hence advice given out freely must be thought out because it is likely that people will heed it.
I personally do not like to post here anymore. Over the years I have discovered the exact tones I would want to achieve, and thus any recommendation I make will contain a slight self-selection personal bias. My opinions would be skewed to my own stances on things as well.

One last thing I can say is that the market for amplifiers in Singapore isn't the most mature. Likely that some options will not be available for testing. What you can do is give a few models a shot, notice the tonal ballpark you intend to get, and ask for advice again once the choices have been narrowed down.

Hope this helps!