Amp Purchase Decision is Tough ... Need Your Help

[rockin-ron]

I have been searching for an amp and have scoured these pages. other forums, and Youtube many times over for research and to try to narrow the search. The problem is none of these amps appear to be readily available to try before you buy, and quite frankly I'm a bit gun shy to drop that kind of cash w/o doing so. Such is the dilemma.

What I'm looking for is an amp that has a good/decent clean channel, but a tighter, cruncher, just kick ass gain channel. From a point of comparison I'm playing a Mesa Lonestar Special, and while I'm very happy with the clean channel; the overdrive channel just seems muddy, not tight, just plain missing the sound I'm looking for. I've tried all type of pedals (probably the only ones that help are a Timmy driving an OCD. But still it doesn't have the sound. Think Thin Lizzy "The Boys Are Back in Town" both from a rhythm and lead tone as an example of what I'm looking for.

The amps I'm considering are the Diezel Einstein, Soldano SLO, Suhr OD100, and maybe the Carol Ann OD100 (this might be too Dumble sounding ... I don't know). If you think there are others I shoud consider, please advise.

So I am soliciting the experience and wealth of knowledge from this forum's members. Please make suggestions from your playing experience, point to clips if possible (I may have missed some), and give your expert opinions to help me make this tough decision. Thanks in advance and sorry for the long winded post.

[nullin]

Have you gotten to try a Bogner Shiva? The cleans are excellent and the gain channel is much as you describe. Just delicous, crunchy and balls out rock! It would definitely be on my short list. Wait, it already is!

I share your apprehension about pulling the trigger without playing an amp of that caliber. It's a lot of money and such a personal decision. While there are many clips available, I would suggest checking any amp like that out in person. Are you within road-trip distance to a more major city that would have a few of those amps? You might not find all of them on your list, but the time and gas money is more than worth the first hand knowledge you would gain. Otherwise networking with other musicians in your semi-general area might help. Check out local or not-so-local bands and see if you can find somebody playing something interesting. Somebody within 100 miles probably has one of the amps on your list, no matter where you are (I'm in freakin' Iowa and I know a guy with an Einstein around here). A few friendly emails explaining your situation (and telling them how cool their "brand-X" amp is) might get you able to do a brief demo during a gig setup or practice.

I haven't gotten to play a Suhr or Carol Ann, so I won't comment on those, but I'd take a Shiva over the other two. But hey, that's me. Your opinion is the most important one, but I might suggest checking out a Shiva sometime too.

[ekp]

Dear Rockin-Ron,

Pritchard amps are a dark horse in your race. Like the others, they are not readily found to try. However, I believe that the decision to keep the amp is not made when first trying it, it is made later at a gig or a jam. To meet this, I have a liberal return policy that gives you about three weeks to make up your mind.

So why consider a Pritchard? Pritchard amps have retired some great boutique amps. Both the Sword of Satori and Gold Estock have great clean channels and kick ass gain channels. The Sword is totally vintage concept non-master volume amp. The Estoc is half vintage and half master volume amp.

These amps have some unique features as well:

A Voice Knob for each channel. The Voice Knob lets you select the basic tone for the channel from six tones. The clean channel has mostly clean tones, while the gain channel has mostly dirty tones. The reason is simple, both channels can be clean or dirty.

A Watts Knob does power scaling but in a manner that maintains the warmth, full-body, thick, resilient tones at lower levels. In fact if you are playing clean at a low level, it can be used to increase the amp's embellishment of the guitar tones by turning the Watts down and the Volume up.

A Practice Jack connects an internal speaker attenuator to the speaker. You can use this to play screaming leads at accoustic levels.

An Equalized Direct connects a speaker emulator to the PA or mixer.

An Amp Direct to connect to a slave amplifier that drives an instrument speaker.

And of course, there are both series and parallel effects loops.

The amps come with cabinets of your choice. The choices range from a head to a 4-12 combo.

The cabinets also house a spring reverb for that internal effect.

Have a great day, Eric

[Blix]

I'm sure a Carol-Ann 100w OD2 would do just what you want, everything I hear from it oozes classic rock.

And the "Dumble" sound is more than the Robben Ford tones you most often hear here on TGP, I have a Brown Note D'Lite that does classic rock tones great, even if it's voiced as a "Ford amp" in the first place...

[bad jeans]

The Diezel Einstein is a very nice amp and sounds better than the Lonestar in terms of a tighter gain, and can also be very warm sounding if you EQ it right. If you get a Shiva, the El-34 version has the better drive sounds. I prefer the Lonestar to the 6L6 Shiva.

Haven't played the Pritchard amps, but they do look very interesting. That return policy is fantastic, since he's absolutely right....you never really know until you crank that sucker at a gig.

Of course my all time favorite amp for drive would be a Naylor. If you can, try a duel 60....or a superdrive 60. It has the exact drive sound you are looking for......the only one that is channel switching is the "duel" amp, so the superdrive may not fit the bill.

[Jim S]

Good luck. This thread's answers are bound to confuse you.

And to back that up, I've played a lot of amps that are praised on TGP and thought they were nothing special. Best to trust your own ears.

I know it can be hard to demo amps but just beware yet have fun. Where are you located?

Me, I'm a Soldano SLO lover.

[sled]

Check out the Elmwood M90 or M60.

My M90 has a great switching system, dual masters, very good cleans and a mid crunch to a very thick and rich distortion.

FWIW, here's Jailbreak with the M90 on the left. See sig for other M90 clips.

You mentioned an SLO. That's also a great amp. Again some clips in my Sig.

[Blanket Jackson]

I would recommend that you go to Rudy's or Ultrasound and play a bunch to find your favorite, but since you didn't list your location I dunno if this will help.

There is probably a higher end amp dealer in your area, wherever that is. Only your ears can judge what you need.

[frquent flyer]

The Bogner Duende has the two channels you seek. My friend recently got one and its a great amp. Its clean tone is pure joy to hear. Take a look at the Duende before you buy. You'll be glad you did.

[frquent flyer]

Another good feature about the Bogner is they say its designed to perform on modern production tubes so one would not need to venture into the land of NOS tubes.

[GTRJohnny]

Ron:

The answer also depends on what sort of wattage/coverage you're looking for... home, small club, outdoor without micing, etc. My buddy Jeff was a founder of Budda amps and just left to form his own company East Amps. If you search YouTube, you'll find some demos at recent amp shows. The latest ones show his 18w and 2w models. I think they could get you there, and are both quite loud.

[peterdjp]

Suhr PT 100

Amazing cleans, killer crunch, over the top lead tones. The ability to dial it in from soft and vintage to tight and modern. Great loop. awesome amp.

[cisspcism]

Originally Posted by peterdjp

Suhr PT 100

Amazing cleans, killer crunch, over the top lead tones. The ability to dial it in from soft and vintage to tight and modern. Great loop. awesome amp.

I second the above!!!

[Trebor Renkluaf]

I could be wrong, but I swear there is a popular mod for the Lonestar Special that addresses just your concerns - muddiness on the OD channel. Maybe a Lonestar Special owner will jump in here with that mod.

PS For what it's worth, the other guitar player in worship team has a Lonestar Special and he gets great tone out of it - both clean and dirty.

[enigma]

Why don't you add a Keeley modified Boss Distortion pedal in front of Lonestar Special? I used to great compliments on it.