Dream amp no longer your dream amp?

[hgmcelroy]

Ever discover that your tastes and playing styles have changed enough the your "dream amp" in no longer cutting it for you? I have a Soldano SLO with 4 mods that's a great amp but over the past year or so I've noticed that my playing has changed a bit to where I no longer desire a lot of gain... the overdrive gain is currently set to almost being on at 1! Where I'm playing we don't get to push the volume levels to the point of true SLO tonal bliss. The SLO was great when I was playing metal & hard rock but now I've been listening and playing more blues and classic rock with a little red dirt country thrown in the mix. So, lately I've been thinking of moving the SLO in order to get something else that better fits my needs such as a Mesa Mark V which is more versatile and with the 10/45/90 power watt settings. It's just funny to wake up one day and dicsover that something you've been happy with for so long is no longer your cup of tea!

 

[Standard 64]

Or get a Fender Twin or Super Reverb....

 

[rlord1974]

.....It's just funny to wake up one day and dicsover that something you've been happy with for so long is no longer your cup of tea!

I strongly recommend you do not discuss such things with your significant other!

 

[MadFrank]

Tell me about it! I keep buying, one after the another, these beautiful boutique 'tone-machines' that a vast array of other guitarists would adore, yet I just cannot really fully connect with. Redplate, Bogner, Blackstar Artisan, Vox... But you know, I think that tone in your head is actually a fairly narrow one in retrospect, where it not only sounds right, but feel's right, too.

After all these amp changes I've come to the realisation that I don't (mostly) get on with British amps and speakers. It's just the way my ears and fingers work. This is some sacrelidge coming from not only an Englishman, but a Surrey boy at that! At 20 I wanted something different from the guitar and didn't really understand what that was either. Now, unfairly hurtling towards 40, I've realised that only a Blackface could make me happy.... with a boatload of cool pedals, of course!

My signifiicant other saw me unpacking yet another new speaker to try out a little while ago. She said " Why can't you just be happy with what you have?". I could have asked her the same question!

 

[Flyin' Brian]

Yep I ditched my Victoria Regal II after a looonnnng honeymoon. If I were to repurchase amp I've had it would be a Carr Rambler and a Dr. Z Carmen Ghia.

 

[Jahn]

i just assumed that i would be a Vox guy. ended up i was a fender guy. like, all kinds of fender guy.

 

[v-verb]

Yep I wanted to like Dumble type amps and I do, but I don't LOVE them. I love Landgraff/Vox/Trainwreck/Marshall type amps.

However if you want to go the Dumble route, I recommend Bludo and Mark Kane. Haven't tried the other Dumble builders like Sebago, Welagen or Quinn amps

Cheers

nigel

 

[Empros]

Thought I'd always want a Fender type amp. Ended up falling in love with Vox amps.

 

[Mattbedrock]

For many years I had been a BFF guy. Not exactly monogamous, but close. A silverface thrown in. But lately, I've been playing the field. Tweeds, Brownfaces and Brit stuff - Marshall's, Orange, Hiwatt. I like the variety and play them all.

Guess I've turned into a gear slut.

 

[Five Horizons]

For years and years I was looking for my dream 2 channel higher wattage amp that did the best that you could ask for on clean and dirty.... the Bogner Shiva was that amp. I had that amp for at least a good 5 years, but found it to be too powerful and compressed for what I like nowadays. I never imagined I'd have sold that amp and as of last week I did.

 

[vivalaking]

This happens every day...the rock and roll version of the great gatsby.

 

[gtraddict]

same here, found I kept going to the same sounds in a modeling amp while playing at home, then while playing with my 4 amps they werent doing it for me so I had to go out and buy the amp that I kept going back to on the modeling unit.

 

[pbmw]

I don't know. I've been in love with JTM 45s for a loooong time
Couldn't imagine it ever going away.
I have other amps around here but the Plexi stays.

 

[HanJolo]

I was recently saddened when I figured out my dream amp for years wasn't really for me. It's funny because my dream amp was the Mark V which is what you're thinking of switching to .

I went away for a job and saved up the money I would've spent on food/rent/etc so I could buy a Mark V when I got home. I copied user settings from the internet, played with 2 different ones in different stores for a total of 3 hours, and I just couldn't fall in love with the distortion channel (the extreme setting especially). The clean and crunch channels are to die for though...damn. Maybe the Mark V B will be for me.

 

[EADGBE]

My dream amp is still my dream amp. My Marshall TSL602. As a matter of fact it sounds better to me now then it did when I first bought it twelve years ago.

 

[BoogieEngineer]

Mine was the Bludodrive. Then I gave up my dream, got my self a Plexi and a Plexi influenced amp and I have never been happier with my tones. "Sometimes dreams have to die" - Alan Harper

 

[django49]

LOVED a Mesa with multi-channels, each voiced just right to play live.

For some reason, switched over to a single channel, no master model....A Mesa Blue Angel with 4 x 10. I set it for relatively light volume, then use a single pedal (Ethos Overdrive) in front of it. Suddenly I have FOUR great sounds----And each of 3 pickup settings (on a Hamer 2 HB guitar) is wonderful....I CANNOT find a bad tone (without REALLY trying).

 

[suparsonic]

Ever discover that your tastes and playing styles have changed enough the your "dream amp" in no longer cutting it for you? I have a Soldano SLO with 4 mods that's a great amp but over the past year or so I've noticed that my playing has changed a bit to where I no longer desire a lot of gain... the overdrive gain is currently set to almost being on at 1! Where I'm playing we don't get to push the volume levels to the point of true SLO tonal bliss. The SLO was great when I was playing metal & hard rock but now I've been listening and playing more blues and classic rock with a little red dirt country thrown in the mix. So, lately I've been thinking of moving the SLO in order to get something else that better fits my needs such as a Mesa Mark V which is more versatile and with the 10/45/90 power watt settings. It's just funny to wake up one day and dicsover that something you've been happy with for so long is no longer your cup of tea!

Our music tastes' mature. Generally the longer you play the less you hide behind overdrive and you look for a more tonefull or complex sound. It's a natural progression. I spend more and more time on the middle single coil, where once I was strictly a Humbucker in the bridge guy. I feel that I don't always need to use gobbs of gain to get power, textere can be more powerfull.

 

[Member 20177]

Our music tastes' mature. Generally the longer you play the less you hide behind overdrive and you look for a more tonefull or complex sound. It's a natural progression. I spend more and more time on the middle single coil, where once I was strictly a Humbucker in the bridge guy. I feel that I don't always need to use gobbs of gain to get power, textere can be more powerfull.

Man that's the truth, at least for me.. I just bought a Mesa Express Plus.. I spend more time on the clean and lighter o.d than I ever used to. Just sold a V3m because while I could get to the lighter tones the emphasis seemed to be on gain with that amp.

 

[GSHARP]

I think the chase is after the DREAM TONE and not the dream amp, to me, at least, it seems to be the case. And taste change along the years.

Today, this very morning, I feel like ditching my amps and get a Fender Bassman with a couple of pedals - not too much - and go from there. I am tired of the gazillion knobs and tweaks, gimme a one channel amp with volume, treble and bass knobs. As I mentioned, that's how I feel today, might be/probably will be different next week. Or tomorrow.

I do not think I am a gear slut, but in a way, I am. And we're a bunch in the same boat. The tone search is fun, but can be really tough.