Help me with some R+D here...

[Ed DeGenaro]

We're talking about the next head we're making.
Here's what we're split between.
Either a 100 watt clean amp, Dual Showman/Steel String Singer type thing with verb and trem.
Or a channel switcher with the Dual Showman side, and a crunch side. Also reverb and trem. No shared eq of course.

Price point would bee around 2600 for the clean 2900 for the channel switcher.
Any thoughts?

 

[TaronKeim]

Seperate EQ with channel switching would DEFINATELY be something I'd want to see from THD... especially with a full size head box Finally convince Andy to make you an SSS Ed? Whatever you end up going with though, I'll definately be trying one out.

-TJK

 

[big hair]

not sure about those amps Ed, but I WISH WISH WISH you guys would make a footswitchable two channel hotplate....wish wish wish

 

[dave s]

I'll echo the sentiments of the previous poster. For $2500+ a channel changer amp had BETTER have seperate EQ sections.

If you don't, you're sacrificing one channel or the other.

For my money, my next amp is going to be the best single channel amp I can afford.

dave

 

[Blueser]

Ed,

IMO, the single channel thing has been done to death. You have at least three in your lineup already!

Go with the switcher!

B

 

[Myron Stratis]

Chanel switcher please....

 

[Rock Fella]

you did ask

id say neither.

for me , id love to see a THD EL84 based amp, one thats 35 FULLY USABLE watts , an amp the user actually can turn up into the 7-10 range without attenuation and hear the bloodcurling sound of his amp driven into a frenzy.

not all of us are big arena players thus more of us in my opinion dont need 100 watts. I think manufacturers should think more closely about smaller club players, there are lots of us out there. I bought my Hellcat because I can drive to the max, sustain for weeks and not be playing a behemoth amp head at no more than 4 on the master because the barowner is holding his ears gesturing to turn it down.

so in my opinion , a THD EL84 head, single channel and capable of high gain would be the amp id like to see you build , if i want clean, i can turn the gtr vol control down. plain, simple and with the emphasis on tone.

no bells and whistles, a fx loop is a must and as it would be mainly for rock and blues, no need to get concerned over reverb. no presence control neither. amp should be overbuilt , transistors able to take full vol playing with ease because thats the way its going to be played.

your amp choices in the thread topic arent of interest to me personally , im only suggesting as a smaller venue player, if you built what ive suggested, youd have me drooling all over it dude.

good luck mate

jimmy

 

[Mark C]

If it won't sacrifice anything from the clean side or the verb and trem, I vote channel switcher. Of course, I can't afford to pay for either of them if they go for those prices, but for only an extra $300, I think most people would prefer to have the available crunch channel built in. Can't wait to see what you guys come up with - might make me want to get a real job!

 

[Mark C]

Originally posted by Rock Fella
you did ask

id say neither.

for me , id love to see a THD EL84 based amp, one thats 35 FULLY USABLE watts , an amp the user actually can turn up into the 7-10 range without attenuation and hear the bloodcurling sound of his amp driven into a frenzy.

not all of us are big arena players thus more of us in my opinion dont need 100 watts. I think manufacturers should think more closely about smaller club players, there are lots of us out there. I bought my Hellcat because I can drive to the max, sustain for weeks and not be playing a behemoth amp head at no more than 4 on the master because the barowner is holding his ears gesturing to turn it down.

so in my opinion , a THD EL84 head, single channel and capable of high gain would be the amp id like to see you build , if i want clean, i can turn the gtr vol control down. plain, simple and with the emphasis on tone.

no bells and whistles, a fx loop is a must and as it would be mainly for rock and blues, no need to get concerned over reverb. no presence control neither. amp should be overbuilt , transistors able to take full vol playing with ease because thats the way its going to be played.

your amp choices in the thread topic arent of interest to me personally , im only suggesting as a smaller venue player, if you built what ive suggested, youd have me drooling all over it dude.

good luck mate

jimmy

Plug into a Bivalve. Of course, with two El84's it ain't 30 watts, but it will do it with El34's and give great overdriven tones in spades. Everything they've made at THD excels at overdriven tones at club volumes - I know, I've had a Univalve, Bivalve and currently own a Flexi-50. They're all built like tanks and the Bivalve and Flexi have effects loops - so, it sounds to me like they've already got amps aimed at guys like you.

 

[Shea]

I voted channel switcher, but personally, I couldn't use a channel switcher that only has a clean channel and a crunch channel. My rhythm tone is generally dirty. I need a louder, more cutting tone for leads, and I only use clean tones for about 30 seconds out of my band's whole set.

So, I'd really need 3 channels: clean, crunch, and lead. And my ideal preamp circuit for each channel would be blackface Fender tone for clean, Marshall 2204 tone for crunch, and some sort of hotrodded Fender preamp (ala Dumble, Boogie, or Trainwreck) for lead.

And, to mimic how I use my 2-amp setup, there'd be an option to run the crunch channel and lead channel simultaneously. The crunch channel would cover the upper-midrange territory, whereas the lead channel would have the bass and lower mids covered, plus more cutting highs and more sustain.

Just IMHO.

Shea

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by dave s
I'll echo the sentiments of the previous poster. For $2500+ a channel changer amp had BETTER have seperate EQ sections.

If you don't, you're sacrificing one channel or the other.

For my money, my next amp is going to be the best single channel amp I can afford.

dave

it says in my first post "no shared eq".

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by Rock Fella
you did ask

id say neither.

for me , id love to see a THD EL84 based amp, one thats 35 FULLY USABLE watts , an amp the user actually can turn up into the 7-10 range without attenuation and hear the bloodcurling sound of his amp driven into a frenzy.

not all of us are big arena players thus more of us in my opinion dont need 100 watts. I think manufacturers should think more closely about smaller club players, there are lots of us out there. I bought my Hellcat because I can drive to the max, sustain for weeks and not be playing a behemoth amp head at no more than 4 on the master because the barowner is holding his ears gesturing to turn it down.

so in my opinion , a THD EL84 head, single channel and capable of high gain would be the amp id like to see you build , if i want clean, i can turn the gtr vol control down. plain, simple and with the emphasis on tone.

no bells and whistles, a fx loop is a must and as it would be mainly for rock and blues, no need to get concerned over reverb. no presence control neither. amp should be overbuilt , transistors able to take full vol playing with ease because thats the way its going to be played.

your amp choices in the thread topic arent of interest to me personally , im only suggesting as a smaller venue player, if you built what ive suggested, youd have me drooling all over it dude.

good luck mate

jimmy

have two of those already in the line-up in case you didn't notice.

 

[Rock Fella]

know fekk all about any thd amps other than the flexi, didnt realise you already have the 35 watt amp in yer pocket.

 

[mude]

I would think about a THD Signature model. It would have hand picked circuit boards and the best parts that you could find. Perhaps you could hand sign and number them and charge far more than the prices mentioned.

Sorry.


I would think the $2-3K market for a very powerful single channel clean amp would be very small. I think people often think they want it, but are disappointed after they have them. They often end up sticking a bunch of pedals in front and change the tone anyhow.

Of course, it is crowded in the $2-3.5K high-quality channel switcher market as well (OD100, VHT, Bogner, Guytorn, etc.) and the volume when you get to those price points is probably not huge either.

I always look forward to seeing what THD does next, but I am surprised to see you going to the higher end price points when you have staked out such cool differentiated products in your current price ranges.

Evan.

 

[r9player]

I'd say Channel switcher (also 100W?)
Personally I'll never be buying anything over 50W ... but as someone else said that 100W thing .. there is a ton of em.
As for Clean to Crunch.
It be nice to go Tweed to Marshall or Brit (one or the other I guess) with perhaps an added boost that can get you into Lead or Metal (although there are a lot of great pedals for that of course to take you from crunch to metal)

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by mude
I would think about a THD Signature model. It would have hand picked circuit boards and the best parts that you could find. Perhaps you could hand sign and number them and charge far more than the prices mentioned.

Sorry.


I would think the $2-3K market for a very powerful single channel clean amp would be very small. I think people often think they want it, but are disappointed after they have them. They often end up sticking a bunch of pedals in front and change the tone anyhow.

Of course, it is crowded in the $2-3.5K high-quality channel switcher market as well (OD100, VHT, Bogner, Guytorn, etc.) and the volume when you get to those price points is probably not huge either.

I always look forward to seeing what THD does next, but I am surprised to see you going to the higher end price points when you have staked out such cool differentiated products in your current price ranges.

Evan.

Funnily enough when THD first build amps back in the late 80s the heads started at 2000.

As for single channels and pedals...that's exactly what "I" want. But since I'm not indicative of our customers that's why I'm asking.
As for price/numbers, there is only one amp in the category you mentioned that sells more than by my "200 rule of thumb".

Why do we want to go in this market? Lets look at it this way, i spent enough time with old THD 100 watt prototypes that i really want one. the only way that's gonna happen is if we build 100 watters. And those gonna cost more than our other amps.
So, seeing that there will be an immenent price increas in THD stuff anyways. The 2600 for a 100 watter is not too far out.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

Originally posted by Rock Fella
know fekk all about any thd amps other than the flexi, didnt realise you already have the 35 watt amp in yer pocket.

here ya go Jimmy...
http://thdelectronics.com/products/bivalve.htm

 

[Rock Fella]

stepping backwards

i can see a need fulfilled by the 3 channel argument that players have addressed.

all the soldano slo needs for it to be the perfect amp is a dedicated clean channel.

if it had clean ...drive and drive boost then it would be imo unstoppable.

the clean being a lush chimey channel , the drive channel being the monster lead channel from a slo100 which you can turn the gain down for rhythm duties and the drive boost channel being the same hellacious gain only with selectable level of volume boost for soloing and the 100 watts will give it masses of volume range.

2 seperate eq`s also , one for clean and one for drive / drive boost.

now what ive just described would be very nice indeed for the rock playa imo.

jimmy

 

[Benny]

Not being a rock guy, my needs/wants/desires are somewhat different. For me, a fat, well-voiced clean head would carry the day. If I want a crunchy tone, there are plenty out there to choose from already.

 

[Sam Evans]

I've got it-just make the finest channel switcher ever. Can't be that hard.