SO I thought I'd just see what sort of guitar amps people on this board play and what they think of them.

At the moment I'm lookin to make my first investment into a good sounding amp (got a crappy Randall quad at the moment), and am leaning towards a Hughes and Kettner Trilogy as it seems to pretty well rounded for the price... Any other suggestions? I tried some Marshalls but they severely lacked the balls required and I tried an Engl (cant remember which one) and it definitely had a bit of tone.

Marshall lacking balls? Which model were you playing? Marshalls are what I'd recommend actually, so I guess I can't help you there. Personally I use a weird, hacked-together setup involving two shitty half-broken practice amps hooked together with a spare patch cord-- Neither amps sound good at all on their own, but hooked together they somehow produce the tone I've been using for ages. So yeah, I'm probably not the best guy to answer, haha.

What sort of music are you playing? That'll help a lot in knowing what you want. Also, do you want a combo, or a head and cabinet? Oh, and is this for live use, or just home and jamming?

BUt in general terms....

If you find the Marshalls lacking balls, and I assume this means they don't have enough gain for you, or are lacking a very focussed bottom end, then you'll probably be looking at the wilder end of the amp market....ie Dizels, Engl's, Mesa Boogie rectifier series, a Bogner Shiva, Peavey 5150, or even a Carvin Legacy, etc. The Engle PowerBall i played was very good indeed.

If tubes aren't necessary, the Line 6 Vetta series seems to be getting better all the time. Plenty of bit names are using these amps....and increasingly so. They're incredibly loud and you could spend years finding all the sounds in them

The H&K's are good, especially the TriAmp series.

Or alternatively, you could get a less firebreathing amp, and use a pedal to push you into real high gain territroy. Ie, the new Traynor series are well made, very affordable, and very versatile.....add a a disrtortion or OD pedal of your choice to give it a bit more bite.

Let me know if you want specific advice. Finally, if you're not playing Wenbley Stadium, for gods sake, don't get caught up in buying an enormously powered amp. I've never been able to understand this. Even in small clubs I've seen guys wheel in 2 4x12" cabs and a head....then have to turn the volume so that it's less than 1. And I've had students buy 100W combos cause the salesmen told them they need the 'clean headroom'. God help me. There is no need for enormous amps outisde of huge places and the studio. Why?

1. You'll kill yourself trying to move them after about a week.
2. Tube amps sound better pushed hard....and if you push a 100w tube amp into a cabinet really hard you'll kill anyone standing within 20' of the speakers.
3. If you need the sort of volumes a big amp and cabinet can provide, then you'll be miking and using the PA as well. If you tried to use the amp alone, the people in the back row might find it OK, but the people in the front will be getting slayed.
4. lotsa other good reasons.

SO yeah, heads and cabinets and high wattage is great sometimes.....but those times are less than what people might think.

I've done medium size gigs, ie 500 people, with a 30W Laney tube amp, that was miked and run into the PA. It was plenty big and loud enough for that. (of course, it didn't have the tight bottom end and 'thump' of a cabinet, but it was still great).

[djskrimp]

Mesa Boogie Subway Blues
Line 6 AxSys
Line 6 Spyder
Fender Princeton


Alas, I sold them when I got married, as work was a lot more hectic and I wasn't spending enough time with the family. I should have just boxed them up and saved them.

Those Princetons are good units for that Fender blues sound. I had one a few years back. Not all that popular, but with a bit of attention, they become awesome units (for clean and bluesy sound....not the best for high gain stuff though)

I made a few mods to mine to chamge the cleans from A Silver-face Twin tone to a BlackFace Twin tone (I had the master volumes removed and the components and signal path restored to Blackface specs....gets rid of that glassy shrillness that hurts your ears...still leaves it wiht that nice chimey Fender sound though)

I put in some Sovtek 6L6GC tubes in and they sounded great. I also put in a Jensen speaker (If I remember correctly).

By the time I'd finished with it, all you needed was a Strat, a TS9, and you were in SRV heaven.


....And naturally I sold it lol.

Engl Powerball with Engl Vintage 2x12" (the same cab is now called Engl Pro 2x12").

It's a nice amp for recording and playing with my bands The gain stage is maybe a little too gainy for my taste (the basic sound), but short of a Mesa (their prices are r-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s here) otherwise it sounds excellent.

Dual Rectifier head costs 2666 euros (about 3550 USD) and Triple Rectifier head costs 2700 euros (about 3600 USD).

Mesa Head (some sort of early F50 model methinks)
into a 2x12 Marshall

plus

Marshall Lead 100 Mosfet (solid state)
into another 2x12 Marshall

The Mesa is a fantastic all round amp whereas the solid state Mosfet lacks a lot of punch, so the Mesa is used for the sharper cutting sound while i use the Mosfet to fill out the low end. As the only guitarist in the band i find that using the two amps helps create a bigger, evil-er sound.

[djskrimp]

Mesa Head (some sort of early F50 model methinks)
into a 2x12 Marshall

plus

Marshall Lead 100 Mosfet (solid state)
into another 2x12 Marshall

The Mesa is a fantastic all round amp whereas the solid state Mosfet lacks a lot of punch, so the Mesa is used for the sharper cutting sound while i use the Mosfet to fill out the low end. As the only guitarist in the band i find that using the two amps helps create a bigger, evil-er sound.

Agreed...I would split the Princeton and the Spyder for stereo sound, or I would have the Princeton clean and the Spyder pretty dirty. It seemed to give a little more definition to the chords, and helped bring out the single line stuff.

I'm playing through a B-52 ST-100A Head. Bought it in late 2005. It's not the best amp I've ever played through but it does the job. I'm to the point where I need to get the power tubes replaced and rebiased. It's got 4 6L6 Power Tubes and 6 12ax7 Pre-Amp tubes plus a Rectifier tube. The overdrive is so-so and I usually have to augment it with a Tube Screamer pedal to really help my tone.

This amp will last me until I can afford a Mesa Recto-Preamp and Power Amp combination.

I swear by hughes&kettner i use the zenamp head with two angled 4x12" cabs and it can do absolutly anything.

I've played & owned practically all of them. I currently use a Splawn Pro Mod head with the occassional gp100 mixed into to ad some ambiance.
-Brent

http://www.splawnguitars.com

I'm using an old 1980's Randall rg100es, the same model Dimebag used on Cowboys From Hell. It's a killer amp with a boost pedal infront, really tight grindy, very metal.

I've also got a peavey vtm60 tube amp. It's also nice, but i don't use it as much as the Randall.

ENGL fo lyfe yo!

I play a powerball with a vintage 4*12 cab. I tried every amp under the sun before i bought my powerball. The powerball rocked everythings hairy anus

I play the following:

Mesa Rack Dual Rectifier - early 90's model
Fender Prosonic combo (out mesa's the Mesa)
'62 Fender Bassman head (original but recapped)
Fender Blues Jr
Epiphone Valve junior

an old and rather small marshall head with whatever speaker is available. has never let me down. small enough to be transportable and not kill everyone when the sound is good, but strong enough to sound metal.

for practicing, i use a 30 watt fender amp, and that one has the sound i love the most but i've not had the balls to use it live, yet