Help with a new amp.....

[schismatic]

Hi guys,

I've decided that I want to get myself my first 'proper' amp now that I have a small bit of cash from my birthday! At the moment, I'm making all my tunes through a Toneport using Gearbox. I occasionally use Revalver II as well - like the sound of it so far. However I want to be able to capture some real tones now rather than just using modelled ones. Now I don't really have a large budget and this is likely to be the problem. Ideally I would like to upgrade my amp in bit.........if i could get a head with an output to record through that would be great......my budget is probably about £400-500 though Is there anything that can meet my needs at all? I'm open to all suggestions, so a good tube combo suited to metal would be good as well.

Edit: I want tubes gorgeous-ness if possible!

What you guys reckon?

 

[elmuchoescadawg]

Peavey Valveking? and then you would have some change to get a Mic and an interface

 

[IronApe]

I'd avoid using a recording output from a head, since it wouldn't sound that good (and you'd need a cab anyway, or you'd fry the head). For your budget, go for used.
Combo? Peavey 5150 combo (350-500 US$ on ebay) or an Engl combo.
Head? Peavey 5150 or Ultra Plus (this one is cheaper), or a small Engl head (thunder, screamer, 60w savage) and any 2x12 or 4x12 cab, you can upgrade your cab/speakers later.
Older used Peavey and Engl stuff, if chosen properly, can be quite cheap and sound good.

 

[schismatic]

cool guys cheers. I'm very tempted by a valve king head cause it's only about £250 new over here, then I guess i'd just buy whatever cheap second-hand cab i could find. I can make about £100 smackers selling my old amp hopefully.

 

[deathtotaliban]

.........if i could get a head with an output to record through that would be great......my budget is probably about £400-500 though

Terrible idea, those direct out shits are terrible, the sound completely digital and shitty, no tone at all. I'd recommend looking for a used Peavey 5150 if possible, I believe you can get the head used for around 400 and then buy a cheap cab at first, then just upgrade the speakers eventually. I know nothing about those valveking's, so can't help there. But def. get the idea of direct recording out of your head, bad idea.

 

[schismatic]

ok cool thanks for the heads up on that one, i was a bit unsure whether it was possible, i know some people do and use cab impulses. my budget isn't great maybe more like £400 max, so i have been looking at the valveking 100w head very seriously as it is only £250 and has had very very good reviews for what it does at that price. i just want something that can give me a non-digitalised warm, real metal tone that you can't get from a modeller really, be it a head/cab job or a decent combo. how much realistically do you think i could get a cheap cab for? i don't really need a 4x12 if i'm just micing it up do i?

 

[Pman]

kinda OT here
i dont intend to hijack the thread but does anyone know where one could get a cheap 5150 in the uk
most prices i see are around £500+ for a second hand head

 

[schismatic]

yeah i'd like to know where i can get cheaper stuff, even ebay is a bit inflated and at the moment it's looking cheaper to import from the USA can you believe!

 

[schismatic]

does anybody know what crate amps are like for metal? max cavalera uses them i believe.

 

[deathtotaliban]

crate has nothing in your price range (or any for that matter) that really soudns awesome, also exactly if you are going to be micing up the cab then you wouldn't need a 4x12 you could just get a 2x12.

 

[Pman]

crate has nothing in your price range (or any for that matter) that really soudns awesome, also exactly if you are going to be micing up the cab then you wouldn't need a 4x12 you could just get a 2x12.

my guitarist got this for christmas after we agreed on getting a valve king combo
http://www.soundcontrol.co.uk/mod_1....1/pages/index.php?sku=1.1.1.3.1.2-109-18-111
and the corresponding cab thats on the bottom left of the page
and i can honestly say, it was the biggest waste of money ever
it is a horrrrrible solid state sound, and the cab completely lacks all middle
its impossible to get a good sound out of there

 

[schismatic]

well there really isn't a lot of decent used stuff around, i can't really find anything much at the amount affordable apart from that valve king combo........if you had £350-400 to spend on an amp setup that you wouldn't be gigging with but just wanted a sweet metal tone out of, what would you go with?

 

[Pman]

i would personally go for the valve king dude
£500 unfortunately isnt enough to get a 5150 around the UK it seems

 

[schismatic]

cool i shall check it out. i've also been wondering about another alternative. i use a toneport with gearbox for my tones at the moment, and for recording purposes alone, could i potentially improve my sound by throwing a nice tube preamp in front of toneport and minimally using the amp models on there alongside impulse cabs. i feel i've already got an ok sound using impulses and amp sims (when i say good, i mean good considering its a sim!). would this work?

 

[Pman]

due to the fact your using an amp sim, and not a real amp
throwing a tube pre infront of it wont really do much

also referring to this thread in general and my last post, heres a thread i started a while back based on the same problem
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/264970-amp-budget.html

 

[GuitarMaestro]

If you only want to record at first, then get a used 5150 head and record it direct and use a good cab impulse. You can get a really pro recorded sound with this set up. With a great Mesa cab impulse (look on gavins ftp) you will get 90% of the sound of a 5150 + Mesa Cab + SM 57 with great mic placement. You will not have a chance to get close to this quality with a Valveking or other cheaper amp....And you can always sell the 5150 for what you paid for it....Just look for the samples of 5150's recorded with good cab impulses on this forum and you'll hear what I am talking about....

 

[Pman]

but the problem here is budget
a used 5150 goes for around £500-600 on ebay at the moment

 

[deathtotaliban]

then maybe wait a bit and get something that will really be worth your while

 

[schismatic]

well i've ordered a randall rm20b. it's exactly what someone like me needs - customisable modules to choose what tones i want, fully tube amp, outputs for recording, low volume not to annoy neighbours. i chose the recto module which is based directly on the mesa boogie dual rec preamp circuitry.