went amp shopping today, hehe. here's a quick review.
- randall v2: 3 channel head, clean/SS distortion/tube distortion. the clean channel was pristine, albeit a bit sterile sounding. gave me a jazz chorus vibe. SS distortion was more like a crunch channel, not really usable imho. tube distortion was cool, very tight, good bottom and highs, plus a switchable 6 or 7 band eq which makes the amp pretty versatile. overall it still had that SS sterile vibe...
- marshall JVM 410....noise! very noisy on the gain channels, even more so than the 5150. similar gain levels available too. the first clean channel was only really clean at the lowest gain setting, consequently there are a lot of different crunch/highgain tones to be found here. good sounding reverb btw. overall a cool amp, but not quite my cup of tea.
- brunetti 059....great amp! the second channel has just about enough gain for metal rhythm. the string separation and clarity was superb. the clean channel was awesome. downsides are the strangely voiced low end and the lack of presence control on the el84 power section. i'd say it's an awesome hard rock amp, that can also do metal just fine, just not the heaviest of metal (which is what i'm playing...)
- engl steve morse. now we're talking. GREAT amp. too much to cover here, it's really cool. the only downside is a slightly loose/sluggish bottom end, otherwise it's perfect.
- engl fireball 100....similar to the steve morse, but tighter and more aggressive. in comparison to the 60w fireball the 2 gain controls and footswitchable (low) mid boost as well as the 100w power section are great additions to the 60w concept. it's raw, mean, very tight, and somewhat versatile (although not nearly as much as the steve morse, duh).
guess what i went home with....
btw, clips tomorrow!
- randall v2: 3 channel head, clean/SS distortion/tube distortion. the clean channel was pristine, albeit a bit sterile sounding. gave me a jazz chorus vibe. SS distortion was more like a crunch channel, not really usable imho. tube distortion was cool, very tight, good bottom and highs, plus a switchable 6 or 7 band eq which makes the amp pretty versatile. overall it still had that SS sterile vibe...
- marshall JVM 410....noise! very noisy on the gain channels, even more so than the 5150. similar gain levels available too. the first clean channel was only really clean at the lowest gain setting, consequently there are a lot of different crunch/highgain tones to be found here. good sounding reverb btw. overall a cool amp, but not quite my cup of tea.
- brunetti 059....great amp! the second channel has just about enough gain for metal rhythm. the string separation and clarity was superb. the clean channel was awesome. downsides are the strangely voiced low end and the lack of presence control on the el84 power section. i'd say it's an awesome hard rock amp, that can also do metal just fine, just not the heaviest of metal (which is what i'm playing...)
- engl steve morse. now we're talking. GREAT amp. too much to cover here, it's really cool. the only downside is a slightly loose/sluggish bottom end, otherwise it's perfect.
- engl fireball 100....similar to the steve morse, but tighter and more aggressive. in comparison to the 60w fireball the 2 gain controls and footswitchable (low) mid boost as well as the 100w power section are great additions to the 60w concept. it's raw, mean, very tight, and somewhat versatile (although not nearly as much as the steve morse, duh).
guess what i went home with....
btw, clips tomorrow!
fireball 100 is my new weapon of choice.
