The modern amp

[Tachy]

Hey guis, I'm a question...I'm in search of a definitive modern hi gain amp to play death and trash riffs...but I nedd an help, my cuurent equipment is:

Marshall el 34 100+100
Marshall jmp1 with mesa valve
bbe sonic maximizer
Alesis midiverb 4 mutltieffect
Korg dtr 2000 tunner
Marshall 4x12 with celestion gt 75 speakers

guitars?

esp viper 407 ( 7 string )
Jackson dk1 american with emgs ( one the best 6 string guitar in the world )
What do You think about this equipment?

 

[~BURNY~]

Get rid of the bbe, change two (at least) of the gt75 for V30's, put an EI elite gold 12Ax7 in your preamp (v1).

 

[Tachy]

what is ei? electro harmonics? what is the difference between v30 e gt 75?

 

[~BURNY~]

gt75 are harsh and fizzy, V30 are smooth and balanced. Ei isn't the same brand as Eh.
12ax7 elite gold has a modern flavour and a lot of gain.
http://www.tubedepot.com/ei-12at7eg.html

 

[Tachy]

Thank you for the infos,what do you think about jmp1?

 

[~BURNY~]

I think it's good.

 

[Tachy]

What kind of amps do you use actually?

 

[~BURNY~]

A moded JCM900 and a sovtek 4x12 cab.

 

[Tachy]

what kind of metal do you play?

 

[~BURNY~]

Well I played a lot of sweedish like death metal (entombed, At the gates, dismember...) in the past, but now I'm more into punk rock, alternative rock. I still like metal though.
Are you wondering if I know what I'm talking about? Don't worry.

 

[Tachy]

Yes I understand, actually I play trash/death with progressive influencies..
I heve played the guitar in a various group and a lot of kind of metal.
At this moment I like very much nevermore!

 

[Fragle]

quite nice imho. i'm using a similar setup for rehearsals - jmp1 into EL34 100:100 into marshall 1960A/B fullstack loaded with 75w celestions. no complaints whatsoever, except for the weight maybe
i'd say try removing the BBE, and maybe experiment with preamp tubes - just go to your local GC or whatever you have and buy a few tubes. JJ, Electro Harmonix, Sovtek, Svetlana SED are the most popular ones.

but well, isn't the most important question whether you like your rig, or not?
if you're not happy with your sound i'd recommend the peavey 5150, the high gain Framus amps (cobra&dragon), or ENGL. i personally wouldn't recommend the engl powerball for your music (i'm playing the same stuff btw), as it's more of a super brutal death metal amp imho, but you could check out the blackmore or the savage (because chances are you might not like e.g. the savage if you're not into the blackmore and vice versa - very similar amps), or the fireball - for some reason i prefer it over the powerball. a lot actually!

 

[Tachy]

If I remove the bbe, the sound became smal,the bbe give me headroom and modern tone....I'm happy with my corrent equipment but I need a fat and creamy distorted sound.

 

[Fragle]

well, your rack should have plenty of this.
are you sure you like the marshall tone? marshalls tend to be a bit narrower than other amps, i.e. they are much more midrange heavy, almost honky, with a good top end bite.
more modern high gain amps such as mesa boogie or peavey on the other hand spread the sound much more. there's a good amount of lows and highs that makes them less honky, but also tends to fight the other instruments (bass and cymbals mainly) when not properly dialed in. esp. the mesa's have a much less bitey high end, too. sounds like this might suit you better than your marshall rig - or am i misunderstanding you?

 

[~BURNY~]

A cut @300hz or so can also greatly help with Marshall tones.

 

[Razorjack]

If I remove the bbe, the sound became smal,the bbe give me headroom and modern tone....I'm happy with my corrent equipment but I need a fat and creamy distorted sound.

The BBE is just covering for another weak link in your chain, from what I can see that will probably be the speakers in your cab. I only ever loved my JMP-1 when I ran it through a 4x12 with V30's (or a Valvestate 4x12 with crappy rockdriver speakers, go figure!!).

If you HAVE to keep the BBE in the chain don't turn the contour past halfway.

One tip (if you don't already do it), crank your power amp all the way up and use the master volume on the front of the JMP-1 (or the BBE if it's the last thing before the poweramp) to set the volume to where you want it.

 

[Fragle]

"One tip (if you don't already do it), crank your power amp all the way up and use the master volume on the front of the JMP-1 (or the BBE if it's the last thing before the poweramp) to set the volume to where you want it."

+1 just the way i do it, too.
also, set the poweramp to modern voicing.

as for the speakers....razorjack, that's definitely a matter of taste. i've yet to hear a good sound coming out of a v30 loaded guitar, but that's just me. so far the bog standard marshall 1960A (or B) is my favorite cabinet, and i've used lots of different cabs. the oversized mesa rectifier cab came close, but there still was the piercing high midrange that's characteristic for v30s, although the oversize helped some.

 

[J.DavisNJ]

I used a JMP-1 for a while. I liked it a lot, but settings can be tricky, you really have to mess around with it a lot. First of all I'd get rid of that BBE, all it is doing is coloring and robbing your tone. I got tired of the rack thing, it just got too impractical. I'd rather have one really nice tube head. If I was you I would do some research and check out these:

Engl Powerball/Fireball
Engl Blackmore/Savage 120
Mesa Rectifier series (preferably older models, but try any)
Modified Marshall JCM 800s
Splawn Quick Rod/Pro Mod (custom hand built Marshall style heads, REALLY nice)
Or an all around simplified setup: a boosted 5150 with a Maxon OD9 or 808. Any of these will work well for the sound you described.

-Joe

 

[tgs]

Modified Marshall JCM 800s

What kind of mod are we talking about? I have recently bought a JCM800 and I think it sounds really cool, especially in combination with the TS-9 so I'm already very satisfied with it. Would of course be cool though if it can be made to sound even better.

 

[J.DavisNJ]

What kind of mod are we talking about? I have recently bought a JCM800 and I think it sounds really cool, especially in combination with the TS-9 so I'm already very satisfied with it. Would of course be cool though if it can be made to sound even better.

Which model do you have man?? 2203, 2204, 2205, 2210??? There are plenty of mods available for them. The most common is adding another gain stage for the 2203/2204, but if you have either of the channel switching models (2205/2210) it might just need a good tweaking to sound great. Check out www.voodooamps.com or www.fjamods.com both do great work. Or check out www.harmonycentral.com , both dudes post there. Trace's username is Voodoo Amps and Jerry's username is JerryP.

-Joe