Oct
31
I’m a gain freak.what’s the best tube head in the 500-1000$ range? Or should I shell out more $?
Filed Under Blues
I’ve got a mesa single rectifier and it doesn’t cut it for me. Flubby low end, no sizzling distortion, mid heavy moderate rock tone is what this is all about.
I’m into the sounds of Unearth, Killswitch, All That Remains, Glassjaw, Pantera, Zakk Wylde…really ripping stuff. What head should I shoot for? Any ideas where to continue my search? I don’t want to spend a massive amount of cash, as the 2000 dollar heads most of the metalcore bands play just don’t seem to be worth it.
What are the secrets (besides excellent studio enhancements) to getting that heavy heart pounding chuggy sound?
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3 Responses to “I’m a gain freak.what’s the best tube head in the 500-1000$ range? Or should I shell out more $?”
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Why dont you just use a pre-amp? There are some rocking pre-amps that will boost your gain and they are relatively cheap.
Try going for a used head/amp on eBay. Check out a bunch of them, and do your research on reviews at HarmonyCentral.com.
It sounds like you might need new tubes in your amp, and that would improve the tone and response of your amp – bad tubes will make a great tube amp sound bad. It might not be the gain structure, it might be the tubes you are using (and it might be the speakers you are using too – in your case I recommend ceramics as they are more metal in nature as far as music styles go). If you can substitute tubes with greater gain, you might get the crunch/overdrive you are looking for. For example: the 6V6 power tubes don’t have as much gain as a 6L6 power tube. Getting the sound you really want is often a very personal matter, so you will probably have to do some comparison shopping before finally deciding on what to get. Then look for a good quality used one of the same thing (if you are looking at new ones in the store), because sometimes you can get $2,000 amps for $1,000 if you are lucky. They might not be in perfect condition, but as long as they give you the sound you are looking for, go for it. Some guys like Soldano, some like Carr, some like Blankenship… it really depends on what you like as it is your ears that you aim to please. I recommend you do a re-tubing of your amp first and see if that doesn’t make a difference – it could save you a bundle. Be sure to also get it biased correctly – if you don’t know how to do this take it to someone who does as doing it wrong can get you electrocuted!
For the stuff that you listen to and play, I would check out Peavey. I know Killswitch used to use a lot of Soldano but they’ve recorded a few things with the 5150. Dimebag played Krank at the end but that’s out of your price range. I think Unearth and All That Remains plays Peavey but I could be mistaken. If you need two channels, check out the 6505 or the 6505+. I don’t like the cosmetics of the Triple XXX but it’s a great amp. Chris Amott from Arch Enemy plays the JSX. The three channel Peaveys are all over $1000, but you can get the 6505 series new for under $1000.