Buying a new amp head

[Bg]

Heavy Metal bedroom player? Just wait for a Marshall Mode 4 stack to come back on again for 600 bucks, I pity the guys who originally bought into the hype, might as well have bought a Lada or an Edsel.

[thehenderson]

Off topic metal bashing

[badmotor]

No, I think it's Mode 4 bashing. That's OK.

[Bg]

No, I think it's Mode 4 bashing. That's OK.

Quite right... they were perceived as the ultimate metal amp. Everyone rushed out and bought one, then there was a glut on tardme for the very nearly new price... oops.

Steer clear of all JCM800's on tardeme they do shit metal. And the next one is mine, so they only do blues eh

[thehenderson]

Ignore the man behind the curtain

[danrawkz]

And how are the JCM 900's?

No one really answered my question regarding them

[thehenderson]

JCM 900s are buzzier versions of the 800s. They're not as popular for that reason. 800s are great for metal, they're a real staple metal amp, you just use an overdrive in front of them, sound great. Wouldn't go near a 900 though

[alanp]

I know that Kerry King uses JCM800's (his signature amp is based on one). ACDC (arguably not metal, rather rock) use Plexi heads, still Marshalls.

Dethklok (a cartoon band, wohoo) use Krank amps.

Dimebag from Pantera used Randall SS amps, from memory.

[rickenbackerkid]

Honestly dude, the bugera is not a good idea. I've seen some shocking build quality on Behringer stuff. For $1200 you want something relaible, that's a lot of money. I recomend a second hand 5150 or a JCM800 with a RAT in front.

[hamo]

find a nice old Gunn/Holden/Jansen for a quarter the cost a chuck a Metal Muff in front

Yeah maybe, I'm still not convinced the Metal muff has the tone I'm searching for though.

You got a problem with face melting?

[Aquila Rossa]

No,

JCM 900 SLX is an awesome amp. It was Marshalls answer to all the hotrodded jcm800s out there and to the Laney ProTube, Soldano and 5150 that were considered to be hotrodded jcm800s type amps by many folk.
It's worth considering that most metal guitarists had mods done to their JCM 800 to get them to kick ass, with the SLX you get that straight out of the box.
The JCM900SLX has an extra preamp tube and gain stage and is all tube signal. They kick ass!!
I have played hundreds of hours on one, Awesome amp!

The JCM 900 high gain dual reverbs on the other hand are not well liked amps (very different to a SLX) and have the nortorious diode (solid state) extra distortion built into them. Even though I'm pretty sure that the Silver Jube series that Slash uses has diodes too.

If you can get a JCM 900SLX for cheap in good nic, buy it and if you are not happy with it, sell it to me!

[The Scarecrow]

Honestly dude, the bugera is not a good idea. I've seen some shocking build quality on Behringer stuff. For $1200 you want something relaible, that's a lot of money. I recomend a second hand 5150 or a JCM800 with a RAT in front.

Tend to agree. I have played on some of the Bugera stuff and it's well-intentioned but IMO sounded pretty generic sounding.

For the price you're talking, if you're buying new, the Valveking is a good option. I'd probably suggest keeping an eye out for a cheap Mesa Single Recto - they crop up a bit on TM priced under $1500 in a lot of cases and are more diverse than their Dual counterparts I've found . Plenty'o USEFUL gain.

I'd also vote for the SLX JCM 900 as well, but they're less common. I had a JCM 900 Dual Reverb and it sucked balls.

[Aquila Rossa]

I havn't tried the singe rect mesa, but if you can get one cheap, it would be well good.

What is all this rectifier sheit anyway, single, dual and now triple?
Is more rectifiers better?
I'm still waiting for Mesa to release the ... wait for it...Quadruple Rectifier.. it must be better, 4 rectifiers, and metallica use them. wow mesa!

And what's with the ugly armoured plate steel bit on the front of them?
Is that just the Yanks still trying to prove that they can build better tanks than the Brits?

[The Scarecrow]

I havn't tried the singe rect mesa, but if you can get one cheap, it would be well good.

What is all this rectifier sheit anyway, single, dual and now triple?
Is more rectifiers better?
I'm still waiting for Mesa to release the ... wait for it...Quadruple Rectifier.. it must be better, 4 rectifiers, and metallica use them. wow mesa!

And what's with the ugly armoured plate steel bit on the front of them?
Is that just the Yanks still trying to prove that they can build better tanks than the Brits?

It's kind of a very cliched look now, on the Rectos.

I've owned a Single and at the time, the other guy in the band I was in had a Dual. All the band agreed that whilst he was a better player, my amp had better tone. It was less mushy sounding and punchier. I had it retubed with EL34's though, so it sounded a lot more like my Rivera's if i'm being honest.

[the_haunted]

What is all this rectifier sheit anyway, single, dual and now triple?
Is more rectifiers better?
I'm still waiting for Mesa to release the ... wait for it...Quadruple Rectifier.. it must be better, 4 rectifiers, and metallica use them. wow mesa!

The Rectifier tube converts the High voltage AC to DC, and the more power you draw from the High Voltage line the more rectifier tubes you need to run in parallel.
Single Rectifier (tube) = 50W output stage
Dual Rectifier (tube) = 100W output stage
Triple Rectifier (tube) = 150W output stage