Favorite Tube Amp for Clean Mag Pickups?

[Nefarius]

Looking forward to a test drive session with a Mesa Boogie Mark V within the next few weeks. I've been searching for my new main amp for a while now especially after I got my Custom and the Mark V might just be the right one. From the clips I've heard it has incredible cleans.

Greetings...
Nef

[Paul Marossy]

quote:Originally posted by bembamboo

eric johnsons lush cleans are incredible.

I agree with you on that one. [8D]

[lucgravely]

quote: I've been searching for my new main amp for a while now especially after I got my Custom and the Mark V might just be the right one. From the clips I've heard it has incredible cleans.

I would love to hear your take on the Mark V. I love my Mark I reissue (great cleans) and I've heard the Mark IIc+ is the holy grail of Mesa tone. Supposedly the Mark V does a good impression of the IIc+.  Anyways, I know you'll enjoy the test run at least!



Luc Gravely
Parker Fly Mojo Single Cut
Parker Fly Deluxe
Mesa/Boogie Mark I
A few pedals...

[BrainWorm]

Hey Nef, I want to hear about the Mark V also.

"Brainverms come crawling and creeping and eat you when you're sleeping."

[Nefarius]

Sure! After all the inspiringly great stuff I've read heard and seen I'm really looking forward to be blown away by the Mark V. I know that's some very high expectations which of course is a dangerous thing. I'll post some comments in case I don't like it. If I do like it I'll end up buying it anyway which would inevitably lead to comments and clips being posted.

Although I still think both my Genz Benz El Diablo 100 and my Engl GigMaster 15 are great amps my taste has changed. With the lively punch of the Deluxe and especially the Custom the El Diablo is pushed into a barky grunty gnarly high-gain-Marshall-on-steroids-mode much too soon, and I pretty much hate Marshally tone (strange I still bought an EL34 based amp). The little GigMaster covers a lot of ground and can do most of the stuff you could wish for. With the small package and the power soak it's perfect for recording. But it's not very well suited for the stage. With only one channel switch and one mid boost it's not versatile enough and it's hard to find a good clean and a good overdrive tone sharing the same EQ and input gain controls.

High hopes for the Mark V having everything I want and more (just like my Custom). Three channels with three different modes each, lots of footswitchable options, 10/45/90W modes... I hope it to be a pleasure both live and for recording use.

Greetings...
Nef

[Goonbash]

late 1964 (think 1965) Fender Bassman AA864 Blackface with RCA blackplate tubes, hand point to point wired circuit thru a mid 1960s 2x12 tank of a cabinet with pristine original  60s Altec 417Bs. She's called 'Liquorice' because she gets heated up it starts to smell like liquorice, probably asbestos glue, haha. Anyway sometimes i use a Samson-era matchless hotbox in front of it, but clicked off, it is definitely not true bypass and adds even more tubey goodness, like a vox ac30 preamp circuit i think. its the only clean sound i have ever found that i like best with ZERO reverb, the cab kind of reverbs most rooms. weighs a ton though.

[Goonbash]

The cabinet came from an 80 yr old woman in Wisconsin who played accordion at state fairs for a few years in the 60s and had the 2x12 Altec 417 cab built by a music store there in the 60s as an extension cab for her Magnatone amp because she was playing a lot of raised, open-back stages, she needed a beefy closed cabinet. And this think is bomber and heavy and awesome, pristine early Altecs preserved perfectly after only several performances over a short time span. And it really does smell like Liquorice when the tubes get all hot. (the head that is)



For the best clean tones for sparkle i actually don't  have the bass channel jumped into the main channel like it shows in the pic. But for great overtones and dynamics jumping the older tweed Bassman circuit we installed in the bass channel livens things
up in a subtle yet significant way.

[bembamboo]

a classic piece, two loud clean 6l6s.  pretty timeless! should last forever.i had  used 2 altecs in a blonde twin amp cab with a back/sans amp, then with a silver face showman or 2 blonde bassmans, after my v-4 stack burned up in a barroom fire in 74.  later put altecs in blonde bassman cab for years. too darn heavy.  from the beginning with fenders, i was always trying to get cranked power tube saturation at a lower volume. then went from a brown vibrolux to a tweed pro-15 to a tweed deluxe.  shoulda stopped there and preserved the deluxe w/ alnico jensen 12.  dumb, dumb, dumb.   

[908ssp]

I think you should understand that all guitar amps played into guitar speakers are altered by the amp and speaker. None are truly "clean". Play a guitar into a board and SS power amp into a PA speaker and you'll hear clean and it is awful. So the question really is how do you like your undistorted sound altered.

I like the sound of four el84 tubes better than the sound of four 6l6 tubes. And played into 2 well used Celestion vintage blues or Scumnico alnico speakers. They soften the attack and add a chime without being as bassey and percussive as the higher wattage from four 6l6 tubes.

The only way you'll know what you like is to try a bunch of different amps. Good luck on your search and it should be fun. Remember there is no right answer.

[bembamboo]

agree on el84s!!

[bembamboo]

well and of course, robert cray...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=yYnxRQdmCFU&feature=endscreen

[ZenSonic]

VHT 12/20. Hand wired, easy to mod and sweet sounding right out of the box.

[908ssp]

The cabinet came from an 80 yr old woman in Wisconsin who played accordion at state fairs for a few years in the 60s and had the 2x12 Altec 417 cab built by a music store there in the 60s as an extension cab for her Magnatone amp because she was playing a lot of raised, open-back stages, she needed a beefy closed cabinet. And this think is bomber and heavy and awesome, pristine early Altecs preserved perfectly after only several performances over a short time span. And it really does smell like Liquorice when the tubes get all hot. (the head that is)



For the best clean tones for sparkle i actually don't  have the bass channel jumped into the main channel like it shows in the pic. But for great overtones and dynamics jumping the older tweed Bassman circuit we installed in the bass channel livens things
up in a subtle yet significant way.

Unless your Bassman is altered the two channels of the Blackface Bassman are out of phase. I have an original from 65 and it sounds pretty bad jumpered.

[bembamboo]

I HAD  a blonde/brown faceplate bassman, mid sixties, in the 80s that i had  an old fender tech modify for channel switching, and used very soft groove tube 6L6s for good lower volume crunch.  liked it.  bought another, pricier one in the 90s but sold it.  had another complete blonde piggy back in the late sixties, for about a week, that sccrreeaammed.  jensen alnicos of course.  got a new svt instead.

[VOX AC-30TBX]

The amp that I Like  is my Top Hat-King Royal it's based
off the Vox AC30.