i have a low budget so i came up with this:

I already own a little somewhat crappy Fender Champion 110 combo, its ok for rehearsal and practise but for the real thing its just too small.

I want too buy a bigass marshall top/speaker set, but its pretty expensive, i saw one in a local store for 500 bucks, and i simply dont have it, but i thought of just buying the speakerset and use my fender as a top. Tops are the most expensive thing so i'd figured out it would save me some money. But i'm not sure what the price of the speakers are.

Anyway, i think i should do this. The sound may get raw and fucked but i'm playing in a motorhead tribute so that ain't a problem

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by speaker set do you mean like a 4x12 cab?..... you could buy a used marshall 1960a(slant) or 1960b(straight) for about $300-400 u.$.

you can only use the little combo as a head if it has speaker outs....

it wont be as loud as a 100w tube jcm or anything... but having the 4x12 there will definately add a bit more to volume.... seeing as volume-wise, it's more effective to double your speakers than it is to double your wattage.

if you bought the head first you have nothing to play it through...

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4x12 yeah.

The head that came with the set has no tubes, its pretty regular dont know if its any good, but it's for the sake of my wallet...

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marshall with no tubes = mg series... and if its a used mg halfstack for $500 bucks don't buy it. because it isnt worth it. they go for like $600 new(1/2 stack setup)....
you can get a much better deal on one.

if you like the way it sounds then more power to ya..... but i'd highly suggest going with a nice used marshall 1960 cab and then save up for a nice head while you use your combo...
rather than buy something that sucks but does the job and then selling it later for less money than you paid for it.
because in the end you'll still have to drop a big chunk of money on a good amp... might as well do it the first time around eh?

my 2 cents

just remember, don't be afraid to buy used... but always make sure you arent getting screwed.

i always look up the new price of an item and then check sources like ebay to see about the common used prices.... then you have a better understanding of a item and what it's worth.....

often times, an item in good condish will be roughly 50-80% of what it would go for new.... alot of it has to depend on the namesake...
brands like crate, have exremely low resale value, thats why a used bv120h on ebay will go about $400 or less compared to a new one at guitar center that will go for like $800.
yet if you have something like a mesa dual recto, new about $1,500..... on ebay depending on what condishion its in, lets say beat to shit with dents, dust, and ripped tolex. but still works great with the exception of a couple dirty pots..... you should easily get $800 or more out of it.... because it has the mesa namesake that makes people think "good amps".

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its either a avt top or Mg top, which are both pretty shit lol.

please keep in mind marshall prices are way up here xdx, those cabs go for 5-600 here used, I just got really lucky with mine (400 with some rock'n'roll spots)

ebay doesn't work here, only ebay.de (germany) has some good deals every now and then, but if he's going to buy used he might as wel check gitaarmarkt.nl or marktplaats.nl thats where I got loads of gear from actually.

I don't mind buying used, but its a bit of an investment if you buy tube stuff (I allways want new tubes...)

So Doc, why don't you sell the combo on the net or trade it in for a good price (against lets say a h&k warp7 or Laney hc series halfstack?) I dunno, those are good investments and plenty loud for their money, but I have no idea how much you'll get back for your combo.

Else you could allways look for a used head and cab, those sets go for like 3-400 in the used circuit, or you could get something better, like a H&K tourreverb 100w ss for 250 bucks and some old ass used cabinet.

or that horney Sovtek MIG top I just saw on gitaarmarkt.... (thats the russian jcm800 with more gain...)

anyways, theres loads of paths you can walk, but its up to you, I don't mind buying used as long as its quality stuff, and in holland you can pick it up so hell you can see if its crap (or not)

good luck.

thanks, trading or selling my combo isnt a good plan since it just isnt worth more than 150 in this shape and i painted it blue some time ago

anway, i just go to the store and test it with my combo, thats the only way to see if it's allright.

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yeh, i was talking from a u.s. point of veiw.....
you just gotta do what ya gotta do...
i don't know how that shit works up there exactly,
the sovtek mig series are pretty sweet... they're just jcm 800 clones made to run 6l6's and they go for like half the price....

but i'm sure some stuff is cheaper over there.... i heard that over sea's mesa's are going for almost double their u.s. value... which is ridiculous becuase i'd dare say they arent even worth what they want for them out here..... making them worth much more than say, framus or engl...... and most americans would take, say, a framus cobra or engl savage over a mesa recto any day.
crazy shit

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yeah, Engl's, H&K's, and everything else european is dirt cheap here, especially used...

I might buy that sovtek top, just as a backup... or maybe hotrod it

how much does a used triamp cost over there?

my buddy has a mig 60... it sounds pretty sweet... he wants to get it set up for el34's for more powertube breakup.... he uses a jaques tube blower pedal or something.... it's better than the ibanez tube screamers imo....

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I've seen a triamp MKI with the original cab (the expensive one with greenbacks and shit) and flightcases for 1800 bucks

You guys are lucky..... here in the states its hard as hell to find a retailer that sells boutique amps, let alone afford them.

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how much is $1,800 of your money in u.s.?
because i could maybe get a used mkI head for like $1,000-1,600 depending on the condish...
but hell... the head and cab, both in flight cases for 1,800-ish u.s.d. + shipping to the u.s. still might be a bit cheaper or close to the cost of just buying one here......
i only need the head though. and no flight case is neccisary because i'm getting a custom case that's going to have a the head shock mounted(surrounded with like 1.5" of foam) and then an 8 space rack on top and a little storage space... it'll be dope. like $400-700 dope....

i was just wondering because i'm looking into hooking a kid in aus. up with a dual recto from the states...
he'd give me money to buy the recto, ship it to him and he'd give me a lil somethin extra for my time.
i don't know if he'll do it or not... kind of a trust issue.
but i was just thinking of something like that for a nice european made amp like my beloved triamp....
if i could buy get one from overseas where they're cheaper, then maybe i could save some money.

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well, usd and euro's are allmost on the same exchange rate... so if you're talking about usd's there then its a LOT cheaper here... because that was with cab and flightcases.

anyways, you don't see them used a lot over here though, but we do have a lot of used boutique amps around, some stores here sell used soldano's, like rare 4 rack space preamps from the '80's and shit...

stores mostly know their prices, though theres a big used-gear market here. and because its a small country, you can check out the gear before buying, its never more then a 3 hour drive, so its all worth it.

sweet!

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yup, I'm tracking down a H&K Acces preamp now... but they don't go for cheap, cheapest one I found was 300 bucks but it was sold.

great things though, I played one and it owned the triaxis... (and I'm not shitting you!)

that's what i've been saying for awhile.... people think i'm nuts becuase i prefer the sound of a jmp-1 or access preamp over the triaxis... they start preaching about "all tube circutry" n' such.... and i simply reply.... "and how does it sound?".... because honestly the triaxis isnt hot shit like everybody says.... waayyy over priced.
the only midi preamp i'd want more than the access is the engl e580.... but lets not get crazt cuz i gots a triamp i need to shell out for before i can think of anymore gear.

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hehe, I don't think you can compare a simple jmp-1 with an acces preamp the comparisson with the triaxis is fair though, but I think the Acces is even more versatile... they're not expensive if you compare them to a triaxis.

an acces preamp with h&k vs 250 poweramp, now that would be heaven and hell in on tiny 4he rig!

the jmp-1 rocks dude! sorry but i HAVE to defend it.... i first played my friend's jmp-1 through his huge mesa 2:95 poweramp.... jesus! it sounded super duper good. then after listening to some recording done with jmp-1s....
i was like "i want it!".
right now the poweramp i'm using with it is s.s. so it doesnt sound quite as good as my bud's.... so i was going to buy a decent tube poweramp.... then i said fuck it... i'm buying a triamp.

only two things really that i have a problem with.... no rear side input jack(not a huge deal, but it's one of those things i can't help but curse at marshall for.), and it ONLY does marshallish sounds..... but hey, it's a marshall amp and the marshall sounds it does do is really good.
but with the h&k access, i think it beats the triaxis,mp-1, and jmp-1.... better cleans... and a way wider range of distortion tones.......

all in all i think the triaxis,access,mp-1, & jmp-1 are all great preamps on different ways. and i wouldnt mind having all of them.

but, have you ever played the engl e580? now that's an awesome midi preamp.

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not the 580, I played the new 530 though.

I heard great shit about the 580, but I'm not much of a midi guy myself (though Engl has had midi on their preamps for ages, even my old 620 has midi)

as for the jmp-1, I'm not a marshall fan in general, so I think you hit the nail on the head 'it like a marshall' I expect more from a preamp, I mean even my 620 can do more then marshall emulation sounds.

thats why I kinda want something more versatile and fuck, a gain setting from 0 to 128... that just makes me get a hard on so I hope I can get my hands on an Access this month.

the e580 is sooo awesome..... by far my favorite pre....

yeh, the gain on the jmp-1 goes from 0-20, but you have clean1, clean2, od1, & od2..... so each one is a bit dirtier than the next..... i pesonally love the marshall sounds, but i just want more... amp 2 on the triamp will take good care of me for that marshall-ish shit. while the other two will do everything else.


midi gives me a woody.... i used to have a dozen+ pedals... flangers, whammy, wah, footswitch, delay, chorus, ect. and it sounded good and i loved what i could do.... but in a heavy band it is so hard to keep a good stage presence and get into my music when i'm tap dancing over my pedals.
so i thought my only other option was to not use fx, and i didn't want to do that. then i found midi......
i can turn off several fx + turn on a couple more and switch channels on my preamp.... all at the tap of one button!... not to mention how a huge pedalboard can degrade your signal and suck out tone....
so i just love the flexibility that midi allows and it's also easier to setup at a gig.....as long as my presets are saved.

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I used to do the tapdancing thing too, but just for my distortions because I never found one that really suited me... problem is those fucking volumes on individual pedals, I really couldn't get them all too equal which sucked, pedals where haunting me.

I sold most of them except for an mt2, a tubescreamer and an ancient DS-1. which I don't use often, except for home practise on my even more ancient peavey bandit 112.

ah well, midi is great if you wanna do a lot of variable shit, I really wouldn't need it, but the Access has a great floorboard and you can make like 50 different digital channels (run through, yes, there they are again, sovtek 12ax7lps's!)