OK. I will try to explain this in it's simplest form.

MARSHALL AVT50: This is the amp that I own right now. The distortion on it is good for two things: getting stonerish (Fu Manchu) tone and doom (Old Cathedral) Tone. Besides that, the distortion sounds thin (especially if the bass isnt all the way up and the mids are not scooped, and if the gain knob is not on 10). I play mostly thrash/add some other metal type, and am looking for a more crunchier, colder, harder tone. This amp on clean also sometimes switches to the distorted channel randomly. One thing that I like alot about it is that it is small, yet very loud enough.

CRATE: I really, really, really, really liked the distortion on the amp that I played on at guitar center, but I am not sure if it could get the tones that I was talking about earlier. I have heard good things about the blue voodoo, but It's price is a little too up there. 400-500$ area for me.

RANDALL: Was reccomended to me a long time ago...uh...I don't know.....can get Crowbar tone I guess?!?!

PEDAL: Here is a big spear in the operation: pedals. I tried out my friends metal master and liked the distortion, but not how it sounded "fake" and didnt have much "force" to it. If i could find a pedal that could re-create a sound of a crate amp, I would buy one.

Thank you a TON for reading this. This is a huge dilemna that I am in. I am willing to trade in my amp and get another one for about in the 400-500$
range....but then I am not sure if a stack can fit in the office...hmm.

you can surely get a tube crate for 400-500$.

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often times those are complaints with avt's....
i saw a great hxc/metalcore-ish band the other night both guitarists were playing avt150 heads on 1960a cabs..... the music was great, but they had their mids scooped to shit and you couldnt here either one of them unless the drummer wasn't playing.


dude, for $400-500 bucks you could easily buy a used crate blue voodoo...
bv120h..... used.... my buddy bought his used for like $370 shipped and it worked fine... they have other models though, like the bv60h, bv50h, ect... or 60w 1x12 & 2x12 combos too(though i'd suggest swapping out the speakers)....

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The new G2 randalls arent half bad man, the dist is pretty thick and tight as long as you dont scoop, but scooping is nu-metal, not death metal. The crate Gx130c was used to record Cannibal Corpses Tomb of the Mutilated, if you like that tone, but its pretty scooped sounding, although you can still hear the guitar in the mix. Another good amp are the new Blue Voodoos, the 150 watt version uses an old ampeg amp (the vl1002) and it sounds really good, esp with the notch filter for each channel. just my two cents. Oh, and were in the east bay do you live man?

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