What are the best metal amps? What amps are good for which tones? Such as clean distortion for melodic lines or brutal distortion for tight palm muting? I've played a Mesa dual recto and was disappointed in its fuzzy nu-metal distortion crap.

There are ALOT of good high gain amps and rack setups, its all personal taste. But consensus seems to be these:
Engl Savage
Engl PowerBall
Engl 570-580
Engl BlackMore
Bogner Uberschall
Marshall Dsl-Tsl
Marshall Jmp
Sansamp Psa-1
Digitech GSP 2101-21 legend
Mesa Rectifier
Line 6 Pod pro
Crate BV120
Randall RH-200G2

thats just a few. The recto is good, you probably just scooped the mids.

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learn to eq...

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Are you crazy?

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exactly what i said... Mids up, highs down buddy.

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Ive played a mesa before and it sounded just like that. Didn't have any time to eq it though. Of course i hate mesas anyways, marshalls sound so much better imo.

Im not a fan of the Dual Recto either, maybe if they werent so expensive than I wouldnt be so critical on them.

I hate the "Pre Scooped" sound they have to them. They sound WAY to dark for my taste. But I do lean towards a brighter sound with alot of bite.

So if you played dual recto and didnt like it dont buy it. Simple concept.

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I dunno, some of them mesa stuff is relatively inexpensive for tube stuff. But yeah, i wouldnt pay that much, but i like SS stuff better anyway.

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I have a question...

More gain?
-5150
-JCM 900

Reason for asking... I want a tube amp, and right now i can get one for xmas if i pay 1/2 and parents pay other.

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5150

Those two amps are nothing alike, go play them. More gain dosent always mean its better.

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how many decent tube amps other than the 5150 that arent damn expesnive?
they just know if they make a great product peolpe will buy it...
marshall makes expensive stuff too... engl is expensive, bogner is expensive.... i dunno. everything is alot of money these days.

not many mesa's seem worth it to me.... the vtwin rack is a sweet deal because it's so recto-ish with distortion.. and has some of the most brilliant cleans i've heard from a mesa.

the new stilleto(they just barely hit guitarcenters about a week or so ago)... i don't think i like it... i jammed one for a littlewhile yesterday... very dissapointed with how "not aggressive" it was... of course i only played it for a minute and mesa layouts always take time to get used to and require tons of time to be spent tweaking...



5150 sounds darker than the recto's imo... also has more bite too... and i actually find alot of mesa stuff to have a very midrangey nature to them.
i like to push the vintage mode hard instead of play the modern mode soft... if that makes any sense.


stop the press he's got a point!

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gain is what i need, i've played the 5150, 5150II, JCM 800, JCM 200, and the JCM 900 (the 900 was 4 years ago).

and i got good tones from all, but a 5150 on ebay is 600-750,, while the JCM is closer then any of the others.

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Exactly, their are much better amps for that kind of money, rectifiers just seem over priced to me.. and yes i am a cheapskate

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the 900 will most likely need to be boosted unless you have an eq, sonic maximizer and an X2N or emgs.

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ha, i have them both in my basement... i like the overall sound of the jcm 900... but in brutality and gain the 5150 slays it hands down... like, i could have the jcm 900's gain dimed, and crank it for powertube saturation for it to be equal to a 5150 with the preamp gain at like 5.

so it depends on the sound you want.
the jcm will do death metal if you have the right shit.
you could get some jj's, they have preamp tubes(not sure what exact model) that have 10% more gain than the avarage 12ax7.
that's one way to help it.
also, hot pickups would help....
some kind of signal boost(not o.d.) pedal like a seymoure duncan pickup booster or an eq.

but the overall tone and voicing of each amp is drastically different.

but your question about gain... the 5150 is supreme in this comparison.

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shit, i need to reply to threads individually...

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Its happened to me many times... you'll learn how to delete a message sooner or later

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did i miss something?
innards, are you having relationship problems?

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ive never even had i relation ship XDX, but no, i was referring to broken crimson, read the 4 year old drummer thread if you want to know more, but now that i deleted the post... we can move on.

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You can buy those Sovtek 12ax7lps for more gain, i have a vague memory of them being high gain.

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The Peavey Bandit 112 80w s.s. is good for its money, right? I played one the other day and it sounded awesome for black metal. It's on special so I'm going to buy it in a month or two.

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true, more then usual.

for 900 you could get a used fireball and maybe a crappy cab

if you're lucky to find one.

But... for 900 you have to go used for a stack.

or maybe you like Warp 7's.

or if you want a combo, Engl Screamer 50, loud enough for smaller gigs and amazing tone for a fucken combo.

definetely one of the best combo's i ever played

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