What do you guys think about this amp? I've played it and it doesnt sound to bad but I figured I would ask you guys first.

I don't like it. But try it out yourself.

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looks crappy and cheap, but looks can be decieving...(sp?)

*shudder*

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well, the one before it is probably one of the worst amps you'll ever play. This one is better though.

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You guys think this would be good for my first half stack, for my first band , to play a couple shows? I kinda plan on buyin it at guitar center and then returnin it for prolly a mesa triple when I get up some more cash. They know me up there so they will give me like two months to return it

Go to Evilbay and check for some deals I'm pretty sure you can score something better than that there.

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That amp is a piece, if i was a guitar center id say fuck you, if you tried to return it, you should definetally look before you leap and ask if they will give you alittle to return it, also people abuse your shit at shows man, that thing could become broken

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now was that really necesary? you sound like one of those computer nerds who hang around on computer forums bashing microsoft for no apparent reason whilst wearing using windows xp

i say evilbay all the time.

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Would you shut up. No one likes you here.

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Why the fuck do you care? I just gave him a good advice and insteay of saying Ebay I said Evilbay, big deal? And yes I use Windows XP and have no problems at all with it so why would I go bashing Microsoft then fuckface?

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Would you care to not to make an idiot out of yourself just once in a while? First, "Microsoft bashers" do have their reasons to be opposed to this corporation, but it's too much hassle for your brain to understand them. Second, your "while using win xp" comment was as retarded as saying "people living under dictatorship X are bashing the dictator who they live in his land omg wtf lolz". Third, a lot of those people do not acutally use (or wear!) Windows XP, or Windows, or any Microsoft product at all. So next time, when you're mentioning a totally irrelevant topic on a forum, do at least a little research before opening your mouth.

i just got owned

btw seriously, calm down you lot, its not as if i meant it as an insult, jeez...

No, but it was a retarded coment annyhow.

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fine! i guess im sorry i made a retarded comment then!

OK, back to the main topic. Do you guys have any facts about why you think this amp sucks or are you guys just sayin that cause it looks and is cheap. I realize that they are prolly useing cheaper materials and such, but how much different can it be from a higher quality amp. It has 4 6l6/5881 power tubes, 4 12ax7 preamp, 1 12ax7 phase inverter, 1 12ax7 reverb,1 12ax7 effect loop,1 5ar4 for the reverb. Is that typical for most tube amps, I really dont know much about them and am tryin to learn more and make a good decision. Are those normal tubes or are they cheap ones that will break down after a few months? Thanks guys

Facts about why I think it sucks? Well, that is easy. Fact is it sounds cheap and therefore is not a good amp. In fact it sounds worse than most SS amps.

Believe me. Get a good amp. B-52's are junk.

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There are a lot of factors that go into making a 'quality' amp.

You can have exactly the same tubes and other components (resistors, capacitors etc.), but if you get inferior quality components, it'll sound rubbish although it'll be cheaper. The build of the actual chasis and cabinet may be poor, so if you drop or knock it, it could fall to pieces, where as a good amp would be well constructed and more durable. Generally, if a (new) amp is cheap, then there is a reason for it. However, tastes do vary, and if you prefer that amp over something else, then go for it.

Hope that helped

Try the Blue Voodoo

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I guess there is just no gettin around spending at least 2000$ for an amp. I hate having inferier (I cant spell) equipment that sucks (like the gnx4 or any digitech product for that matter). I guess I'm savin up for a mesa triple rec. Do you guys actually feel safe buying stuff ofa ebay? I always had a bad feeling about buying something that I cant try out. Yall ever get anything of there that was broke or didnt work right, if so what can you do aboiut it?

$2000? pfft. used 5150 + Marshall 1960 = $1000.

just because it's cheap doesnt mean it sucks.... hell, 5150's(6505's) and crate blue voodoo's are awesome and fairly cheap. especially used.
teamed up with the 'standard' marshall 1960 cab...(used for like $250-$400) you'll be set.

and just because you spend alot doesnt mean it's gonna rock.. hell, a krank revolution is about double the price of the b52 and about half as good sounding .

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Alright guys, I've done enough research on amps and I think what I'm gonna do is buy just buy the b52 head (have a marshall cab I can use for a while) and try it out for a month. If I dont like it I can return it. I've seen some crates on ebay pretty cheap so if I dont like the b52 I'll take it back and get a crate of ebay ( I really dont have a good feeling buying stuff off ebay though ). Or hopefully after a month I'll be able to afford a mesa boogie. Thanx for all the feedback guys. I'll let yall know how the b52 works out.

which of the 2 listed above do you prefer. 5150 or bv

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CRATE.

You are never going to know just how bad the B-52 sounds if you don't play other amps first and compare. Also, don't buy a cheap ass Marshell cab and think that is going to perform like a real Marshell cab. Cabs are actually priced by quality of sound and material unlike some amps.

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COMPARE

People think distortion pedals are the bomb untilt they hear a real tube amp. Bottomline: you'll only know shit tone when you know great tone.

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Ok I feel really dumb. I went and played the b52 yesterday at guitar center and it totally sucked ass.I played it for like 5 mins a few months ago but I dont remember it suckin that bad. They had a crate bv right next to it and I played it as well, it was a little bit better but not buy much. I think I'm gonna hold out and buy the mesa boogie cause honestly, thats the only amp that sounds good to me. I never really liked marshall that much so I'm gonna stay away from them.

You will be much happier in the long run. I like Mesa too but may I suggest looking into a Randall RTS amp. They have a recto module that could make a Mesa blush! The Randall RTS recto module also does't sound as noisy as the Mesa either. Have a look at them. The great thing about them is that they have a wider tone range then Mesa amps.

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Hey now! I resent that statement about ALL digitech stuff. I have a Digitech GSP21 Legend Preamp and that shit kicks ass! Just wish i had the footswitch for it.

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dude... a mesa recto module on that randall is now where near as flexible as a real recto. don't kid youself... mesa's are mesa's. there are alot of things that makes a recto so flexible, like all the knobs and switches(with the randall is missing a ton) and THE TUBE RECTUMFRIER.

not saying the randall shit sux or anything... as it's own amp, i think it's up to par(as good as) with the mesa... but for an authentic mesa sound, nothing beats the real thing.

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I loved my dual rectifier when i still had it. Only thing was it took me quite a while before I got a tone out of it i really liked. And therefore it was full of post-its with different settings on them

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to me the recto's are all about the mid knob... my buddy i was jamming with for a while had a triple recto, occasionally i'd jam on it. he said i could mess with what ever i wanted, but he'd rip my fingers off if i touched his mids.

oh, and el34's make a world of improvement. aswell as some jj's in the preamp. they take away just about all the complaint's i hear about rectos.. say goodbye to super flubby lows,saggy definition, and that upper mid "buzz". it's still not overly tight like a vht pittbull or an engl powerball. but the mud is cleaned up alot and everything is more usable..

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My bad dude, I didnt mean to dog all digitech's stuff but I had a gnx4 not to long ago and I'm sorry but it was the biggest pile of crap I ever owned, the absolute worst tone I ever heard, but it did have alot of cool stuff on it. It just weird to me that they could care so little about quality when I know if they tryed they could make some good stuff.

JJ's are muddy as hell in the preamp.. a Rectifier + JJ preamps... scary thought.

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No no. I was not talking about the recto module itself having a great tone range then a mesa alone, but the Randall itself having a greater tone range with each module. I don't think a Mesa can come close to a Marshell 800, but the RTS can. Closer than any other amp that isn't a Marshell 800. Given that the Randall RTS is indeed its own amp I must say that it is about the best for the money unless you want completely the percise tone of a certain amp.

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If you are looking into the Mesa and willing to spend that kind of coin on an amp, you ought to have a look at the Soldano Avenger. Same price as the Dual Rec and has tone for days that dances circles around the Rectifiers. The Mesa's have more features which might be your thing. When you are in the market to drop more than a grand on a new amp it's best to look at all of your options.

i take it you must have never played that setup?

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dude a soldano avenger is nothing like a recto tonally. it's not "better" it's just "different".

not to mention the soldano avenger is only a one channel head with no fx loop... which is a huge leap in the other direction from a recto.

not everyone has the same tastes in amps.

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Never, and I dont see how it can sound any good.

And a Soldano and a Mesa...

The Mesa is voiced VERY dark and can easily get very muddy, while the Soldano is the exact opposite.. voiced with a very distinct mid range.. good luck trying to get the Soldano to get muddy.

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you speak as if you've never even been in the same room with a recto... or a soldano.

i hardly consider recto's to be voiced "dark"... i'd say a 5150 seems darker than a recto. and as far as the muddy, yes mesa's loose voicing makes it easy to muddy up, but anyone with fingers and a slight knowlegde of how to eq an amp can work around it.

a soldano can get muddy, trust me...

as for the tubes. the stock tubes mesa loads the rectos with just don't impress me. a set of jj's all around, with el34's in the power section will do wonders for a recto. the gain is more articulate and clear, it wont sound as "fizzy". the lows are less muddy and are alot tighter. the midrange is smoother and it cuts alot better. sure, the cleans might suffer a bit, but for what styles of music recto's are used for most, distortion comes first. they'll still be better than any clean tones you can get from a 5150.

listen to clifton's table full of giggles. to hear an el34 loaded dual recto.

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5150 dark? Yeh right... Every Recto I've played was voice very dark and I had a hell of a time getting any usuable highs out of it. Of course I didnt spend the full 3 months needed to figure out the "sweet" spots of that damn eq.

When I went to Guitar Center and played the SLO-100 they had I didnt even touch the EQ.. it didnt need it. The tone was fucking excellent, great plam mutes, very tight and articulate.

I rather have my 5150's clean than a Recto anyday.. I would never trade off muddyness and a clean channel for my 5150 I dont even use a clean channel nowdays.. I just lower the volume on my guitar, I'll only switch channels when I'm strumming.

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I got to agree with BLS, the recto is imo voiced dark, much darker than a 5150.. and yes I've played both..

i guess you must need some practice eq'ing amps or something. mesa's are hard to eq, and have a ton of lows, but seriously, it's not "that bad". if you can't get a "usable sound"(not to be confused with "dream tone") out of it within a minute or two, you need to sober up a bit.

i've been in a band with a dude with a recto, and in a band with dude that had a 5150. the 5150 is pretty dark(one reason i preffer the 5150 II's alot more), the triple recto was much brighter and the gain was way more usable, and as far as the mud, the recto wasnt bad at all when your turn up the volume turn down the gain and lows a little bit. and as i awlays say with a recto, when you think "i should turn up or down my highs" you should really adjust the mids or lows..

of course the bro with the recto was sporting a gibson les paul standard and a matching recto 4x12, and the dude witht the 5150 had a gibson sg special with an emg 81/85 set and a crate blue voodoo cab loaded with vintage 30's. but you get the idea.

you not needing to eq a soldano slo is totally irrelivant, it's still a different amp and just because the setting's are already good when you plug in doesnt mean it's absolutely better than a recto. you might preffer it more(hell, even i do) but someone's prefference cannot be considered a fact.

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Wow, that whole first page was nothing but cunting...


Every guitarist I have talked to that has tried the B-52 says that it royally blows.

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I never said the SLO is better than the Recto.. I definetly prefer it over the recto.

What settings did that dude with the 5150 have? Mine has this wonderful midrange grind.. dunno how he made his sound darker than a Recto.

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his settings changed alot depending on the room/venue(it's amazing what location can do to an amp)... right now(it's at my house because we were jamming) lows at like 7, mids at like 4, highs at about 4.5 , gain about 6.5(i actually run the low gain input and turn the gain down to 5.5 for a toneful sound, but he likes it really brutal)... volume pending but mostly about half way, presence at 3, resonance 5.5...

through my cab(tall slanted, front loaded cab, with 2 g12t-75's &2 v30's, and 4 weber beam blockers). his sg. no pedals except his boss ns-2.

put that in your pipe and smoke it.

over super dark like an uberschall, but compared to my other friend's triple recto halfstack... it's not nearly as bright.

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Ah I see, he has his Bass up, mids turned down, highs down, resonance up, prescence down.. basically he's boosted the lows and cut the highs a bit.

That will pretyt much do it I guess.

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Errr.... not gonna happen

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umm... it's happening.

physics i guess... but that's how it goes..

i believe my ears before i beleive some anti mesa pro 5150 kids on a forum. nothing beats experience.

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Im not anti-mesa at all.. the Mk IV kicks major ass.

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gear nerds...

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Where did I say that the Avenger was anything tonally like the recto? I said it danced circles around the recto. You can get Mesa, Marshall, Fender tones(not necessarily gain levels) out of the Soldano, as well as get the deep voicing to shrill brightness out of it too.

I also said that the Mesa has more features than the Soldano.

I wasn't promoting one over the other. I do like the Avenger head better than a Mesa. But I was stating that this guy should look at all of his options before dropping a grand+ on any amp. I just suggested the Avenger, I could have suggested a Marshall, or Peavey.

As for your suggestions later in the thread about the tubes that Mesa's com stock with I completely agree with you and will go one step further and suggest having a variable Bias control installed in any recto amp. The two settings that come stock run the bias too cold and nowhere near what it should be for the EL34 or 6L6 settings. The way it comes stock is in my opinion nothing more than so there won't be that many warranty issues.
I have played two rec's that had variable bias circuits installed, one running EL34's at about -36ma, the other running 6L6's at about -45ma. This takes everything ever said bad about the rec's completely off the stage. Stock the bias settings on a rec is about -32ma for EL34's and -41ma for 6L6's.

The guitar center buy my house has a used triple rec for like 1200$. Hopefully they'll have it here in a few days when I get paid. I can put like 300$ down on it so they"ll hold it for me. You guys think its safe to buy a used amp?What kind of mods do you guys recomend doin to it? And where do you get amps moded at, I know guitar center wouldn't do it. How much are new tubes and which ones do yall recomend?

read your post again. you're comparing an a single channel head with no fx loop to a 3 channel head(or 2 if he wants an older one) with an fx loop. and suggesting he buy an amp that's NOTHING like a recto, instead of a recto like he wanted.

personally, i think if a recto sound is what you want, a soldano isnt a good substitute...

fender tones from an avenger? not at all... not even much fender tone in the slo(the avenger is simply the lead channel and power section from the slo).

it does the marshall meets boogie(like a mark IIC+ meets a jcm 900) grind well though.

as far as dancing circles around it... i've said it a million times, when you get into expensive tube amps(or any amps really) there is no better or worse, just different. YOU may like the avenger more, but YOU also have a completely different set of ears.

personally i would rather have a recto than an avenger because it has an fx loop and more than one channel. the distortion might not satisfy ME as much, but it's still great and i'd have the other options i need. if we were talking about the slo... that's a different story. but still, it's just my opinion of the amp. no kind of fact.

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I, personally, think fender only makes two good tones: Clean and Light Overdrive.

Personally Fender has no buisness in metal. *stares down Fender MetalHead, shakes head*

Poor, misguided bastards. They could at least make it cheap so the nu-metal kiddies who want it can get it.

And, to the Mesa/Peavey debate, I've never played either amp. So you can just stop reading this here if you want. But, from listening to albums recorded with the amps, I'd say that the 5150 is definately darker. And the dynamics of any room can totally destroy and rework an amp's tone. My ENGL sounds bright when I'm messing around with it in my room, but I once played it in an open area (auditorium) and it was just BASS.

But yeah i havent tried any Recto's or 5150's, especially since I dont like ruining the salesman's day* by asking to try one when they damn well know I dont have the $$$.

*I only say this because when I once tried a DSL50 (not my taste at all), the salesman got this sarcastic, roll-eyes, not-one-of-these-kids looks that seems to make me want to slap them and say "JUST DO YOUR JOB!!". And I know eventually if iI keep asking to try amps like that, I will do that. I tend to be an on-edge kinda guy. Which is why the service from Derek at rocksolid was surprising to me.

cut the salesmen some slack... they have to deal with a dozen + broke ass nu metal kids everyday that just want to sit there and wank on the most expensive guitars and amps.

you just gotta show some interest, be like "i got some money and i'm looking for a kickass tube amp. i was wondering if i could bring MY guitar in and rip on a couple marshalls or something." all of a sudden the light comes on and he'll let you.
why? because these bro's get paid SHIT+comission... if he can move a dual recto or a mode four, that pays his cellphone bill. savy?

sure, some dudes are still douches, but it's understandable... that's a salesman for you. he doesnt care about you, he just want's your money. kinda like a prostitute.

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Cellphones are for closet homosexuals...

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well, if their pink and glittery...

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*hides pink and glittery cell phone*

>_>


So yeah I totally have a girlfriend.