GUITAR QUESTION - I was looking for an amp with a great clean tone. Someone had suggested that I get a Marshall mosfet lead 100. This is a solid state amp and a lot of people like to bad mouth them. I was wondering if anyone knew if this would be a waist of $200 or if thats all just talk.
Guirtar related as it may be, It's still a better match for the Amps forum. The mechanical principle is still the same. Moved.
???? Aren't there guitar sites for this kind of stuff? Anyway, there are great clean amps that are tube based and ss based. Off the top of my head: Roland JC120 (ss) Big Fender combos (Super Deluxe or something like that with 4 10 speakers - tube) Marshall JCM900 very nice clean channel (tube) Or you could just buy an SWR bass head and have the loudest clean tone on the block.
HarmonyCentral Guitar Forums and if youre gonna get solid state, I really like the MG30RCD or really any of the marshall MG series. everyone badmouths them cus there not tube like other marshalls but in fact theyre really great amps.
Personally, if an amplifier is'nt all tube, then I can't use it. (I carry around an SVT 2 PRO...80 pounds, and an Ampeg 8X10 cab...150 poinds) There is something about the way a tube power section "warms" up the sound, but everyone is different. I suggest that maybe you do your own research on the matter, because that's the only way you're ever really going to know what works best for you.
I'd go for the Vox AC30, great clean tube tone. SS is certainly clean, but the tubes add compression and smooth things out even when clean. With bass I like SS, but guitar has to be tube, whether clean or not.
I'd go with a nice Fender Twin Reverb for the best clean and headroom (the amount of leeway you have until the amp starts to distort). YOu'll want tube btw. Solid state guitar amps just dont feel as nice. check out Fender's line. they're known for its signature clean tones. speaking of which how much are you willing to spend? and what are you gonna use it for?
And it all depends on the type of clean tone you want. As there are different distorted tones, there are also different clean tones. For a chimey Beatles, U2, Oasis type tone then you can't beat a Vox AC30. For a Gilmore (Pink Floyd) type tone then I would look for a Hiwatt head. For a Stevie Ray type clean then a Fender Super Rev is what you want; louder clean go with a Twin Rev. These are kinda broad generalizations and these can overlap with different speaker choices and guitar types and so on. IOW go try as many as possible to find YOUR tone. Tapp
If this is the guy I'm thinking of, I recommended the amp. He was looking for a head (under $500) to go with a 4x12 cabinet he already had, so all of this combo talk is probably useless. I will stand by my initial recommendation of a Fender Dual Showman or Ampeg V-4. They will give you the clean sound you want, and will be louder than the Marshall. The Lead 100 is a good amp, and don't let the tube nazis tell you differently. And FWIW, I own two tube amps, with a third coming soon. $200 should be money well spent, provided it's in good condition. There's also a head version of the Roland JC120 that was made for a few years, but they're hard to come by.
