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Most iconic hard rock/metal amp & speaker?

#121
Yeah it is kinda strange in the bass world for metal.

It is really all over the map. Almost any brand comes to mind.

Nobody ever spoke of small and portable.
Everyone wanted a " stack" either 810 or any number of 410 + 115 cabs

Really strange just thinking about it. kinda wierd.

Aside from maybe a SVT or a Mesa 400/+
For tubes. A GK 400/800RB or any number of rackmount Ampegs come to mind.

When you think early metal for guitar it's definitely a Marshall, Soldono or Hiwatt

And the " New Metal" that carried in around 2000 that brought in the extra super hi gain mixed with lower detune or 7 strings guitars.

You automatically think Mesa Dual Rec or Peavey 51/50 or 6505

Wierd with distortion for bass too. Always been alot of push for guitar distortion models since the 90s.

Probably zillions of Guitar distortion.

Only until recently maybe a bigger surge in Bass Distortion.

Otherwise far as I can think for Bass Distortion in the past. Probably either a Pro Co Rat, EH Big Muff or a Sansamp was really all that came to mind.

Likewise in "metal" you either did or didn't use distortion and heavily opinionated about it.

Now basically distortion pretty well accepted for Metal Bass.

Probably why there is not so many iconic bass metal heads. Basically anything that's loud enough works lol.

Only real amount of distortion or warmth players admit to using. Was the extra " Grind" you get from a cranked SVT or the solid state classic " Grind" from a cranked GK400.

For most part that's still considered clean tone for Metal Guys. If you had " Distortion" that was using a pedal.

Could say maybe punk or industrial or sludge bands were more chasing distortion.

Likewise with distortion just as much as the tube thing. Pre Amp or Pedal gain or Even Hybrid 12ax7 distortion. Doesn't touch the Grind of a cranked solid state amp.
 
#122
Noting iconic here, only my personal experience:

For many years I played in a melodic death metal band called Morningless (our stuff is on YouTube and Spotify). Here's what I used at the time (with many compliments from other bassists sharing my rig):

- Head: SWR Workingman's 4004
- Cab 1: SWR 4x10t (with the tweeter set half-way)
- Cab 2: Ashdown MAG 115 Deep

At some point I added a Tech 21 VT Bass pedal to add a bit of character to my sound.

I still own the rig, and use it in my punk rock cover band. I still love how it sounds!

Like many others have said, sharing the stage with many other bands during 5-7 years, I've seen tons of different bass heads and cabs. The brand I've seen the most, I think, would be Ampeg.
 
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#124
A little less common in North America but the EBS Fafner seems to get a lot of love from some of the European metal bands (Seventh Wonder, In Flames, etc)

Personally I think the Mesa M6 is a beast for metal; the heft and glass like tone it gets are great for cutting through. I almost bought one, but went with the D800 instead because it was light and can get reasonably close to the M6. The Ashdown ABM seems pretty popular as well and can get some great tones as well (Karnivool, Alter Bridge)
 
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#125
big_marshall-lemmy-3.jpg
 
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#126
funkytoe said:
Early examples that come to mind:

Felix Pappalardi - Sunn 2000S
Geezer Butler - Orange / Marshall tube heads and cabs
John Paul Jones - GMT 600B / Acoustic Control Corp 360/361
Cliff Burton - Sunn Beta / Sunn Coliseum / Mesa D-180 / Mesa 400
Michael Anthony - Ampeg SVT
Duff McKagan - GK 800RB
Billy Sheehan - Pearce / Hartke

If I had to pick one as the "most iconic" second only to an SVT, I would have to go with the GK 800RB or the Mesa D-180.
Click to expand...

Maybe D-180 is more iconic cause of it being affiliated with Cliff Burton.

When I think of D-180 I remember the odd piles of tube heads at used music stores.

Some Ampeg Heads had impossible to find preamp tubes and 7025s were impossible to find and fetching high prices.

And then notrious tube eaters like some older Traynors and UL high voltage Fenders and Even Some MusicMan heads.

There was a pile in the used music store that all these pain in the butt tube eaters heads were stacked lol.

It's not that they were bad designs depending on opinions. But at the time when not very many new production tubes were available or likewise didn't do well with very high voltage heads

That pile was there for guys that actually wanted to hunt down rare tubes or find decent NOS tubes that would actually survive in certain heads
 
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#128
As a few have done here, I think it helps to look at the iconic players. In the last 30 years, that would be Jason Newsted and Robert Trujillo (SVT/Fridge), Eddie Jackson and Duff McKagan (GK), and bringing us up to now, Alex Webster (Darkglass). At the moment, Darkglass seems the hottest outside of doom, where vintage Sunn/Peavey/Mesa/Ampeg rules.

The two titans of metal bass laid down there famous lines and tones more than 30 years ago, though: Cliff Burton (Sunn early, Mesa late) and Geezer Butler (who has played them all at this point and is on record as not fussing much about tone!).

FWIW, I rock '80s Peavey and '90s Mesa, and have my eyes on more recent Mesa, haha.
 
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#131
Like others, I paid more attention to guitar rigs because that was my weapon of choice and they were unique to the guitarsts more, in my estimation, for consitency of tone. Bass gear was probably more rider material for major classic rock and heavy metal bassists. SVTs and 810s were almost a default and were as common in local/regional sound reinforcement companies as $1 bills.

I can't remember the band but the first time a Mesa stood out for me was standing front row and this beautiful, brand new Mesa 8x10 cab and amp head was pointed right at me. It had a wonderful, thunderous sound that blasted away at me all night. I'd time travel back to that show to do it all over again.

Outside of that, I was a big Rush fan and Ged's rigs have been well documented.
 
#134
agedhorse said:
How about within the last say 30 years. When Acoustic or Kustom is brought up, much of that is because there wasn't much else available that early.
Click to expand...

Aside from what's been mentioned, multi amp rigs.... one amp clean, one dirty.

And although not an amp... the BDDI, and now the B7K.

Personally, in the modern era I think most of us just assume we're listening to the DI.
 
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#137
I also wonder, maybe there isn't anything iconic due to the fact we are discussing a time before internet sales. So if you wanted a Mesa, Trace, GK or Ampeg head the local music store had to be a dealer. I had 2 choices when buying my main rig then. Gk800rb from guitar center or a peavey megabass at guitar showcase. Couldn't afford the trace Elliot at k&k. So I bought my megabss and didn't look back for many years. I had no idea at 15 Ampeg was a thing. I was told how awesome solid state was. And like most stores now the bass section was 1/8th the size of the geetar section, so selection was as limited then as it is now.
 
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