Dave Wakeling uses a Peavey Bandit almost exclusively. His other guitarist had a Vibroverb-they blended exquisitely. Dave also happens to be a very cool bloke-
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Songs that featured solid-state guitar amps
- Thread starter ElectroVibe
- Start date
Skynyrd and Hatchet both used solid state Peaveys; pretty sure .38 Special did too. I remember seeing pics and ads at the now defunct Paulus Music that used to be in Downtown Jacksonville.
I’ll check that out; my wife’s band is opening up for them this weekend in Pasadena and SJC.
If you're alluding to direct distortion, or a pedal straight to the console, I think the epitome of that tone is in Norman Greenbaum's "spirit in the sky" or TRex "bang a gong-get it on"
You can't put it everywhere all the time, but used sparingly and blended right it works great.
Cool; that brings back some memories. Had a college roommate who was in a punk band and used a "Lead 100 Mosfet" head and a 1965 slant-front 4 x 10 for awhile. I always thought it did nice medium-gain stuff and cleaned up well when you backed off the volume, even with a Les Paul. He couldn't wait to get rid of it and get a JCM900--and eventually got two of them--but I thought he sounded good with the Mosfet.
I read in a magazine a long time ago that the lead guitarist from Candlebox (!!!) used a Lead 100 Mosfet paired with a Peavey VTM60 tube head. THAT probably caused a few sound guys to scratch their heads.
I kind of like how Valvestates sound too. The guitarist I play bass with now has a JCM2000 100-watt tube head, but when we first started playing together he was using a Valvestate 2 x 12 combo. It seemed very much built down to a price; kind of cheesy MDF cabinetry and whatnot...but it did sound good with his Les Paul.
Having seen the inside of a few Marshall cabs, they all seem kind of stupidly priced to me, at least the ones for sale around here on St. Louis CL. That script logo does jack up the price a bit, even if it's on a part- or all-MDF box. No idea what the 1965s are made of; never saw inside one of those.
I don't know if it's the same technique but whatever Norman had going on was a lot better then the rest I've heard.
I have heard that all the guitars on the fragile (which is amazing BTW) were recorded direct through a line 6 modeling amp. I don’t know how true that is, but it definitely sounds like it could be true based on the guitar tones on that album.
WOW
It looks like this has been a pretty cool discussion of great sounding solid state amps. I'm going to be slowly working my way through this. (I'm still on the first page right now)
Thanks for the responses so far!
I'm also curious to hear plain, cheap, clean, BAD sounding amps. Did Sears ever make a Silvertone amp like this? Maybe something like Crate or Yamaha? The first time I heard one in the 80's was my friend's practice Peavey amp. I was used to my dad's old tube amp, and when I played my friend's amp it was like tasting Diet-Coke when you thought you were about to take a sip of regular Coke. LOL.
It looks like this has been a pretty cool discussion of great sounding solid state amps. I'm going to be slowly working my way through this. (I'm still on the first page right now)
Thanks for the responses so far!
I'm also curious to hear plain, cheap, clean, BAD sounding amps. Did Sears ever make a Silvertone amp like this? Maybe something like Crate or Yamaha? The first time I heard one in the 80's was my friend's practice Peavey amp. I was used to my dad's old tube amp, and when I played my friend's amp it was like tasting Diet-Coke when you thought you were about to take a sip of regular Coke. LOL.
I hear ya! Not for everyone for sure. The other day Revolution came on and man, it IS brittle! They were really pushing it on that one!
I don't know how true this is, but I had always heard that those southern rock bands had Peavey amps on the outside but Marshall and Fender guts on the inside.
Robbie Kreiger from The Doors used Acoustic amps, all SS. They're about the earliest example I can think of.
Also, if memory serves, I understand Clapton used a Sunn Coliseum Lead head for a brief time. I remember reading an interview with Squire and he said something about how there were 2 of 'em available in London at the time--Clapton got one and he got the other. Prompted me as a lad to buy the baby version, the Sunn Concert Lead, which I used with an Acoustic 4x12 cab for my bass. Sounded killer, actually.
I recall Jeff "Skunk" Baxter using a Roland Jazz Chorus (JC-120) with his Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers gigs in the 70's. As mentioned earlier in this thread, the Jazz Chorus was a very popular amp with many top artists - both studio and live. If you Google earlier print ad's for it, Roland frequently ran a list of artists using them.... (yeah, I'm that old and I remember pouring over the new Guitar Player issue magazine as soon as it hit the stand.... 
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