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What's up with Electric Amps?
- Thread starter Geezer Brown
- Start date
This is my understanding as well.
If you want 200w of tube I would suggest:
NEW - Science Mother
USED - Orange AD200 MK3 (can be had between the $1.4K to $1.6K)
I once had the Orange ad200 that electric rebuilt as a handwired amp. Its the one featured on Planet of the Amps. My take? It was cool but no better than my stock Orange. Electric makes cool stuff.... cool overpriced and overhyped stuff.
Y'all blowin' my mind with these boutique tube amps. Sadly I haven't won the lottery. yet... I want an amp that says SCIENCE on it just to see how many people will scream "SCIENCE" when they see it...
Got an AD200B with an Ampeg 810 for $1000 last year. It's beat up cosmetically, but it's fully functional and sounds great. As you said, the Orange is a great suggestion, especially if looking for grindy, nasty, distorted tones.
I would also highly suggest Reeves amps. I have a Custom 225. It's a great hand-wired amp, very versatile, and the company actually has a professional looking, easy to navigate website. Great clean and dirty tones from the Custom 225. It's my main amp along with a Reeves 4x10.
Mr. Foxen
Commercial User
Latest updates on Electric can be found here: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Yeah Alex rules, he put up with all my picky questions and turned out a badass Hellhawk. Unfortunately halfway through the year my needs changed so I had to undo some of the circuit mods I had Alex originally do to make the amp higher-gain. Because I realized I like playing and making pretty music.
The Orange that they rebuilt on Planet of The Amps was my amp/re-build and I was not happy with how it turned out hence it's changed hands several times since. I've had 3 electric amps and 6 electric cabs built for me and my guitar player has an electric stack as well so i'm really familiar with the amps and their build/sales process.
Long story short: My relationship with Joel started out great back in 2007-2008 when I forked over nearly $9k for a couple rigs...but between build delays, shipping damages, disappointing replacement units and total communication breakdown on both sides things went south very quickly and I had to take things to small claims court 4 years later to close up my invoices.
My advice-if you can find an Electric on the used market then snatch it up because they are incredible amps (Ask @gregmon79 and @frankegcbass ), but if you decide to place an order you are going to have to pay full price up front and roll the dice on when that amp is going to be done because a handful of other folks are in queue and your money is paying for their parts and some other customer is going to be paying for your build components. If anyone is familiar with the SGD lutherie thread/debacle there are countless parallels. I hope they pull it together because Joel and his family make amazing amps but their business practices are another story.
PM me if you have any questions.
Long story short: My relationship with Joel started out great back in 2007-2008 when I forked over nearly $9k for a couple rigs...but between build delays, shipping damages, disappointing replacement units and total communication breakdown on both sides things went south very quickly and I had to take things to small claims court 4 years later to close up my invoices.
My advice-if you can find an Electric on the used market then snatch it up because they are incredible amps (Ask @gregmon79 and @frankegcbass ), but if you decide to place an order you are going to have to pay full price up front and roll the dice on when that amp is going to be done because a handful of other folks are in queue and your money is paying for their parts and some other customer is going to be paying for your build components. If anyone is familiar with the SGD lutherie thread/debacle there are countless parallels. I hope they pull it together because Joel and his family make amazing amps but their business practices are another story.
PM me if you have any questions.
Oh hell yes. I love my Electric. I found mine at CME. If I had to order direct, I wouldve skipped it I think after all Ive heard. I was taken aback so much by this amp when I played it at CME the first time, I had to have it! I looked at the price tag and was really discouraged. I found out how rare they were and started emailing all the usual suspects, Matamp, John Macneese, Dunwich, Verellen, even a couple other indie builders, to see if they could build me an amp just like that Electric I saw. Well, long story short, I found a way and went back to CME and snagged it. Super happy I did. Ive played all the fairly common popular tube heads, and nothing came close to the tone, sound and power I got out of the Electric. Period.
Bottom line? Nothing beats a well built 4xKT88 amp with its roots in Matamp or Hiwatt.
BTW, I wasnt unhappy with the Orange/Electric at all. It was a great amp. But other than the durability of point to point handwiring and the corresponding ease of servicing, it did nothing for me the the stock Orange I had at the time couldnt also do. So... I sold it.
for me i'd rather just pay the same amount and get a vintage Matamp or OR120. had an or120 and i still regret selling it, was the best tone i've ever heard. one day when i find a pot of gold i'll get another, but until then i can't find cheap EL34 tube options to come close. and although the new orange stuff is nice, it sounds nothing like the 70's stuff. the old stuff had way more midrange, punch, and treble clarity. the new stuff sounds so so so dark compared to it (ad200 i'm speaking of).
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