Most versatile amps ever

[snickerpuss]

A buddy of mine is a self taught studio technician and musician. calls herself an amateur even with twenty years experience in the studio. Her mother passed in a rather unexpected way last year and she now wants to follow her dream and use the capital boost from the life insurance to finance the project.

She wants to purchase up to five guitar amps for the studio. She has a Fender twin reverb. Just looking for some experience and wisdom on some of the more versatile and distinct amps you've played or recorded with.
I suggested a mark v, even though I was not its biggest fan, but the tweakability certainly seems fine for someone with better ears than mine in the studio.

Suggestions? I can't give a budget because I don't know what's been allocated, but I don't think overdrive special, steel string singer, and dumblelands will be seen in the studio unless Larry Carlton gives her a session.

[Ronnie Robinson]

If she can purchase up to 5 Amps do you need versatility? My vote for Orange would be the RV50 or the AD30 - both really versatile but is she looking for something lower powered? .....although the RV50 does sound surprisingly good at lower volume

The Blackstar Ht5 is excellent is a studio environment and sounds incredibly good and then of course there is the 5 watt Marshall

[Bensnake]

Never thought I would say this but how about a Kemper? A couple of friends of mine who are working as studio guitarists have Kempers and they're very pleased...

Edit: if she wants the real thing; Vox AC30, OR50, Jim Root Terror, a Marshall or Blackstar and a Fender.

[bclaire]

Orange AD30TC
Marshall JTM-45
Vox AC30
Fender Deluxe Reverb
and ???

[Dave666]

Never thought I would say this but how about a Kemper? A couple of friends of mine who are working as studio guitarists have Kempers and they're very pleased...

Edit: if she wants the real thing; Vox AC30, OR50, Jim Root Terror, a Marshall or Blackstar and a Fender.

I think you have a good point with the Kemper, a buddy of mine owns a studio and he does amazing things with it.
Also recommended, not an amp, but a guitar with an Evertune bridge. This buddy of mine bought one because all that guys with bad guitars coming in the studio that going out of tune all the time.

[msmith4432]

The mesa boogie TA-30 is a nice amp and very versatile. Also has 40, 30, 15 watt modes

[a.hun]

In addition to the Fender Twin?

If she can purchase up to 5 Amps do you need versatility?

+1 to that! No one amp will do everything brilliantly. If you want to cover 99% of all bases with a small handful of amps though...

A smaller Fender for cranking a bit more easily.
Vox AC30. (A good one, they aren't all good!)
Hiwatt (Custom 50 or 100). That'll cover bass and guitars equally well.
Orange, um yeah... something Orange.
Marshall, um... something Marshall too, I suppose.

For extremely versatile single amps, yeah various Mesa Boogies over the years have been well handy. I'd probably go for one over a Marshall myself, but I'm not most people.

Think you'll pretty much keep getting variations on these themes here.

Plenty of other very nice studio amps of course. Small Ampegs, Traynors, many others can also be sweet amps to work with.


Andy.

[joeminer]

AD 30
65 Soho

[sidvicious]

for studion usage the wattage of the amp matters for two broad reasons:

clean headroom assurance
how a cab is miced.

if you're micing close to the cab or in an iso cab, small and medium wattage is all that is needed. [distorted amps]

if you're going for a large room effect with mics placed throughout the room, higher wattage may be beneficial, but not absolutely necessary.

in recording, preamp gain can make a signal thin and fizzy. power amp gain can make gain too liquid and loose attack to the point of flubby. and this is on any amp, regardless who makes it. [it'll sound great out of the cab to the ear, but like crap in the recording even if the same track that sounds terriffic to the ear].

a bottom line is this: the less room effect, the smaller the amp can be.

also, if you've never done much recording you'd be surprised how easily your clean amps will distort when close miced or in and iso, or direct. they'll sound crystal clear to the ear through a cab, but listen to a recorded signal of the same thing, and it'll sound dirty and unusable.

the difference between the distortion of amps when recording. when recording virtually the only usable difference in the amps is 1) amp sensitivity, and 2) the attack of the amp. all other things are indistinguishable. contrary to conventional thinking, if the attack and sensitivity are similar it doesn't matter who makes the amp because the rest of it is sound frequency signal, which is broad spectrum and will be present in virtually any signal. ergo, the eq will adjust however needed. one of the main ways to cheat electronically is the post produce a layer of modeled distortion on a clean amp basic track. in fact, for most genre's [sans jazz] this is how the best tracks are made. translation, use as little gain as possible for the aggressive tone most are after. lots of other reasons to use less gain, but most all of it is reduced to attack and how the attack resonates throughout the signal in strength, harmonically, and duration.

the immediate paragraph is why most guitar players are forever and hopelessly chasing tone. trying to match a live, amp-cab to ear sound with a recorded to ear sound. they are completely different species.

[Randy Bass]

It's hard to be helpful without knowing the budget or the likely clientele (stylistically). If she's going to be recording metal, nu metal, whatever, then it would be important to have something along the lines of a Triple Rectifier, 6505, or similar. If not, focus on the classic tones that people usually want.

This is more a list of most popular studio amps than most versatile, but might be useful. The most common requests/demands are going to be a classic M*rshall of some sort (Plexi, JCM800), a credible Fender (Twin, Deluxe, Princeton, Bassman), an AC30, a low-wattage tube amp like the Tiny Terror, and possibly a Roland JC120 if recording Jazz or ultra-clean stuff. If the budget becomes an issue, I'd rather have three really good studio amps to choose from than five mediocre options.

[thelatrobe33]

1.) Fender Princeton
2.) Vox AC30
3.) Marshall JTM45
4.) Mesa Dual Rectifier or Mark V
5.) Orange Dual Terror or AD30

[snickerpuss]

I should have been more clear, but it looks like most of you got it. Five amps that, together, will be a quite versatile suite, not modeling amps, more like the 5 essential guitar amps for recording. Budget looks like it will be around 17,000 USD. A pretty nifty chunk o cheddar for amps. She has cabs from her old studio and an ISO box, so it looks like that money can all go into guitar amps.

It's looking like it will be in the Pacific Northwest, so lots of hardcore, indy, stoner, and alt rock bands will be the clientele.

A nice AC30 will probably make the list. What's the difference between a Triple Rectifier and a Double? Do you need the 150 watts for studio? Best Marshall for capturing all of the Marshall sounds? JCM 800 or JTM 45? I've got a friend selling an AD50 for a bargain price, but I've never played through that model amp. Any good?

[sidvicious]

for that cash:

fuchs ods 50
marshall jtm 45
marshall 800 or dsl
fender twin
orange tv50
vox ac30

there's some overlap, but these will cover the gamut as far as what can be relied on in the input signal. all are reliable. some more low noise than others. read the above post i did on wattage. i didn't put in the post that studios favor lower wattage because of the decreased chance of noise and/or interference with other electronics.

studios focus on noise in the input signal first, and everything else second.

to add to the above, it would be wise to get some low wattage versions of the above amps.

marshall sl5
fender deluxe
orange dual terror
fuchs ods 20

these are doable with the top list within the budget you state, with cash still left over. especially buying used when can.

[DiabloS]

1.) Fender Princeton
2.) Vox AC30
3.) Marshall JTM45
4.) Mesa Dual Rectifier or Mark V
5.) Orange Dual Terror or AD30

It depends on what kind of versatility is required I guess... but while the list already mentioned above might not be "exactly" what I'd recommend, it's close enough that I can say something similar to that would be pretty damn versatile. You'd have cleans, edge of breakup, dirty rock, fuzzy dirty rock, metal and a lot of other styles not mentioned covered with those 5 amps there, or slight variations from that list.


EDIT: Just read the post above after posting this... and that's a good list also. Fender Twins are great for cleans and as pedal platforms too, so that's always a good thing to have in your arsenal. If you go with the classic Fender, Vox and Marshall amps and then add a good Mesa and Orange to that you can cover a lot of ground. I'd personally go with a JCM800 over a DSL for Marshall... but that's me.

[Jondog]

EVH 5150
OR50 or OR100
Vox AC30