Curious, what's your amplifier of choice?

SteveGlitch said:
Was the mod to make it have more headroom?
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Hey Steve, yes. It has a 3-way negative feedback switch on it, as well as a PI grid stopper. I built it with a turret board and mostly carbon film resistors with metal oxide on the plates, which you normally wouldn't do, but it sounds so good. Also used orange drop caps. I delete the ground switch and move the lamp to the edge of the box for more room, it makes the amp quieter. Instead of flying heaters, mine are run along the chassis seam, so they're out of the way. Tweed chassis make for a tight fit no matter what you do, but that amp turned out awesome. And it's loud!
 
markd21 said:
A noisy M60?!? LOL, yeah....as mine got older they began having weird issues. Especially using the built in reverb. The reverb was always "bad" from the first new amp I bought in '90. I paid $1899 for an M100 head in 1990. Turned on the reverb and it had a built in "feedback" on the high-end. Rest of the amp killed, so I removed the reverb cables from the chassis and rocked out.

The M60 1x12 did the same.

The S120 head did the same.

Kinda pissed me off, but the amps gave me EVERYTHING else I wanted tonally. I mostly play dry, so the lack of reverb didn't bother me.
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That's a bummer.

I only paid £300 for M60 about four years ago. The amp is still in the family. I gifted it to a dear friend of mine who had a problematic gear situation during the pandemic years. Cream tolex, brown grill, 2x12 combo. It was a great amp for any money. To many pull-up controls for my brain, though
 
Simon Says said:
That's a bummer.

I only paid £300 for M60 about four years ago. The amp is still in the family. I gifted it to a dear friend of mine who had a problematic gear situation during the pandemic years. Cream tolex, brown grill, 2x12 combo. It was a great amp for any money. To many pull-up controls for my brain, though
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I liked those tolex M/S amps. Mine were the ugly-ass carpeted ones with the metal grilles. Yeah, for 300 it's a no-brainer.

Man, I LOVED all the push/pull options. 18 knobs and most of them pulled for tone changes!!!! I called the Rivera my "all-tube modeller". They originally came with a settings guide that gave you hints to sound like other amps. Were they accurate? No, but it was "close enough" for most situations. For me, I was after a great clean and a great distorted tone. The Riveras gave me the options I was after. Great sound with no pedals or effects.
 
Simon Says said:
What amp switcher do you use, Les?
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The KHE, this model. The switching is silent, and there isn't a trace of tone suck. Those little toggle switches are shaped like the ones on aircraft (I'm a sucker for that shape) and they're completely electronic. They make no noise whatsoever.

www.khe-audioelectronics.com

ACS 8×4 - Amplifier Cabinet Switcher — KHE Audio | Amp Cab Switchers

The KHE ACS 8x4 amp switcher lets you select and play all your heads and cabs instantly, in any combination, by a single push of a button. Instant A/B testing and amp shootouts!
www.khe-audioelectronics.com www.khe-audioelectronics.com
 
László said:
The KHE, this model. The switching is silent, and there isn't a trace of tone suck. Those little toggle switches are shaped like the ones on aircraft (I'm a sucker for that shape) and they're completely electronic. They make no noise whatsoever.

www.khe-audioelectronics.com

ACS 8×4 - Amplifier Cabinet Switcher — KHE Audio | Amp Cab Switchers

The KHE ACS 8x4 amp switcher lets you select and play all your heads and cabs instantly, in any combination, by a single push of a button. Instant A/B testing and amp shootouts!
www.khe-audioelectronics.com www.khe-audioelectronics.com
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I'm guessing that is more modern and effective than the Mesa amp switcher? I used one of those quite some time ago and was never confident that things were safe. Probably me more than the gear....
 
László said:
The KHE, this model. The switching is silent, and there isn't a trace of tone suck. Those little toggle switches are shaped like the ones on aircraft (I'm a sucker for that shape) and they're completely electronic. They make no noise whatsoever.

www.khe-audioelectronics.com

ACS 8×4 - Amplifier Cabinet Switcher — KHE Audio | Amp Cab Switchers

The KHE ACS 8x4 amp switcher lets you select and play all your heads and cabs instantly, in any combination, by a single push of a button. Instant A/B testing and amp shootouts!
www.khe-audioelectronics.com www.khe-audioelectronics.com
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Excellent, I was window-shopping them on the internet a few days ago. I'm considering ACS 4x4 at some point. I would take the FX loop.
markd21 said:
I liked those tolex M/S amps. Mine were the ugly-ass carpeted ones with the metal grilles. Yeah, for 300 it's a no-brainer.

Man, I LOVED all the push/pull options. 18 knobs and most of them pulled for tone changes!!!! I called the Rivera my "all-tube modeller". They originally came with a settings guide that gave you hints to sound like other amps. Were they accurate? No, but it was "close enough" for most situations. For me, I was after a great clean and a great distorted tone. The Riveras gave me the options I was after. Great sound with no pedals or effects.
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Yeah, it was a fantastic amplifier, yet I'm that sort of a guy who, once set with amp controls, is marking them with the pen and never touching them again. I'm still looking up Rivera's website to see what they do nowadays. Stage IV intrigues me, and I still have a forever boner for the Fandango. If Boogie will vanish from the face of the earth, which kinda did in the UK; Rivera will be the first brand I will turn my head to
 
Yeah. I'd be all over the Stage IV if I was still playing live. I'm also hooked on the Venus 6. I'd grab a Fandango, too. It seems like the next evolution of the M/S amps.

I had a R55 at one point and found it lacking the "oomph" of the big iron M/S amps.
 
markd21 said:
Yeah. I'd be all over the Stage IV if I was still playing live. I'm also hooked on the Venus 6. I'd grab a Fandango, too. It seems like the next evolution of the M/S amps.

I had a R55 at one point and found it lacking the "oomph" of the big iron M/S amps.
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I already know what my next amp is, but who knows, maybe someday. I respect Paul Rivera; such a heritage. Very underrated brand. In England, virtually unknown
 
markd21 said:
I'm guessing that is more modern and effective than the Mesa amp switcher? I used one of those quite some time ago and was never confident that things were safe. Probably me more than the gear....
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It handles 8 amps and 4 cabs. I don't think the Mesa does more than 2 ams and 1 cab. But I never checked the Mesa out in person, as I had 4 amps and 4 cabs, and clearly the Mesa wasn't going to work in my setup.

These types of head switchers are very safe; if there's no speaker load they won't switch at all, you can't even select an amp, and the switching itself is instantaneous. Amps that are "waiting" see a dummy speaker load.
 
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My fav live amp was put together by Pete Cage of Cage Amplification. It has a Fender 5C5/5D5 hybrid circuit. The main feature of this are the metal 6SC7 tubes. It has a tone and a volume on 2 inputs, and a volume on the other two. Pete wired each input to have a different sound. It's 20 watts, and I've never had it past 3 in the 2 years I've gigged it. even a twit like me can get a good sound, cause there aren't too many knobs to diddle with. I used to get lost when there were too many features. I use a Soul food for overdrive. Done.
 
Don't play live anymore, but when i did my main amp was a 100 watt Mesa Boogie DC 10, which i still own.
Being more of an at home studio player now, my go to is my Ceriatone AH 100 deluxe. Amp just rips!
Close second would be my Ceriatone Chupacabra that i had custom specd to match the headfirst cali amp.
Both in that modded marshall realm, but 2 very different animals.
 
I don't gig any longer. I still have my amps. I came close to selling them but I couldn't part with them.
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I had a long journey. Starting with a 20 watts two channel transistor combo in 1992, in 1995 I got a 100 watts tube amp head (acoustic Amplification G100T, made under the Californian sun in 1983). And then Line 6 entered the stage. POD -> POD 2.0 -> POD XTLive -> HD500 -> HD500X (additional purchased device: Line 6/Bogner DT50 212 combo) -> HELIX Floor.
On Musik Messe Frankfurt 2014 Hughes & Kettner long time employee Thomas Blug announced his own amplifier company. But I didn't give it much attention, because I was comfy with my Line 6 solutons.
A few years later the UK based cabinet company Barefaced crossed my path with their outstanding 3D sounding cabinets, especially their Reformer 112 (=1×12). I bought one. At that time I already had - bought by curiousity - Thomas Blug's 'bag size' Amp 1 amp. 100 watts, four channels, approx 2.5 lbs (1,2 kg). What a head room. His Metal voiced Iridium Edition sounds great clean, aswell in crunch settings. At full throttle there is great sound performance, too.
I had his Mercury Edition, too, but sold it, because the Iridium sounds better and offers a soft noice gate, when activating reverb.
The Barefaced cab was a transition towards something more individual and even more sophisticated craftmanship.
I ordered a custom made cabinet at Kammler in Hamburg, Germany.
In the 2×12 housing are a new, contemporary, light 12" Celestion Neo 250 Copperback and an used, old, heavy 10" EVM-10M. 12" w/ 250 watts, 10" 200 watts. 16 ohms. This cab is precise, sounds open and aswell 3D.
(The second picture has been taken at a Kammler meeting last year at the house of the host. We compared several 10" and 12" Kammlers. Here and there were the amps of the host standing in the house.)

Thomas Blug is likely publishing his new amp Amp X this year. Everything in house, but not a modeler and not a profiler.
The Amp X could be my last amp purchase.
 
DreamTheaterRules said:
I would rock that Esteban amp!
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https://imgur.com/KpW5wk4
Lol Still got this 5 watter with the experimental 3 inch speaker. Not the best but not the worst. The clean channel is trash while the OD channel is actually decent little circuit. It's a hybrid between a DS-1 and Mini Fuzz-Face (before Dunlop actually announced the mini fuzz faces of course.
 
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