Category: Jam Session
So, just curious, Does anyone have any idea of what type of head and cab to get? I'm wanting to get a cab with four twelves in it, but I'm not sure whether or not to get a tube head or not... Does anyone know what the difference in sound is? Also, does anyone have any recommendations on prices?
Thanks,
Chris
Well the first question is what kind of music are you looking to do? I am gonna take a shot in the dark and say some kind of hard rock or metal? Ultimately In the end I would say go to a store and try some stuff out if you can. But here are some basics guidelines to go by. Solid State is considerabley more inexpensive than tubes, that and Solid State just works, Tubes every 6months to a year or so based on how much use they see etc needs to get replaced which can be somewhat costly to maintain I am guessing in the $50 and up range which may or may not include labor if you can't do this yourself. That being Said Tubes Have a "warmer" sound, and "sags" or is "spoungy" sounding. Tubes also is a bit more sensative to your fingers and picking than solid state tends to be. That being Said Solid State has come along way and there are alot of Killer Solid State Amps out there .. I pretty much spent a good part of last year making frequent trips to Guitar center and other places trying out a bunch of stuff while saving up some money to get an amp. So here are some reccommendations Solid State half stacks. The B 52 LS100 series, The Crate FlexWave or GTD series (pretty much the same but different cosmetically), and The Peavey TransTube Heads. I believe all of those Heads are in the $300 - $350 range. As for Tubes I personally Like the inexpensive Peavey ValveKing Head which is about $530. There is another Peavey called the 3120 and Another Brand named Bugera that have similliarly priced Tube Heads but I havent Tried them yet but heard good things from people who have. Other wise you are looking at about $1000 and up for a tube amp Head alone. There is also one other Amp type and that's digital. These amps are made to digitally "model" the sounds of all the famous Tube and Solid State heads and cabs and effects and the like and its a great all in one solution. And the technology has gotten to the point where these sound as good as you can get with out the real thing. The Peavey Vyper is my favorite for those, though the Line 6 Spider and the Behringer V-Amp are very good as well. Though I don't know how Blind friendly the Modelling amps will be as There are alot of funtions and not as many knobs so there is a lot to remember as there will be multi button pushes or the like. However You can program these and save your favorite sounds as presets. I had the Behringer V-Amp for a while and the hardest thing was knowing what model amp I was using, but if you are going just by sound that shouldn't be an issue. Oh and also while i haven't played one myself If you are a fan of Dimebag Darrel of Pantera Fame, you may want to check out the Dean Black Tooth Grin Half Stack. Its a very Simple 2 channel 3 band eq on each channel setup . Ibelive that one is $350 each for the t head and cab. Ok before this runds on any longer I'll stop here for now. Hope this helped