hemmelight
Roadie
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- 494
Over the last few months I've been trying to decide on a new Marshall-esque amp for Madison Square Basement.
I've gone 'round the houses considering all the options and driven myself a bit nuts in the process. I know that I want tubes and Marshall-flavoured tones in something reasonably sized and simple. I'm aiming for DLR-era Van Halen tones with the option of turning the gain down and playing some Thin Lizzy - that kinda zone.
Actual real Marshalls are laughably priced in North America except for the "studio" line, but even those are pushing it. I finally got to play the little JCM800 and it was cool, but it didn't blow me away or anything. I'd like something more versatile as well. The little Plexi sounds great on paper, but it's frankly unusable for playing at home volumes. Thirty seconds plugged into one confirmed that for me. I wish Marshall had just installed a PPIMV from the factory. Yeah, I could use my attenuator or pay to have a PPIMV installed, but that's more money added to something that's overpriced in Canada from the get-go. Plus I don't think an attenuator squishing that down to 85-90ish db is going to sound right anyway.
I also tried a couple 5150s last year (both the Iconic 80-watt head and the 50-watt 5150III), but they aren't really my thing. I liked the Channel 1 crunch mode of the Iconic the most, because it was the least-compressed sounding, but it still wasn't quite what I'm after.
After trying those other amps the obvious choice is Friedman. I really dig the sounds of the BE-100 but can't justify spending that much money on something like that. Plus it's fuckin huge and I only have a 1x12 cab.
It's a big-sounding Barefaced Reformer cab, but would still look ridiculous with a full-size head on top. The Smallbox is intriguing, but it's also quite expensive and frankly overkill for my needs. Ditto for the BE-50.
Enter the new Pink Taco V2. It's got a really wide range of tones and a (presumably) good master volume. I like that it has that Friedman flavour but with some vintage Marshall bite added back in. And yeah I know there are folks here that are allergic to EL84s, but this thing ticks all of my boxes otherwise. I've never owned a big-iron EL34 amp in my life anyway, so maybe in this case ignorance is bliss.
On paper the PT was practically made for me and I'm loving the sounds on Pete Thorn's demo. I've probably watched that and @BigHairyGuitars's demo about 50 times since they were released.
The only way for me to try this amp is by ordering one, so I've done exactly that. It's coming from the other end of the country but I'll update this thread once it arrives!
I've gone 'round the houses considering all the options and driven myself a bit nuts in the process. I know that I want tubes and Marshall-flavoured tones in something reasonably sized and simple. I'm aiming for DLR-era Van Halen tones with the option of turning the gain down and playing some Thin Lizzy - that kinda zone.
Actual real Marshalls are laughably priced in North America except for the "studio" line, but even those are pushing it. I finally got to play the little JCM800 and it was cool, but it didn't blow me away or anything. I'd like something more versatile as well. The little Plexi sounds great on paper, but it's frankly unusable for playing at home volumes. Thirty seconds plugged into one confirmed that for me. I wish Marshall had just installed a PPIMV from the factory. Yeah, I could use my attenuator or pay to have a PPIMV installed, but that's more money added to something that's overpriced in Canada from the get-go. Plus I don't think an attenuator squishing that down to 85-90ish db is going to sound right anyway.
I also tried a couple 5150s last year (both the Iconic 80-watt head and the 50-watt 5150III), but they aren't really my thing. I liked the Channel 1 crunch mode of the Iconic the most, because it was the least-compressed sounding, but it still wasn't quite what I'm after.
After trying those other amps the obvious choice is Friedman. I really dig the sounds of the BE-100 but can't justify spending that much money on something like that. Plus it's fuckin huge and I only have a 1x12 cab.
It's a big-sounding Barefaced Reformer cab, but would still look ridiculous with a full-size head on top. The Smallbox is intriguing, but it's also quite expensive and frankly overkill for my needs. Ditto for the BE-50.Enter the new Pink Taco V2. It's got a really wide range of tones and a (presumably) good master volume. I like that it has that Friedman flavour but with some vintage Marshall bite added back in. And yeah I know there are folks here that are allergic to EL84s, but this thing ticks all of my boxes otherwise. I've never owned a big-iron EL34 amp in my life anyway, so maybe in this case ignorance is bliss.
On paper the PT was practically made for me and I'm loving the sounds on Pete Thorn's demo. I've probably watched that and @BigHairyGuitars's demo about 50 times since they were released.The only way for me to try this amp is by ordering one, so I've done exactly that. It's coming from the other end of the country but I'll update this thread once it arrives!
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