What is the most complex tube amp ever made?

[laxu]

What do you think is the most complex tube amp ever made? Not the best sounding, or the most practical..just what is the "boy, they crammed the Large Hadron Collider into this thing!" product that somehow ended up being made?

Strong contenders:

• Mesa Mark V:90
• Mesa Road King
• Hughes & Kettner Triamp Mk3
• Diezel VHX

What else is out there? Do you have candidates that maybe are not all about "this has a shitload of knobs, buttons or toggles" but are just very complicated as circuits?

 

[LCW]

ENGL E670FE Special Edition Founders Edition

 

[laxu]

ENGL E670FE Special Edition Founders Edition

View attachment 39104

So that's:

• 4 channels, with shared Bass/Middle on ch 1/2 and 3/4 but individual Trebles for each channel.
• Switchable Presence.
• Switchable Master.
• A bunch of toggles.
• The tube driver thing in the back as either a drive or 5th channel?
• Two switchable fx loops.
• Noise gate.

Yeah, that's definitely up there.

 

[newholland]

hahaa.. im gonna put early mark iis up there- not cause they have a lotta controls, bur because the few controls they do have are so interactive that you pull your hair out trying to get where you want to go.

20 knobs for four discrete channels? no prob. 6 push pulls for two with a shared eq... AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaagh!

 

[GTR37]

What do you think is the most complex tube amp ever made? Not the best sounding, or the most practical..just what is the "boy, they crammed the Large Hadron Collider into this thing!" product that somehow ended up being made?

Strong contenders:

• Mesa Mark V:90
• Mesa Road King
• Hughes & Kettner Triamp Mk3
• Diezel VHX

What else is out there? Do you have candidates that maybe are not all about "this has a shitload of knobs, buttons or toggles" but are just very complicated as circuits?

Probably the HK stuff
Something like a Grandmeister I mean you have tube preamp
Tube power
Redbox out
Chorus / flanger / phaser / trem
Delay
Reverb
4 voices Clean / crunch / lead / ultra

 

[Desertdweller]

What do you think is the most complex tube amp ever made? Not the best sounding, or the most practical..just what is the "boy, they crammed the Large Hadron Collider into this thing!" product that somehow ended up being made?

Strong contenders:

• Mesa Mark V:90
• Mesa Road King
• Hughes & Kettner Triamp Mk3
• Diezel VHX

What else is out there? Do you have candidates that maybe are not all about "this has a shitload of knobs, buttons or toggles" but are just very complicated as circuits?

Yeah the Diezel VHX has to be it. It has a full effects processor in it.

 

[EOengineer]

Triaxis maybe? Perhaps an edge case but 9 modes over nearly infinite channels.

 

[Desertdweller]

Triaxis maybe? Perhaps an edge case but 9 modes over nearly infinite channels.

If we’re getting into rack gear you have to bring in the Pirahna, Voodu Valve, MP1, JMP-1, Digitech 2112, etc., which all have similar levels of complexity to the Triaxis, and most are some type of Digital/Analog hybrids.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Yeah the Diezel VHX has to be it. It has a full effects processor in it.

Sounds like mediocre shit too.

 

[LCW]

So that's:

• 4 channels, with shared Bass/Middle on ch 1/2 and 3/4 but individual Trebles for each channel.
• Switchable Presence.
• Switchable Master.
• A bunch of toggles.
• The tube driver thing in the back as either a drive or 5th channel?
• Two switchable fx loops.
• Noise gate.

Yeah, that's definitely up there.

22 push switches on the front alone

 

[LCW]

JVM410 might be up there too...

 

[EOengineer]

If we’re getting into rack gear you have to bring in the Pirahna, Voodu Valve, MP1, JMP-1, Digitech 2112, etc., which all have similar levels of complexity to the Triaxis, and most are some type of Digital/Analog hybrids.

I don’t see why that’s an issue unless we are restricting criteria to full amps only, in which case I’ll happily play with my triaxis in the corner.

 

[EOengineer]

I don’t think it was the most complex, but the Marshall 6100 anniversary head was up there in terms of modes and channels IIRC.

 

[ChordInversion]

I have e good friend with a Road King 2x12 combo he's been playing for 20+ years. What a heavy beast it is. But I have to admit it has a huge range. And it can probably kill small woodland creatures at a range of 50 feet.

 

[FuzzyAce]

And it can probably kill small woodland creatures at a range of 50 feet.

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

The relays in a Mark V 90 make that one a candidate. I can also see the Road King.

 

[MatrixClaw]

Fortin Meathead?

 

[la szum]

I may know a guy.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I may know a guy.

 

[la szum]

Clearly, the Germans are leading this race.... but not without a strong fight
from Randall Smith in his F1 Mesa Mark Road King.