best sounding high gain solid state guitar amps for metal?

VOLVO))) · May 30, 2012, 09:38:53 AM

Quote from: liquidsmoke on May 30, 2012, 02:51:51 AM
Quote from: SunnO))) on May 30, 2012, 02:07:04 AM
Man, you are putting too much thought into it. Unless you're using forty feet of speaker cable to go from head to cab, energy loss and heat dissipation won't be an issue, nor will the resistance become a factor. Plug the fucking cable into the cabinet, plug your pedals into the amp, plug guitar into pedals, and fucking play the thing. You're trying to re-invent the wheel, when in actuality you're going to end up with a guitar tone that sounds like the rest of the "metal world."

I think your "gain" search is in vain, because most of the best metal tones in history have been a result of "less gain" more "good guitar playing."

I suck balls at guitar relatively speaking but I can strike a power chord just fine and THE LANEY WASN'T WORKING OUT SO I'M TRYING NEW SHIT, okay? Holy fuck. If some of you are so sick of me and this thread why do you keep posting in it? Am I making sense? I think I've asked some very reasonable questions for someone who has never owned a SS head or used a power amp before. You yourself were talking about running a Metal Zone(of all things) straight into a power amp!

I'm not reinventing the wheel, I JUST NEED A LINE LEVEL SIGNAL and I'm getting a boost to do so which will probably mean the end of this thread now that I know I won't burn or melt anything running upwards of 500 watts. I'm not a fucking amp builder or electronics tech school guy, okay? I'll definitely think twice before starting another thread here.

You offer suggestions and then get pissed off when people don't IMMEDIATELY follow them. That's not how life works. I APPRECIATE what you've had to say about amps, Les Pauls, etc but there are many options these days as you know and learning about and experimenting with gear is a process that takes time and at times quite a bit of thought and consideration.

My gain search is in vain... I should just use whatever gear I've got and be done with it, as if that's what you do? That's a joke. JCM800? No thanks, not spending that kind of money.

I don't play extreme metal by the way so those clips, yeah I can hear the tone but the context is off. I fully realize that the sound I'm going for is very metal normal. And? It's what I want right now. Do you think I believe I'm going for something special or out of the ordinary? $180 is a lot for a pedal but it's a lot less than what an 800 or a Mesa costs. Okay I'm done, fuck this thread. Someone please delete it.

edit: I overreacted a bit. Thanks for all the info everyone.

I don't give a FUCK if you follow my suggestions, you just seem to be AVOIDING all of the reasonable ones and can't seem to figure out why your tone is less than you want it to be, and now you seem to be diving into the "well, if I change speaker cables I heard that you can get more high end out of orange ones than black ones" territory. You have one of the sickest preamps imaginable, and a gigantic poweramp for it to push. I don't quite understand what else you could want. Get an EQ, put it POST, get a compressor, put it PRE, and play the guitar, dude. If you want UNBEATABLE CLARITY and PERFECT NOTE SEPARATION, get a VHT to or a Fortin, an Engl, etc. Get a fuckin' ADA preamp for your poweramp. I'm glad you have questions and shit, but I get pretty pissy, after "tone searching" for several years, I find that plugging my guitar in and twiddling a knob or two on most amps will get pretty much what I'm looking for. It isn't rocket science. Understand the tone stack, and you can eq in or out pretty much anything.

I'm not really sorry for being a dick, it really rustles my jimmies when everyone gives you proper, good advice, and for the most part... you ignore it and start changing around nitpicky shit like pilot light color (exaggeration.)

Hemisaurus · May 30, 2012, 11:14:00 AM

Three things

Play Nice
liquidsmoke, put 20dB in the search box, this topic has been covered extensively in other thread (Sunn, much more needs to be stickied to avoid this)
Part of my gratuitous wall of speakers was wired together with 18ga wire of the kind that you get out of the dollar store, that was 2800W or so, 500W is nothing, doesn't even merit a Speakon

VOLVO))) · May 30, 2012, 11:58:22 AM

Yeah, but I dont want to litter up the board with stickies. You want to make a thread that I lock with wholly general information that gets no replies only additions as questions are asked through other threads? That we can do, but Im not stickying a bunch of bickering and bullshit, ya feel me?

RacerX · May 30, 2012, 12:04:04 PM

"Play nice," sez the guy who defaced a few pages of the thread with off-topic toob amp posts.

Is passive-aggressiveness "playing nice"? Just sayin'.

grimniggzy · May 30, 2012, 12:04:57 PM

for real tho guys...

whats the best speaker cable for metal?

VOLVO))) · May 30, 2012, 12:53:20 PM

what is downtuning?

grimniggzy · May 30, 2012, 12:55:29 PM

what is... tuning?

RacerX · May 30, 2012, 01:01:38 PM

What is music, for that matter?

grimniggzy · May 30, 2012, 01:33:21 PM

Wat iz notez?

Hemisaurus · May 30, 2012, 03:07:14 PM

Quote from: SunnO))) on May 30, 2012, 11:58:22 AM
Yeah, but I dont want to litter up the board with stickies. You want to make a thread that I lock with wholly general information that gets no replies only additions as questions are asked through other threads? That we can do, but Im not stickying a bunch of bickering and bullshit, ya feel me?

Err, maybe

How about one sticky thread of 'General Technical Info' for both amps and guitars and pedals and stuff, that we add to as any new question arises, and one sticky thread for technical questions, the technical Q thread is full of crap right now, and doesn't need to be 30 pages long. We could condense that into a couple of pages of useful, understandable information.

ryansummit · May 30, 2012, 05:30:34 PM

fuck the internet alltogether
youre all invited to drumcircle/holistic massage/dance around maypole/jamband weedout
at my place this weekend where we can work out this tension
with face to face encounters and good vibes

my address is www.myfilthytent.com
its located near my heiny hole

dunwichamps · May 30, 2012, 05:47:09 PM

some general info threads would be nice, possibly with moderated input so we dont clutter that fuckin shit up.

Mr. Foxen · May 30, 2012, 06:45:02 PM

What we really need is a wiki, that we can constantly refer people to in a patronising manner. There'll be techy fights in it though. About speaker power handling.

VOLVO))) · May 30, 2012, 07:06:27 PM

And which speaker cables are best for taming high end

liquidsmoke · May 31, 2012, 02:00:57 AM

No point in me responding to any of that.

Looking into ART stuff.

RacerX · May 31, 2012, 08:27:37 AM

This thread needs more Crate.

ryansummit · May 31, 2012, 09:36:59 AM

dammit dude
you dug up my buried treasure

grimniggzy · May 31, 2012, 10:02:12 AM

gotta give LS some credit for playin' it cool like that

congrats bro, you win the internet

liquidsmoke · June 01, 2012, 05:01:11 PM

The $30 ART unit adds too much distortion even when not clipping. Taking it back to the store.

Keeping the Ampeg. It fucking rules. Plenty of headroom. Can turn up the tightmetal volume somewhat without changing it's tone and even that is enough for practice volume. With an EH boost pedal I should be good. Not Buzzo loud but whatever. Will a/b split the signal to the TM for dirt and a Behr Sans clone for cleans and maybe effects and then back to a second a/b reversed.

Done with all of this, finally.

Czernobog · June 04, 2012, 11:06:46 AM

Randall are good amps.