i'm getting sick of the maintenance with a tube amp. any comments/suggestions?

randall cyclone, 300 watt solid with built in 9 band eq.
its under a grand, and the eq gets you some sick tones

tube amps are very little maintenance if you make sure you match impedances (make sure your head is of higher or equal ohm as the cabinet). You should rarely have to play loud enough to blow tubes. Make sure nothing is on 10, that usually causes the tubes to peak out and blow. You should be able to get a good tone without cranking an EQ knob or pregain to 10, so it's not a big problem. Make sure you are smart about turning it on and off (let the tubes warm up before turning it on and hit the standby button and wait a few before you turn it off). I've had my head for almost 2 years now and I haven't had to change a tube.

If you're gonna go solid state do it with a couple rackmount PODs.

You can turn it all off at once, but yeah always let it warm up for at least a minute.

DeOdiumMortis said:

I turn my standby on for a bit then turn it off. if you turn it off just with the power that pop sound you hear is a good sign that it's not the best thing to do.

TUBE. line 6 is close but just not as warm. my mesa has 12 tubes...yikes.

I turn my power and standby off together, never gotten a pop no matter what the volume is at.

DeOdiumMortis said:

what are you using? I've had that happen with 5150 and and older peavey my dad had that I can't remember the name of, but i ended up blowing one of his tubes by doing that. maybe it's the wiring of peavey amps?

Ampeg V7. I hug it daily.

that amp is for some reason better for guitars than for the basses it was designed for... its one fuckin heavy unit though.

Mine? It's a guitar head. Ampeg used to make guitar heads.

When did Ampeg quit making guitar heads? I've seen a ton of bands use 'em and I don't remember them ever making them even though I'm aware they have.

pretty sure they stopped in the early 80s.

hmmm i know a couple guitarists that use an Ampeg bass head for a guitar head and it sounds bad ass... i dont remember the name of the model line and i didnt know that ampeg made guitar heads so i figured you had the same thing as them...

you're supposed to turn the power on, then turn the standby on like 30-60 seconds later...

and when you turn it off standby off, then power.

i hate it when i see someone do otherwise really quick before i can say anything.

Even my drummer knows that!! We've got him trained up well.

dread_104 said:

What are you using currently? Al from goratory was useing that marshall mode 4( i think) at the NY show on sat. That sounded pretty good.

for me

in the studio tubes are the way to go

live mic'd power amp should do

live un-mic'd a head is better for the added volume my ada's just don't push enough air in my opinion especially if the room is full

Tube all the way. A 50 watt Tube amp will kill a 150 watt solid state any day of the week.
Tube maintenance is easy. Pre Amp tubes dont need to be replaced that often and they are cheap as hell. Power tubes should be replaced once a year and as long as the tubes are matched you dont need to bias the amp at all. But what you can do is when you get the amp set up make sure they dont bias it too high. That will pro long the life of the tubes.

handinjury said:

I think that this is the best head on the market right now. I used a Mesa Dual rec for three years with a rack and I don't think it even compares. I used to hate solid state and even Marshall for that matter but after playing this in the store it changed my mind. I know Susuki from Vital Remains just bought one and Mike from Brodequin picked one up a month ago. The tubed side sounds really good also, my freind Blue got a really good chunky tone running straight on the tube side. The solid state half is 350 watts so it doesn't mud out like most solid state heads do.

a review on the mode four i found:

"This is an amp for nu-metal kids its EXTREMELY loud.
The first "Classic" channel is basically trying to be a JCM by all accounts the CLEAN is dead lifeless no depth basically sounds like a cheap practice amp the CRUNCH is better the best mode on this amp yet is still POORLY trys to be a JCM its not even in the same league as the JCM2000 DSL100 which i can't stress enough is 10000xs the amp this will EVER be! it sounds like its trying to be an all valve head but fails SO miserably!
The second channel is where it goes from bad to worse bascially the MESA/BOOGIE rip off channel gain on both channels is amazingly over bassy flappy shrill sounding the tone matrixs makes it like a muddy wall of sound its absolutely HORRIFIC! this is the worst attempt at the MESA/BOOGIE tone i have had the misfortune to hear! it sounds like a solid state and for the price is a joke DO NOT BUY THIS AMP!!!
for the marshall tight crunch & bottom end go with the DSL ITS AN AMAZING AMP for crazy distortion go with the PEAVEY XXX or MESA/BOOGIE TriRec. The is so many better amps than this junk out there that are all valve and about the SAME PRICE!!!

"

Masa/Boogie is something I'd love to try, does anyone have a view on the 5150 II head/cab?

lol its about time brodequin invested in a head that might actually make their guitar tone sound decent.

having a nice sounding rig is key, especially if you play really fast shit all the time... otherwise it's impossible to decifer any of the riffs..

exactly. Thats why bands like Disgorge (cali) , signs of dying and anoxia sound so brutal and clear. Brodequin kills but records like festival of death just sound so funny because you cant decifer anything on that. I suppose on instruments of torture you can hear the riffing a little better but it still sounds like horrid fuzz haha.

IT'S ALSO all about the MIDS!!!!

I dont know about tube amps...but solid state works for me ....pod pro all the way...I built all my disortion sounds and the are sick...My floor pedal gives my 9 channels 4 presets on each channel wah pedal..volume pedal..And I can duplicate any cab I want. It does so much shit and Im loud as hell run through a crown power base 2 power amp. Alot of cable bull shit it can get annoying but Im always happy with my live sound and studio sound!! cool thing about the floorboard pedal...no stomp boxes and 9volts!!

Paul FOD said:


also the engineers fault. If he mic'ed that shit correctly and adjusted the proper eq he could have made that shit sound better, but I think these guys record their CDs in their practice space on a cheap 8 channel board or something of the sort without all the outboard gear to make it any better.

Otto/Wormdr1v3 said:

fuck new mesa shit. three channel dual recs with the same amount of tubes as the original. who needs 3 channels anyway?

i have the 5150 II. despite what people say about it having a weaker tone than the 5150, i think it rules. Plus if you can play clean witht he same EQ adjustments as you do with distortion you either don't care too much about your sound or have some really nice effects/pre-amp gear to make up for that.

Robdeadskin said:

damn right you don't! hehehehehe jk.

pod pro baby. just get a power amp that isnt flat out solid state to warm up the sound a bit. my mosvalve does a great job with that.

pod pro w/ a tube amp ;)

handinjury said:

blue said:

i know a store that has 3 or 4 mosvalve power amps reconditioned

baneofexistence said:

how much?

sick

RustedAngel said:

When I can afford the Pod, that's what I'll be running through, with possible bi-amping.