Hi all you electrical heads,

I'm a metal guitarist and am looking to add warmth to my generic, digital, solid-state setup for a good cheap price. What brands/models does anyone recommend?

Here's my ghetto setup:
-Behringer V-Amp Pro (for distortion)
-Rocktron Xpression
-both of the above are controlled by a Berhinger FCB1010 Midi foot controller
-Randall RG80ES Solid State (irritated by it)

It's gotta be rack mountable and prefer Stereo or or 2-channel (same thing, right?) So, something that can add some tube warmth? Man, wouldn't it be great if I could replace the tubes in it with EL34's or something equivalent!

I'm not a rich guy, but have hopes of one day saving up to get a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier or even the Tri-Axis since it's Midi controlled.

All comments welcome!

If you want to see the setup yourself via Flash 6 interface:
http://homepage.mac.com/samikazesan/ds.htm
(minus the 400 Watt Ross PA...The Randall pushes both cabs now. I need to update it.)

-Dave

---------
http://lesch-nyhan.com

save up your money, keep an eye on ebay, and get a JCM800 (one-channel) head for $550. then throw out everything you have now.

isn't that what Kerry King uses? I heard his was actually modified for him.

That DEFINTIELY would be nice. What about effects? I love that Rocktron Xpression.

i have a digitech RP-20 that i've used for the past several years. i've pretty much stepped away from it in the past couple weeks, and got myself a nice tube head. the only effects i ever got into are EQ, compression, and gain. other than that, i never really used anything. i mean, on occasion, just fucking around or something. but in general, i'm not the biggest fan of effects on guitars, so...

what kinda effects are you using? chorus, flanger, delay, stuff like that?

I use effects somewhat on some of the songs in my band.

On one song, i use a phaser for about 30 seconds.
On another, I use a majorly mixed up sounds where it's like a noise echo when i hit on the strings. I call it "space." It's only for when the song tones down and the drums and bass are going off which is like 20 seconds.
I use tremelo as an intro on one song.
Oh yeah, and I have a wah pedal.

Those are just some examples. On one song, I use an effect for like 3 seconds.

I don't use effects 100% of the time. It's like putting ketchup on your fries, but you can't see them.

Otherwise, I use some compression and EQ.

well, sounds like you've got a really good grip on your effects and all, and your amp is what you hate, right? of my friends who have JCM800's, i can't think of one who's unhappy with it. i dunno. i got a traynor cause it's way cheaper, it's really similar to an old marshall, and it's supposed to be rather solid. they go for around $300 or so on ebay. i'll give you an update in a couple weeks if you want, after i get the new tubes in it and get my speaker situation straightened out. although, shit, for metal, isn't the JCM800 the answer? i dunno.

What type of Traynor is it?

As for metal, I always hear about Marshall and Mesa. I love the Triple Rectifier just because of how it uses the tubes and what I've seen live from other people using it here at Austin shows.

I wish Randall wasn't owned by Washburn because I hear they lost a lot of rep because of that.

i got a YBA-1A. it's a Bassmaster mkII. estimated date of birth is 1972. the guy i got it from did a couple mods to it to bring it closer to the specs of a marshall plexi. it's still really finicky and needs a bit more tweaking and/or untweaking before it's performing like it oughta. and it's way, way fucking loud. that's part of the tweaking i'm going through, is to quiet the damn thing down. if you're using a stomp box to get most of your distortion then that's a little different. i'm trying to use power tube saturation, which pretty much means cranking it up. i'm liking it so far, and once i get the new power tubes in a couple days (the power tubes in it now are supposedly the 30+ year old originals, so...) i'm hoping it'll get a little closer to where i need it to be.

i can't say for sure, but i have a feeling if you got one off ebay (((and i'd maybe recommend the YBA-1 (50W) instead of the YBA-1A (80-100W))) you might be able to get one that is un-modded and just slap some new tubes in it and be all set. i dunno. then again, if you wanna be able to get a super-clean tone out of it as well, the higher power YBA-1A might be better. beats me. i don't know shit about this shit except what i've learned in the past couple weeks. i don know that this amp has more power and punch to it than i know what to do with. i'm just trying to get the best distorted tone i can out of it without blowing my ears out.

yeah, marshall is pretty much spoken well of by most folks who own them, and folks who don't own at least one marshall amp often seem to want one, so... and nothing says "rawk" more than a marshall, right? i've heard mixed reviews of mesa's... some people love them, and some people say they suck. i can't think of too many people i've heard say that old-school marshalls suck. maybe some of the newer stuff.