Marshall 2550 is one of the Silver Jubilee Models. Switchable 25/50 Watts ... cool silver grey tolex and a scrummy "silver" front panel.

Brad from Devil Gate Drive has one ... there are not too many in NZ at all. Very nice amp and easy to maintain.

Yeah, the 2555 is the big brother of the family ... 50/100W ... same preamp ... just a couple more bottles in the output section and maybe gruntier transformers ..

Hey, how about a little anonymity, anvil boy?

But....you're right. I guess you learn from your mistakes, and this has been a costly mistake. There again, it might be (and I am hoping) that actually it's just MY Mesa boogie that's a bit bung, not the brand itself. I've always thought they ruled until I owned one, so maybe it's just something's gone wrong on mine...

Also, I played a friend's Marshall TSL100 recently and boy oh boy is that a cool distortion - a meaty, characteristic marshall roar, but with more aggression than any Marshall I have ever heard. The clean on it is sort of lame though.

The only other amp I have really loved is a Fender Deville 4 x 10 combo. The clean got me all hot and bothered, but the distortion absolutely sucks. I guess you could buy a really hot distortion pedal like a G2D Classic or something for your dirty, but I believe an amp should have a good clean channel and a good dirty channel. Is that so much to ask? Like I said in my initial post, check out the Mesa MAverick combo - it's just amazing. Gorgeous clean, versatile dirty, and everything in between. And it's all Class A, baby.

I've been thinking about your "attitude is what matters" answer all day, and I agree, attitude is much MORE important than tone, but kick arse tone is nice to have, and I play better when I really dig the sound I am creating. That said, there are a myriad of amps I could have (and probably should have) bought for less than half what I paid that still would have done the job, rather than getting the Rolls Royce of guitar amps. Oh well, there are worse things than spending all your money on music equipment. Maybe I'll have an endorsement in a couple of years, and won't have to worry about buying amps at all. That'd be nice.

"About 90% of what people notice is attitude and not tone, it simply doesn't matter that much."

What a pile of shit...... attitued? what like as in Extreme sports, fido dido and leopard skin pants....you don't flash gear to sound good...ad sometimes sounding shit is the greatest thing in the world...but you have to make good exciting music otherwise your just posturing.

Sure the 'vibe' of a band makes a big difference...but know some really great people in bands that i just don't like....their attitudes might be great, but if ya aint got good tunes ya aint got shit.

Roland pretty much have this field to themselves. Unfortunately the special divided pickup that you whack on to your gat is six string only ... but really this is not a huge limitation ... you more than likely don't need to sample all seven strings anyway. On the older synths if you struck more than one string at a time the result was pretty awful. But check out the link below. I think there are some other models as well as the one shown.

As an aside I have a Roland GR 500 Guitar synth that I am fixing up for my nephew (he "inherited" it from my late brother) This is a first generation guitar synth that came complete with a special guitar. The guitar unit is an Ibanez copy of the trusty and extremely heavy Les Paul ... connected witha very nasty 30 way cable. You can certainly get some pretty funky sounds out of it and the sustain is just amazing thanks to the electromagnetic feedback that keeps the strings just ringing forever ... amazing ..

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I saw you guys used a cute little Orange amp when recording with Tom at Albany St (Dunedin!). I should have tried one out before getting the Mesa. Everybody raves about them.

Hell yes, you've got a great amp there eddie!

The roland jazz chorus is a pretty nice amp too.

Not too sure that removing a couple of the tubes is a great idea if you want to knock back the output power of your amp ... it would depend a bit on the actual circuit but I could see this upsetting things a bit. Once again, depending on the circuit and the valves used in the output stage it is probably possible to add a fairly simple switch arrangement to achieve a similar result with less likelihood of causing damage. There is probably plenty of info on the old interwebby thingee about this kind of mod ... any competent tech with a decent knowledge of tube amps should be able to do it for you fairly quickly ... if that is what you want.

I am about to start building (once the parts arrive from the US) a little tube amp of my own ... just to play around with really ... only puts out around 5 - 7 watts but has a reputation for being loud enough to gig with in small venues and anything bigger you just mike it up and whack it through the PA.

[ http://www.ax84.com/hioctane.html ]

hi Big stu, their is a guy in chch doing the same thing only 1 watt, specificly for overdriven tones in recording. If you want some info drop a line and I'll find out the ballistics.

SUCK

........... sorry couldn't help it

Apparently you can also swap the 6L6's with EL34's, which might help you get a bit more midrange grind from your power-amp.

oops, 2 el34s instead of 6l6's....

...theres only 2 6l6's in the first place. duh me

[ http://www.ilooklikeanasshat.com ]

face to name, i never knew, heh - your guitar sound is great, i think i told you at the time, your semi-hollow fender is just like magic, there's a haunting emptiness there, while not actually being an empty sound

you guys have such a good overall sound though and the biggest strength you have is not in your equipment but in the way you play together, each member's uniqueness and versatility shines off each other's ... haha and i liked your funkariffic bass player's between-song slapping, nice.

i've been listening to your EP at least two or three times a week since i got it, i didn't tell you guys at the time because i already had the copied one joe gave me, but i liked it so much i bought a copy at your release gig :)

no headswells please! hope you've got the monkey in a place of pride, heh :)

//isnt the guitar you are using the major determinent on an amps 'tonal value"

Well that's part of it. Some amps are better at certain sounds than others, and certain sounds call for certain gear. I would say the biggest determinent on an amp's 'tonal value' is the imagination of the player.

Yes I know what you mean... I personally don't really dig those modelling amps as much as having one good amp with one good sound. Teles are very versatile, good at making many different tones, probably everything except aggressive/hi gain sounds (which I think is where The Deputy is coming from), but even then you've got Tom Morello from RATM/Audioslave using one and getting some very Sabbath-inspired tones... like I said, the imagination of the player is a big determining factor in what sounds 'good'.

Personally, I love the sound of a tele plugged into a Twin, or small tube amp like the AC15 or Pro-junior. Really accentuates that bell-like upper-midrange chime.

Ever tried a Vox Valvetronix(or something like that...)
Its a modelling amp, with like half tube and half digital. It can mimic heaps of other amps sound almost to a t. Problem being the footswitch craps out every now and then, but apart from that its pretty mean. Heaps op presets and you can create all your own patches. Has a built in wah which isnt crap(surprisingly enough) and i has balls of steel.

Has digital delys, flanger, chorus, whammy, about ten different editable distortions and heaps more cool features. You can get a cab separatley if you really want it to crank.

I dunno. I like it heaps.

A very good mate of mine plugs a Les Paul into a Marshall JCM 900- he can really make it talk. He let me have a jam with it, and I couldn't get a good sound to save myself. I used to be a real Marshall sort of guy, now I guess I'm in the Fender camp tone-wise, although I wouldn't sneeze at a Plexi or Bluesbreaker... mmmmm

er... i dont have an old gibson- i got a holden graphic tho- with smaller valves- so its a 60w- not sure how this post happened- ¿buzz?

I found a Bison in a music shop in Palmy once. Played/sounded amazing as you would expect. It would've been geven better if it wasn't pink!

Actually, I think the correct name for the colour was 'salmon...' either way it was UGLY looking... they were having trouble selling it so it was reduced to some rediculously low price- I mean it's still a Burns, a pink Burns but a Burns nonetheless... no money anyway... *sob*