Guitar Equipment

[TacoTaru]

Ok, so in the next month or so I will be finishing off buying/paying for my bass stack, and I'm looking to upgrade my guitar equipment next. I noticed there were a quite a few on here who played guitar in the last thread, so I was just wondering what everyone preferred as far as head/cabinet went.

Right now I have an Marshall AVT 412 cabinet that I used when I used to borrow my friends JCM head....problem now is he pawned it off for rent money and now I'm without a head. I'm considering:

Buying a JCM head to replace, but I'm not sure on their durability. Anyone have any personal experience? I have a small Marshall combo I use around my house, but it shit out in less than 2 years and has all kinds of wiring problems. If I drop $1k on a head, I don't want the same problems.

Peavey Triple XXX head/ Peavey Cabinet. A guy who played in a different band had one of these, and I liked the sound, but I seem to remember him having constant problems with this setup. I've never been a huge fan of Peavey, but I've had a few friends tell me to go for this setup.

Orange. I've only gotten to play on these once many years ago, and there isn't a guitar dealer around me who carries them, but I absolutely loved the sound of this amp. I think they're a tad pricey too, and figure in the cost of shipping, I'd probably be pushing $3.5k at least. Does anyone have any experience with these to validate paying this much? Like I said, I only have once, but this was a when I first started playing so it was all "OMG" worthy at the time. I've did some very brief pricing and found I can get head/cabinet for 2.5k, but this is before any shipping cost.

Price wise I'm looking at around $1.5-$2.5k for head/cabinet. Usability is mainly for clubs, smaller venues. Style wise, I do a lot of punk/hardcore.

[Eckskalibur]

I've been playing guitar for about 9 years and have played with a lot of various equipment. The biggest question is what kind of guitar tone are you looking for? What kind of music do you play?

To summarize the amps you mentioned:

Marshalls: Their tube amps sound great. If you can get your hands on an old JCM for a good price I would definitely consider it. However, Marshall is known for the fact that it is not the most reliable equipment. (At least between my personal experiences, my friends and music stores.. which is enough evidence for me.) I have a solidstate 100w combo that I have had repaired on several occasions and an old JCM head that sits in my studio because it constantly overheats and I can't afford to have it fixed. I do highly reccomend Marshall Cabs. The 1960 A cabs are fantastic.

Peavey: I personally never got into Peavey amps. All of their amps seemed to just be remakes and models off of other amplifiers. The XXX just has the appearance of a Triple Rec and sounds like a knock off. A lot of my friends are into the 5150. Actually, both guitarists in my last band had the 5150 and the matching cabs. And the guitarist in my current band is looking to get the same setup. Which I guess is good for them. Just not my preference really.

Orange amps sound great. However, they cost a lot of money. My friends band in Philly has one of their guitarists sponsored by Orange. Now that is the way to go. If you get sponsored by them, then of course get the gear haha. However, if you're not sponsored by them I wouldn't invest in it. Same thing goes with Soldano. Soldano heads are great. However, the price is just not worth it.

Currently, (and for the past 5 or so years) I have been using a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier with a Mesa Cab. I absolutely love this amp. The tone is great and it's incredibly loud. So needless to say, that if I had to reccomend one amp.. it would be a Mesa. I haven't had any problems with it in the past 5 years aside from tubes needing replacements. Get yourself a Triple Rec or a Dual Rec and a Mesa cab or a Marshall 1960A cab and call it a day.

[Guitarman]

Been playing for around 12 years myself.

All these suggestions are based on the assumption your into rock.

I use a line 6 spider atm. Nice range of tones, and moderately priced. I'm not in a band at the moment so this suits me fine for personal use and recording. As for which i would think is best? Mesa no question. As the above poster said, theyre loud as fuck and have a killer sound. The sound is very aggressive i guess is the best way to describe it. Very pricey though. Fender makes a decent amp; the sound is warmer than the mesa. Marshall is overused in my opinion. Yeah its got nice sound but it seems alot of musicians pick these up because its the cool thing to do.

[TacoTaru]

Currently, (and for the past 5 or so years) I have been using a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier with a Mesa Cab. I absolutely love this amp. The tone is great and it's incredibly loud. So needless to say, that if I had to reccomend one amp.. it would be a Mesa. I haven't had any problems with it in the past 5 years aside from tubes needing replacements. Get yourself a Triple Rec or a Dual Rec and a Mesa cab or a Marshall 1960A cab and call it a day.

What's a good price range on Mesa Boogie? More curious as to what you would consider a decent price used since I'll probably look into that first. But if I turn up empty handed there I'll probably look into new, also.

I can't believe I forgotl about Mesa Boogie. >_>

1960A Cab is what I was looking at also, but I wanted to wait and see what head I picked up before swapping out of my AVT cab, even though it's junk for anything I'd swap to.

[Dmitry]

If you play with nothing but distortion on, I would suggest a Crate head. I've had mine for about a year and a half now, and haven't had anything to complain about with it. I can't find the model I have online right now, but when I get home I'll find the box for it.

[Eckskalibur]

Currently, (and for the past 5 or so years) I have been using a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier with a Mesa Cab. I absolutely love this amp. The tone is great and it's incredibly loud. So needless to say, that if I had to reccomend one amp.. it would be a Mesa. I haven't had any problems with it in the past 5 years aside from tubes needing replacements. Get yourself a Triple Rec or a Dual Rec and a Mesa cab or a Marshall 1960A cab and call it a day.

What's a good price range on Mesa Boogie? More curious as to what you would consider a decent price used since I'll probably look into that first. But if I turn up empty handed there I'll probably look into new, also.

I can't believe I forgotl about Mesa Boogie. >_>

1960A Cab is what I was looking at also, but I wanted to wait and see what head I picked up before swapping out of my AVT cab, even though it's junk for anything I'd swap to.

To be honest I don't know what they run for used. But I know you can check out Ebay. I know a few friends that bought it their used. I probably would buy it new (from personal experiences anyway.) Just because you always know what you're getting when you buy it new and I am wierd like that.

When I bought my Triple Rectifier the head was 1599$ and the cab was 899$ I believe. You can cut corners by buying the 1960A cab. The mesa cab is fucking incredible but two things going against it.. It is the heaviest thing ever and it's pretty expensive. I believe the Dual Rectifier was around 1299$ but don't quote me on that. I haven't been to a Guitar Center in a very long time. I used to go to play the gear I couldn't afford.. then I bought it. I'd still like some new guitars of course.. but I'm rather satisfied with my collection of Fenders.

[Creeps]

If you play with nothing but distortion on, I would suggest a Crate head. I've had mine for about a year and a half now, and haven't had anything to complain about with it. I can't find the model I have online right now, but when I get home I'll find the box for it.

Crate heads are probably the biggest pieces of shit you can buy. Orange if you're rich, Mesa if you're well off, Marshall if you're poor, since you can find a million of them for sale in your local newspaper.

If you're playing the punk/hardcore I'm thinking of, you want more of a crunchy distortion and not the feedback-ridden garbage a Crate will put out. Definitely go with a Triple Rec.

[Dmitry]

I haven't had any problems with feedback while I was playing. I also run it through a 25w Dansville amp since I don't have extra money for a cab yet.

[Eckskalibur]

If you play with nothing but distortion on, I would suggest a Crate head. I've had mine for about a year and a half now, and haven't had anything to complain about with it. I can't find the model I have online right now, but when I get home I'll find the box for it.

Crate heads are probably the biggest pieces of shit you can buy. Orange if you're rich, Mesa if you're well off, Marshall if you're poor, since you can find a million of them for sale in your local newspaper.

If you're playing the punk/hardcore I'm thinking of, you want more of a crunchy distortion and not the feedback-ridden garbage a Crate will put out. Definitely go with a Triple Rec.

I'm definitely going to have to agree. Sorry. I really hate Crate amps. I had one for a little bit and it was just literal garbage. I am not saying that people don't have them and enjoy them. Because I suppose anything can happen haha.

My friend bought a Blue VooDoo last year.. Broke a week later. Trash. However, they did allow him to return it and gave him a more expensive amp for free. Which is pretty sweet.

But avoid Crates if you can. Go with the Mesa.