CHIESTER

Dang it, I brought my John5 Tele to Guitar Center in Lake Forest, CA to
try these tube amps out.  I am glad I decided not to sell this guitar.
It needed tube amps.  Playing through these amps were gloriously fun
cuz it made me forget that the action on my tele’s rather high.

I did my homework via internet, especially Harmony Central.

My first amp, Epiphone Valve Jr Head through a Marshall 2×12.  Not too
bad, just what I expected.  My younger sister would love this for her
tele, since it seems to love single coils.  With pedals, you can do
damage with this unit.  You can’t go wrong with a $99.99 tag.

My next one was a Peavey Windsor half-stack.  The clean channel was
diirrty. Even with the switch to Class A, low preamp volume, and your
guitar volume down, it’s not clean at all.  I want cleans that are
squeaky clean (my Fender spoiled me LOL).  But the OD channel rules!
You can cover a lot of musical grounds on this amp: from classic rock
to raging metal (for some who define metal, bring your pedal to make it
sound metal, this one’s metal enough for my ears).  For almost $800
bucks (tax probably included), you can’t beat this.

Peavey Penta. One word: CRAP!

Peavey 6505+.  This is glorious.  The cleans remind me of Marshalls
(um, EVH did play Marshalls though LOL).  Engage the od channel and
you’re in OD Heaven! I want this amp!

Mesa Boogie Triple
Rectifier Solo Head.  Expensive, yes. No wonder guitar player uses
these, all you need is right here!  You can cover basically ANY musical
genre in this amp!  Three channels, enuff said.  This thing is AWESOME!
And freakin’ heavy…

I have to come back another day to try out the Peavey Triple XXX and JSX half-stacks since they weren’t plugged.

I’m going through major changes in my life, that’s why I haven’t been here.

I will tell all as soon as I’m done.

More Tube Amp Experiments

I
haven’t been to Sam Ash in a while. I tried all amps with a LTD F-100
and a Fender 48th St. Custom Strat (which actually played better than
my John5).

So I finally tried the Peavey Valveking head.  The
Clean channel’s pretty good.  I just have a problem with the OD one, it
didn’t give enough kick like I expected.  Maybe an OD pedal like my
Boss Blues Driver.  I was even thinking of driving my true and trusted
DOD Grunge pedal, with the gain set to 0 LOL! I think with some EQ (and
I have two from DOD), I think it’s not that bad.

Next is the
Peavey 6505.  First I didn’t know how the Pre and the Post knobs
worked, so I just kept on playing until I stumbled its difference from
the OD channel.  Really reminds me of Marshalls, cuz I don’t like their
clean channels, but for those who could care less, they don’t even
bother switching!  THE OD CHANNEL RULES!!! Eddie sure knows what he
wants (oh I forgot, this is an updated version of the 5150, with a
separate EQ for the Clean channel). 

Then I tried the
JCM2000 Dual Super Lead.  Other than the JCM900 (I have yet to try the
JCM800), this is another Marshall that (rarely) got my attention. The
clean wasn’t all that bad, sparkly, yet the midrange didn’t bother me.
The OD channels were very versatile. Just the sponginess of it reminded
me of Mesas.  Maybe if I put on a Boss Noise Suppressor on the chain?

Anyway, that was treat being there at Sam Ash, considering they were closing in 30 minutes!