Best sounding SS amp you all have encountered?

[HTH]

best SS amp I've had was a Randall Titan 300w beast. cleans were great and spankin with as much headroom as you could ever want. the overdrive went from rock to metal with ease. admittedly it was geared towards the 'metal' end of the spectrum, but it had an amazing 'chunk' in the bass end.

[beginwhereUR]

the second worse was my first amp ever.....a 70's peavey pacer. Not as bad as that last one, but pretty horrible.

This is funny. I remember my Pacer from about 1977-78 sounding fairly awful too. But about a month ago I saw one at a swapmeet and bought it. Sentimental I guess. It was in decent shape, still had the original speaker, and for $45 (that's a dollar a watt, folks), I couldn't pass it up.

Guess what? It sounds pretty effing good! It's got a very snappy transient response without being overly dry and edgy, probably due to some Ge clipping diodes that are blended with the clean signal. The cabinet has a nicely focused tone and is made of actual plywood, although the baffle is particle board (which doesn't really make any sense). It even projected well in the context of bass and drums in a large garage/studio. The reverb is not too hard to listen to either.

I called Peavey, and not only did they send me a schemo and owner's manual, but the paperwork was original, not copies. Inside the chassis I was surprised to find a medium-sized coupling transformer between the preamp and the power section. Who knows, that might have something to do with the more forgiving sound.

Anyway, the Pacer exceeded my expectations by turning out to be more that just a memento. Maybe inexperience was to blame for how bad I remember it sounding. Now it's another cool sound in my arsenal. . . .

BTW, I was going to suggest a contrasting "Worst Tube Amp" thread, but someone beat me to it. As for that, I have a Mesa SOB that can sound as dry and brittle as any bad SS if not dialed in just right. Any tips for sweetening that thing up welcome.

[Liam]

Best one I heard was Wilko Johnson through an HH 100 watt 2 x 12 combo. Just love that mid 70s interpretation of proper percussive rhythm and lead guitar. Tried to play one once, but just couldn't get it to work for me in the same way.

I'd find it a lot harder to pick the worst, but the Fender Stage 160 DSP is high on the list at the moment. I know Peavey made a few versions of the "Bandit", but I can't rememebr ever playing one of the good sounding ones, if you know what I mean.

I nearly turned this into a new thread, but would anyone like to contribute to "Great tunes played by great guitarists using a transistor amp"?

I could make a start with Dr Feelgood, Wilko Johnson, "She does it right", from the Stupidity album. (In fact anything from that album.)

[Rxtele]

Roland Bc60-310 Blues Cube with three ten inch speakers
all kinds of controls and buttons to dial in the sound to approximate different sounds from the classic tube amps.

Can get some great tones from it, and it is rock solid, but still they haven't figured out how to dial in the warmth of a tube amp

[black_labb]

i have a fender frontman 212 r (100w amp with 2 12" speakers and reverb) not too bad an amp. nice clean sound and reasonable distortion. i hadn't owned a tube amp yet (atleast not a completed one) until last night when i picked up my monster

the solidstate amp is more versatile, but the gap may close once i clean the pots on the new amp, its been sitting in someones garage for 20 years so the pots are mighty scratchy, and there are only some spots where they make contact. ive got some cleaner so ill get going on that tonight.

[rf7]

Anyway, the Pacer exceeded my expectations by turning out to be more that just a memento. Maybe inexperience was to blame for how bad I remember it sounding. Now it's another cool sound in my arsenal. . . .

I used to gig with a Pacer with an EV 12L speaker inside and I thought it sounded pretty good. I did a punk rock record with it and people thought I was using a Marshall. It was pretty loud too, with that EV inside.

[shiner555]

Anyone mention SUNN amps?? I've been using the Sunn Coliseum Bass amp for some time, and man oh man, it is by far the best sounding SS head I've ever heard for bass. I even prefer it over my 71V4-B!

Also, Pearce Amps, were some amazing pieces of solid state gear.

[Manic]

A Roland JC comes to mind as a good SS amp.
The backup I carry is a Fender Ultimate Chorus...I pedal in for over drive tones.
The Clean is about as pretty as i gets for a SS amp.

[Bassman3]

Best sounding SS amp

For Guitar, Crate VTX-200S
For Bass, Ampeg SVT-200TH

[Chuck H]

Another vote for the Peavey Bandit.

Chuck

[olddawg]

Marshall Lead 100 Mosfet. One of the most misunderstood amps out there.

[Chuck H]

You know, I never owned one so I didn't put it through alot of paces, but I once played a GK head at Guitar Center that had the most tube like distortion circuit I ever heard in a SS amp. That was probably around 16 or 17 years ago.

Chuck

[fogonero]

I have a Fender Princeton Chorus, great Amp, at least for me, Maybe I'm not that demanding, but I could use any channel, any time. Using the distortion channel with not too much drive and adding a BOSS superoverdrive before the amp is just fantastic. Plus, It has enough volume to kick with presence in a band situation.

[rexindigo]

Had a roland jazz chorus once , the clean sound was incredible, but the distortion sound was poor, after all it was stolen and i got a musicman hybrid instead.

But for me (just in my commemoration) the best overdriven solid state amp sound i ever had, was my very first (japanese) little guitar amp with 6 watt driven hard by a solid state microphone preamp, sorry i can't remember the name of it.

I bought a little amp called MARATHON some months ago at ebay and although the speaker is much to small, the overdriven sound is great with a 4x12 cab it sounds really fat: lots of gain with all volumes full up (two gain stages and a mastervolume) i think its called MGA-20 or so

[malbi]

Ss-ampeg 150

I was using an ampeg svt pro-3 thru an 8x10 cab forever. the other day it crapped out on me. as a back up, i had my dad's old acoustic 150. i had never played bass thru it before and when i plugged it in, i was blown away. no it does not have a hifi sound or is it extremely tweakable but it is LOUD. i am playing it thru my 8x10 cabinet and it is awesome. i haven't even taken my svt pro-3 in for repair because i like this sound so much. it has the perfect growl.

as a side note, my dad also gave me the 6x10 cabinet that he bought with it. i use that for guitar. i am playing a jcm 800 thru it and it sounds incredible. every gig i play, people are amazed by that cabinet. it is pretty rare and it sounds awesome.

i am however, nervous about taking this head and the cab out on the road too much as it would be hard to replace them...