Best sounding SS amp you all have encountered?

[allsavy]

Probably the wordt sounding for clean but really cool for dry edgy overdrive tones with loots of bass ommpth is a 25 watt Traynor TS-25B with 1 15" spk. Rocks!...feedback swells and all !

[Brian H.]

Just a follow-up...
I just scored a bargain on an Ibanez 7-string that I'll be flipping. That 3rd channel on the RFX200S- with the stupid gain, produces the most sinister sounds ever heard in our house. We now have to get out the tele and find our happy place! I'm worried that the house will develop cold spots, and evp's will be talking straight from hell through the amps.

Anybody need a seriously dark chunka-chugga kind of guitar to frighten the neighbors (and maybe themselves)?

[dabear]

SS amps

Hmmm...I kinda liked my Lab Series 212 100w... with 2 12" speakers it really sang, but I never really could get the hard distortion I craved..still, it was indestructible! (sold it for, like, $100...shux..shoulda kept it!)

[kleptocracy]

Hi all!

Anybody else play an Acoustic 150? That was a very
powerful ss amp, super cleans. And the for bass players among us, I suggest a moment of silent respect for the Acoustic 370, which was the fattest baddest bass amp on the planet until the SVT came along.

I actually play a Peavey T-60 drop tuned through an Acoustic 140 pretty regularly. It actually does cleans very nicely on a guitar...for most of the fretboard. It lacks a little bit of spice on high notes, as you might imagine. Luckily, I don't need those too often...

[thumbs]

I had an Acoustic 135 (2X12 100 watt combo) back in the day. It didn't have any OD or distortion, but a decent reverb and tremolo. I used it for guitar for a while, then for keyboards. Even slaved a Fender Champ through it using a Peavey E.D.I. box. It was a reliable and versatile piece of gear. Other Acoustic users include Albert King, Mike Stern, and Spirit.
Another great SS amp is the Peavey Special 130. The Saturation control, combined with the parametric midrange could produce some nice tubescreamer like OD.

[aswellmap]

I have the Road 440. I'd like to sell it if you're interested. I live in Ca and will only be here till the 29th of August. I live in Spain but I'm in Ca visiting my parents.

[jrfrond]

I have to tell you, the new ZT Lunchbox amps, one of which I now possess, sound so good for SS that I STILL can't wrap my head around it!

Prior to that, I like the old Mike Matthews Freedom Amp and Dirt Road special for rock tones, and the venerable JC-120 for the best clean tones ever next to a Twin Reverb. Overall favorite SS is the Tech 21 Trademark 60.

[Gibsonman63]

Roland JC-120

The Roland JC-120 is hands down the best clean sound you can get from a solid-state amplifier. I bought my '70s pawn shop special for $165:

For rock and metal, you have to drive it with one of those '80s processors that sounds so crappy on my tube amps. Fortunately, there are tons of those around these days for under $100.

[defaced]

From what I've gathered, there are a few different versions of the JC-120, are there any that are considered to be "better" than the others?

[Gibsonman63]

To be honest I don't know about the different versions. I know that mine was made sometime in the 70's. Both the chorus and reverb on this amp sound great, expecially when used together. This amp will go from 1 to 10 without really changing the sound, unlike my tube amps where you have to find the sweet spot to drive the power tubes to produce harmonics. I would assume that the re-issue version uses newer manufacturing technology, which is not always a bad thing. From my limited experience in electronics, I am finding that for newer products, a lot of the manufacturers are cutting corners on the capacitors, transformers and speakers.

[Baxtercat]

I think the earlier JC-120s didn't have a variable control for the chorus so it's kinda full-on or off.
I do know you could dial in the chorus on the JC-77s [I ran a pair for a while] which allowed you to get a more subtle sound, not fully "underwater."

[tubeswell]

Someone offered to swap a Roland JC120 for one of my tube amps earlier this year, but I couldn't bring myself to part with my amp for that.

[teemuk]

I think the earlier JC-120s didn't have a variable control for the chorus so it's kinda full-on or off.
I do know you could dial in the chorus on the JC-77s [I ran a pair for a while] which allowed you to get a more subtle sound, not fully "underwater."

The JC-120’s have a switch labelled Vib/Off/Chorus, and the Speed and Depth potentiometer controls only work in the “Vibrato” mode. However, the “Chorus” feature was nothing but a Vibrato using fixed values for speed and depth.

Later on, some JC-series amplifiers (including JC-120H) labelled the control more accurately: Chorus (Manual/Off/Fixed). The potentiometer controls (now labelled Rate and Depth) naturally worked only in manual mode while fixed mode had - surprise - fixed values.

Both circuits were identical, only labelling in the front panel was different.

The initial, somewhat confusing labelling still remains in the JC-120 combos. I think the reason for this is that some people believe that Vibrato and Chorus are different features and would get upset if either one was suddenly “removed”.

Yes there are many versions of these amps. Since its a darn clean amp to begin with they all sound about the same. I think that you could spot some differences though assuming there was a change to A/B different versions. Some of those amps used (now obsolete) ICs in the preamp, some had discrete preamps, some had preamps based on OpAmps. The model of BBD chips and the chorus circuit has been revised few times, as well as the front panel switches (either rotary or rocker ones) and some of the features housed in the rear panel. There were also some minor differences that I can't remember from top of the head.

I don't know about the newest versions but based on how widely alternate revisions of JC-120's seem to differ I wouldn't be surprised if the new ones had a digital chorus (after all, manufacturing of BBDs has been discontinued) and two 60W chip amps for power section.

[BIGKAHUNA]

Best SS amp for me, hands down was the Peavey XXL Combo. Awesome practice amp with serviceable tone all the way around.

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the...I know I'll get hammered for this....Crate G40C. Dirt poor and trying survive in the 80's its all I had...actually mic'd it up and did a few shows at a hole in the wall bar. Ahhhh those were the days May I never re-live that again!

[Slobrain]

Wow,

Who would have thunk this thread would would live as long as it has???

Long live SS amps...

BTW, my favorite SS amp right now is a older Fender Frontman 25R with the metal grill on the front. Its a decent amp if you run it thru a 2x12 cab with celestions and only play it at home in the bedroom... I also run a Ibanez Distortion charger pedal and a digidelay pedal on the clean channel though using a custom made strat.

Good for just noodling. I don't know if it would work for a gig though since I do not gig anymore due to health problems.