The Guitar Thread • Page 11

I think they both do clean pretty well. Vox does have a distinct chime to them

 

that and orange handles drive a lot better

 

I just think the Orange is more versatile.

You have to mess with the Vox a lot to get a distortion tone that sounds smooth and creamy and not just overly percussive, sharp and jagged - as EngineDown said, the gain response isn't as good. I feel like its a great amp if you like sticking to country, folk rock, Beatles-style classic pop and jangly indie rock. But you kinda have to rely on a pedalboard if you want it to excel at any heavier guitars.

I have owned that AC15, a Hughes & Kettner, a Marshall JCM800 and JCM900... my Tiny Terror's distortion tone is better and easier to "shape" than all those imo, and the AC15 is the only one that has better cleans. Even then, once I paired my Orange with a Celestion Blue speaker, it started to sparkle a lot more when playing cleans and sound more like AC anyway.

 

tbh, unless you're using like a verellen or a sunn, you should probably be relying on a pedalboard for heavier guitar anyways. just imo.

 

I got lucky, they only had the floor model of the Tiny Terror head left in stock, so I haggled and they sold it to me for 400. Didnt seem to be used that much anyway, if anything the tubes were just broken in for me.

 

Well, HEAVY yeah. I used that word lightly, I meant for like punk chords and stuff

 

i have like three dirt pedals for three stages of gain and run the amp as clean as i can get haha

 

yeah I'm with you, when the volume situation is appropriate nice amp distortion is awesome unless you're going super heavy. pedals do seem to have come a long way since I started playing guitar, though, and I generally run two dirt pedals to go distorted nowadays. more for convenience than anything.

It's funny, I have a klon clone and I don't think it's all that worth it as a boost or dirt in itself but it's transparent enough to my clean sound while making my dirt pedals sound 324235325x better.

 

Lol I'm so the opposite. I used to use a MXR Custom Badass Modified OD pedal to boost my Vox but I took it out of the chain when I got the Orange, because the Orange just sounds so perfect on its own.

All I do now if I want some kind of boost is gently raise the highs and reduce the lower mids on my Boss EQ pedal, just to make the notes cut and shine more for jangly chords and leads. That EQ pedal also has a natural distortion to it that actually sounds pleasing if you use it SUBTLE.

Outside of that it's just a Digitech Jam Man stereo loop pedal, and Boss DD-20 delay for timing and atmosphere (i picked that one because it has bpm, I suck at tap tempo.) It's not that I'm some kind of pretentious guitar purist, I want some more pedals for sure... but I do think that if you can get a great sound in a simple way there's no need to overcomplicate. And I prefer to focus more on my playing than my feet live.

 

Is it a pain lugging around a board big enough for 3 pedals dedicated to gain? my rig is only 5 pedals if you count the tuner.

I've been pretty happy with my 2 gain options for years. A trusty ts-9, and my amp's gain for specific needs (different amp gains fit different needs). Sometimes I'll combine them but only for certain sounds.

Practicality is a big piece of it for me. My rig gets moved around a lot between tracking with different people/projects and shows/tours. It needs to be quick/easy setup, and have versatile sound options. It also needs to be a fast troubleshoot/fix if I get to some shitty bar in the middle of nowhere for a gig and nothing is working.

 

nah. its easy. it has handles haha. also, i mainly use it at home, since i havent been in a band since i moved two years ago

 

Also, love both the tiny/dual terror and the ac15-30's. Won't go wrong with either really, unless you're after a specific sound they don't have.

 

from what I can tell in here, you know what you're doing and probably play quite a bit. You should be playing in projects more! What part of the country are you in?

 

im in south carolina right now but will be moving to charlotte in may. hoping there will be more opportunities there. for now, im just tinkering with stuff with a few online people. tough to find people in this area that don't want to just do jason isbell sounding stuff haha

 

Ah yeah I've never lived out there but I can imagine it might be tough to find people with the tastes you have. That's how I felt while growing up in Florida at least.

Good luck with the move! If you get any projects going post it in here!

 

Got the byoc CE2 clone for my bday, hasn't come in yet though. Can't wait, finally jumped on the chorus wagon again and this one should be perfect. My board is like 90% of the way to my dream setup, a good fuzz and a smaller tuner and it should be set for pretty much forever.

 

for some reason i just can't stand the sound of chorus haha, least favorite modulation for sure

 

Not a fan of chorus either. I really like a nice clean amplifier with an overdrive to push it.

 

Yeah I was super anti for a long time but I tried to ripoff Johnny Marr on a song about a year ago and it turned me onto it again. I like it a lot from time to time on picked out stuff...very rarely get into the big, chorused-out strummed thing.

 

I'm the same when it comes to portability. It's the main reason I downsized to an AC-15. Now I want to downsize to an AC-10 as the thing is only 28lbs. I've had no issue with volume with the 15 and the 10 was LOUD when I cranked it in store.

I use a pedal train nano and have only 3 pedals. Tuner, Overdrive, and Dispatch master which is a delay/reverb in one.

Also I only want my amp to have 5 or 6 knobs. nothing more. set the things to noon and be done with it.

 

dirt, reverb, delay, and phase for me. phase very rarely

 

On the amp front, I would throw an Egnater Tweaker into the mix. Can be bought as a combo or a head, very versatile and won't break the bank. I've had my Tweaker 15 since 2011 and it's been great. I actually brought it back from Florida in my suitcase.

 

I used to hate flange but now I'm interested in experimenting with it. It's cool to use with some post rock sounds

I don't use chorus alot and I dont have a pedal thats dedicated to it but I do have 2 pedals that can do it.

 

I recently got an analog delay and it's completely blowing my mind with how it sounds. I've wanted that sound forever but didn't know it. Got a memory boy. Dark and moody repeats and like the most crazy modulation I've heard in a pedal. You can do bleeps and bloops with it. Already my favorite pedal.

 

I so nearly bought one of those years ago, but ended up taking the Way Huge Aquapuss instead. The Memory Boy is a lot of fun though.