Tone advice

[Andy123]

I'm looking to downsize and upgrade my guitar rig.

I like the idea of not lugging a 4x12 cab around. I've fantasized about having a valve preamp pedal and a small power amp, both of which I can throw in my gig bag along with my leads. Imagine turning up to gig with only your guitar in one hand and bag of gear in the other. Assuming there's already a cab onstage that some other generous soul lugged in and will let you use, you're all set.

I like the AMT SS20 pre amp pedal, but can't find anyone in Australia selling them.
https://youtu.be/Zlakr2OpOks
Assuming I get one, I've got no idea what to do about a power amp. Any suggestions?

For my tone tastes:
Metal distortion used to be my top priority, and so long as the clean wasn't unusable I'd be happy. Now most of my playing would be clean. I'd still love to dial up a face melting distortion on occasion, but I suspect there won't be many such occasions.

This made me think maybe I should start with a top quality clean sound, and a Fender Twin seemed like a logical place to start. It'd be smaller than the head & 4x12 monstrosities I'm used to, but not quite as portable as the rig-in-a-bag approach mentioned above. The main issue is, how the Dickens does one make a Fender Twin djent?

I could possibly stick something like the AMT SS20 in the effects loop, but I'm not sure they'd be a good match (I know a lot of distortion pedals don't play well with Fender amps).

Long story short, I've a got a Les Paul, and a desire for:

• Portability
• Valve tone
• Quality clean with the option to get over-driven and completely distorted.

What would you recommend?

[Andy40]

I got nothin.....sorry, I do not djent. The blues cube is fantastic, reliable and light but it simply will not give you the distortion sound you are looking for. You would need a stack of pedals.

[corsair]

The Boss Katana seems to be able to do all of that... and then some! Note I don't have one... yet, but I've read nothing bad about them as an amp.

[Dedman]

How much power do you need? EHX do a 40watt amp in a pedal size box. Add a boutique valve distortion pedal maybe? Those Aus made Boc ( I think) pedals sound pretty impressive. Wampler do some pretty nice pre-amp pedals too.

[Brownsworthy]

Orange Tiny Terror Dark

[ILRGuitars]

I bought myself an early birthday present of a Boss Katana 100w single speaker. I love it. The clean and acoustic settings are very good. It has 3 distortion settings to chose, gain and pre-volume knobs, and best of all...you can pre-program 4 channels for the tones you like. Also, by using the Boss Tone Studio online, you can choose, adjust and save from over 60 different pedal sounds. It has 3 power settings from 100w to 50w, down to 0.5w for home use. It's light weight ( about 15kgs) and frankly it rocks. I went through the whole Marshall, Fender, Roland research thing but after I took my axe to the retailer and tried it out...it sold me. My recommendation is to try it out, along with any other amp you are looking at, and make your decision from there. Good luck mate.

[ILRGuitars]

P.S. There is a 100w Dual speaker available too.

[Andy123]

Thanks for the input guys. Dedman, those suggestions really had me thinking. Brownsworthy, that Orange looks like a lot of fun, but my OCD would be twitching over the lack of an EQ.

I've spent many years and dollars on using pedals to dress up the tone of solid state amps and putting expensive pick ups in cheap guitars. Hopefully the sale of my accumulated "budget" gear will get me most of the way to one or two pieces of grown up gear.

It's valve or nothing from here on in I'm afraid.

I'm pretty sold on the AMT SS-20 for a pre amp. The question is whether I'd pair it with a rack or pedal power amp, or plug it into a Fender Twin. I was concerned it might not be a good match for a Fender, but it seems to go alright plugged into a Hot Rod Deluxe:
https://youtu.be/jOUHc1yIjCI

If I don't go for a Fender amp, my power amp options seem pretty limited. They're either solid state pedals or rack units that are mostly stereo and so over-powered you could play a stadium gig without a PA system. I really fail to see the point of that. They're also a bit too big and heavy. I'll need to be loud enough to be clearly heard next to a drummer, bass player, and maybe the odd bit of brass - but not loud enough to blow the windows out of the venue.

This seems to be the best compromise I've found: http://rnramp.com/products/PWR_150

...although yet again, its an obscure bit of Russian kit like the AMT pre amp. It's mono, all valve, and has the option of being 20w or 50w - which is plenty loud for a valve amp.

So I guess its that or a Twin Reverb re-issue - unless anyone knows of another power amp option more widely available but similar to the one linked to above?

Oh, and some of you might be interested in something I accidentally discovered along the way on my journey: a pre amp with a power amp tube in it so you can get power amp break up sounds out of a pre amp. It's from "The Tone God" and its called a "Tubeulent" https://www.thetonegod.com/tubeulent_overview.html

[Fretworn]

Not really to sounds that you are looking for in this video, but Mary Spender released a video with the Katana the other day.

[Dedman]

this was the valve od I was thinking of
https://www.facebook.com/bockeffects/