Modern Metal Amps

[Mika555]

I will change the amp for a Victory v40 or V30 ad a 2x12" vintage 30 speakers.

Speaker swap or hook it up to a decent 4x12

The Valvestate speaker is sh!te and the biggest bottleneck

 

[Buzzard]

Johan's channel is proof time and again that it's all about the quality cabinet and speakers. His 1980s JCM800 4X12 with Pre-Rola Celestions makes every amp he plugs into it sound incredible.

Idk he kind of makes everything sound the same to me. With the exception of a kliptch cab I believe. That thing was instant early Black Sabbath.

 

[tresmarshallz]

I've had DSL, JCM, JMP, and they are all very nice. My current go-to that I have found can cover any ground, and I love the way it does crushing metal is the Orange Rockerverb MKIII. I did not like the RV MKII but the MKIII is fantastic and hate to say it, but it the tone I have always wanted to get from my Marshalls. That is not to say I don't miss the bright attack of the Marshalls which are a great compliment in a mix, but not my go-to base tone any longer.
Recently owned a 6505 for a year and was shocked at how different the tone is from it than any marshall/orange type amp...completely foreign sound to me, never again, though I do respect what certain artists are able to achieve with that line of amps

 

[Ufoscorpion]

I've had DSL, JCM, JMP, and they are all very nice. My current go-to that I have found can cover any ground, and I love the way it does crushing metal is the Orange Rockerverb MKIII. I did not like the RV MKII but the MKIII is fantastic and hate to say it, but it the tone I have always wanted to get from my Marshalls. That is not to say I don't miss the bright attack of the Marshalls which are a great compliment in a mix, but not my go-to base tone any longer.
Recently owned a 6505 for a year and was shocked at how different the tone is from it than any marshall/orange type amp...completely foreign sound to me, never again, though I do respect what certain artists are able to achieve with that line of amps

Sounds to me like you need to try an EVH .

 

[TheLoudness!!]

I'm a metal player too. I landed on the JVM410h for a number of reasons.

My favourite amp of all time is the Marshall TSL100. The problems you speak of re the JCM2000 DSL100 generally affect the entire JCM2000 range. That is the board becomes conductive causing bias drift, overheating and all manner of horrible things. Thankfully it's not a hugely taxing fix. It does need a tech, but a newer revision board is around £120 from Marshall themselves. So you can resolve the issue fairly easily or even have Marshall themselves do it for you.

But I guess your question is what amp. And as always, it depends.

While I can see that tweaking the JVM410h to get an instantly pleasing kerusshing brootz tone out of it may not be the easiest task, I did land on it simply because it's relatively easy to dial in once you spend some time with it and it cuts very nicely when it needs to. It's got a good few tone shaping options. I tend to stick to the orange modes on channel 3 and 4, one for rhythm and one for lead. Once you get a full band into play, almost any Marshall really plays well.

Another option is the 6505+. I used to run one live myself. Again very easy to get a great tone and if a million knobs and controls isn't your bag, then this may suit. I've heard all the options of adding boost pedals, treble boosters, etc. But personally I don't think it needs it. It's fine as it is.

The Mesa Dual Rectifier is a great amp but can get buried quite easily with the wrong settings. As usual what sounds great in the bedroom rarely if ever translates to a live tone.

So really, I would suggest listening to bands ideally on live videos or audio and seeing what set ups they use. Studio albums don't really give the full picture.

I did have the EVH 5153. I'm not sure which variant other than it was the 100w white one. I pretty much tired of it quite quickly and moved it on. For me, the 6505+ is the better amp. The Invective however is a VERY good amp. It's very similar to the 6505+ but has a much better control of the low end. It can do the djent thing if that's what you're after, but thankfully you can un-djent it which is what I'm after. I don't think it's worth double the asking price of the 6505+ but I'm not selling mine anytime soon for sure!

Back to Engl, the Savage is an excellent amp. The Powerball sadly is lacking. Again, it sounds amazing in the room but I could not get mine to cut through live for any amount of trying. As soon as another guitarist kicks in, it's buried. Shame really, it's a nice amp. But in a band context, it's pretty useless.

I owned an ENGL PowerBall and Fireball and I agree completely. Not all that loud for rated wattage. It would get buried in a mix easily. If the other guitarist was a playing a 5150 or something like Marshall with high mids, the ENGL couldn't be heard. Even with v30's!

I did have a Thunder that I liked even better than either the Fireball or PowerBall. The Savage is the ENGL to have.

 

[TheLoudness!!]

I've owned several high gain amps. I'm sure you have picked something by now but my picks are these based on experience. I don't know what the budget is. I prefer high gain that cuts through a mix.

*EVH 5150 iii 50w
*Fryette Pittbull or Deliverance
*Rivera Knucklehead Tre
*Splawn Nitro
*Marshall Jubilee reissue
*ENGL Savage
* Marshall DSL Green mode pushed with a tube screamer. You'd be surprised...

If you have plenty of money. Wizard MTL. I unfortunately don't lol.

 

[slade]

Yes, definitely the Pittbull or Deliverance. And like we’ve seen others post, the rectifiers, rockerverbs, 5150’s and the ubershall.

 

[Ufoscorpion]

5150 iii’s cover a lot of ground , my lbx ii for instance will pretty much classic rock through to the highest of high gain really well with ease . It’s also freakishly loud for 15 watts .