Vox Or Marshall?

ianvomsaal wrote:

Amusing how the topic of this post has changed.
I've used a HOT ROD quite a bit for a few years now and have NEVER experienced any overheating - I'd love to talk to one of those ill feeling techs.
Every tech I've spoken with has said the HR's are fine amps (especially if you get the OMEGA mod, and maybe change the output tranny to Mercury Mag).

I beg to differ - that's NOT TRUE - it's an entirely subjective/judgmental statement.
Sure there are "American-Made" snobs, but there are just as many "UK-Made" and "Japanese-Made" snobs (I've seen it everywhere - it's not just in the US).
I won't hesitate to say that I own a few American guitars, but the guitar I've been using (almost exclusively for about a year now) is a semi-hollowbody
that was "MADE IN CHINA" - so I'm by no way "Ameri-centric" and have never thought "If it's not "Made in the USA", it barely exists" (actually far from it
since I love Marshall, Cornford, Hiwatt, VOX, & Orange amps - owned a few of each). I own a few Yamaha and Ibanez Electrics, a few Alvarez yairi, and have
owned a Guyton, Van Zandt, Moon, and Bacchus guitars (and funny, many of those are American knockoffs). I tend to take the ameri-centric generalization a
bit personally since I don't have a preference as to where the gear comes from, so long as it works well and gets me the tone I'm after.

- Ian

Entirely subjective generalization, correct, but still worth keeping in mind.
I didn't say American stuff is not good, I have a house full of it.
The Australian market is TOTALLY different to the US one, though, and needs to be appraoched differently. A second hand Blues Junior will typically sell for $900 on ebay, for example, and there is stock of available second hand stuff to talk of.
Our economy is much more closely tied to Asia, and this really affects prices and availability of stuff.
The tech in question is a bit hormonal and has little nice to say about any modern amp, AND only sees problem amps, but I was just passing along stuff I had heard, without vouching for it.

For 2K you might be able to find both.

Decent used Marshall DSL or Plexi head and a Vox or other EL84 amp then an amp switcher to blend the tones. Play a ton of different stuff before you completely decide.

Dr. Z. Matchless. etc.

My choice would be a Matchless HC30 or Clubman. DR Z has a few different excellent designs and if you are looking at Vox the Hayseed 30's are excellent. Also Fuchs, Two Rock.....Bogner Shiva.

The Mesa Heartbreaker or 4x10 blue angel should you come across them should peak your interest.

If you go the Vox route, remember this: there is NO better sounding overdrive for it than a Hotcake. Bear in mind, though ... this pedal sounds like arse through virtually every other amp out there. Fact.

Kegzy05 wrote:

Whats the difference between class A amps and class B etc??

While I'm admittedly no amp expert, I was able to ask an expert this very question a few years ago. There are many things that
distinguish Class A operation from Class A/B, and he went through it all with me starting from a rather technical standpoint.
In the end he gave me a fairly easy to understand explanation - so here it is in a nutshell:


-- The power tubes in a Class A amp are operating at “pretty close to full power” whether or not a signal is being amplified. As long as the
tubes are being operated at reasonable voltage and bias range we're okay. The beauty of this type of operation is that there is no
significant difference between the tubes work interval and its rest interval. The distortion products created by this method of operation
are very musical sounding and the overall tone has a pure quality. When combined with the right output transformer, the harmonic blend
created by the tube distortion characteristic and transformer saturation (that is to say, just past the point of maximum linear operation), is
rich, full and fat sounding. It sounds pretty much like an amp turned up loud even when it isn't because it's operating nearly full out in a sense.

-- In class A/B operation the tubes are getting a big break. When no signal is present the tube is essentially at rest. When you begin to play,
there occurs a transition from "off" state to "on" state between the push-pull pairs of tubes. This transition, known as the crossover region,
produces a noticeably different type of behavior typically referred to as crossover distortion. Crossover distortion contributes a harshness
to the sound which can give the amp an aggressive personality. This can be interpreted as a good thing depending on what you are trying to
accomplish musically. The real up side of Class A/B operation is its inherent efficiency. The simple fact that each tube has a rest interval in
its duty cycle allows the tube to operate at higher output during its work interval or "on" state. Thus, a power amp operating in Class A/B
will typically produce about 30% more power than a comparable Class A amp. Since the typical output transformer in a Class A/B amp
will not be required to operate at high continuous current, it will spend less time in saturation mode. This contributes to the clarity and detail
of the power amp sound. An additional advantage of Class A/B is that because they tend to run cooler, tube life can be extended somewhat.

For strictly comparative purposes however, the essence of the debate is sound quality.
We are attracted to the Class A sound because of its warmth, sonic complexity and rich harmonic content.
The Class A/B sound is more articulate, dynamic and gives us the sensation of immediacy.

I paraphrased a lot there, but I hope this helps your question - feel free to ask if you still don't understand.
Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

Kegzy05 wrote:

Well explained mate, awesome job thanks. I learnt quite a few things then. you do good work ian
yeah well i guess then in my situation perhaps the class a/b amp might be better. I mean I want a really nice clean warm sounding amp for when i wanna play clean but realistically i would spend alot more time in overdrive or with pedals.
I started worrying because the amps i have been looking at are not class A (except the orange 30 watt) but I'm not sure whether it will matter much with my limited skill level and my type of playing.
Is class A suited much to rock? i guess thats a big question to ask. perhaps i could use our wonderful friend mike mccready as an example (I have that disease :- iwannabelikemikeitis..) Although obviously more complicated, would his amps be class A?

Mikes uses quite a few different amps (he uses both Class A and A/B).
For example: His Marshalls are Class A/B while his Matchless are Class A

- Ian

in the words of my father....."It ain't the arrow.....it's the Indian"