Lee, some of those Randall heads are all SS; I think Cyclone and Warhead were a couple with no glowing bottles even in the preamp. The Valvestates were almost all pre-tubed (hence the name). The JC120 I remember particularly in the 80s. They have their fans, but not particularly in metal, where this thread originated.

Some players (the vast majority of bassists, a minority of guitarists) do go for the route of the cleanest possible power amplification with little coloration. The coloration can then be dialled in by the player using eq and pedals. The unpleasant distortion of SS is simply overcome by just upping the W, which can be done easily with little weight penalty (unlike valves).

Much as I love valves for pre and power stages, it is an ear thing and goes with my style. If someone else likes a pedal and a straight wattage-multiplier for their tone, that’s fine too, if it fits.

I’m a bass player, but I assume the same goes for the guitar pups. The covers should be non-paramagnetic and have no effect (I’d have thought).

Tone effects? I’d have thought none, but you know people with “the ear” – who swear that changing the knobs from plastic to rosewood has improved the sound dramatically 😉

I’ve not been quite that lucky. The nearest was seeing an old Laney about to go for peanuts on Fleeb and saying “Decided on my birthday present, yet?” I can’t imagine her considering any amp nice looking. I’m quite fortunate, though. Our ‘dining room’ looks like a ham-radio nerd’s workshop. Boxes of old tubes and the most knobs in a single room outside of a Snoop Dogg video. She’ let me off so far, but I’m due out tonight, leaving sproggy here while she’s got a ton of reports to write. Maybe I’ll be on the council housing waiting list tomorrow 😉

Fair point on the Randall. The JC120 is a fine amp for what it does (my guitarist still has one that’s some 20 years old) but, in fairness, doesn’t crop up at the usual hairy gig. More for the bloke sat on a stool playing an ES with strings he hasn’t changed in seven years 🙂

I’d rule out the valvestate on two fronts. I don’t think it was marketed (and certainly wasn’t taken up) as a serious pro setup. Also, all but the smallest bedroom combo used the hybrid approach with a 12AX7 preamp that I mentioned. Funnelly nuff, Marshall used the same trick with the Dynamic Bass System (DBS) with the capability to blend valve and SS preamps (much like that Randall V Max). I tried the DBS400 stack and initially expected the SS blend to be the ‘totally useless’ knob but was pleasantly surprised. For bass, it was quite nifty to dial in the SS for a clean funk or Weather Report tone (didn’t make me play like Jaco, though 😛 ) and dial back the valve tone I use more often for the indie-rock I usually do.

Lee, I think (I’m not dead cert myself) that the Very Metal amp requirements are different to classic heavy rock/metal. The standard, EL34 Marshall seems to sag and distort too early ( 😯 ). Just to check, I had a look at Marshall’s endorsing artists and there aren’t many of the Nu, thrash, death variety – mostly Maiden and suchlike.

Minuteman, I filled in the survey and viewed responses, including all textuals. So, I hope you don’t mind a few critiques that you might want to bear in mind.

Q14 got a lot of stick, and rightly so. You should have a clickbox for “have learned to play bass” and put this Q (along with 13) earlier in your survey. Once you make a respondent pause and say “Wha?”, you’ve lost the flow of automatic answering. In fact, Qs 13-15 suffer this problem.

Q6 Doesn’t really help you. It only gives you an idea of how the respondent rates him(her)self. Apart from a beginner, who will click on (1), and a sight-reading pro in the pit, who will click on (9), you end up with a classic Gaussian Distribution Profile. Everybody heads for 4 to 6. I suspect you have a low “5” score because many respondents were students and they avoided the obvious mean.

Q 10 if it were worded “Does bass guitar have any limitations when writing music?” would probably reverse your %s, even though the Q is essentially the same. Use of language is important for a straight yes/no answer.

Q 19 – Did you miss out the word “stringless”? If so, it looks like Q 17 anyway. If Q19 is as you meant it, you should put it earlier (

This might not help much, after all, you don’t want to choose a band because your Mrs likes somebody…

My previous band did way more regular rehearsal and gigging than my present one (in perspective, though; weekly rehearsal + approx monthly gig. Maybe record annually) and she put up with this far better than my current band. One of many reasons may be that the singing guitarist in the first band had a g/f who got on very well with my Mrs. We’d eat out, even meet up on holiday, so she put up with the band even though she didn’t think we were that great.

The current band’s guitarist is a bachelor (the songwriting and general push always seems to come from me and the rhythm player) and the Mrs doesn’t gel at all with anyone. Although we rehearse a lot less and gig almost never, she resents it more (not to instrument-smashing degree though). Is it possible to involve the other halves? Meals out, or a social drink?

Fine, Can. Sometimes a thread can be a thinly-disguised ad, so I just asked. Glad the axe works for all. What’s that brand on the headstock?

Don’t ask me if I’d rather have a ’58 over a ’59 LP, Lee. No 3-band boost/cut, some 10″ short on scale length, whaddoIknow? 😕

All I would say is that a 59 ‘burst came up, a globe of people wet knickers and it sold for $300k+. That’d do for me, although I’ll take an aunty’s ’58 if it’s under the bed. Sorry, bear with me, I’m just a lefty 4 or 5-stringer 😀

“The Canvey Delta Blues Boys” 😆 😆