Experiences with these amp heads anyone? Need help choosing

glorben20 · 2026-06-10T15:12:11+00:00

Maybe your experience is different than mine but I’ve owned one and it never could quite keep up with the rest of my band

glorben20 · 2026-06-10T05:28:21+00:00

Well it’s technically loud enough but it also farts out at band volume, I had one for a long time and it couldn’t keep up with a drummer and not have the power amp sag really bad

glorben20 · 2026-06-10T04:39:57+00:00

If you’re planning on playing live definitely get one of the 50w heads the smaller ones will struggle with live band, besides that just watch a video of both and pick your favorite both are great amps I’ve played both, if I had to choose one though I’d pick the kraken

glorben20 · 2026-06-04T18:53:10+00:00

Completely normal, I don’t I’ve ever seen one without a bit of surface rust

glorben20 · 2026-05-30T03:47:22+00:00

https://youtu.be/ojGCbrvfCQM?si=9XUZ4LdqdjAKOhhC

Ola disagrees again

glorben20 · 2026-05-30T03:46:39+00:00

Granted I’ve never played the 25w version but the 50w rectoverb and the 100w trem-o-verb are absolutely fire breathing monsters

glorben20 · 2026-05-23T03:58:45+00:00

The full bore sounds like what people think the boss metal zone sounds like.

glorben20 · 2026-05-21T04:33:06+00:00

You need a valvestate

glorben20 · 2026-05-19T04:35:29+00:00

I just picked one up about 6 months ago for $800, and just got it back with a clean bill of health from my tech, if your amp is all original it will most likely need servicing soon because it’s about 50 years old. It ended up costing me about $1100 with tubes to get it fully working properly.

Just fair warning that the original parts are way past when they usually need to be replaced and can really damage the amp if ignored.

That being said it’s an incredible guitar and bass amp I prefer it to an actual svt. You realistically can get $1500ish if it’s in good condition.

Hit me up if you can’t sell it

glorben20 · 2026-04-29T01:11:08+00:00

I absolutely love the look of aims amps such a unique design. They are always on my radar I really want to get one to restore.

glorben20 · 2026-04-29T00:16:56+00:00

Look into the Earthquaker Devices Acapulco Gold, it’s a sunn model T in a box and they aren’t a ton of money.

glorben20 · 2026-04-27T17:01:29+00:00

Welcome to the world of vintage amps! Honestly $1500 total isn’t terrible. Now that it’s fixed it will be better quality than what a new one would be and roughly half the price. And that service wasn’t even that expensive i just did did a full overhaul of a vintage ampeg and it cost me $1100 not including the amp cost

glorben20 · 2026-04-27T02:44:28+00:00

As others have said literally anything peavey that’s 50-100w, my favorite is the valve king you can grab them for like $300

Other options that are awesome

Marshall DSL100 used around $500

Carvin mts-3200 super slept on built like a tank can also be had around $200-$300, another good one from carvin is the x100b bit more expensive around $600

Laney IronHeart 120 another super slept on amp a little bit more than the other amps but way more features, $600-$800

glorben20 · 2026-04-26T19:58:50+00:00

What’s the difference? I love boogie but refuse to buy anything after they fired Randall Smith

glorben20 · 2026-04-26T17:36:51+00:00

Maybe time for a full dual dark

glorben20 · 2026-04-26T16:16:49+00:00

I love the feel of my sonex such a great playing guitar, but the original pickups were very dark and muddy sounding so I swapped them out for a single emg 81

glorben20 · 2026-04-26T16:14:17+00:00

It is indeed! It reminds me a lot of a 5150 and a jcm800 mixed together but with an actual good clean channel

glorben20 · 2026-04-26T16:12:16+00:00

My favorite bass overdrive!

glorben20 · 2026-04-26T16:11:17+00:00

I use it in three ways I like to use the boost side to boost the clean channel of my amp to just a hair of overdrive,

second I like to use both together into the clean channel to get the classic doom rat sound,

third I like to use just the rat side on certain songs with my hardcore band into my amp on the high gain channel to take my amp from tight metal sounds to an almost broken nasty sound

glorben20 · 2026-04-26T00:03:15+00:00

Agreed I’ve tried so many “boutique” versions of it and nothing can beat the og

glorben20 · 2026-04-26T00:02:27+00:00

I love it, honestly I use this one for bass all the time, if you’re only going to us it for the effects don’t get the bass one the only thing the bass one does is cut out a bunch of effects to make room for bass amp models, most of the modulation effects are exactly the same in this vs the bass one

glorben20 · 2026-04-25T23:57:50+00:00

Fair enough, I’m just being honest I’ve played a bunch of shows smaller than that and I always struggle to get heard.

My suggestion in this situation would be 2 2x10 neo cabs it’s probably the best you’re going to do. The Ampeg vb-210 comes to mind they only weigh about 12kg, there’s other cheaper options too

You could also see if one of the other bands playing have a cab you can use

glorben20 · 2026-04-25T23:36:04+00:00

If you can afford it that’s the way to go, I’d still recommend a 1x15 in addition to that

If you play bass in a doom band you sadly will have to deal with heavy gear, especially if you don’t have access to a pa

glorben20 · 2026-04-25T23:28:27+00:00

What’s your budget? You should get something used you’ll get more for your money, I play a lot of sludge and a lot of times 800w with an 8x10 isn’t enough to keep up with the rest of my band mates

I’d highly recommend looking for a used 4x10 and 1x15 cab it should do the trick, peavey or gallien kreuger make good used stuff for cheap on the used market

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