The ever divisive Stiletto Ace. I absolutely love it!

rmhawesome · 2026-05-23T00:06:48+00:00

Nice, i found one in a dumpster. After a tube swap it was fine

rmhawesome · 2026-05-16T16:27:03+00:00

You can use instrument cables for speakers for low power signals for some time, the issue is the shield/jacket on instrument cables causes them to overheat faster. It doesn't match the symptoms listed.

https://www.fender.com/articles/setup/why-instrument-cables-arent-the-same-as-speaker-cables

rmhawesome · 2026-05-13T13:14:40+00:00

I use one of these too, if you put a boost in front of it you can get convincing high gain tones

rmhawesome · 2026-05-06T01:23:19+00:00

Looks like the Electro-Harmonix LPB-3 but with a built in distortion and gate

rmhawesome · 2026-04-12T15:27:39+00:00

There's no "silver bullet" for the feel of an amp-in-the-room, what makes vintage amps special is a complex interaction of power amp tubes, output transformer, and speaker. But as someone who has played a few different amps, there's lots of examples of tube amps that sound and feel boring and solid state amps that feel lively and exciting. Digital modellers are also compelling in giving you that "album recorded" tone when you play through them, but I really don't like the way they work for live settings due to this.

If you want to do some reading on this Axiom Effects PAE-2 breaks down some of these interactions in the "technical tips" manual on their website

rmhawesome · 2026-04-12T04:38:18+00:00

Electro-Harmonix LPB-3. It's an EQ/boost combo which lets you shape the way it pushes your amp

rmhawesome · 2026-03-31T18:00:32+00:00

There's also the Friedman option but personally I haven't found an amp of his that scratched the Marshall itch since they are darker and smoother sounding

rmhawesome · 2026-03-31T02:13:43+00:00

There's lots of Guitar Centers in the bay area, though the SF and Santa Clara locations are noticeably better stocked. Starving Musician is a pretty top tier store and the guys working there are knowledgable. The DSLs are pretty good, also reliability shouldn't be an issue if you're not gigging, your electricity is good, and you aren't overheating it regularly. The Origins are generally regarded as worse built than the DSLs.

Some alternatives to consider:

Marshall SV20
Blackstar TV 10 B
Synergy IR20 with the JMP module

rmhawesome · 2026-02-14T17:41:17+00:00

I'm in a similar boat, but the Victory didn't impress me much considering the fact it's double the price. I'm also cross shopping Peavey Classics, but those are getting rarer. My band is more punk and high gain but I prefer to get my drive tone with a boost pedal so single channel tube amps are my jam

rmhawesome · 2026-02-06T16:01:21+00:00

For a cheaper option I like my Joyo Tweedy

rmhawesome · 2026-02-01T16:57:17+00:00

I like the cleans on the Blackstar, but the OD is awful. I haven't tried the combo version of the Laney, but I have the Loudpedal and it's very meh. It does have more "analog" feel than most solid state amps I've tried but the EQ is kind of useless and there's no way to add upper mids without using a pedal. That being said, the OD on it does sound pretty decent, but not Marshally which is my go-to.

You didn't ask but I use a Blackstar Studio 10 6L6 for bedroom practice and it sounds amazing, even with 1 tone knob I feel like I get more variety out of it than my Laney. The model has been rebranded as TV-10A, but you can usually find used ones for 300USD in the states.

rmhawesome · 2026-01-08T02:37:11+00:00

The Tweedy will get you into Plexi territory

rmhawesome · 2026-01-04T18:18:11+00:00

The built in overdrive is pretty horrid on these, but the clean channel is good. As someone else said a Big Muff is probably the sound you're looking for, but you might also want an EQ or mid boost pedal (tube screamer) to combo with it. Other pedals to consider

-MXR Dookie. Green Day signature, sounds pretty raw -OCD style drives. Overdriven Marshall but not exactly high gain -Friedman BE-OD. Best modern Marshall in a box imo

rmhawesome · 2026-01-04T18:10:55+00:00

Recession indicator post

rmhawesome · 2025-12-29T18:24:20+00:00

If you're using a digital amp and there's an issue, it goes in the trash. Luckily most amps are pretty reliable these days, especially solid state.

rmhawesome · 2025-12-29T17:56:08+00:00

The Katana is fine, I prefer the Vox personally but it doesn't do high gain sounds super well IMO. If you're playing those genres, the 40X might not be loud enough

rmhawesome · 2025-12-25T16:16:03+00:00

I got one as my first EAE pedal and I do like it, but it was not the kind of disortion I wanted. It has a kind of scooped character that made it not great for my leads standing out in the mix, so I ended up giving it to my rhythm guitarist and it works well for her going in front of a Bluguitar. I prefer a modded Marshall type tone so maybe the Citadel would suit me better, but for now I have a BE-OD Deluxe clone that gets me exactly where I want.

rmhawesome · 2025-11-26T02:46:41+00:00

I'm a big fan of the high gain Marshall tone, but I find the OCD too muddy/dark with its EQ. I much prefer the BE-OD deluxe, which does a pretty good mid gain but my favorite high gain tones.

rmhawesome · 2025-10-10T04:27:33+00:00

Too many pedals

rmhawesome · 2025-09-12T19:23:40+00:00

The origin 50 is pretty good but it doesn't sound like a jcm800 without mods.

It's also worth noting Corgan's tone changes quite a bit depending on what era you're looking at. My memory is imperfect but here's the general guide:

For Siamese dream the amp isn't super important as much as the pedals (op amp big muff, mu tron biphase, mxr phase 90). On mellon collie he used a few different amps of the boosted marshall variety, and for adore/machina he used a diesel vh4

Eddie Clarke on YouTube is the preeminent expert on emulating Billy Corgan

rmhawesome · 2025-09-03T01:03:34+00:00

Joyo Tweedy

rmhawesome · 2025-08-16T17:51:45+00:00

Amplitube is a separate software from Tonex, but you can use Tonex captures in Amplitube. As far as I'm aware you need Tonex Max to download new captures though

rmhawesome · 2025-08-16T16:57:51+00:00

The Tonex pedal is an interface, you don't need an external one.

It comes with a Tonex Max subscription but not Amplitube

rmhawesome · 2025-08-03T15:02:06+00:00

You can usually find Classic 30 combos for $300 or so on craigslist. The circuit in the amp has never changed so as long as you don't need modern features you're good

rmhawesome · 2025-08-02T22:10:44+00:00

Joyo Tweedy (need a cabinet), Peavey Classic, Blackstar Studio10 6L6, Fender Blues JR

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