Back-up amp dilema!

[ragingben]

So guys, I have a few small gigs coming up in the next few months, and am currently amp-less due to my H&K Tubemeister 36 being back in Germany being repaired. It should (and I say 'should' very loosely because of shipping/repair times etc) be back in the UK in time for my first gig with it early March, but to be honest I've lost a fair bit of confidence in it. I'm defiently feeling the need to have a back up amp, which I would be running throught the H&K's 112 cab for now, looking to expand sometime in the future.

The band I'm currently in play a lot of cleanish sounding songs, not sparkly jangly clean, but nowhere near crunch. At home I play a large range, but it tends towards heavier stuff, punk/hardcore/Oi! etc as opposed to metal, which I do play with other bands occasionally.

So I need something fairly flexible, but as it is intended to be mainly a backup it doesn't have to match everything I would expect in an ideal world perfectly.

So far, I have these 3 optioins lined up, in accending, radicaly varying order:

Orange Micro Terror - Small enough to carry around easily for sure, could just leave it in the guitar case. Got a feeling clean headroom will be a major issue, and possibly volume through the 112. Nice and cheap at around a £100, only one tube to go wrong. Anyone able to comment on gigging with a 112, especially for cleaner stuff?

AMT Stonehead - Four channels, all of which sound great - as far as I can tell through demos. Solid state, which I'm viewing as a good thing as it means no tubes to go wrong, and very light and small. Sounds really nice (again as far as I can tell), defiently does the cleans and the heavier moments - actally the crunch sounds fantastic from what I have heard too. At around £450 it would be a little more saving, but I would only have to face the early March gig without it as I should be able to scrape together some cash by April. Footswitchable, which is a big plus for those quiet/loud/quiet moments, I must say that I am very intrigued by this thing. To be honest I haven't heard a word said against it in it's very short life.

Kempler Profiler - I know there is a MASSIVE jump between the other 2 and this, and there is no way I would be able to afford it for a loooong tune, but could sell a lot of other gear to offset the cost a bit. Probably go for the powerhead version which is due out in March so I don't have to fanny around with a sperate power amp/powered monitors for home playing. In theory could actually replace my whole rig (I know in the long run GAS would have me buying pedals etc again though, you know how it is ). Loving the idea of this, plus could just run through the PA with a small board for gigs. Perhaps this is overkill... in time I reckon it might be the main amp and not a back up. Hugely expensive for a guy like me at £1700~ for the power amp version, and it would mean no back-up for the foreseable future, but good things come to those who wait or so they say...

Anyone have any expeience gigging the Micro Terror for small gigs with a 112, especially cleanish? Or any comments on the AMT? Anyone have the Kemper and use it as their main amp now?

Any advice or other suggestings much appreciated. What I'm defiently not looking for is another lunchbox valve head or similar.

[John_A]

A very mixed bag of choices there. I say get the AMT and let us all know what it's like, I'm dying to try one

Seriosly, I think the micro terror might struggle a bit for loud clean, but the other two are OTT for a backup amp, I would scour ebay for a cheap & cheerful head, maybe a dual terror, or a blackstar HT or something like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hayden-HGT...item2a28fcac54

[ragingben]

Haha yeah to be honest I am defiently GASing for the AMT! I know both the AMT and the Kemper are waaaay OTT, but I do this thing that I'm sure a lot of us on the forum do, it goes like this:

1. I watch a demo/decide I need a new bit of gear, start looking a cheap and cheerful
2. Notice that the next model up/competitor has superrior options and reviews, decide to save a bit more for the better option
3 Repeat step 2 between 5-10 times until the amount of money I originally intended to spend has swelled beyond reason
4. Purchase gear, enjoy brief honeymoon period, sell and repeat

I have moved away from the idea of a micro terror, to be honest I think I'd miss the clean cleans. It's a shame no-one seems to know much about the AMT aside from the metal community, maybe it is a good indication that it is a one trick pony, although having the four channels I would imagine it is versatile!

Something like the dual terror would be cool, but I'm not after another lunchbox head or small tube head to be honest.

[Kebabkid]

Get a Roland Cube 60 and these can be had for as little as £100 but usually around the £120 mark.

It's not valve or a head but it's light, portable and loud enough, has some good clean selections but the Blackface is probably the better one, takes pedals well, can run an extension cab and it's SS so no valve worries. For an SS amp, it's not as sterile as some might think. The effects are useable too and the overdrive amp settings are also very good, especially at home.

Good luck with the 36 too!

[monquixote]

The AMT looks funky cool, but all the YT demos are just ultra gain chugging so it's impossible to know what it sounds like for non metal.

If you get most of your gain from pedals then a ZT Lunchbox/Club might be worth a look.

The solid state amp I always wanted to try was the Trademark 300. They are somewhat hens teeth, but sometimes show up on Ebay.
http://www.tech21nyc.com/archive/trademark300.html

[ROOG]

Haha yeah to be honest I am defiently GASing for the AMT! I know both the AMT and the Kemper are waaaay OTT, but I do this thing that I'm sure a lot of us on the forum do, it goes like this:

1. I watch a demo/decide I need a new bit of gear, start looking a cheap and cheerful
2. Notice that the next model up/competitor has superrior options and reviews, decide to save a bit more for the better option
3 Repeat step 2 between 5-10 times until the amount of money I originally intended to spend has swelled beyond reason
4. Purchase gear, enjoy brief honeymoon period, sell and repeat

I have moved away from the idea of a micro terror, to be honest I think I'd miss the clean cleans. It's a shame no-one seems to know much about the AMT aside from the metal community, maybe it is a good indication that it is a one trick pony, although having the four channels I would imagine it is versatile!

Something like the dual terror would be cool, but I'm not after another lunchbox head or small tube head to be honest.

Items 1. to 4. For one moment I thought you were reading my mind, where we differ is that I don't seem to be able to sell anything, I just collect stuff, tons of it!

[ragingben]

Get a Roland Cube 60 and these can be had for as little as £100 but usually around the £120 mark.

It's not valve or a head but it's light, portable and loud enough, has some good clean selections but the Blackface is probably the better one, takes pedals well, can run an extension cab and it's SS so no valve worries. For an SS amp, it's not as sterile as some might think. The effects are useable too and the overdrive amp settings are also very good, especially at home.

Funnily enough we have a few of those in the local studio that the other guitarist uses to put his electro-acoustic through with ok-ish results. I just get an 'ok but nothing special' vibe from them, which for the price is quite reasonable, and certainly would make a good back up amp.

Thanks, still waiting to hear back form Thomann, but I'm sure everything wll work out OK with it in the end, missing it like crazy though, a suprising amount!

The AMT looks funky cool, but all the YT demos are just ultra gain chugging so it's impossible to know what it sounds like for non metal.

If you get most of your gain from pedals then a ZT Lunchbox/Club might be worth a look.

The solid state amp I always wanted to try was the Trademark 300. They are somewhat hens teeth, but sometimes show up on Ebay.
http://www.tech21nyc.com/archive/trademark300.html

Yeah, all those high gain demos are a bit of a pain, because none of them really give a good impression of what the amp is like as a whole. I think it just looks like a really practical, well designed (at least on paper) bit of kit. I think it was a demo from a guitar show I watched with one of the guys from AMT where he played a brief bit with the crunch channel and I thought it sounded really, really nice. I'm not exactly a crunch kind of guy, but that really did sound good. I'll try and dig it out and post it.

The Tech21 stuff looks awesome, it's iimpressive how much their stuff keeps coming up in relation to decent solid state gear.

[monquixote]

The Tech21 stuff looks awesome, it's iimpressive how much their stuff keeps coming up in relation to decent solid state gear.

I would have recommended a TM60 if you were looking for a Combo rather than a head, though they seem to attract love and hate in equal measure.

[JCA2550]

Very unfashionable but a great, cheap and totally reliable grab and go backup would be a Peavey Bandit!

[ragingben]

Very unfashionable but a great, cheap and totally reliable grab and go backup would be a Peavey Bandit!

True, hadn't considered those! I'd rather something in a small, light head format though which could fit in a back pack so I don't have to lug much extra around... hmmm maybe I'm just trying to justify the insatiable GAS I feel towards the AMT!