Calling for advice

[blindacolyte]

Hi all

Some background. Play mostly folkish and viking metal leisurely.

My routine only involves using the clean channel with my hm200 pedal.
After playing for a period of time with the usual routine, i realise my Roland cube 30x is a white elephant considering that i am not utilising its full range of effects.

Will like to ask for opinions, if i decide to trade away my cube30x for another amp (will not be a major upgrade in terms of price) which focus entirely on superb clean sound, will there be a big difference in the clean tone improvement (for the hassle and the price)?? my max volume for clean in 30x is at 11oclock for room practice.
Please tell me from all experience whether its worth it to do it this way.

from the general consensus tube amps seems the best. Sound drive or blackheart??
Somehow i can't find any reviews on the tube-7 head and the new soundrive tube 30 models. anyone?

Also, im still sticking with my first guitar washburn x-10 but pickups changed to tesla. if i want to seek for better playabiloty and tone (don't talk about technique>equipment yet), is it a must to change guitar? Not very exposed to trying other higher end guitars, might do so depending on feedbacks here.
So far no issues with my x-10, but asking from experience will there be major differences.

Thanks

 

[Likui]

I think you should get an amp with a wide frequency respose, not an amp which very bright sounding and lacking bass or very bassy and lacking the highs. Then it can accurately reproduce what your pedals and guitars are meant to deliver. For me I use Ibanez toneblaster TBX 65R , I find it's a very good amp, in terms of clean chanel the distorted channel is very rich in tone, but 1 thing about that amp is the defination is not very good, so tone will sound muddy on the distorted channel when u play the low E string or drop tuned guitar. However when I used it with my blackstart ht blackfire the defination improves a lot. But I say, try many many diff kinds of amps high end low end, then try to hear the diff, what makes an amp good meaning sounds nice to your ears. Then from there u decide

 

[blindacolyte]

THanks Likui

Any other opinions?

 

[J.custom]

Unfortunately, the Sound Drive amps are not very well known yet. So the best is for you to bring your gear down to test it thru the amp and to see whether you like it or not.

Another thing with tube amps is that they can get pretty loud, especially if you're talking about a 30w tube amp. That's enough to gig with a band and even enough to perform in a school hall without being miked up. Think AC30. So you might want to consider something with lower wattage if you intend just to play in your bedroom. You may wanna check out the Jet City 20w Combo. Pretty versatile IMO. Takes pedals well and able to get some nice hi gain tones as well. If i'm not wrong there's one more left at Sound Alchemy retailing for $699, if your budget allows you, i suggest you grab it before anyone else does.

What Likui said about getting an amp with a wide frequency response is somewhat correct. However, you should like the basic clean tone of the amp first and then tweak your pedals to suit that clean tone. NOT the other way round.

You might also wanna check out the Blackstar HT-5s as well.

 

[subversion]

i used to own the TUBE 7: http://theguitaraddict.blogspot.com/2008/08/tube-cleans-trusty-distortion-best.html