New Amp : Good with Pedals

[Krewpedia]

Hi Guys didnt really get any Straight forward answering in my last post. people have been recomending me to get a Roland 30x which will suite to all my needs, but i really want to get some pedals for example: Boss metal zone and Barber dirty bomb will the pedals also be good to use with the roland 30? or should i get a solid amp instead to go along with the pedals? would an MG15CDR Sound good with the pedals?

Wait i'll make it easier,
A - Line 6 Spider III 15x
B - Marshall MG15CDR / MG15DFX
C - Roland Cube 30x

 

[LadyInTears]

the roland cube is solid man, it takes pedals really well dont worry

 

[THOA]

As what I mentioned in your previous thread, get the Roland Cube among the choice of three you put forward.

On a side note, seems like a trend these days to offer solutions that are not part of the choices put forward. Though the intentions are to help, we are causing more confusions to the choices that the original poster already narrowed down.

TS: Err... I assumed you already tried/planning to try the amps you short listed before purchase, yes, yes?

 

[bigblackbear]

honestly. the best way to get an answer to your question is to take your pedals down and try them on the above mentioned amps (ask for permission before trying).

your idea of "good" and ours may be different.

having said that, i'll chip in my few cents worth.
if you intend to use your pedals on a clean channel, i'd go for the marshall. not much difference between the cdr and dfx except for a few additional effects like reverb etc.

however, if you're looking at something more versatile, the roland cube would be the best choice since it's inbuilt amp models are pretty good stuff.

i used to have a roland micro cube which is the smaller brother or the 30x and i didn't think it took my pedals as well as it did on a marshall 15cdr.

as for the line 6...
well, i'm just not into it.

ultimately, it's your choice. so good luck

 

[Lifehouse]

I think the Roland is your best choice of all those. I had the Cube before and though I didn't think much of the drives channel, I did felt that the clean channel was rather good. The other two are merely so-so in taking pedals.

I seldom hear posts on the Spider III being good with pedals. I have had significant experience with the MGs and they don't take pedals well either.

If your budget can be slightly upped, I would strongly suggest getting a tube amplifier as my personal experience with most solid state amps used in conjunction with pedals has been rather uneventful.

 

[Lifehouse]

i used to have a roland micro cube which is the smaller brother or the 30x and i didn't think it took my pedals as well as it did on a marshall 15cdr.

The Micro Cube should not be included as part of the argument against the 30X since they are essentially very different amplifers, with the sonic output being nothing alike due to the different speaker size.

 

[dudelove]

again i have to bring up the fender frontman series, because i cannot deny they are fantastic pedal amps, they have fantastic cleans for a solid state, plus the ones with reverb, thats a good feature to have imo, the reverbs are brilliant. its an over achieving amp imo. just that its drive is quite disappointing i feel..

but u're using pedals so who cares, i strongly urge u to consider this amp. and i know many others who will vouch for it.

roland cube works too! great build in drive. but fender frontmans are CHEAP

 

[boyl]

Just my opinion, but i never really like roland cube..

it sounds very, hmm, i don't really know how to describe it, hmm, robotic? no, digital i guess. not natural. but then i'm a sucker for anything analog.

so might want to consider that before buying

 

[THOA]

I somewhat agree with Boyl but judging from your set up, I guess you won't be utilising extra features on the Cube much, so I would think it's forgivable. The fact that he is utilising pedals can further help to reduce that effect though I won't say totally eliminate.

Despite how alot of people feel, to me the Marshall MGs pretty decent for a practice amp. I would have selected that as my recommendation if it weren't for the fact that the Roland has a bigger driver. It's just pure physics from there.

Again, best to try them before deciding yeah?

 

[Ized]

again i have to bring up the fender frontman series, because i cannot deny they are fantastic pedal amps, they have fantastic cleans for a solid state, plus the ones with reverb, thats a good feature to have imo, the reverbs are brilliant. its an over achieving amp imo. just that its drive is quite disappointing i feel..

but u're using pedals so who cares, i strongly urge u to consider this amp. and i know many others who will vouch for it.

roland cube works too! great build in drive. but fender frontmans are CHEAP

Awesome recommendation. The cleans on the frontman is one of the best you can get from a 200+ bucks solid state amp....

The 25R is loud enough for bedroom use. Takes pedals extremely well. anything above volume 3 is overkill for bedroom use.

Surprisingly, the 65R (its bigger cousin) dint sound as good as the 25R. Sounded muddy and had ill-note definition, despite the inclusion of a 12" speaker.

 

[dudelove]

hhahahh ized, have u tried the 15r? thats the amp i tried and i was super impressed man.. the whole frontman series is really awesome. maybe except the 65r u mentioned! ahha

 

[ShredCow]

Despite how alot of people feel, to me the Marshall MGs pretty decent for a practice amp.

A little anecdote...

My first amp was a Marshal MG30DFX. up till now, the stuff I recorded line in from that amp - sounds good for what it is.

When that amp broke down after like what... 1.5 years? I sent it in to be fixed. When it came back, it sounded HORRID. Like digital cold sizzling dirt yuck yuckity yuck yuck? I might appreciate it if it was PART of the tone arsenal but man... ewwww...

Anyway, when those MGs are modified with a better drive section - they sound nice. Really.





Nice pedal taking amps - the small Kustom 12A tube hybrid thing? Its not bad. Very warm sounding so its very pleasant for bedroom playing. You hardly need to feel the air move and the bass shake the floor for bedroom playing anyway.
The Vox pathfinder 15 is also nice.
I'd stay away from the Roland Cube - There is a ... for lack of better words - "digital sheen" - when you run pedals into its clean channel. Heck, its digital to begin with so I suppose that's expected to a certain degree.

 

[edder]

fender frontman FTW!!!

just downloaded the schematic. now this is quite an interesting tonestack... gotta play with a frontman25R again to see how it behaves. I was expecting a regular fender styled tonestack.

 

[Ized]

dudelove: nope.

Edder: wow looks interesting. Any mods you think can be done to improve the sound of the amp? Although im already pretty much happy with the amp as it is.

 

[mus]

The Vox pathfinder 15 is also nice.

+1. I'm using one now. Has good cleans, imo. Quite loud for a 15watt amp.

 

[jony]

fender frontman FTW!!!

just downloaded the schematic. now this is quite an interesting tonestack... gotta play with a frontman25R again to see how it behaves. I was expecting a regular fender styled tonestack.

For the less-informed, whats "unique" about it?

 

[edder]

its configured differently from a classic fender tonestack, i was expecting as scaled down fender tonestack that looks like this.

 

[edder]

dudelove: nope.

Edder: wow looks interesting. Any mods you think can be done to improve the sound of the amp? Although im already pretty much happy with the amp as it is.

dunno man. probably an "upgrade" of opamps, its loaded with tons of TL072 which are pretty decent opamps to start with. Also an upgrade of capacitors in the signal path to "MOJO HIFI" class. Beef up the power supply section with ultra hugeass filtering caps worthy of an audiophile's second glance. How about silver cable internal rewiring for that glassy sheen that will shatter glasses.... :mrgreen:

didn't spend enough time pouring thro the schemo. I was just curious about the tonestack as that is one of the important tone shaping component of the amp amongst a bunch of other stuff. I was thinking how Fender made their solid state amp with their signature Fender sound.

 

[THOA]

When that amp broke down after like what... 1.5 years? I sent it in to be fixed. When it came back, it sounded HORRID. Like digital cold sizzling dirt yuck yuckity yuck yuck? I might appreciate it if it was PART of the tone arsenal but man... ewwww...

Sheesh, that sucks. Where did you send it for repairs to?

 

[wjl123]

To the TS, just don't get the spider amp if you're planning to run pedals through it... Tried doing so with the jamming studio's line 6 amp and it sounded really bad

And since you would be running pedals through it, the Cube's onboard digital effects might not be of much use to you.

With the same amount of money you would spend on the cube, i think you can also get the Fender Frontman that the other softies mentioned. Remember that you neeed an amp with very good cleans.