# What's your favorite combination of amps for live use?



## Alex6534 (Nov 12, 2014)

Curious as to what peoples' favorite amp combos are for live use, myself and the other guitarist in our band run Kempers an found that a recto + 5153 work pretty well, recto with an ibby 7 + BKP Painkillers and 5153 with Epiphone 7 with EMG 81-7. But we're always interested in trying new combinations.


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## Senior (Nov 12, 2014)

I gig with a 30 year old Peavey SS head into a home made cab with 2 cheap mismatched speakers (one of em is a Crate) and a stock MT-2. 

And I dont afraid of anything.


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## hairychris (Nov 17, 2014)

Doesn't matter as long as the EQ curve is different enough.

Band that I'm playing bass for right now has Orange TH30 vs Engl Powerball. My last band playing guitar was Diezel Einstein vs Engle Invader 150.

Mesa vs Marshall is also a great sounding combo if done right.


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## ben_hurt (Nov 18, 2014)

I've seen the mesa vs. marshall combo sound pretty damn excellent live


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## thrashmetal85 (Nov 19, 2014)

Multi FX straight to the sound desk. Amps are too much work.


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## Senior (Nov 19, 2014)

thrashmetal85 said:


> Multi FX straight to the sound desk. Amps are too much work.



You are lucky if you can get away with it though. I dunno, maybe the sound guys you work with are more open mined, but I still have a hell of a time handing a sound guy a balanced XLR and telling him thats my signal, there is no mic, he doesnt need to EQ it, etc. I still get guys who want to twist knobs and act like there is a 57 at the other end of that cable. 

Been back to real amps for a couple months now and I am liking it better again, this time with a 212 so I am not killing my back all the time.


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## Leuchty (Nov 19, 2014)

5150


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## TheWarAgainstTime (Nov 20, 2014)

My favorite live sounds I've heard (not from modelers) have almost always been a 5150/variant and a Rectifier OR 5150/variant (x2)

Parkway Drive: two 6505's into Recto cabs
The Ghost Inside: two 6505's into Recto (recently Omega) cabs
Architects: two 6505's into Recto cabs
August Burns Red: two 6505+ into Recto cabs (Brent has switched to Kemper+power amp though)
Thy Art is Murder: two 6505+ into Recto cabs, though Sean had an Uberschall at Summer Slaughter that was amazing 
Van Halen: the biggest wall of EVH heads and cabs I ever did see
We Came as Romans: 6505+ and EVH into Orange cabs


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## cwhitey2 (Nov 20, 2014)

The last band i was in had 3 guitarists.

6505x2 + Marshal MA100
&
6505+dual rec+ma100

Those combined live were freaking insane.


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## thrashmetal85 (Nov 21, 2014)

Senior said:


> You are lucky if you can get away with it though. I dunno, maybe the sound guys you work with are more open mined, but I still have a hell of a time handing a sound guy a balanced XLR and telling him thats my signal, there is no mic, he doesnt need to EQ it, etc. I still get guys who want to twist knobs and act like there is a 57 at the other end of that cable.
> 
> Been back to real amps for a couple months now and I am liking it better again, this time with a 212 so I am not killing my back all the time.



Even with just my PodX3Live I kept flooring the old hands at how good the tone was coming out of it.


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## UnattendedGolfcart (Nov 28, 2014)

TheWarAgainstTime said:


> My favorite live sounds I've heard (not from modelers) have almost always been a 5150/variant and a Rectifier OR 5150/variant (x2)
> 
> Parkway Drive: two 6505's into Recto cabs
> The Ghost Inside: two 6505's into Recto (recently Omega) cabs
> ...



Andy in TAIM used a 50 watt 5153 for their most recent tour, it kept up with whatever Wes was using  Miss May I also uses 5153's live now, they used to use 6505+ heads. Fit For An Autopsy's lead guitarist Patrick uses a Mark IV, I've seen. 

I really need to gig with my own 5153 and see how it goes, but I have full faith that it will sound great with my Mesa Recto 2x12. I have yet to see a band live that's using them but I really want to!


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## MarcusProg (Dec 1, 2014)

I find that the Mark V + Rectifier is a fantastic combo for live.


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## Jacksonluvr636 (Dec 9, 2014)

Peavey's usually mix well with anything (5150/6505, ect)

I have owned 2 Vht's and while they are amazing alone and amazing to record with along side any amp for whatever reason, both VHT's I have had suffered when another guitarist came into the mix in a room (band practice, not on stage)

Like I had to downgrade amp's to get a good sound because of the other guy's gear. Was really weird.


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## FILTHnFEAR (Dec 10, 2014)

Jacksonluvr636 said:


> Peavey's usually mix well with anything (5150/6505, ect)
> 
> I have owned 2 Vht's and while they are amazing alone and amazing to record with along side any amp for whatever reason, both VHT's I have had suffered when another guitarist came into the mix in a room (band practice, not on stage)
> 
> Like I had to downgrade amp's to get a good sound because of the other guy's gear. Was really weird.



What amps were the other guys using alongside your VHT's? Were they drowned out by the other guys gear, or did they just not sound good together?


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## SeditiousDissent (Dec 10, 2014)

The band I toured with had a pretty unusual mix of amps that worked well together live.

1. BadCat HotCat 100/BadCat 412
2. Bogner Uberschall/Uber 412
3. Marshall 2550/1960B


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## JureGolobic (Dec 22, 2014)

i have a marshall jtm45 clone. and its sounds freaking amazing to my ear. it's really responsive to the way i play and i like that. it not a high gain amp, but i can really get the tone i like form it.


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## youngthrasher9 (Dec 26, 2014)

I'm pretty sure the only 2 I've heard that didn't quite work together (when they weren't dialed in to work together instead of alone) was a Dual Rec vs a block letter 5150. (IIRC)

It seemed like Recto was just dialed in for scoopy chunk, and the 5150 was doing the standard 666 magic. It was like you could feel the rumble of the dual rectumfrier but the growl of 5150 was just eating it.

I sensed that the fellow using the Recto was borrowing that amp.


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## scottro202 (Dec 27, 2014)

Generally speaking, I like something more "British" voiced against something "american" voiced. Mesa/Marshall, Fender/Orange (That's my particular favorite), Fender/Marshall, etc...


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## buriedoutback (Jan 13, 2015)

I use a HD500 with 2 mesa amp models panned stereo with a little bit of delay on 1. 
My other guitar player has a HD500 running 1 mesa amp model. 
We keep him mono as he plays leads all the time. 
We have different guitars and slightly different EQ settings so it all sounds good together.
We both run direct to FOH most of the time, but sometimes he runs into the poweramp of a SS peavey head and into a couple marshall MG 412 placed on either side of the stage.

tldr; mesa amp models on HD500 !


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## SilentCartographer (Feb 9, 2015)

Ive had a few pairing w/ guitarists, always stuck with peavey
5150 w. Marshall 1960 cab / Peavey XXX w5150 cab
JSX w JSX cab (awesome cab, not so awesome head) / 6505 w Marshall Cab
Peavey 6505 + w JSX cab / 5150 2 w marshall cab
not including pre/post units

6505 + w JSX cab is my favourite but I want to try an Orange or Recto cab instead and get some beefier lows


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## SilentCartographer (Feb 9, 2015)

Jacksonluvr636 said:


> Peavey's usually mix well with anything (5150/6505, ect)
> 
> I have owned 2 Vht's and while they are amazing alone and amazing to record with along side any amp for whatever reason, both VHT's I have had suffered when another guitarist came into the mix in a room (band practice, not on stage)
> 
> Like I had to downgrade amp's to get a good sound because of the other guy's gear. Was really weird.


 
That sucks, I've tried a pitbull which had an eq built in.. awesome amp but I didn't have a chance to play along with it, just as a standalone, but with the EQ Im sure you can cut through the mix somehow


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## Ben.Last (Feb 10, 2015)

I'm a big fan of Recto/Diezel mixes on albums, and I have been trying to get this to work with my Axe FX 2, but it's really hard to find discussions about how to make things work well together. It just seems to be one of those topics that doesn't get a lot of coverage for some reason, and it's difficult to figure out good search terms for.


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