# Ampeg VH140c alternative



## inhuman666 (Feb 27, 2012)

Looking for an alternative to the Ampeg VH140c in the $300 price range.

Got f**ked by GC after waiting for one to arrive after 5 weeks!

Any suggestions?

Btw I play brutal/old-school deathmetal, was trying to avoid a tube amp.


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## MaxOfMetal (Feb 27, 2012)

Marshall 8200?


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## Ericbrujo (Feb 27, 2012)

A ''Amptweeker Tight Metal Pedal'' + Power Amp ???


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## WarriorOfMetal (Feb 27, 2012)

Crate GX-130C, Ampeg VH-150


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Feb 27, 2012)

Crate VTX200, VTX350, GTX3500H, GX130C, any Excallubur series head. Marshall 8100, 8200, or VS100. And of course, the Randall RH100G2, RH150G3+, RH200G2, RH250G2, RH300G3+, V-Max, Cyclone, or Titan.

All those will nail an old-school death metal tone easily, but the RH150G3+ and RH300G3+ will be a bit more on the modern side. And the V-Max, G3+, and Marshall heads do have a tube in the preamp (the V-Max has a tube gain channel and a solid state gain channel), but they can still easily nail that tone you want. 

Oh, and the Cyclone is basically the Randall Warhead Dimebag sig head, just without his name and the onboard FX.. The Cyclone and RH250G2 are probably the hardest to find of the late 90's/early 2000's Randall amps, with the Titan, Vmax, and RH200G2 heads being fairly common. The RH100G2 can be found very easily and cheap.

And with the Crates, the GX130C is basically a carbon copy of the VH140C. The VTX and GTX amps have the same preamp as the Ampeg, just with a more powerful power amp. The Excallibur and GT heads are high gain amps, but I think they're a tweaked version of the VH140C.

As for the Marshalls, you can't mention a Valvestate without mentioning Chuck Schuldiner.  And of course the first Meshuggah album. Cannibal Corpse also used them for one album, I think.


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## Ishan (Feb 28, 2012)

I had a Crate GT3500H in the past, it did SS death metal tones really well. You need a good cab tho.


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## Mazzy (Feb 28, 2012)

It might be slightly over budget, but look at a Peavey Rockmaster and a cheap SS poweramp like the ART SLA2. I've owned three versions of the Ampeg VH140C, and while it's a good budget amp, it is seriously overrated on this message board.


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## widdlywhaa (Feb 28, 2012)

^The above post is overtly negative. I own 2 and the VH is the best SS amp ever. Incredibly loud, even more so than my 5150 to be honest.

If you want a really good deal look for an ampeg SS series as well. they made SS-140Cs and SS-150s. Pretty much the same amp with a little different look.


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## WarriorOfMetal (Feb 29, 2012)

widdlywhaa said:


> ^The above post is overtly negative. I own 2 and the VH is the best SS amp ever. Incredibly loud, even more so than my 5150 to be honest.
> 
> If you want a really good deal look for an ampeg SS series as well. they made SS-140Cs and SS-150s. Pretty much the same amp with a little different look.



The SS amps don't have quite as much gain. The VHs are capable of death metal with the gain at 5. You need to have it a bit higher on the SSs to get the same sound.


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## cyril v (Feb 29, 2012)

WarriorOfMetal said:


> The SS amps don't have quite as much gain. The VHs are capable of death metal with the gain at 5. You need to have it *a bit higher* on the SSs to get the same sound.



*6*.


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## Mazzy (Feb 29, 2012)

widdlywhaa said:


> ^The above post is overtly negative. I own 2 and the VH is the best SS amp ever. Incredibly loud, even more so than my 5150 to be honest.
> 
> If you want a really good deal look for an ampeg SS series as well. they made SS-140Cs and SS-150s. Pretty much the same amp with a little different look.


It's good, but definitely overrated (best? c'mon...). I've owned the VH140C in head and combo versions, and an SS150. Good amplifier, but there's more options out there.


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## great_kthulu (Feb 29, 2012)

I played on an ss140 combo, thing was instant thrash tone! a little tweaking brought on that classic death metal sound. BTW, John from dying fetus has his vh140 scooped to HELL, lows 10, mids 0 and highs 5.
I also second the idea of a tightmetal with a power amp, heres a quick vid of me useing that exact setup:

The power amp is an EHX 44 magnum, great little power amp, plenty of of volume on tap, and when you crank it you get a real organic saturation, great dirty clean! (I wasn't able to crank it in the vid due to my cameras mike. I know I post this vid a lot, but I am firm in my belief that at this price you can't beat this setup!


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## WarriorOfMetal (Feb 29, 2012)

cyril v said:


> *6*.



I think I had it closer to 8 when I tried an SS-150. I owned a VH-150 for over 2 years.


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## Joseph Goodman (Mar 1, 2012)

The thing to keep in mind with the SS-140/150, is that the bass and high controls on the lead channel come *before* any distortion, so to get the most gain out of the SS series, you need to have those controls cranked up, and dialing them back will cut the gain.


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## groph (Mar 1, 2012)

Mazzy said:


> It's good, but definitely overrated (best? c'mon...). I've owned the VH140C in head and combo versions, and an SS150. Good amplifier, but there's more options out there.



It's a matter of taste. Chuck got some of the best death metal tones out of the Marshall Valvestates but I'd never go near one. The VH140 is definitely really saturated and it has a mild 80's kind of flavor to it I think? 

As far as alternatives go, I'd look for something that is really saturated, really compressed, and really tight so maybe something like an Ibanez TBX150H, or the Randall G3 series would fit the bill.


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## cyril v (Mar 1, 2012)

WarriorOfMetal said:


> I think I had it closer to 8 when I tried an SS-150. I owned a VH-150 for over 2 years.



Damn, I honestly don't think I could get along with that much gain. 5.5-6 was the sweet spot for brutality/clarity IMO, then again I do use Blackouts and EMGs. I think I had it at around 4 w/HM-2 or MT-2.



Mazzy said:


> It's good, but definitely overrated (best? c'mon...). I've owned the VH140C in head and combo versions, and an SS150. Good amplifier, but there's more options out there.



For solid state deathmetal tone? Please advise, always looking to check out other stuff.


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## WarriorOfMetal (Mar 2, 2012)

cyril v said:


> Damn, I honestly don't think I could get along with that much gain. 5.5-6 was the sweet spot for brutality/clarity IMO, then again I do use Blackouts and EMGs. I think I had it at around 4 w/HM-2 or MT-2.



Yeah, I mostly use passives with a bit lower output than those. Also, I never had the VH and SS side-by-side, so it's basically from memory.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Mar 2, 2012)

I've also heard claims the SS sounded weaker then the VH, specifically the one with the blue stripe in front.


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## ShadyDavey (Mar 2, 2012)

There needs to be a solid state thread - we're getting a LOT of threads lately covering the same ground and the exact same answers are given time after time


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## ShadyDavey (Mar 2, 2012)

HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> Crate VTX200, VTX350, GTX3500H, GX130C, any Excallubur series head. Marshall 8100, 8200, or VS100. And of course, the Randall RH100G2, RH150G3+, RH200G2, RH250G2, RH300G3+, V-Max, Cyclone, or Titan.
> 
> All those will nail an old-school death metal tone easily, but the RH150G3+ and RH300G3+ will be a bit more on the modern side. And the V-Max, G3+, and Marshall heads do have a tube in the preamp (the V-Max has a tube gain channel and a solid state gain channel), but they can still easily nail that tone you want.
> 
> ...



Succinctly this ^^ with the addition of Gallien Kreuger 250GL, Ibanez TBX150.....in fact:

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/gear-equipment/187376-solid-state-amps-yes-thats-right.html


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Mar 2, 2012)

ShadyDavey said:


> Succinctly this ^^ with the addition of Gallien Kreuger 250GL, Ibanez TBX150.....in fact:
> 
> http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/gear-equipment/187376-solid-state-amps-yes-thats-right.html



Are there any demos out there of the GK250ML? I know Chuck used them in a few live shows for Death, but I'm kinda unsure of the fact.


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## col (Mar 2, 2012)

Sansamp PSA-1 + power amp. 

No idea if this will be over budget though.


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## Soubi7string (Mar 2, 2012)

Crate GX130c
same layout just Crate parts.


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## ShadyDavey (Mar 2, 2012)

HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> Are there any demos out there of the GK250ML? I know Chuck used them in a few live shows for Death, but I'm kinda unsure of the fact.



There are but they're not particularly good demos so it's not very representative of the potential. It's a very good amp but extremely hard to find.....I tried one through a late 70's Marshall 4 x 12 and it was crushing with a fabulous lead tone and shimmering cleans to boot.


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## great_kthulu (Mar 2, 2012)

HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> Are there any demos out there of the GK250ML? I know Chuck used them in a few live shows for Death, but I'm kinda unsure of the fact.



its the amp human was recorded on. That should be enough


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Mar 2, 2012)

great_kthulu said:


> its the amp human was recorded on. That should be enough



To my knowledge, he only used it live. I think he used an Rg100ES for recording.


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## inhuman666 (Mar 3, 2012)

Does anyone know if there's a difference between the older model Ampeg VH140c and the newer Marshall-looking model?

Read somewhere on the forum that the old one sounds better.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Mar 3, 2012)

inhuman666 said:


> Does anyone know if there's a difference between the older model Ampeg VH140c and the newer Marshall-looking model?
> 
> Read somewhere on the forum that the old one sounds better.



As said before, the consensus is that the one that the SS (The one that looks like an SVT) has a bit less gain then the VH (the one that looks more like a Marshall)

If you really want the old school metal tone, get the Crate VTX350H, IMO. Same preamp as the VH, just with a louder mono power amp. In fact, theres one on Guitarcenter's used section ATM.


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## blackrobedone (Mar 3, 2012)

Digitech GSP1101? It sounds better than the much more expensive Rocktron processor.


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## goat violator (Apr 8, 2012)

HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> I've also heard claims the SS sounded weaker then the VH, specifically the one with the blue stripe in front.



I just got my VH-140C back from getting rebuild after 2 years (my fault not theirs) In the meantime I had been using my SS-150 and 8100 Valvestate (and some other gear). Honestly I can say the 140C blows the 150 0ut of the water!! As people have said, you dont need OD and the gain is good at 5 to 6.
Whereas the 150 needs a helping hand.
One thing I did notice that I had forgotten was that you need good pickups for the VH to sing!!. I found my BC Rich V with Bill Lawrence XL500's in it was perfect, but my Epiphone Black Beauty (stock) was as muddy as hell. Funnily enough I tried my Kramer 7 (with an X2N7) and it was muddy as well. I found the 8100 needs a helping hand to even get close to the VH, but never achieves the clarity, which some people might find a bit "false" and lacking in the organic sound tubes produce. But if you want to nail that particular Death metal tone, it is perfect and unbeatable!!


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## inhuman666 (Apr 28, 2012)

Lucky to get both an Ampeg VH140C and Crate GX130C!


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Apr 28, 2012)

Done and done! Congrats.


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