Obviously, the quality of the gear that comes walking in the door varies greatly from performer to performer, and this can make our job challenging at best. 'nuff said...
I am looking to get another amp for the studio that I can provide as part of my services on a daily or per session rate.
I currently have a Marshall TSL601 combo, a Marshall DSL401 combo, a couple of rack-mounted preamps with a Mesa Boogie 2:90 main amp, and a Marshall 2 X 12 speaker cabinet.
I also stock a pretty good supply of guitars (PRS, Gibson, Wolfgang, Fender, etc.).
My problem is that I am not really happy with any of the guitar sounds I am getting. The distortion is muddy sounding, and not tight and focused.
I tend to do rock/pop/blues types of projects, but will get the (fairly) occasional punk or metal bands in as well, but I am more concerned with the rock-ish sound (think GnR with Slash at the helm of his LP and JCM800 Jubilee).
So I guess the easy answer is to go and get a Marshall Jubille with a Marshall 1960 cabinet, but that is a pretty expensive rig, although if that is the answer, then I guess I would be willing to go that route.
I have two problems here:
1) It just seems to me that I should be able to get a better sound out of the gear that I have, and...
2) I am looking for some possible cheaper alternatives (a Jubilee head alone is in the US$1,800 - $2,000 vicinity).
With regard to my existing gear: Why do both of the Marshall's sound like crap? (I am talking in the room here as well as to tape)? Are the Marsahll TSL/DSLs really that bad? Could it be that 2 x 12 speaker cabinet? It is a closed-back 2 X 12 with some pretty high-wattage Celestians. I am thinking a nice 4 X 12 with some 30w greenbacks might sound a lot better. I also tried listening closely to the single 12s in both combo amps, and got similar crappy, muddy sounds. They may not be the best-sounding amps in the world, but these sound like CRAP!!! Total doggie doo-doo. I am pretty pissed. The TSL uses EL34s and the DSL uses EL84s, which you would think would give me a nice pallet of varied sounds, right? Nope! They all suck!
Should I consider re-tubing? I just had the DSL looked at, and one of the pre amp tubes was replaced as well as a bad solder joint on one of the tube sockets. I am not sure why he didn't replace the whole set of preamp tubes (which I asked him about when I went to pick it up), but I figured that I can easily do that for a lot less without having to re-bias like I would with the power amp tubes, so I left it alone.
BTW...the DSL and the TSL seem to be OK for live gigging, but suck in the studio.
Regarding other alternatives: I can pick up one of the much-maligned JCM900's for about 1/3 of the cost of the Jubilee, but I keep hearing a lot of folks bad-mouth the JCM900 as being a piece of junk. I played one at GC the other day, and didn't think it was *that* bad personally, but it is hard to tell in that environment, obviously. The also had an old JMP there that was very cool, but was not the sound I am looking for. I need more gain and distortion than that.
I am not really into the Recto/metal sound, so let's stay away from there for a while. I am also trolling for a nice Fender Twin, but that is for a different sound altogether, and not really related to this thread.
So, where do I go from here? Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!