RGDrive

This pairing of my RGD320 & the Sound Drive SG612R has given me some very pleasant tones. It's simply a plug & play combination, no pedals or whatsoever in between. The lower tuning of the RGD requires an amp which can help it manifest clarity, especially for the lower bass notes. The SD does this well & so the pair is effective when put together. The Ibanez VK pickups are also to my liking; grainy sounding with drive but lots of non-muddy tones to be heard at higher volume levels.

Marshall vs Sound Drive

I am perhaps one of the numbered spectres in guitardom to be paying attention to solidstate amplifiers- the detestable tone generators to the rest of us. I only bothered with the ones that matter tone-wise, in the realms of distortion, of course. I don't quite believe these amps would have any real offerings in terms of cleans, even to sympathizers like me.

Friends ask, between the Marshall (MG100HFX) & Sound Drive (SG612R head), which one is more appealing? I can't offer any differentiated opinions to revere one amp & delineate the other. As far as my ear drums are concerned, these two amps are different drive-wise. The Marshall is distinctly British in this light, very gnarly, protrusive in an appealing way. The Sound Drive has a very appealing lead voicing; it makes my Les Paul very desireable in terms of single note clarity & that's rather miraculous to me.

I was criticized before for wasting precious $ in acquiring sterile sounding amps but let me reiterate the fact that I address tonal appeal regardless of the brand name & nature of the amplifier. Before I heard the Sound Drive in action, it meant nothing to me; a mere get-by Korean unit, a compromise for some unattainable desirebles... but that's not the case, of course. It taught me a lesson- do not be dismissive of the estranged wares out there. Just because it's an obscure item, it doesn't equal to a lemon.

Am I anti-tube then? If you understand the state of my address above, this question won't surface.

Recommendations: Solidstate amplifiers

Greetings friends. Perhaps we are starting out & we need a good amplifier to serve us both in clean & overdriven modes, we are not one to compromise our tones & settle for a mournful practice unit. Or perhaps we are looking for that alternative tone to our tube amps, not because we are forsaking them but we just enjoy a solidstate fling every now & then, to prove to the world we are appreciative of good tones, regardless of the technology. Here we go, in no particular order of merit...

I love the Peavey Bandit in all its manifestations (the pic above is its latest design), it's the splendid overdrive- very saturated & heavy. More importantly, it doesn't mud-out.

I thought there was no formidable alternative to the Bandit but until recently (if you deem 2 years ago, recent...) Sound Drive's SG612R did very well to prove just that. I just can't exclude the creamy yet defined overdriven tones on board. Highly recommended.

Randall's Ninja combo is the most affordable on this list (at entry time, it lists for <$250). Let's put aside the Mike Amott influences here (it's his signature amp, anyway...) & hear how good this one is. I just wish the manufacturer would include a reverb option in time to come to make it more expansive, not that it's loathsome as it is. The Ibanez TBX range is the revised edition of the manufacturer's TB models. The amplifier has a dual midrange control which is very much its strength in retaining clarity. I would advise you to consider at least the TBX30R if you have your mind set on an Ibanez amplifier, I cant accord positive remarks to the smaller versions simply because of the different overdrive/ distortion tone-to-volume manifestation in use.

Marshall revised their MG series in 2009 (these are now known as the MG4 range). Do they sound much better than their previous incarnations? I'd say they sound more organic, alluding to the manufacturer's tube type voicings rather than being the coarse sounding amplifiers they were known to be. Selected MG models feature minimum on board effects for your tweaking pleasure.

The places where you can check the above amplifiers out:

• Peavey/ Ibanez: Swee Lee Co.
• Sound Drive: Standard Value
• Randall/ Marshall: Davis GMC
  

Sounds good to me

To many Gibson purists, it's desecration to plug in the iconic Les Paul into a solidstate amp but I prefer doing this because my Sound Drive amp helps to maintain single note clarity from a deep sounding guitar like the LP. In addition to this, the amp also retains the low end growl so in its entirety, it's a good sounding tone regardless if there are no tubes in there.

Amp line-up

Here're my amps to date. I did not regret buying the Killer Ant as it sounds great both clean & driven. How different is it compared to my TUBE7? It has an attenuated output (if it doesn't, it sure as heck sounds like it) which has a saturated output that I like to hear.