Heavy AF Solid State Love

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

I didn't like Dino's tone with the Flextone or OG Pod
But his tone with the Vetta II? Yeah. Listen to FF's Mechanize and (I'm not 100% sure) Divine Heresy's Bringer of Plagues. God tier shit.

 

[Grindspine]

GX1200H, GT3500H, G120C, G600XL, GT200H (hybrid) and the GX900H from my searching just now.

I only have experience with the GX1200H and GX900H (Excalibur) as my brother had one of each ages ago. I really liked the Excalibur and it sounded pretty good with bass through a bass cab too.

I have a, still working, Crate GX212+. I gutted the Crate 80 watt speakers and replaced them with Celestion G12H-80s, but prefer also running it with the external cab output to a Mesa 1x12 so that I get a mix of the open-back cab with the G12H80s and the Mesa cab with the Vintage 30. It also helps to use a good Furman unit to filter the power and an Dunlop volume X pedal plugged into the loop/insert for better volume control.

I have tried a bunch of pedals in front of that amp. An MXR 401 buffer helps filter the flubby bass on the gain and clean channels. A Dead Horse (or any TS style) overdrive really tightens up the gain channel. At the end of the day, it's still a Crate GX though.

 

[Crungy]

I didn't like Dino's tone with the Flextone or OG Pod
But his tone with the Vetta II? Yeah. Listen to FF's Mechanize and (I'm not 100% sure) Divine Heresy's Bringer of Plagues. God tier shit.

He used a Vetta II on Mechanize?!

 

[Werecow]

I didn't like Dino's tone with the Flextone or OG Pod
But his tone with the Vetta II? Yeah. Listen to FF's Mechanize and (I'm not 100% sure) Divine Heresy's Bringer of Plagues. God tier shit.

I loved the tone on Mechanize. Didn't know it was a Vetta on the actual album.
I always remember feeling relief with that album, like they were back sounding how they should. The tone on Transgression was just unlistenable for me. Just a horrible buzzing tone without the punch or saturation FF should have.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

He used a Vetta II on Mechanize?!

Yep. Vetta II > Mesa 2x12 cabinet

I loved the tone on Mechanize. Didn't know it was a Vetta on the actual album.
I always remember feeling relief with that album, like they were back sounding how they should. The tone on Transgression was just unlistenable for me. Just a horrible buzzing tone without the punch or saturation FF should have.

It was. I also believe he clarified that he used it for The Industrialist as well even though it was reported at the time he used a POD HD. I don't think Dino used an actual analog amp with FF since Obsolete until Aggression Continuum.
And yeah Transgression was a combination of bad production, Krank amps, and COW having horrible tone period lmao.

 

[ExplorerMike]

I’ll throw a vote in for my Marshall VS100 half stack. Bought it new in early 2000 and it’s still kicking ass.

 

[gunch]

Anyone ever try boosting a metalzone with another one not for the memes but seriously?

 

[Shask]

Yep. Vetta II > Mesa 2x12 cabinet

It was. I also believe he clarified that he used it for The Industrialist as well even though it was reported at the time he used a POD HD. I don't think Dino used an actual analog amp with FF since Obsolete until Aggression Continuum.
And yeah Transgression was a combination of bad production, Krank amps, and COW having horrible tone period lmao.

I never liked the tone on The Industrialist. Way more squaky than other albums.

Funny he used the Vetta II, because I didn't think he liked the POD XT at all.

 

[Shask]

I’ll throw a vote in for my Marshall VS100 half stack. Bought it new in early 2000 and it’s still kicking ass.

I keep debating if I want to buy a 8100 or VS100, lol. I had a VS100 many years ago. I actually just built a Shredmaster clone to try to get some of that type of tone.

 

[Crungy]

Anyone ever try boosting a metalzone with another one not for the memes but seriously?

No but I'm intrigued. Didn't @Gmork sort of do that with a Metalzone and an HM2?

 

[broj15]

My whole stable of heads is solid state. Peavey Musician 400 MK1 (non master volume), Acoustic Control Corp 450 and an acoustic Control Corp 370. Using all of them as clean pedal platforms (though the ACC 450 has built in Distortion that rivals the distortion of the much more sought after Sunn concert/coliseum series & beta series) and then I hit em with my HM2 or a "clone": DOD American Metal, or Dead Air Studios DIY Sawzall. Though lately I've been revisiting the boss ODB-3 (bass overdrive) with the low knob boosted just a bit and the wet/dry mix at 80% wet/20% dry. As far as cabs I'm using an old peavey 412F (built like 2 ported 2x12's in one enclosure) with swamp thangs/v12's, an ACC 105 with the stock speakers (oversized 4x12) or an ACC 301 with the original Cerwin Vega speaker (1x18 folded horn cab that's the size of an ampeg 8x10"). I haven't played live in a while, but when the time comes I fully intended to run the ACC 450 & 370 in stereo into the Peavey 412F and ACC 301 respectively for 380 watts of pure transistor powered chainsaw destruction.

 

[Scordare]

There’s the Peavey Supreme 160 too. Being used on Slaughter of the Soul and weighing in at 50+ lbs it’s definitely Heavy AF! HM-2+MT-2+Supreme 160

 

[Kosthrash]

Some brutal solid state preamp pedals to mention are the Chug pedal (doubling as a noise gate too) and the Revv g3 & g4...

 

[akinari]

I've only owned one all tube amp in my life 😂 rest are all hybrid or SS. Here's the ones I currently own:

Crate G130CXL, Excalibur, VTX350, XLP preamp
Ampeg SS140C x3
Sunn Beta Lead, SX PA head
Randall RG80ES, Switchmaster
Marshall 8100, Lead 100 Mosfet
Kustom III Lead (blackface)
Peavey Mark 3 Musician 400G, an old Series head, can't remember the model
A couple small combos, peaveys crates blahblah

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

There’s the Peavey Supreme 160 too. Being used on Slaughter of the Soul and weighing in at 50+ lbs it’s definitely Heavy AF! HM-2+MT-2+Supreme 160

Apparently they used a Metal Zone for distortion on SotS, which I thought was weird since these heads have a lot of gain on tap.

Akira Takasaki used one on the self titled 1992 Loudness album and that tone is heavy as fuck

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Also since we brought up the theta amp, it's still worth noting the preamp pedal fucks as well.

A really thick sound with gnarly midrange and a super responsive EQ. Also has an onboard preamp thata intended to be used as a clean channel, but tweak it right and it acts like a killer clean boost.

Edit: oh yeah it's got 2 gain settings as well, so you can have your rhythm sound and a lead sound, or a lower gain crunch/breakup sound and a chuggachugga sound.

I really wish ISP would release a preamp based on the full head versions preamp section. 2 full channels, each one has its own preamp section. I know you can technically do the same thing by getting 2 Theta preamps, but eeehhh that's too cumbersome lmao.

And speaking of preamps: the KSR Ceres rules, as does the AMT preamp pedal.

 

[Kosthrash]

Speaking of preamp pedals with amazing tone...

Diezel Amplification - HERBERT PEDAL

ALL ANALOG PEDAL BASED ON LEGENDARY HERBERT AMP; No amp embodies the power and signature roar of Diezel Amplification like the 180-watt Herbert. And w...

diezelusa.com

 

[Necky379]

The Peavey Bandit, XXL, and Supreme are all awesome and not overhyped to hell and back(yet) like the Ampeg and Crate, so they can be had for good prices. And they're all old school, American made and seem to hold up for eternity.

And I've never used one but Dino used the Line 6 Flextone II so I bet quite a few of us could find tones that we like with that amp.

I need to grab one of those on your list before a YouTube channel hypes it and people start buying them

 

[aesthyrian]

Bad news, they have already started. Taylor Danley released a vid on the XXL a few weeks ago... the bastard.

 

[Crungy]

Same