ERROR IN THE VIDEO - we say that the Marshall has a 12” speaker & that the Orange is the only one with a 10” speaker. This is wrong - they both have 10” speakers (although the Marshall doesn’t sound like it!)
I was really hoping you guys included the new Marshall SC20 and SV20 in this, the comparison I really wanted to see was the Blackstar vs the new Marshall Studio amps.
Also just as an FYI on the Blackstar. The first clean voice is the Fenderish voice, the second is the Voxish clean voice. As for the OD voices, the first is the Classic voice and the second is the Modern voice with more gain on tap. But keep in mind the ISF control on the OD voices lets you change the EQ response and feel of the amp in a way that allows the Blackstar to cover the spectrum of Classic and Modern amp tones from US and beyond to British and beyond and everything between. From experience Blackstar ISF rarely likes to be at 12 and sweet spots are 9-11 and 1-3. Also EQ rarely sounds best at 12 on the Blackstar including Tone on the clean channel AND it is important to remember that the way ISF effects the EQ response the EQ on the British side behaves differently to the US side and the full sweep of ISF effects the EQ response.
I know people with really budget set ups, like not even 200 quid of guitar and amp and they make it sound great. Just through loving playing and practising all the time. Nice gear is probably 20% of the picture 😀
1. Love the amp switcher. Much easier to compare tones without the delay while plugging into various amps. 2. The depth of knowledge on Anderton’s is amazing.
Just played the new Supro at Guitar Center!!! Hearing it live is just amazing. The cleans are great but it definitely wants to break up and it sounds phenomenal when it does. Some of the best gain I’ve ever heard out of a $600 amp
The Marshall Origin and the Vox AC15 were my favorite. All sounded good. I was really surprised with the sound coming out of the 10" speaker for the Marshall, it really held its own and even excelled.
I have to say Lee you put a lot of time and effort into providing great information to the guitar player’s community. We appreciate your dedication! Pete I like your descriptions of the sounds you hear in the guitars and amps you review. They make the audience u derstand clearly. Thanks. And you do play excellent may I add!
I think some of these smaller tube amps are designed to sound good specifically in the bedroom without a band involved. It's that "golden tone" vs "usable tone" thing where the tone by itself may sound amazing but the tone that cuts through the band and sits well in a full mix is sometimes less beautiful on its own.
@@GuitarQueero1 They're made to get loud and stay relatively clean except maybe the Bassbreaker. Your favorite drive or boost in front should get you there.
The Laney Lionheart L5T-112 is an AMAZING 5w 1x12 combo. Single Ended Class A 2 channel valve/tube amp, takes pedals extremely well and absolutely just ROCKS!
Orange and Blackstar are the nicest clean sounds imo. Dirty Orange for that inimitable stoner rock dirt. The Blues Junior sounds great with the lightspeed switched on. That Supro's gain is delicious and the Vox, surprisingly, does the British dirt in a way that's edgier than the Marshall. They really all have great things going for 'em.
With Marshall and Vox, you instantly think "YEAH, it's THAT sound", with the others not so much. Which is a testament to how much those brands and their tones are part of modern music... And I'm 100% with Pete on the Blackstar thing: in a band context, each and every Blackstar amp I ever played instantly disappeared, no cut whatsoever. But I'm a Marshall guy, so I'm used to these mids and that authoritative presence.
@@NicD5150 Absolutely. "Authoritative presence"... that's for damn sure. Never really been a Marshall guy before, but the one time I used one live (when my twin crapped out and I had to rent one... a DSL40), it was shocking, and in a totally great way. Couldn't stop smiling at the way the sound just JUMPED out of the thing. I'll never forget that and have wanted to become a Marshall guy ever since. I realize that was 40 watts vs. the Origin 20 here... but the same characteristics seem to apply. I was always leery of "the Marshall thing"... but it's like once you feel that, you can't go back.
I really like the Supro Blues King. It reminds me of the Fender Excelsior Pro, which with the right tubes and speaker in it sounds oddly great. Yep. the Blues King gets my vote.
Thank you for the new small valve amp shootout, these are always great to watch! Lots of new stuff this year. I do have to say, I've seen a couple of stores say that the Blackstar HT20 MKii has only one ECC83 in the preamp - I own one, it's a great amp, and I can confirm that it actually has two ECC83s in the preamp, as well as two EL84s in the power section. I love the videos, thanks for all that you do!
God I love that Supro! I'm sitting here thinking "man, it almost sounds like it's got a light fuzz in there, then Lee hits that switch and I thought Pete had stomped a fuzz box... Always been a fan of guitars and amps that sound like they have been abused and beaten up for decades and are on the verge of falling apart. I also actually liked the orange as well, and you can't beat that Marshal for classic rock tone, and that Vox was crazy good! If I could play well enough to make any of them sound like Pete can, I'd have all four of those. The Fender and Blackstar aren't bad at all, just not my cup o' tea
The Blues Jr and the Vox sounded the best in my opinion. The blues jr seemed much warmer, which works great for clean tones in my opinion. The Vox was definitely more present in the upper mids, which cuts great in a live setting. Also really liked the Supro, which I think would work great for recording gain tones.
My fav was the blues junior. It just sounded like it was the best most rounded sound. The black star did seem overly scooped, the Marshall sounded great but lacked that low end, and the supro and the orange did their own similar distinct thing, which made it seem almost limited. The Vox sounded great too, but I prefer the overdriven sound of the fender just a hair more. I just felt with an overdrive into It on the fat mode, the blues junior sounded like it had a great eq balance overall, then again I’m a big fender guy, so I’m slightly biased. 😂 You guys should do a blindfold shootout with small valve amps. 😉😉😉
Hm, in general yea. I used to play an orange thunderverb head for big stoner metal sounds and it sounded ace, I love orange. But I think this rocker 15 sounds like garbage which makes me very sad. Reminds me of absolutely gunning the gain on an old slightly broken peavey rage combo
@@Juiceboxbrian I have a Rocker 15 head and and it sounds nothing like this. I don't know if a 10' speaker vs 12'' speaker makes that much of a difference, but in this video it sounds terrible! There's also the fact that the volume was a bit low; it does lack a lot of low/low-mid range under 50% volume.
@@Raklarpt All very good points. however, I see the problem as extending beyond the issues of lacking the low mid punch. The structure of the gain as well as the way the low end breaks up just makes me think of guitar tone in high school punk bands. Lots of fun but not a good sound haha.
I like the old school stuff like the AD series. Knobs don't do much, just one channel that goes louder or quieter pretty much. But they are some of the purest most expressive and inspiring amps I have ever used. I feel like tube rectifiers and proper ply cabs make a fair difference, things missing on a lot of valve combos these days
The AC15 from Vox sounded by far the best. Then Marshall and Fender, then Blackstar (which sounded like a Boss Katana). The others sounded muddy or simply not capable.
@@dingushussey4100 Almost every big amp brand has a line up of great artists.. and a Vox made in the 60's (used by Hendrix) isn't necessarily the same as a recent one...
I love how that PRS 594 is getting so much exposure as "the guitar that the Captain never plays", it's the worst kind of advertisement PRS could ask for haha.
Doc Tiberius good point. I think in these demos that the amp and guitar level should match up. They should have used an SE or S2 line guitar if they were gonna use PRS
Had one of the original (USA) BluesJr for many years, and considered many times "trading up". Thing is, it's perfect and consistent for every application, especially with the speaker upgraded . I determined, for more unique signatures, that using it wet /,dry , with other similar wattage amps, does the job well, while also satisfying that urge to tinker and experiment.
Thanks for this. I'm thinking of buying this kind of amp, and this video was very helpful. One thing you might have mentioned is the difference in weight between the various amps, since portability is one of the features of amps in this range. The Vox is about twice as heavy as the Supro, for example.
Great idea to use a guitar where you can split the pickups. Single coil/humbuckers sounds massively different on these amps and it's definitely helpful when see how they perform with each. The Marshall always seems much more accepting of humbuckers than say the Blues Jr is.
Supro blues king has effects loop, line out, foot switch for the gain and boost. And the sounds... omg. I had to pick one up. Traded the my blues junior for it.
Interesting. My favorite tones in order: Vox, Fender (I expected this to be my favorite), Blackstar (That one surprised me a bit) Least favorite tones in order: Supro (hated it, but it's just not my sound), Orange (See Supro), Marshall (I actually kinda liked it. I think i'd prefer the Origin 50 though with the 12 inch speaker and more headroom)
I've got a Gibson GA-18T from ~1959/60 era, of which they are very few. She was beat a bit when I acquired her services, but after playing through the old girl I understand why she was so well used. She still had her original P10R, which sounded excellent, but we wanted to preserve the original cone (!), so opted for an aftermarket replacement speaker. After researching the forums online, it was obvious the Weber 10F150 (C10N copy) was the holy grail in this amp, so I bought one from Mr. Ted himself (still alive back then he was). That speaker sounds so WICKEDLY AWESOME & KILLER in this amp, that we just had to agree with other people's assessment. I also recommend the Weber 12F150 (C12N copy) for Fender Deluxe Reverbs, or Princeton Reverbs too (10F150 or 12F150) and you will be in tonal nirvana. I'm not playing with you, I'm praying with you for better tone. RIP Ted Weber (you are not forgotten brother, because you were a man who cared)!
My preference on the cleans by far was the Vox AC15.........so much so, I bought one! Such a cool sound, such a professional sound, such a versatile amp............as my bass player said at first rehearsal, “wow, that Vox has such authority of tone!” 😎😎😎👍
They all had their thing, and I liked them all. Personally if I were gonna buy one it would be the Supro. I've never heard an amp before that had that fuzzy attack. Loved that unique sound.
I like the less travelled amps, particularly the 90s reissue Ampeg Reverberocket (best amp I ever had), but the Supro appeals to me. I have the Blues King 12 enroute and can't wait to try it.
Sean Davis with a limit on how many amps, they likely didn’t want to include more than one Fender.... the blues junior is by a landslide the more ubiquitous amp. Also the design of the bassbreaker is more “marshal like”, so testing the blues junior is a little more interesting in this context. Just guessing of course :)
I really like Pete's playing in these demo videos. I get a better sound of what the amp/guitars sound like. Certain other unamed players just... sound like themselves and don't let the gear speak on its own.
I used to think Vox amps were hard to work with and brittle sounding, but you just need to get them dialled in or cooking (on one with an attenuator that’s easy) also the normal channel is your friend!! So good I ditched my Marshall and fender and have been gigging AC15s for 2 yrs now.
Dang, I'm having a hard time choosing between the Marshall, Orange and Fender. They all sounded great. I think it would depend on what style I was going to play more. I loved the gain from the Orange, and the Fender cleans are hard to beat. The only common factor, is Petes amazing playing.
that design originated in the 40s and 50s when people sat or stood BEHIND the amplifier as they played onstage. It can be a pain to adjust onstage, too.
there's a reason that Marshall, Vox , and Fender are (and always will be) the Daddy's...my personal favourite here is the Marshall, but there were great sounds to be found in all of these amps. great video guys! :)
Agree with Lee, these days it can be easily remedied with a cheap pedal, but all amps should still have some form of reverb. The few I own that don't, are more seldom played..... 👍👍
Loving the new things going on in this episode. Production values continue to ride the bleeding edge wave of "special" effects, and I for one love them dearly. Seriously mates, I love what you're doing here! Emojis to prove it: 😍👌👍💕🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
I own a Blues Jr. Really good sounding little amp. Takes pedals very, very well. Ive played the AC 15 with the green speaker.....wow. sounds really good as well. Very different than the Fender. I think it is louder when cranked as well. I have not been able to run my pedals on the Vox yet. The Fender and Vox together sound fantastic cranked at the same time............. you will however be asked to leave Guitar Center when you do this!!! Lol #itwasworthit
The Vox for me, then the supro because it does that "thing". My old AC15 has done that thing that shocked you both and I probably use it more than my plexi or JTM45.
Since you asked. I am hearing exactly the same as you have described. On a personal note, and for my playing style, I like the orange, the fender, the Vox, and the Black Star. Thanx guys!
Great video as usual! I’ve always loved Marshalls but the Vox blew me away. It had something that the others did not as far as what I want to hear. Marshall second and Fender third.
Andertons Music Co It certainly doesn’t, but I was worried about it to the point that I bought the head instead of the combo. She found a home atop a Greenback 1x12.
What I like about these demos is they play just simple chords. A lot of the other videos on amps the guy does what sales guys do in guitar shops. And just plays solos to show off. Which gives you know idea you the amp. Great.
