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The Marshall JVM410H is a clear winner for me personally. I just love the raw, clear tone of a good Marshall amp and those mids are to die for! You can’t go wrong with that amp. Killer demo as always, Jon.
I suspect that the mid scoop may be more down to the settings used. Mesas do have a harsher emphasis on bass and the fact that he pushed a little more treble adds a scoop effect.
The Marshall is the most honest, well thought out amp, and the sound is very well balanced and more pleasing to the ear than the other amps featured in this video.
Can't beat the Marshall sound to my ears. It does everything really well and it's definitely the cleanest sound in my opinion. That's why I bought one a year ago when I had the money to buy a tube amp. Never letting it go. It just sounds so good
With the Diavlo it’s that Fortin signature metallic twang, but you’re right, the ENGL Fireball also has a somewhat similar tight attack but also different.
In a blind test, they’re all high gain winners. Personally, I am partial to the rectifier for a certain tonal quality and detail, even though it also comes with some compromises. Yet the Diavlo is the amp I sought out for the very reason demonstrated in this video: very tight and cutting low end.
I think the Mesa makes a great wall of sound combined with the Marshall or the Orange. The Mesa has the bite and the rattle and Marshall or Orange do have the bark, the growl, the mids, whatever you wanna call it. They are all beautiful... Great video!
1. JVM 2. Fireball 3. Invective for my preferences (voicing, articulation & cut). Clearly, the Mesa and Randall are better for heavy applications. Sadly, the Rockerverb is a fish out of water here, but I do really like that amp for other styles.
If someone says all your hi gain amp tones sound the same, they obviously aren’t listening for nuance. I use six different signal paths and blend together (including Marshall, Mesa, Orange, Diezel, Bogner and even an Op Amp Big Muff!) to taste, simply because of what you’ve illustrated here - just because you dial in a certain type of sound on each amp doesn’t mean they sound the same. You truly have a knack for these type of comparison demos, and do them well!
1) JVM - perfect allround talent. a safety for most constellations, the living mids… 2) ENGL - absolutely not my brand, but this amp simply sounds tight and huge (too bad it doesn‘t have 2 eq sections) Peavey is too much of everything for me personally. Mesa too scooped and muddy. Randall hmm, muddy too (but I still love my rh150g3). Orange would be my choice for another layer in the mix. Unique, wide & driving forwards… Thanks for this professional shootout :)
The Orange sounds surprisingly well, "roundly" in this comparison. Based on the video, I would choose the Orange and maybe the Mesa but the Mesa requires a different eq for my taste. The sterile but brutal Invective is also impressive. The Randall produced a "filtered" and slightly muffled sound for me. The other amplifiers brought its character.
IMO ENGL Fireball 100 definite winner in this test. Love the sound of it in this clip! If you had a tubescreamer I think I would rate the mesa much better than I did in this test. I miss the 6505 also.
My favourite is the MESA boogie because you can put some gain but you can clearly listen to the chords you play. Sounds like the distortion is backing the notes . Hard to explain. Great video honestly.
Marshall was my favourie in this demo, really sweet mids. ENGL also sounds really good here, really punchy midrange. ENGL and Marshall tied for the win for me (but if I had to own one I'd pick that Marshall because at 4 channels and 3 modes you could do a whole shootout video with just that amp) The orange had a nice bright punchy sound, I feel like it would be a really good choice for more melodic / less aggressive riffs. Peavey (including my own XXX) usually sounds tight and punchy in the lower mids like the ENGL here, but in this demo it sounded a bit cold to me.
Man, you are one of the few youtubers which i can actually hear the differences, and the verbal explanation just clarifies my toughs. Top notch content keep up!
Man! First of all, great job, second haha I love the sound of the Marshall jvm, the orange rockerverb and the diavlo, idk I found them like the perfect tone for me Another great job! Pls hahah try some solid state amps too greetings from Mexico btw
Orange, Engl, Marshall, Peavey, Mesa, Randall. If alot of them were EQed more to my taste though I'm sure the order would switch. You dialed the Dual rect in weird imo. The Orange sounded beautiful though and pretty much how I'd dial it in.
Fantastic comparison! I think you are showing pretty well that the final guitar sound is not ONLY driven by the speaker/cab/mic selection, as the recent "IR hype" is suggesting. Different amps still have their own character added to the band mix. I do own an Engl 19" rack setup (E530 preamp & 840/50 power amp) and the Peavey Invective 120, but I must say that I also loved the sounds of the Orange and the Dual Rectifier. Great content and smart way to compare sounds. I love your channel!
The Marshall by far is the best sounding amp of the bunch. To my ears, this amp has the best distortion and it is very clear sounding; the rest of the amps are lacking one way or another. I also liked the Orange, it sounds very organic, although is the least suited for metal. Great video!!
Awesome video! JVM is winner for me. It's tone has such a nice balance. After the JVM comes the Invective and Fireball. All amps sounded awesome tho. But the JVM is my clear favourite.
Thanks! I appreciate the effort put into this so I didn't have to click to compare the tones. :) All of them have something in them that I like a lot. ENGL and Randall were my favorites. ENGL needs a bit of girth and Randall needs to be less muffled without getting too shizzly. Then again I would get used to it and be happy with any of these.
I also love the growly and clear Engl style. I had the feeling that the Randall could have had this same feature with more presence. Overall, I prefered the 412 IRs to the 212. Next, the Marshall sounded great too, and the sharpness of the palm mutes on the Peavy were mind blowing. The Mesa sounded a bit messy in the A-B comparison (not in the mix), and might require to lower the gain for rythm guitars. Thanks for the work!
Man, I can’t choose between the JVM and the Invective. The invective sounds great, but the JVM just sounded so different from the rest of them and still sounded amazing.
engl all the way! Thanks to this comparison I started to dig and feel the orange also. Not the overall tone probably, but that definite boost in the low-mids, just above the engl's "signature" roar range. It's almost a boxy feel frequency range clearly perceivable at chug parts - that's what made it bliss in the mix, none of the others seemed to have imho. Might be a great "blend-in" amp 🤔
I liked the Orange and randall, they didnt have that 200ish woof, and a smooth hi end distortion. I like mixing slap bass so I like having a very airy but gentle distortion, smudgy, not muddy.
I'm glad you put a section in where all the amps are using the same IR. Changing IRs makes a massive difference and isn't great for comparisons sake. But then again... you chose IRs that complemented each amp well and let them shine. Having both the shared IR comparison and different IR comparison is awesome to listen to. Just goes to show how big a role is played by the speaker and mic. Also. I'm usually a 5150/6505 person, so it will be no surprise that I preferred the invective. But the Fireball is basically tied with it. I found them to be the most similar of the bunch. This is probably the first video of the Randall DV100 that I don't hate it outright. Yes it is dark, but still has some interesting gain character. I also found the Dual Rec and Orange has a similar fuzziness going on, which is great for slow chugs, but not fast stuff (I've never cared for Dual recs.. I'm a fast picker). I'm not a Marshall person either, but the JVM410H still did well.
Thank you so much for including the shootout with the same cab! I was wondering why some amps sounded weird and hollow, with this kind of vacuum cleaner sound, turns out it was the initial cab ir's that did that sound. The oversized Mesa ir is awesome! No annoying resonances, so natural
My top three: 1. Peavey Invective: So much bite in the mids and sizzle in the top. 2. Mesa Dual Rectifier Solo: Scoopy with tons of thump in the low end. 3. Marshall JVM410: Well rounded. Sounds like a boosted JCM 800.
I'm the proud owner of the Laney Ironheart IRT60H amp that you have on the shelf right behind your back. This is the very, veeery underrated amp. Please, we want more or it ;((
If i'd to choose just from there i'd take the Peavey, i absolutely love it. But if i would have to buy one of those for myself i'd buy the JVM, it is awesome for any genre, its versatility is just incredible and the quality of the sound you get for anything you want to play is great. It's easy to use, hard to make a bad sound with it, sounds warm and full, sits well in the mixes, nice definition, nice punchy chopchop when you palm mute. It's just the best 360 amp out there in my opinion (if you don't like modelers of course). I'd like to have one myself!
Btw, thanks for your work, i hardly miss your videos, those are most precise comparisons out there. I bought some gears trusting your videos and i never got disappointed so far. Maybe it's not much but i think you deserve to know that.
This video is so helpful for me. I have a lot of Fender amps but am barely tipping my toe into the 'high gain' amp world. It's cool hearing what the difference is in all of these manufacturers.
When the cabs were paired to the Mesa IR, they all sounded way more like the Mesa. While each amp still had its sonic signature, the IR had a huge effect. My favorite Mesa IR pairing was the Marshall. The Mesa IR changed the EQ of the Marshall for the better and I’m not even that big of a Mesa fan. The Mesa IR improved all the amps; the biggest improvement was the Randall that changed from maybe the worst amp in the comparison to a huge sleeper.
Good video! I really got impressed by the sound of that Marshall. I have always been a Peavey 5150 guy, but for the past two years I’ve also been playing Randall Diavlo 100. I can see that there’s quite a difference in what people comment on this amp, but trust me, mixes through IRs and all that are good, but nothing compared to what the Diavlo can do direct through cabinets and mics, live, or in a rehearsal space. It is a monster! Give it a chance when you got the opportunity, because it will for sure blow your mind 🤟
IDK why the El Diavlo gets so much discredit? I honestly think( especially in this demo) that it has a distinct voice that set it self apart from the rest in a good way! Beings that I already have a JVM, if i had to choose one from the remaining amps in this line up..I would take the El Diavlo above all. I think i'm gonna dive a little further into the El Diavlo because it may very well be my next acquisition!
I'm kinda biased because I own an Invective, it's one of the tightest and heaviest sounding metal amp out there. The Orange isn't aggressive and heavy but there's a certain sweetness to its mids that makes riffs sound more melodic than other amps. Oddly enough the Fireball does the high gain Marshall thing better than the JVM.
The problem is, it's a 50 watt! The fact that it can go up against 100 watters at all is a testament to its heaviness. Let's see a 100w Orange up here and then we'll talk
@@TheChadPad My old bandmate had a 100-watt Rockerverb. I won't deny that it sounded heavy but it was never over the top heavy, saturated, and thick sounding like the 5150. It's not a bad amp but when it's about metal 5150 and the new Invective are just better than it.
It's definitely opinion, I've got the invective 120 and the jvm410h, the jvm to me is a lot tighter, the invective has this more honky thing going on, I wouldn't dream of using the crunch or lead channel without the boost on the invective, but I could run straight Into the jvm on the orange or red mode with the gain around 9-10 o clock without reaching for an overdrive, though I love the features on the invective (switchable power, 9v adaptors etc)
I loved the back to back comparison at the end. My favorites were definitely the Orange and the Mesa, they're such different tones but they complement each other so well, I'd honestly double track both of them if I was recording. If I had to pick one I'd go orange, but it's close. I honestly didn't like the Marshall. Not that it sounded bad, but I'm so used to associating the Marshall sound with classic rock and '80s metal to me it just sounds out of place for more modern stuff. But to each his own, it's really cool how everyone has a different opinion and there's no clear winner.
Love this video! As we all know, it depends on the musical style. The last two riffs of the demo song are very staccato, palm muted. While the Mesa and the Engl absolutely shine in this section, the Orange falls apart - too “squishy.” In this test, the Mesa was a little too scooped for some of the first bits of the demo song, while the Orange really sang. In this test, the Peavy was the most well-rounded, but not my fav. I love the same speaker/IR tests because that controls 80% of the sound. All these amps are killer!
The Marshall just seemed to have the cleanest fullest chomp and the low end was consistent through every demo, so if I had the money, I'd buy one. The Mesa was a tad over-distorted on the chomp, but also has good low end. The ENGL was very nice. The Orange was not even in the same neighborhood as the others but it would be great for the British sound of the 60s and 70s. The Peavey sounded great but needs more low end push, and the Randall, while better than the Orange, is just barely adequate. Thanks for putting this video together - you're still the best comparison tester out there!
The Marshall has something special going on in the mods that seems to really work with this riff and guitar. That said, the Mesa has tighter chugs, so it might work better for certain styles and while I don’t think orange is a great lead tone, if that’s the rhythm with something else on top for the lead everything sounds freaking huge.
The JVM sounded the best in this demo. It's weird I used to be a Mesa guy and their cabs are still the best, but I've drifted away from their heads and found myself to be more of a marshall guy lately and never thought I'd come around to solid state amps but there's some pretty great ones like the peavey supreme 160
Wow the Peavey was surprisingly impressive! I'm not a big fan of newer Marshall's because they sound fizzy to me, but in this demo the dual rec is fizzy and the JVM actually sounds better to me. I'm shopping for a new live rig and your videos are extremely helpful thank you!!!
I was surprised to find the Marshall JVM410 sounds best in this demo. I used to swear by Mesa (until a certain company purchased Mesa recently) and of course they still sound very good, but I was personally deciding between the Randall Diavlo 100 or ENGL Fireball 100 for my next purchase. Now I want to do some research on the Marshall jvm amps...
12 years ago, a friend of mine went to the store with me to try out a Mesa/Boogie Rectifier, because he was certain that would be the right amp for him. He ended up buying a used Marshall JVM shortly afterwards. 😊
Usually not a huge Dual Rectifier fan, but thought it sounded really good here especially for more open chords. Marshall sounds great all around and the Peavey really shines for palm muted sections since it is so tight. Great comparison!
What an absolutely fantastic shoot out. 5 stars. I definitely hear the growl in the Engl - that thing is a dog. The invective has that punchy mid range growl too, but just just tuned a little differently. The recto has this whole other thing going on with its real scooped flavour, it's like the exact opposite vibe to the Engl and Peavey. Not sure which I prefer, but absolutely depends on context. I reckon the Engl and the recto together would be very complimentary and probably more aggressive than any amount of naval ships in the South China sea. I felt the Randall had some of that snarl, but it was a bit wild and outta control for me. The orange sounded a bit choked in this company. The Marshall just seemed a bit spiritless for this application. The moral of the story is: there is no cure for GAS. Again, absolutely stellar shootout. Thank you so much for this. It's obviously a hell of a lot of work but I'm never gonna have the opportunity to play all of these side by side. You've done us guitar nerds a massive service. Also - and not for nothing, but seriously wicked riffs on all your videos and great playing. Cheers, mate ;)
They all have their own voicing...which is why I love a good tube amp shootout. Good call dialing them how you like. We got to hear each brand's signature attributes clearly here. I know I've said it before...but the Peavey invective is my thing for sure. Nice work on the shootout!😁👍
Marshall for the win !!! I just sold my Mesa Dual Rectifier since I really did not like the scooped mids and fiziness of the sound, it's just not for me. I am now debating between an EVH 5150 or the JVM 410H.
I must say at some point, all metal high amps going out through the same speaker/emu sound extremely similar. I liked the Marshall, Orange and Peavey. Great comparison
I’ll always stick behind MESA. I use the triple rectifier myself, but the classic scooped tone you get from MESA is unparalleled…………. If that’s what you like. I do!
I have to say and was surprised that the Marshall JVM410H was to my ears the best sounding. Clarity on it was very nice. Close 2nd I'd have to say was the Peavey Invective. nicely done sir. keep em coming. Cheers
Nothing was more balanced in the mix and better sounding than the Peavey Invective it won by far. I thought I'd like the dual rec the most before the video.Outside the mix, with the a/b ing at the end I liked the Marshall.
That’s a tough one. The Marshall was probably the best overall for me, but if I could combine two amps, it would be the Peavy and the Orange. The Orange sounds so good and full and sweet with those mids, but for the faster picked parts it’s just too loose. But the Peavy has that tightness just right and a mix between the two would probably be my ultimate pick.
