What's The BEST Amp Brand? (with KDH) 

Now I can finally brag about making a video with Mia Khalifa! Seriously though it was a fun collab!

Every tier list is simultaneously enjoyable AND infuriating.

Thanks for putting Orange in the S tier. They can do pretty much any genre of music from the late 60s/early 70s rock to modern metal/djent.

The collaboration we've all been waiting for.

I love how you and KDH put most of the OG Amplifier brands below B, but most of these brands don't make amps like they used to, one of which focuses more importantly on beers and refrigerators. So I get why you did so.

Im just happy these two found each other.

Fenders might not be great for high gain but they can sound insane with fuzz. One of my favorite metal records, the Hell selftitled from 2017, was just a Fender Twin and a Black Russian Big Muff, and it's one of the most crushing records I ever heard.

Hughes & Kettner is quite popular in Japan in fact some of my favorite Japanese Rock and Metal Guitarists uses it like Otsuka Sae from Poppin'Party, Syu from Galneryus, Hizaki and Teru from Versailles, Shimizu Akio from Anthem, Sex Machineguns etc.

Guitar pickup brand tier list next would be cool

Don't forget the Roland Cube amps. I've had a Cube 60 since '06 or '07 and gotta say it's a pretty decent and versatile little practice amp. Lots of tonal options and decent onboard effects. The rectifier channel is good for modern high gain tones, especially if you use a boost to tighten it up. Plus the clean channel is modeled after the Jazz Chorus. They're also built like tanks and very solid.

Hey!! It's really cool to see both of you on the same video. I love both channels I think a lot of people sleep on the both of you in the guitar community. You're both amazing players. With good content

I completely agree with Orange being S tier. Love that sound so much and nothing else sounds remotely similar. If only someone could release an amp sim where the 'Orange' model doesn't sound like garbage. I would be very grateful to whoever put that out because those amps get pretty hefty to lug about once you get out of the lunchbox zone and into the big boy amps.

I have a first year production Ampeg V4 guitar amp and it's an amazing amp! Super versatile cleans and a great 70s rock sound.

You guys should do a hair care products tier list.

A Fender Twin sounds great clean and as a pedal platform. I used to run a Radial Tone Bone from my board into a Twin, along with modulation, delay etc.

The Ampeg VH140C is a very well known and sought after death metal amp. Their VL series amps, which were designed by Lee Jackson, were also quite nice. They do the hot rodded Marshall thing very well.

As a Laney user, I really wonder what happened there? I've been so well treated by their costumer service, giving me info, schematics, manuals and modding info for an used 90's amp.

Your descriptions of Mesa amps is quite a good summary of Trey Anastasio’s sound.

Ive got a Peavey 6505+ 112 combo and a old hybrid bolt 60. The bolt 60 is mostly solid state but has 1 preamp tube and 2 power amp tubes. It has beutiful cleans BUT I love the speaker for high gain tones its amazing. I mostly use that speaker for the Peavey. Shout out to you KDH from South Africa love youre content...

Finally, hope to see even more in the future

14:00 I think Alex Lifeson from Rush uses Hughes and Kettner

I paid $800 for a used Marshall JVM205H on Reverb. It still has the original price tag. It was priced at $1600. Marshalls are expensive in the US.

I have vintage Fender amps and I love my Boss Katana mkII. After some tweaking with the app, it’s absolutely killer.

Nice Collab dudes, I really enjoy my yamaha thr amp it supports the line 6 wireless and can run off an internal battery highly recommend.

Bit odd that Peavey is E and EVH is A. It continues to astound me how no one will admit that the EVH range sound like Peaveys despite being designed BY THE SAME GUY. Hard disagree on the Laneys and H&K too, had a cracking LC-15 as a 1 channel combo amp and been a huge HK fan for years. Incredibly versatile and monstrous tone. Would've liked to have seen Engl, Revv on the board as well.

Marvel: "We have done some great collaborations with different Spidermen..." KDH+SSTV: "Hold our Marshall heads, please..."

Well that’s fantastic I have two A tier amps. My EVH 5150 III & Line 6 Helix - and I have always wanted an Orange Thunderverb - I am a bit surprised Mesa didn’t rank higher as the progenitor of high gain amps and the amazing clean tones and versatility of the mark series amps -but I agree - they could be tighter. Well done lads.

60’s Ampeg Rockerverbs are INCREDIBLE amps. I’m a bit disappointed that KDH doesn’t know about those, because they really rock.

Finally that collab happened! I'd like to add that Peavey made the Classic VTX which is referred to as 200$ boutique amp killer by Johan Segeborn. I have one and I can confirm, it's a pretty good amp.

This was definitely entertaining and I am not sure I could ask for more than that!

Good and fair comparison. Thx both, 6stringTv and KDH for this and your explanations. I am aware that there are almost as much amplifier vendors in our colorful world as residents in one anthill but for me interesting is that some of the "medium or big players" are still missing. As a German I could start with Engl or Diezel as examples. Did I miss the explanation in this recording? Kemper and Hughes & Kettner are not the first I would mention if sb. asks me for a list of (German or any) amplifier vendors.

a Mesa Mark IV will never sound loose or flubby if dialed in right...super tight, my favorite amp ever!!! have a laboga mr. hector on the way...a souped up tighter rectifier...cheers guys!!!

Love the collaboration!

Ampeg SVT are absolutely the most used live bass amps ever. Look at any back line ever. I have played professionally for 40 years. No one has ever tried to tell me that there was anything better.

I love watching this channel grow ,beautifully chaotic

Please continue to do these tier ranking vids! They are highly entertaining and so are you guys (and Glen too!). Do OD pedals, distortion pedals, string brands, tuners...if you ranked petrol stations, I would still watch.

Awesome collaboration

Great video! George Lynch with Dokken used some Randalls on the Back for the Attack album, if I remember right. Peavey used to be awesome, but man, have they fallen off. Late 80s, early 90s Peavey is GOLD! If you haven't checked out the Peavey Rockmaster Preamp, you gotta listen to it!

cool video, would love to see Supro, toneking, bugera, enlg and others

Great video!

My first real and only amp is a 1st gen Peavy Vypyr 100W modelling combo and damn it is good. I got it used for around 100$ and it was basically a steal, I almost came out equal after selling my small 3W Nux practice amp, and I'm pretty sure the Peavy would match any Boss katana in sounds and the distorted tones are nasty, it also has a lot of options, some could say too many, but you can make it sound great for anything.

You two work really well together. And so much great hair.

I run an Orange Dual Terror through an 80s Marshall cab and it's heaven

I have two old Hughes & Kettner Vortex Black Series (100W solid state) with a couple of their 4X12's that they were sold with back in the day (Celestion Rockdriver Jr speakers). I use them as the wet stereo setup in my Wet/Dry/Wet rig,and for that they work perfectly. For my dry amp I use an Orange TH30 with a Harley Benton 2X12 (Celestion V30's).

Re. Hughes & Kettner. I was surprised on the take on that one. While it's not my first choice in amps based solely on personal preference, on the occasions I've messed with them I never got any impressions of flubbiness or similar. In fact it was a really really tight tone. I'm sure you've both seen/heard Mika Tyyskä's (aka Mr. Fastfinger's) playing through them. His tones always sounds very articulate and defined to me through them, and very precise. Rather the opposite of what I think of with a "flubby" sound. But then tone is "in the fingers" right? I think Mika could probably play through almost anything and still sound fantastic lol. As an aside, I actually had an Ampeg guitar amp paired to a 4x12 cab (way) back in the day. It totally rocked and, when paired with the right pedals (which it took well) was great for crunch tones. I actually miss that thing sometimes. Ahhh nostalgia. Cheers!

The Orange Dark Terror might be the best amp in existence. Simple, cheap, and great all around (assuming you know how to use your volume control on your guitar).

Awesome collab

Ampeg is that good for bass amps that it should at least be B tier. Just expensive for the model everyone wants and it’s made for big shows/touring so not right for most people. Class D amps have helped a lot for bassists, for me it was a welcome surprise when purchasing latest head. Not as much fun as guitar amps for sure!! Like most bass stuff so much less variety. The major tones do a lot still I think. Also y’all should do this for speakers now that it’s becoming recognized as so important to the chain. I put a Jensen in my Boss Katana and the sound difference was considerable. Same for when I subbed an 8” Jensen for my micro dark, favorite upgrades I’ve come across so far. Great video!!

35 minuten? Mach mehr solch langer videos, vielleicht jeden monat oder jeden zweiten? Mehr collabs mit KDH währe auch witzig, tolles video und mach weiter so

Friggin Peavey! I had a Bandit 112 back in the 90s, and that spring reverb would clang with any shake or vibration. Just couldn’t rely on it to play live.

It's so funny that my list would be completely different for completely different reasons for every brand and I wouldn't even be close to the arguments you used. I love it. But I'm very disappointed about a couple manufacturers that had a huge impact and are missing, still kicking or not. Sunn o))) amps, Lee Jackson Amplifier (to be fair, if I had had the money, his new metaltronix would be the first I would buy, this thing is a monster)...., Crate amps (which had some sice cabs and nice-ish amps), Ibanez amps or for example Paul Rivera (now Rivera amplification), who had a huge impact in the amp scene and also created a lot of amps for very different brands. Anyway, I love those insights and different views. Keep em comin 💜

I picked up a orange crush 35watt amp after watching this and I assure you that I am so happy with it, going for the Dark Terror next💯🤘🏼thank you for the tips fellas🍀

So peavey's a sad story. The whole 3 years I toured the country.. the country being america.. LOL I used a 6505 +and a jcm 900. They're both classics and they're both incredible you can't go wrong with either. There's a lot of great amps out there now but I still love those two amps. The only amp right now that I have my eye on though is the PRS Mt series amps those things sound fucking incredible. Blew me away on how good a PRS amp could really sound. You guys should do a demo on that amp that would be really cool

I took a chance and bought a new Hiwatt SA-20 w/ 212. Getting on a bit and had always wanted a Hiwatt. Happy to say I love the purchase, it's blowing me away how good it is. If you'd tried one you'd put Hiwatt on the S list lol

Nice video guys. My Laney IRT is the best amp I've ever had, sucks that they mistreated KDH.

I own a Hughes & Kettner Blackspirit 200. Underrated amp imo. It's versatility is awesome, and I am able to get a great high gain sound of it with the help of a boost pedal. Only complaint is that for some reason, it is a super noisy amp in the high gain realm, even with the built in noise gate in the amp. You would need another gate in your signal chain to combat the noise issue for sure.

“I’ve got a skull shirt on because I’m a bad boy.” 😂😂

It might sound strange for many, but I am playing an Fender HotRodDeluxeIV as a very flexible solution in a Metal Band! I use the destortion/OD/Fuzz peals as pre-amps. The sound works!

Yyyeesss the prs MT ! That's kind of what I'm after now.. wait did I already leave that comment?? I don't remember considering I think I'm on my 22nd, now.. happy to help the video lmfao

Hey guys! Love both of your channels so it's pretty cool that you are doing an episode together. In reference to Ampeg amps; Doyle from the Misfits uses Ampeg SVT heads exclusively. It is awful. A few years ago I saw him with his solo band in a small club and due to his EQ you could not make out ANYTHING the man played. He has hella bottom end, mids completely cut, and highs cranked, but it made no difference. He uses the same rig with the reformed Misfits and it is the same result there as well. They had to add another guitarist to fill that spot in the mix it's so bad. I think everyone is scared to say anything about it to him 😂.

the Randall Satan and Diavlo are really good though. really tight distortion with the Girth and Grind controls on the Satan. really good bite on e Diavlo.

Mesa Triple Crown Red Channel is super tight and no flubby low end! Also H&K Black Spirit is a really great sounding little amp do try one if you get the chance! Orange is cool but very expensive in the US just like Marshall. Plus their knobs and hieroglyphics aren’t my fav

I figured you loved the Colour orange, but cool to learn it's your favourite flavour too. I'm the same way, love the colour, the taste and smell of oranges, easily my favourite and will (almost)always pick Orange if I can.

Lol i asked you what you thought of H&K on a stream, i have the tubemeister 18 and really like it, (but i play mostly play black/doom so take it with a grain of salt lol) but Alex Lifeson used them too

the KDH shirt is a classy touch

Finally let’s goooo🎉🎉

I would love to see these two start a band.

Nirvana's Bleach album was recorded entirely running a Boss DS1 through a Fender Twin Reverb. More recently the Swedish hardcore band, Refused, recorded an album called War Music, largely just using a DS2 with a Twin Reverb. Refused in particular got an impressively wide range of great tones out of such a simple rig. I dont particularly like those pedals, or Fender amps, but that combination can definately sound excelent.

I’m only watching this now, but surprised to not see Revv included. The G20 is fantastic IMO, the flexibility is insane.

I also prefer the Mark series over the Rectifier but you can make the Rectifier tighter by lowering the bass and boosting it with an overdrive pedal. Also, as Randall goes, let's not forget Ola Englund's Randall Satan which sadly got discontinued. The Laney Supergroup is like an inferior Plexi in my opinion. As modern Marshall goes the DSLR range is pretty good. I especially like the versatility of the DSL40CR and 100HR.

The two best amps I’ve ever used for a pedal platform are the Hiwatt 50 watt head, and the Carvin valvemaster 100 watt head. So much clean head room, and soooooooo loud!!

Where is Hartke at lol? I just ordered the Hartke HD50 last night and I'm receiving my first bass guitar

Moar collabs with KDH, please. Very nice video :D

Oh please! Marshal is the most iconic amp ever! The guy has a stack of them just behind him!

Peavey VYPYR is the best practice amp!! I had a Line 6 Spyder jam the drum beats were terrible!! Just slight variations of each other.. VYPYR VIP 2 are cool because you can play a bass, keyboard and acoustic electric.. Have superb onboard effects. I’ve been getting incredible tones lately. Hooked up the Boss noise suppressor with the 4 cable method and Boss Super Overdrive!! I didn’t know the actual noise gate circuit isn’t active unless that method is used..

I felt that when you guys were talking about Marshall. I spend about $4000 on my Marshall yjm 100 😅. I’m a huge fan so I had too

As a Texan, I can confirm, he looks like my neighbor

Oh and also, I had an Ampeg Reverberocket 1x12 for year, which was a smoking combo. Really good for sludge rock and and hard blues.

I agree. I had a lot of trouble trying to get a mesa mk5, and instead, recorded an entire punk ep using a digitech element xp, multi effects unit as a preamp, into a quilter power amp, and a Marshall 2x12 cabinet. Much better sound for the style I was playing.

I've had a Spider IV since I started playing guitar. And it sits to my right at all times. Next to a Marshall Solid State combo It makes clean noises and distorted noises. And has some built in effects. What else do I need for my room playing. Marshall never turns on.

I had an old Hiwatt and a jcm 800, Now all I have is tinitus and a combo.Best laugh I had was the Roland was more versitile than a Fender, You kids are a hoot!

Sixstringtv, where did you get your JCM 800 from? Is it an orignal or the reissue 2203?

hey at 25:42 you ask for another Peavey for points. i own a Peavey Vypyr combo amplifier, it’s very good for home use, and with a thick bass driven clean tone, it sounds absolutely monstrous with a Distortion Pedal or my personal favorite, the SF300 hyperfuzz. the amp has good tones by itself, especially for home players to practice or play. it’s got good metal tones, decent cleans and a handful of effects

Great video. Next time you guys should cover Diezel, Rivera, Laboga and Revv amps as well.

Very cool...on the comment about no good high gain tone from a fender amp..the 3 gain stages in the bassbreaker 15 I have is very good if you dial them in...the mid gain setting is a great tone once u get those tubes warmed up..this amp gets little love but to my ears and w my pedalboard it's fantastic..great job guys and I love my katana 50 as well..you can also get a great affordable bogner ecstasy tone w thier pedals..

Ive got the PRS mt15 and i only have great things to say about it. Killer tight distortion and beautiful cleans

I'm wondering what amp software I should get. Because of my living situation I need to run my guitar through my PC with this PreSonus device I have, but I don't yet have software for it. I'd be very grateful for any suggestions.

Marshall, Peavey, Mesa, Hughes and Kettner and Orange are my favs, (Maybe line 6 for the extra goofy early 2000’s distortion). But my dream amps are certainly Hughes and Kettner Tri-amp, Mesa Dual Recto and Peavey 6505/Triple X (Ultra). Would love if I owned any of them.

about 20 years ago I used a bass amp and 410 cab at a rehersal once because i got out of work late and the bass had a spare rig at the rehersal spot. I stopped bringing my head and cab after that 1 rehersal. If you use pedals or processors and need/want a super clean signal to start.. Bass amps are the way to go...

Instant upvote

I've never played a recto. I love my Mark iv. It's tight where I don't typically use a boost

My Line 6 DT50 is perhaps one of the best amps I’ve ever played. It’s a real tube amp that rewires itself on the fly to replicate the preamp topology of four classic amps, Fender, Marshall, Vox and Bogner (or Mesa Boogie Dual Rect). It sounds awesome in any application and also has variable wattage and switches from pentode to triode. No other amp can do that.

This collab is so good lmao

I had a Peavey VTM120 at some point. Fantastic amp

Yous guys are both talented and beautiful 🔥

Y'all have/have had bass players at some point, I'm sure. You could have ranked Ampeg on how it hits you in the mix compared to other brands. Cool list all round and I agree on most points.

As the owner and big enjoyer of a 1988 Laney AOR SII, I am hurt, but also fair if you had such a bad experience with them. :(

Hell yeah 2 of my favorite Geetar fellers.

I have an Ampeg SS-150 guitar amp it's bad ass, bought it new in 86 still have it

Ok either King Gizz switched or they only use Fender on tour, I just saw them in New Orleans in October. And on the “Fender can’t do high gain” opinion, I read an interview with the guitarist for Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and he said they specifically use something from the Fender Hot Rod lineup can’t remember if it was a Blues Jr or a Hot Rod Deluxe. Now they are high gain, well lots of fuzz, plus I love running my EQD Hoof Reaper on my Hot Rod Deluxe and I get the doom metal sawing tone out of it. It may not be common but it can be done.