Punchiest amp?

[40hz]

Good Morning all!

I'm in the market for a new amp head (£1000 budget) and find a lot of amps i've played through can feel quite 'flat'. So, I am curious as to which amp is perceived to be the punchiest? I like a lot of initial thump and body to the notes so that they really 'pop'.

My tone is very clean (Modulus Flea through a Vanderkley MNT210) and i'm not interested in any head that has dirt or distortion of any kind. Fat and clear is the name of the game!

Advice and opinions greatly appreciated!

 

[wateroftyne]

You're going to get a lot of different opinions here, but IME the HandBox R-400 is worth checking out for a couple of reasons.

It's class A/B so there's no fancy power management going on to squash the life out of the tone (unless you start hitting the rails). It's incredibly dynamic and it's very clean (although grit is available on-tap).

[discreet]

May I suggest the Fender Super Bassman all-valve head currently for sale in the marketplace? If I had the necessary paper tokens I'd be on that like a Weight Watcher on a Greggs Steak Bake. Mmm, Steak Bake... Mmm, Fender Super Bassman... punchier than a Geordie alcoholic. 

Edit: No offence, Michael.

Edited May 10, 2018 by discreet

[wateroftyne]

1 minute ago, discreet said:

punchier than a Geordie alcoholic. 

You've met my wife..?

[Graham]

Sounds like you're after a valve head from your description

[2elliot]

Spend a bit of time with an Orange 4 Stroke. Clean and very versatile. An excellent amp. 

[Lozz196]

I was thinking of some form of Gallien Krueger for this.

Edit - or maybe a Trace Elliot?

Edited May 10, 2018 by Lozz196

[Japhet]

If your definition of 'punchy' is what I think it is I'd say the Orange Terror. I played through one a while back but found it far too aggressive and 'in your face' for my taste. The 1000 watt with not much gain would have masses of headroom.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Japhet

[Blink]

Stick with your current amp and buy a top notch compressor?

[acidbass]

To my mind punch is midrange - I would look at Markbass or Aguilar.

[Al Krow]

7 minutes ago, acidbass said:

To my mind punch is midrange - I would look at Markbass or Aguilar.

+1 ^^

Mesa M6 Carbine may also blow you away. Valve Pre + MOSFET power amp. Should be able to pick up something VGC second hand within your budget. I love mine.

I've heard really good things about the Trickfish Bullhead 1K too and if I was about to spend £1K on an amp, that would certainly be on my radar.

Great choice of cab btw  

[Al Krow]

PS I was on a similar quest last year...so you may find the thread below of interest too. I ended up with a DG M900 from the FS...and VK210 cab  

 

[frankzelf]

You might wanna try the Quilter BB800, Little amp with lots of punch!

 

 

[Delberthot]

To me punchiness has as much to do with the bass as the amp and you certainly have the right bass to be punchy so I would also say Gallien Krueger for the amp

[Tradfusion]

1 hour ago, frankzelf said:

You might wanna try the Quilter BB800, Little amp with lots of punch!

 

 

+1 on the BB800... mucho punchy!!

[EBS_freak]

Was the thing that first drew me to the HD350 and TD650. Both clean, both deliver the transients with no sag or distortion. They are very, clean, almost PA like amp... which brings me onto my second suggestion....

Big fat PA amp and a nice channel strip?

[discreet]

If you want to go Class D, the punchiest example I've used is the G-K MB 500 Fusion.

 

[Cuzzie]

Form Factor Bi1000

400w or 1000w true RMS.

Powerful and loud as hell with a tonne of bass on tap and an intelligent easy to use EQ.

Version 2 is out in about a month where they should have tinkered the issue where the DI was affected by the master volume (DG M900 also does this so its not poor manufacture!) and thus is not anymore.

https://formfactorpro.com/collections/bass-amps

 

here it is on a Supertwin.

Good luck on your quest!

[la bam]

You'd be happy looking at something with a really comprehensive mid range eq.

I'd also suggest going for more 10" speakers for punch. Rather than say 1x15.

[xgsjx]

10 minutes ago, la bam said:

You'd be happy looking at something with a really comprehensive mid range eq.

I'd also suggest going for more 10" speakers for punch. Rather than say 1x15.

Speaker diameter doesn't come into it.  I'm pretty sure that Super Twin (which is 2x12) is punchier than my EBS 4x10.  It's more to do with the speaker voicing & cab design.

There's a lot of good suggestions, though I thought the Orange Terror was not so good at "Clean"?   Though having never played one, I wouldn't have a clue.

[la bam]

The point being having a punchy amp head through a 1x15 isn't going to be much more punchy than a less punchy amp through a 4x10.

But a punchy amp through a punchy cab is a much better idea - if that's the sound youre after.

[xgsjx]

That's a more sensible point.  But a punchy amp through a punchy 1x15 is going to be more punchy than a punchy amp through my vintage sounding 4x10.

[Al Krow]

This is at risk of becoming a punch-up. May the best cab win. 

[Osiris]

Genzler Magellan, either the 350 or the 800 (just ignore the drive channel, although you're missing a trick if you do ). The clean channel has a massive weight and punch. It's also got on incredibly versatile and simple pre-amp. 

Just ignore the anti class D brigade, this thing punches like Tyson after 8 pints of Stella 

 

 

[Al Krow]

11 minutes ago, Osiris said:

Genzler Magellan, either the 350 or the 800 (just ignore the drive channel, although you're missing a trick if you do ). The clean channel has a massive weight and punch. It's also got on incredibly versatile and simple pre-amp. 

Just ignore the anti class D brigade, this thing punches like Tyson after 8 pints of Stella 

 

 

...and is IMHO still one of the best value "quality" D-class heads out there. A few come up in the FS from time to time, not many. And most of the guys who've owned this head have had nothing but praise for it.

Agree with Osiris that a bit of "dirt in the head" can be very welcome, particularly on rockier numbers and if you've turned up with just your head to a rehearsal it's a nice back stop to have.