should i buy a cab?

I am searching for a new tube head and a cabinet. Recently multiple Avatar cabs have popped up on my local craigslist and i remember them being mentioned in another thread.

One is a 2x12 with a vintage 30 and a G12H. The other one is a 2x12 with greenbacks. Both are listed at 250. Should I buy one and which one would you recommend?

Also, any recommendations on a tube head? I would like something in the 50W or less range and 2 channels would be nice. I tend to play 60s-70s psych and doom metal(like sabbath, pentagram) to kyuss/ queens of the stone age type rock. I have been looking at Oranges, but they tend to be quite pricey. I was looking at the Egnater Rebel 20 and was going to go for a drive to a guitar shop to play one.

other than only having one channel, i'm very fond of my marshall jcm800. the one channel thing is going to force me to migrate to something else in the future though. i'm also going for a little bit of a qotsa sound. check here for my tone.

i've heard great things about vht heads. orange is pretty nutty expensive, but i've heard some amazing tones come from them.

if you have the opportunity, play through as many different ones as you can.

as for cabs, i've really only ever used 4x12s, so i don't know much about smaller setups. 2x12 probably isn't a bad place to start. you could add another 2x12 in the future for a bigger sound. or experiment; the dude from the melvin's swears by his 4x12 + 2x15 setup.

I like the sound you get from that jcm800. Do you run any pedals through it or is it straight into the amp? I had a jcm900, but became unemployed and needed money. So now I am just trying to buy back the equipment I had to sell. currently I am playing on a orange crush, which is just a small solidstate combo. Which sounds great, but is a little small for playing with a bassist/drummer.

The closest guitar shop to me is an orange dealer and have played on just about all the oranges they have in stock. they sound great, but new they are just a little more then I want to spend.

butters said:

Do you run any pedals through it or is it straight into the amp?

Click to expand...

here's my setup:

95% of the time i play with no pedal enabled. i have the metal zone pedal set to give me a "tin can" sound (no bottom end at all) for effect. the eq is really more of a volume cut (cleaner tone) than an eq change. i'm not much of a pedal guy, but i'm all for trying something new.

does that shop near you do layaways? i think thats your best bet. imo, DO NOT settle on something less expensive, or that you're not in love with. an amp is like a g/f or wife; your with it everyday so choose correctly because living with something you don't love is agony.

even if it takes you some time to get the right thing, it will still be worth it. especially if you have something now that gets you by.

That's an awesome tone, kyuss. Sounds a whole lot like Josh Homme

butters, what sort of guitar sound do you want? What sort of music do you play?

I think I found the sound I want. The guitar sounds I really like would have to be Josh Homme, Dan Auerbach(black keys), Tony Iommi, and dead meadow.

I think I got really close to being able to play most of those sounds. I bought the Avatar 2x12 with greenbacks that I mentioned in my first post. And I found an Orange Rocker 30 in Chicago on Craigslist. Went and picked that up today and am very pleased with the sound.

While in Chicago I went to this metal bar that has the best burgers ever. Its called Kuma's Corner . Then I went to Reckless Records and spent a bunch of money on records.

Anyway my current rig is MIM strat->Red Witch Fuzz God->Crybaby->Digilog Delay->Dynacomp->Rocker 30