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OK, this is following on from the best pedals questions I asked earlier. I'm interested in what you feel is the best amp for taking pedals. Also keep them to one only and include only those you have tried yourself.

Fender amps in general seem to be much better at taking them. The Deluxe & Deville's seem to work really well with them but I don't really see the appeal in them for anything more than that. I like how my Blues Junior sounds with pedals through it. I guess in my experience it's been down to there not being much you can do to make that amp sound bad....

Compared with my Orange Rocker 30, which is a lot more difficult to dial in a setting that will take pedals really well. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that my OCD clone will never sound all that great through it. It sounds too similar to the amps drive channel so I think they conflict with eachother. That's just my experience with it anyway.

I can vouch for the Roland Jazz Chorus series. (Not the reissue ones). It's a very clean amp, which in my opinion is what you want for using most pedals.

Bear in mind that some pedals are made to be used with valve amps to push the preamp for overdrive. How these sound on clean amps I have no first hand experience with.

Interestingly I remain unconvinced by my Silverface Musicmaster's ability to take dirt pedals well. It seems to agree more with Muffs than it does with your DLS type drives. A saltbooster in front sounds glorious though.

Are there actually amps that 'take pedals well'? I've no idea if this is true but I would have though that in the majority of cases the variables of guitar/ pedal/ how the knobs are set/ amp/ how the amp is set will have the most effect on overall tone, and establishing whether this is down to one amp taking pedals well would be difficult to prove?

I've only ever owned two amps, and use loads of pedals and both of them seem fine with being battered with loads of dirt and pissing about.

GUITAR : Laney HCM120H
BASS : Hartke LH500

My Minimat combo. It's what the bloke from DAM uses to test his pedals, donchaknow.

(I am aware that this runs completely at odds to conventional wisdom using a large output, clean amp with very little breakup).

willlin wrote:Interestingly I remain unconvinced by my Silverface Musicmaster's ability to take dirt pedals well. It seems to agree more with Muffs than it does with your DLS type drives. A saltbooster in front sounds glorious though.

Are there actually amps that 'take pedals well'? I've no idea if this is true but I would have though that in the majority of cases the variables of guitar/ pedal/ how the knobs are set/ amp/ how the amp is set will have the most effect on overall tone, and establishing whether this is down to one amp taking pedals well would be difficult to prove?

Will i found the same as you however sticking a saltboosetr before the DLS made it hit the right spot.

I know hurb and fran were super impressed with the Line 6 spider for taking pedals well.

I had an Arbeiter 100 watt 2x12 solid state in around '93-'94 and that took pedals really well, I used to run an MXR Distortion + through it for my main dirty sound, and then a DOD FX 52 classic fuzz (Big Muff clone IIRC) for lead. It sounded pretty good, like a solid state twin really. I wish I had kept it, but I sold it when my band split & I went to uni because I wanted something smaller.

The best amp for taking pedals that I've ever had was a Crate Powerblock, could be used a really nice clean slate (I used to stick the master volume on full then use the gain to set the volume level, which gave me quite good headroom).

Worst amp for taking dirt pedals is my ZT Lunchbox, but then that isn't really great for rock stuff so it's not really an issue. I get most of my dirt from my AC30, I use an overdrive in front of the top boost channel already pretty heavily overdriven for saturated gain sounds and I use crazy fuzz's into the drive sound to make it sound like the apocalypse

Gabriel wrote:The best amp for taking pedals that I've ever had was a Crate Powerblock, could be used a really nice clean slate (I used to stick the master volume on full then use the gain to set the volume level, which gave me quite good headroom).

Worst amp for taking dirt pedals is my ZT Lunchbox, but then that isn't really great for rock stuff so it's not really an issue. I get most of my dirt from my AC30, I use an overdrive in front of the top boost channel already pretty heavily overdriven for saturated gain sounds and I use crazy fuzz's into the drive sound to make it sound like the apocalypse

What is your favorite dirt pedal for the AC30?

my mesa markIIb absolutely loves any pedal, on the clean channel.

Twin Reverb takes all of them well, except for the Hotcake.

Dave wrote:I know hurb and fran were super impressed with the Line 6 spider for taking pedals well.

Aye. Definitely, if you use Fuzz pedals and want a clean amp - Line 6 Spider II 75w 1x12 combo. Solid State, comfortably portable and cheap as chips. The onboard effects are quite good too.
Overdrives always sound better with teh Valves but in general i think solid state amps work better with pedals.

71Smallbox wrote:Twin Reverb takes all of them well, except for the Hotcake.

But i guess its amazing with your AC30

Most people seem to prefer quite a sterile clean sound for taking pedals, but I've never been a fan of that. I always find that dirt pedals sound a lot better going through an already breaking up amp. My Tiny Terror is PERFECT for this, usually with tone at 1 o clock and gain at 11 o clock, although obviously that changes slightly depending on where I am, which guitar I'm using etc...

gypsyseven wrote:

71Smallbox wrote:Twin Reverb takes all of them well, except for the Hotcake.

But i guess its amazing with your AC30

I wish I knew! AC30 is in the living room, Hotcake is in the rehearsal space, I have to drive it over there this weekend, then a full report!

It's just a small bedroom amp, but my Pathfinder 15R sounds great when using pedals.

I sort of wonder why Vox hasn't come out with a higher-wattage/larger combo version, say like a Pathfinder 50R or 75R?

Twin reverb sounds excellent with everything I have thrown in front of it fuzz, delay, micro pog.

I had a 70's bassman that took all kinds of fuzz and delay that I used to abuse it with. used to run a telephone microphone into the other channel with a guitar sounded great (if you consider extremely loud noise punk music great)

I couldn't name what amp is best for taking pedals as to me amps can only be put into 2 catagories, ones which take pedals well and ones that don't - but this, to a certain extent, is dependant on what pedals i'm using at the time. However, from experience, I can list some amps that fit into either camp:

Take pedals well:

Fender Hot Rod Deluxe
Fender Blues Jr
Fender Bassman 50 (silverface)
Carlsbro 50 Top
Bugera V55HD

Don't take pedals well:

Orange Rocker 30
Orange Tiny Terror
Peavey Windsor