randall rm4 solid state tones?

Hi everyone.
I'm about to downsize my rig and want some input from you more experienced rigbuilders and tonechasers

Right now my rig consists of a randall rm4 preamp, a peavey classic 60/60 poweramp and two peavey cabs (classic 4x10 and 1x15). I realy love the tones I'm getting but the size is overkill for my needs and the family is about to get an addition of a much eticipated son So the priorities are naturally shifting. I'm not playing live but would love some portability for jaming. Nowadays I'm almost exclusively playing clean (jazz, blues, country and some 80s pop) and I've somewhat fallen i love with the classic solidstate clean jazz and 80s tone.

Now for my ideas and questions:
I'm thinking that a solidstate poweramp would get me close to my ideal tone, so I'm thinking that a god quality ss combo as a compact powered speaker for my rm4 would be a great solution. But what combo? After reading lotts of threads on jazz guitar forums the favored ss amps seams to be polytones and other hard to get amps (at least in sweden). Other popular amps are the zt lunchbox, acoustic amps and some bass amps. But I ' ve got limited experience with these amps and don't know how they would work as a powered speaker for the rm4. Mostly because of the od speaker configurations. The zt lunchbox and many acoustic amps have 6'5" or 8" speakers and additionally acoustic amps and bass amps often have tweeters. Have anyone here got any experience with such amps and any idea how they would work as a powered speaker?
As most of you, i love the flexibility of the mts system and altough I'm manily playing clean at the moment i love the distortion tones aswell..
Other alternatives could be the Tech21 pe60 or just an ordinary ss 1x12 combo, running the rm4 thru the fx loop return. My only concern with common 1x12 ss combos are the quality of the combo as most ss combo are very cheap. A final alternative could be a solidstate poweramp with a god 1x12 cab, what are the exeriences with ss poweramps? Would an ART or behringer 1u poweramp be a god solution?

In other words, i want god clean and portabel ss power with lotts of clean headroom..

Sorry for a long post and please excuse the spelling as i'm swedish and writing th is on my phone..

By the way, my rm4 is i shop beeing repaired so at the moment i won't have the opportunity to try different solutions. The modules I'm mainly using are the stock blackface , deluxe, clean, top boost, jtm and plexi modules. My guitars are 52 ri telecaster, Eric johnson stratocaster, a modded raw power les paul (all maple) and a modded Light ash telecaster. For effects i 'm only using a fender reverb tank and different modulation pedals (mostly mxr micro flanger, and a digitech whammy 4 on the detune setting).

Thanks in advance for your input!

When a person says "Jazz tone" any more it can mean a number of things. I love that old classic jazz polytone sound with an L5 or a big old arch top Guild. One of my favorite tones is Jim Hall who used a 1949 Gibson GA 50 tube amp. I commissioned Rob to make me one and it is pretty spot on what I want it for. Here is the clip:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=1234714&content=songinfo&songID=12520152

I would rule out the ZT lunchbox for your needs. It tends to get gritty at higher volumes.

The Polytone would be the best I can say I've heard up close. It was quite impressive.

Oh and if you're chasing SS clean in MTS, Jaded Faith has a mod called the Super Clean and was voiced to get as close to the Roland JC120 type of clean.

Thanks for the reply guys!

A polytone would be in many way the perfect amp, but they are very hard to get here in sweden. I've never even seen one for sale and I've been searching..

But maybe i wasn't clear enough in my first post. I'm looking for something just to amplify my rm4 preamp. I love all sorts of jazz ss tones, from Joe Pass to Mike stern. But I'm not looking to tone match their tones exactly. I'm just looking for a way to add the dryness, stiffnes and response of a ss amp. In other words, I'm gooing for (for example) the fenderish clean from a blackface module with the added stiffness, dryness and response from a ss amp.

If the lunchbox is bad at higher volumes then it's a no go for me. A roland jc120 is also an amp I've been considering, but it's to large and heavy and wouldn't be much of a downsizing. I want lots of clean headroom in a small package. Speaker wize i want something "jazzy" and by jazzy i mean the full frequency response of many "jazz amps", sort of what i allready got with the 4x10 and the 1x15 cabs..

Hope you're getting what I'm trying to say, as i said english isn't my native language and to express an ideal tone is hard enough in swedish..

Thanks again for your input!

So you are wanting a solid state Power Amp, right?
Ever tried a Rocktron Velocity 150? They are one rack space, solid state and weigh next to nothing. They have a reactance knob that can add a tube-ish sound but can also be ultra clean. They are also reasonably priced.

I forgot bort the rocktrons.. Thanks for reminding me!
A question regarding modern solid state guitar poweramps, don't they often have some sort of tube emulation in them? I'm thinking marshall valvestate and such. Can this be completely turned of on the rocktron? I'm guessing this is the biggest difference between new and old ss? I'm also guessing this is one thing that is characteristic of the more "jazzy" amps?
One idea behind getting a combo instead of a power amp was that the combo could function as a backup If the rm4 goes down (it allready has once). But as allways the option of separate poweramp and cab would be more flexable regarding the choice of speakers..

Doesn't any of the big companies build high quality ss amps any more?

Right now the rocktron and a speaker cab seams to be my best solution..

Thanks again for your time and input!

The reactance knob can be turned down on the Rocktrons to make it more solid state sounding. Mine has been real solid...no trouble at all.You might also check out these guys:
http://uk.matrixamplification.com/rack-amplifers/gt-800-fx.html

RHz said:

Doesn't any of the big companies build high quality ss amps any more?

Right now the rocktron and a speaker cab seams to be my best solution..

Thanks again for your time and input!

Click to expand...

How about some Carvin, Peavey, or HH poweramps
Yes they're hi-fi poweramps, but that doesn't matter much with a narrow response guitarcab

I've read read about the matrix poweramp and they seem great and regarding other more hifi power amps I've thought about those too. But I would prefer a 1u amp (like the matrix). I was considering a behringer or a ART power amp as they are easily avaliable in the music shops in town, don't know If the matrix is.. That's also one advantage of the rocktron, it's also easily avaliable. Other poweramps I've been considering is the Markbass mb1000, the DV mark g1000 and one of the powersoft ones (frank gambale used to use one with his jmp1). The problem for me choosing among ss poweramps is that i have no idea about the technical side of these. Tube amps are easier in that regard as most (and i) have experience with different tube etc.. If anyone have any experience with hifi or pa style poweramps please share your experience.

Another idea I've been thinking about lately is maybe getting a speaker simulator (palmer, hughes and kettner, topedo) and a powered monitor. Anyone got experience using any of these with just a preamp, live or in a jaming situation? That could be a very compact solution with only a 2u rack with the speaker sim in the back and maybe a small 1x10 monitor.

I'd suggest heading to a music gear store and trying some of the SS Fender combos too. Also some Roland/Boss cube amps (or similar).

Rob over at JF has been using the Two Notes Torpedo with Kevin Ownhammer's speaker sims and all of the stuff on his site sounds great. On the Two Notes are some power amp sims, but I think they are all tube models. i will be getting one shortly for the studio. I imagine live would be nice too.

Since it uses impulse responses, I'd hope there would be some of the JC120 or such?

There seem to be lots of free IR's out there.

http://www.redwirez.com/free1960g12m25s.jsp
http://www.freemusiciansresource.com/category/impulses/impulses-impulses/

Here is the google search I used to get those two right off.

"free solid state impulse responses"

And a lot of guys here love Ownhammer responses (they have some to download)
http://www.ownhammer.com
http://www.ownhammer.com/free/analogalizer/

I've been reading upp on the torpedo cab, and I'm thinking this would be a great alternative. The lack of a ss power amp simulation doesn't bother me that much as i asume you can turn the sim of. I't won't get any cleaner and transparent than that And the ability to have different patches for each module is great for the flexibility as i could have some "tube tones" aswell..

The only negative i can think of is that it is digital.. But That's more a psycological problem rather than a tone problem. I've been able to get great tones out of all modelers I've had, but I'm never realy satisfied. Allways tweeking and waiting for the next update.

Now it's just matter of waiting for my rm4 to be repaired. I'm going to try the ss combos in the shop first, but most likely I'll end upp getting the torpedo cab (and maybe a palmer pdi, just case they're cheap).

Thanks for all your input guys and thanks for a great forum, I've been reading on and off for serveral years.