Amp-Maniacs...What do you prefer - Channel Switching or Single Channel?

How many amp channels do you like?

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Modern Saint

Modern Saint

Starve your Fear, Feed your Dream!
After playing many years of guitar, the amp has been one of the main components to ones sound. It comes to the point of using multiple amps or for some just one amp.

Here is the breakdown for me over the years of what I owned and sold to get to where I am now. Bottom line is - are you a single channel, dual channel, multiple channel (more than 2) or all of the above?

1977-1979
Single Channel Amp - Peavey Pacer, Fender Princeton

1979-1986
Channel Switching - Mesa Boogie Mark IIB
Single Channel Amp - Peavey Decade, Fender Princeton, Fender Champ II

1986-1988
Channel Switching - Mesa Boogie Mark IIB, Crate G20XL

1988-2001
Channel Switching - Mesa Boogie Mark IIB, Crate G20XL, Marshall 9001 Preamp/Carver Amp/Mesa Boogie 1-12" Thiele Cabs

2001-2004
Channel Switching - Mesa Boogie Mark IIB, Marshall 9001 Preamp/Carver Amp/Mesa Boogie 1-12" Thiele Cabs

2004-2005
Channel Switching - Mesa Boogie Mark IIB, Marshall 9001 Preamp/Carver Amp/Mesa Boogie 1-12" Thiele Cabs
Single Channel Amp - Marshall JCM800

2005-2009
Channel Switching - Mesa Boogie Mark IIB, Marshall 9001 Preamp/Carver Amp/Mesa Boogie 1-12" Thiele Cabs
Single Channel Amp - Marshall JCM800, Fender VibroChamp

2009-2010
Channel Switching - Mesa Boogie Mark IIB, Marshall 9001 Preamp/Carver Amp/Mesa Boogie 1-12" Thiele Cabs
Single Channel Amp - Marshall JCM800, Fender VibroChamp, Jet City JCA20H

2010-2011
Channel Switching - Mesa Boogie Mark IIB, Marshall 9001 Preamp/Carver Amp/Mesa Boogie 1-12" Thiele Cabs
Single Channel Amp - Marshall JCM800, Fender VibroChamp, Jet City JCA20H, Weber 5E7M Bandmaster Tweed

2011-Current
Channel Switching - Mesa Boogie Mark IIB, Marshall 9001 Preamp/Carver Amp/Mesa Boogie 1-12" Thiele Cabs
Single Channel Amp - Marshall JCM800, Fender VibroChamp, Jet City JCA20H, 5E7M Bandmaster Tweed Clone, 5E3 Deluxe Tweed Clone, Epiphone Jr, Epi Jr Mercury Mod
 
I am the kinda guy that needs as little options as possible. I get overwhelmed by too many choices and can never decide on just one. Then I end up just playing with my equipment most of the time other than playing music. Plus my genre choice and playing style is pretty minimalist.
 
Generally just a single channel amp.

That being said - the amp I have now (Reverend Kingsnake) has three different 'voicings' - one that is more Brit (HiWatt), one that is more Fenderish, and one that is Supro-ish. It's not foot switchable and switching between the setting results in very different volumes so not really manually switchable inside a gig unless you write down settings and manually rest it between sets. But in reality it is just a flexible single channel amp.
 
Single channel. I only need 1 sound, maybe 2, if I need clean and dirty. I can get that with rolling back the volume or a pedal. Plus I have yet to find an amp that does both well. One channel is usually really good and the other is meh.
 
Depends really. I have never really needed more than a single channel 70's Marshall JMP MkII 50w model (instant Schenker! :love:) that I foolishly sold....but have of course spent thousands on trying to recreate what that amp did. Some of which was worth it, the two channel Mesa DC5 I used for a long time was a terrific amp. The three channel Marshall 30th Anniversary amp..less so. Unless it was on 10. In which case the room was empty. :embarrassed:
 
For blues or country, I prefer a single channel with a really nice slightly dirty clean sound. For most rock I like it 2 channel with clean that has lots of headroom and at least 1 dirty channel that really cooks.
 
I'm a single channel guy although if someone were to give me a Custom Audio Electronics PT-100 I wouldn't cry that much :embarrassed:
 
I prefer two channels for what I do in TRA.

I've always been able to get by with a single channel amp before though, and as stated above, I spend more time just playing the damn thing.
 
I like a dual channel amp. Multi channels would be OK, but the added cost, weight, and knob density kind of make them get silly pretty fast. I can certainly get by with a single channel, but I like having a clean and a dirty side to the amp.
 
Single channel.

I use a dirt box for gain, but for me, the clean (figuratively speaking) tone is the most important.
 
I'm a direct to amp kinda guy... so 2 channels and reverb are perfect for me. The only other thing I need out front is a wah and a tuner.


Something I wish the amp guys would make would be a combo with a single connector that goes in the back of the amp for the footswitch... and then at the footswitch is the input, effects send and effects return (plus the channel switches). You could have the regular input and loop on the amp, but having a multi-conductor cable with one connector at the amp and ONE cable providing the three in/outs and the footswitch makes too much sense.
 
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Currently gig w/ a two channel Peavey Redline Transtube Envoy, but 90% of a given evening is w/ the Clean Channel, and I could probably go back to just one channel, as long as it's the Clean Channel.

It has enough Voicings to allow me to get the sounds I need, although, again, 90% of a given evening it's the Vintage voicing on the Clean channel...between that, my tele's p/us, and my pedal board, I've got it pretty much covered.

Channel 2 is set for really "out there" sounds... :tongue:
 
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I'm with wagdog & Howie on this.
back when I actually played guitar in a band, mind ya.

these days, it's the modeler.
 
baimun said:
Something I wish the amp guys would make would be a combo with a single connector that goes in the back of the amp for the footswitch... and then at the footswitch is the input, effects send and effects return (plus the channel switches). You could have the regular input and loop on the amp, but having a multi-conductor cable with one connector at the amp and ONE cable providing the three in/outs and the footswitch makes too much sense.
Click to expand...

That would be brilliant and simple. For those reasons alone, it will never happen... :(


Oh -- and for me it depends. I use a single channel amp (Tech 21 Trademark 10 or Vox Mini 3 or Kustom Defender 5H) at home 100% of the time, but my gigging amp (which has gotten regrettably little use lately) is a Tech 21 Trademark 60 that has two footswitchable channels.
 
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Two channel for me but I usually only use one. I play on the OD channel and just roll back the guitar volume to get a cleanish sound.
 
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