The search for your tone?

[homeunit]

Wolf's Rockman thread inspired this one.

Tell us about your gear search for your tone.

I always wanted great tone and versatility. Back when I started buying gear those two things weren’t available. That was before I figured out what tube amp nut I am. I went through a ton of gear searching for tone versatility. I had a MP1, a GP8, a SPX 900, some ART chunk of shite. I finally plugged into a 800 and ended up kissing versatility goodbye. I used to use my Dad's JC120 as my clean tone but that was a real pain in the ass. When the 5150 came out I bought one hoping for some versatility but I found that the only way I could get a good tone was to use the lead channel as my main tone with gain rolled off to about 3. That left the rhythm channel sounding like shit. I played that until the Line 6 stuff came out and I went for a Pod Pro...that was a mistake. It was great for DI recording but to me it sounded like shit through a power amp. It was right around this time that I figured out that for me tubes are the difference. I ended up trying everything with the Pod, tube preamps, Mesa power amps but it still drove me crazy. I ended up dumping that and getting an old modded JMP with a clean a dirty channel. That worked for me for a long time then I started a project and the singer has a Dual Rectifier, well that did it for me. The tone he gets out of that thing is evil, if he wants a Marshall tone it's there, if he wants a fendery clean tone it's there. I A/B it against my Marshall and that was enough for me, I went out and bought a Triple Rectifier and I couldn't be happier. The Marshall sounded fantastic but it was pure Marshall and I guess I got tired of that tone. With the rec, I can get that Marshally tone as well as pretty much anything else I want. I can do 5150ish just fine, Soldano, pretty much anything. It’s almost annoyingly versatile. The thing I have yet to figure out with them is what's the deal with all the gain they have? My gain never gets past 5 and at 5 it's a thumping machine of pain.

What’s your story?