| C-dog is right on about less gain. What you think sounds heavy when you're standing in front of the amp isn't what's going to sound heavy through a mic and in a mix. (C-dog posted a super cool guitar tone here somewhere, BTW).
The Bogner is a staple for that stuff, and I've also dialed in a pretty heavy tone with an Engl. I also got some nice heavy tones with a Hughes and Kettner Duotone.
I got a JCM 800 in the eighties because it was new and cheap. As I learned more about tone, I realized that nobody who was "good" wanted the JCM's then. Mine was actually o/ding an LED to get distortion. It didn't sound too good to me. Now I hear lots of heavy players really like them. I think they're harsh and off-sounding. I use a '76 JMP 100w head that I got a couple of years ago from a dealer in Vintage Guitar mag for $499 (almost perfect shape.) For most of my needs, it's a staple. For a grand, you could put together a nice sounding Marshall .5. I don't know if that's heavy enough by todays standards.
On "Louder than Love", Kim Thayil used a Music Man head and an eighties Peavey 4x12 to get a lot of the riff tones. I got a MM head based on that, and with the right setup, they're super heavy because they've got pretty dang nice low end. I used an MXR distortion+ with mine. Solid State pre with valve amp section. Can be had reasonably these days. |