What to look for in a guitar amp for recording

[doulos30]

any amp can be used for recording but it would be best to get a head and a few cabs make sure its tube and you have some way to drive it hard at low med volume

[FFTT]

Heads and separate cabs with various speakers are ideal
so you can control the amp from the control room and shape
the tones through a variety of ceramic and AlNiCo speakers.

Dead studio quiet helps a bunch or you're gating all the time
to cut out hums or rattles.

Good guitar speakers can run $100 $200.00 $350.00 each
so leave yourself some upgrade room.

You'll have to decide if your paying clients are going to want
an emphasis on classic clean tones or what levels of gain they
might want out of a studio amp.

Just a few suggestions to look at.

Gries 20 or 35 Reverb
Reeves Custom 12, 18 30 50 Super 78 and Custom Jimmy
Allen Sweet Spot and Encore
Magic Amps Brit MK II TB86
Magic Amps Z
Divided By 13 9/15 and RSA 31

[nedorama]

you want an amp that will give you a good clean tone; helps if it can take pedals. For that, a Princeton, Princeton Reverb or Deluxe Reverb can all fit the ticket.

Crunch - you can do a lot with 5 watts with recording; I love my Dr. Z Mini Z and it's pure tone, but still gets loud with the volume up less than half way and attenuator half way - great to dig in to the strings to get distortion/dirt.

Variety of cabs is nice to try open back, closed back - mix and match.

Look into the Auralex GRAMMA - very helpful to decouple the amp from the recording studio floor if you don't want everything else rattling.

[litepipe]

A little amp like an old champ could be cool to have around. There is no amp that does everything. I use a tweed champ a lot, but still need other amps. I would focus on something small that is fairly clean (champ won't be clean enough), but can break up if you want to crank it. I don't use stomp boxes for breakup so it's important to me to get the amp to do it. In general I also prefer 12" speakers for recording.

I will sometimes switch cabs more than amps. You'd be surprised how much this changes things. I like to have closed back and open back options.

Stay away from mass produced amps. You know the big names. Unless it's vintage and I mean 60's or early 70's vintage. The new stuff is sounds terrible. Nothing like what it's emulating. I hate recording with those things. Find something hand made. It will save you time mixing.

[prophet]

what makes an amp good for recording

most obviously, its sound. as subjective as it is, it needs to sound great.
you will hear heaps of different opinions on what a good sound acutally is, so I'll just say that it depends on the situation.
so the 2nd answer is that the amp fits the recording situation. if you are recording a Nickelback album, a Fender amp might not be your best choice. likewise, for a Funk album, a Mesa Rectifier would be a poor choice.
to sum this up, there is not the one great sounding recording amp, it depends on the recording situation. ideally, you have a couple to choose from.

how should a recording amp differ from a rehearsal or performance amp

it does not need to differ at all. I use the same amps live and in the studio, again simply selecting what fits the situation.

[quote]We can probably get away with a 5-20W amp. Did I get that right?[/quote
yes, absolutely.

What are the advantages, if any, to recording a louder amp?

It's not necessarily to do with loudness. Older amps (Marshall Plexis e.g.) usually come in higher wattages, ergo they are louder. the loudness factor simply has to do with tube saturation. a tube amp sounds best when played loud. over the last couple of years, some great sounding boutique amps have been made with lower wattages, so they are not that loud even if the volume is cranked, but achieving the same tube saturation effect.

What variables should I look for as I continue researching?

As you said, forget modelling stuff. I'd go for a decent tube amp, either from some boutique company, or a vintage one from the big companies.
as said before, it will be difficult to find a one-fits-all solution. I'd take a look at the music you record, research on some of the "best" artists in that genre and what amps they used to achieve their sound.
you will probably find a lot of Fender amps, Marshalls, Vox. These are classic guitar amps used on countless records. I'd go with one of the classics (or a good boutique clone), you do much wrong here.
to be more precise, a Fender reverb, Marshall Plexi or Voc AC30 will get you a long way. personally, I favour boutique companies, some of which have already been mentioned: Dr. Z, Bad Cat, Divided by Thirteen (great Marshall clones!), Valvetech, Marble (fantastic Fender-sounding amps!), Suhr etc.

is it safe to assume that we would want a tube amp?

absolutely, nothing else!

What effects (tremolo, reverb etc) would be most useful and cover the widest range of those genres?

again, I favour boutique stuff here. a handful of overdrive/distortion pedals, a delay, a tremolo, a chorus should do. there's more to the bowl, but these are standard that get used a lot. no reverb during recording guitars, that should be added in post-production.

What other questions should I be asking myself as I continue to research?

I think you asked the important ones.
so to sum it up: find a decent tube amp that sounds like one of the above mentioned classics (with the music you mentioned, probably a Fender and a Marshall), some good boutique pedals, and you are good to record some great guitars tones.

if you need more detailed information on guitar equipment, you may find tons here: thegearpage.net

[Larry Mal]

Like has been mentioned, you want an amp to be turned up. They sound best when they are running at 100%. Obviously, most large amps and cabinets will defeat a microphone (this is measurable in watts, roughly). So a smaller wattage rated amp will do better in a recording situation, in theory.

For instance, I have a Fender Princeton from '66. It's a twelve watt amp, and while it's loud, you can turn it all the way up and still be in the same room with it. On the other hand, though, mine was "hot-rodded" with some bullshit Mesa Boogie style circuitry, and it's been loud and buzzy. I'm now having it restored to blackface circuitry- Fender's classic, more or less. It'll be clean and quiet.

Fender noticed that folks were using Princetons in recording environments for so long they put this out:

Fender Princeton Recording Guitar Combo Amplifier, 20 W 2152000000

It was never popular or well reviewed that I could see, but it's worth reading up on.

Anyway, for recording, try to get something that is designed for that. The needs of a stage amp and a recording amp aren't necessarily the same, although I don't see the point of rows of Marshall stacks at all, since you... uh... put a microphone or two in front of some of the speakers, and from there into the PA.

So really, if I had a show in the Super Dome or some nonsense, then I'd just show up with the Princeton anyway, move that in, and put a microphone on it. Then I wouldn't have to pay dozens of roadies who would snort up all my cocaine, either. I saw Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine play, and that's basically what he did, and it was refreshing not to see him be all "rock star" like Def Leppard or some shit (although he was using a half stack, as I recall).

So a recording amp can be both. But, if you buy it used, have a tech go over it, check the tubes, clean the pots and so forth. Make sure the pedals you use are of high quality! You'll need to spend a couple of hundred on them, or they'll buzz. Keep your guitar in good shape and consider shielding it if it's a single coil and they skimped on that.

[lrieves]

From a guitar player's perspective, I want to walk into a studio and see a classic vintage amp, like an ac30, marshall plexi, or fender bassman, deluxe reverb, princeton, etc. -something that has a tone I am familiar with, and be confident it will sound great.

most boutique amp companies today are either stemming from or trying to recreate a classic amp's tone, so having the real thing on tap is never a bad idea. even if a guitar player has his sound nailed down with his "go-to" amp, he may track his basic parts with his amp, and be inclined to at least do some other parts through a vintage ac30 for some added flavor.

plus, those amps cover a lot of territory: pop, rock, country, etc.

[doorknocker]

Originally Posted by Fugal Fervor

My main question is, what makes an amp good for recording, and how should a recording amp differ from a rehearsal or performance amp?

The difference being that a recording amp might not sound 'great' per se but records well i.e the sound being picked up by the mic will work great in the context of the song arrangement.

I recently bought a reissue Pignose amp and I'm pretty stunned how great that little thing can work for some things. I never would actually bring it to a gig though (except for an 'unplugged' situation).

What's funny is that I found a great 'trick' by lying the Pignose flat on its back and micing it from above. About a week later I read here (or somewhere) that apparently Jimmy Page used to do this a lot in the studio with small, open back combos. It's hard to come up with something new...

[FFTT]

Actually there's no arguing that room full of dream legacy
amps won't impress most clients as long as they sound as good as they
look.

[guitarwolle]

In my experience, every amp I use is beeing modded over the time. It takes quite a while to ge them right (at least for me).

And, as previously already stated, a selection of different cabs is essential.

One of the best things I ever got for my studio is a patchbay for guitar cabs. This way I can instantly comine every amp with every cab (or multiple cabs). Lehle switchers allow me using multiple amps.

This way you find the right sound for the song - for sure.