Reamping question, which route to take?

[MaZi]

Cheers mates!

Having read through many threads on this forum I'm still pretty confused. I'm about to start the reamping stage on my record. Most of the guitar sounds I'm after are heavily overdriven but silky at the same time. The music is near electrorock genre (think LCD Soundsystem, NIN, Gary Numan and the likes).
The equipment I already have includes Chandler Germanium PRE, SPL Channel One strip, Neve Portico compressor, SSL Duende, a Groove Tubes M1DB mic and an RME Multiface II interface. (this list is just to let you know what I can already use without spending money).

However I do not have a guitar amp nor a device to drive one from a direct line out (can get both though). I do not want to use amp sims, even though I have got NI guitar rig which is ok for laying down ideas, but sounds cannish and brittle in the long run.

Cutting to the chase, what is the best low powered recording amp you guys would recommend for reamping? I have to do this in my flat, so no more than 15W please. Another question - can I use any of my already owned stuff for this, and will my GT mic work with recording amps?

My budget for the whole operation is around $2500.
Thanks very much.

[steffo]

I would visit a studio and bring the raw guitar tracks. Pick an amp you like and run the tracks trough it.

[john.sawyer]

Check out Fender Princeton Recording Amp or Mesa Boogie Lone Star Special for a good recording amp. For Re-Amping look at the Radial X-Amp, Radial also has a Re-Amping kit which is very cool as well.

[MaZi]

Thanks so far. I'm willing to build this setup at home so I could use it whenever I want. Hence going to an external studio is not an option.
These amps are mightily expensive, are they worth it?

[Kiwiburger]

Get yourself an Epiphone Valve Junior head. Cheap as chips - simple, controllable volume. It has no tone circuit - just a volume knob. That's a good thing for recording - simple, repeatable results. Cheap eq is noisy, and you might be tempted to remove frequencies that you later regret.

The choice of cabinet is where tone happens. On a budget? Buy a quality speaker driver, and build your own cabinet. If you buy a commercial brand name cab, A/ it's probably made of cheap lightweight crapwood that rattles, and B/ you will want to hack away the grill cloth and destroy it's looks anyway.

Buy a Reamp box from Reamp, by John Cuniberti. Or one of the imitators is you must - be understand that this is patented technology, so the imitators are forced to compromise this extremely simple design in some way. Simple is good.

Since you are reamping, you have an advantage: you can hit the amp with more gain than a guitar - and you can eq/compress/effect with plugins (or studio hardware). You can try different stompbox pedals too. Lots of options.

[john.sawyer]

You should be able to pick up the Fender Princeton Recording Amp for around $1k.

The Mesa Boogie is considerably more but if you want that Mesa Boogie sound there it is.

I personally love my Fender amps and am able to get a lot of colors with Fender and a few stomp boxes.

"Is it worth it?" That's a question only you can really answer. If you want the sound of a real guitar played through an amp and miked speaker... There is no substitute. Plug-ins and Modeling boxes are fine for what they do but as the saying goes "jack of all trades, master of none".

Another alternative is the SPL Transducer. SPL had it on display at NAMM but without a Amp connected. My general experience with SPL gear is that is extremely well designed and of excellent sound quality I wouldn't hesitate to buy the Transducer without hearing it first. You would still need to buy an Amp Head but volume would not be an issue. And the Transducer is not digitally modeling anything it is 100% analog circuitry.

[gsqd]

The Jule Potter mod'd Orange TT is pretty smooth and mixes beautifully. A 1x12 or 2x12 cabinet should do you and you should pick the speakers to get as close to your desired sound as you can.

Get yourself, as someone else said, a ReAmp box (the Little Labs Redeye is the best I've used to date) and let rip.

<GM>

PS. Or have someone ReAmp it all for you. Many of us do this all the time.