Tones of the Beast: Five Essential Heavy Metal Amps, Part 2
From the Dark Terror to the Coreblade, we collect five more outstanding metal guitar amps.
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Last week, we posted our picks for five essential heavy metal guitar amps. It featured a quintet of out-of-the-box, ready-for-business bruisers built for purveyors of the heaviest of rock.
The story was so popular -- and there were so many other fine amp choices available -- that we found ourselves asking each other, "Why limit it to five?"
Here, therefore, is an additional serving of five essential metal amps, presented in no particular order. Like last time, this list was compiled by a group of Guitar World staffers, including Technical Editor Paul Riario.
We considered power, versatility and stage-worthiness, narrowing our picks to five amps that will have you ready to seek and destroy right out of the box, no pedals required.
Peavey 6505+
Most high-gain fiends know that Peavey’s 6505 Series amps are evolutionary creations that began with the Peavey/Van Halen–designed 5150 heads. When Peavey’s association with Van Halen ended in 2004, the company continued to build the same insanely high-gain amp under the new 6505 name and went about updating some of the amp’s ancillary features.
However, they didn’t change the amps’ extreme-gain circuits, die-hard construction and affordability.
The amp (which comes in a ton of variations) is primed by up to six 12AX7 preamp tubes and driven by four 6L6GC power tubes, delivering brutal high-gain power.
Try plugging into the high-gain input to double the input gain for crushing overdriven tones. You also can create a second "lead" tone by engaging the Crunch option on the rhythm channel. In the master section, you'll find the Resonance and Presence controls. Resonance acts as a low-frequency boost, while Presence acts as a high-frequency boost, both allowing you to sculpt your tone. All of this tonal power is housed in an exterior that is built for the rigors of the road.
MSRP: $1,349.99 | Buy at Amazon

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brettmair
October 09, 2012 at 6:02pm
Wow...best amps in metal? For the elite only? The Dark Terror? That thing is too new with too little power to be in the "Best Heavy Metal Amps" list already. My list...
Sovtek Mig 100
JCM 800
Orange Rockerverb
Peavey 5150 (Original model)
Rivera Knucklehead Tré
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johnnycnote
October 09, 2012 at 2:20pm
So they don't think people would be interested in the output of the H&K, or what tubes it uses? Maybe just an oversight, or someone was lazy . . .
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gregmitchell
September 17, 2012 at 2:31pm
Hughes and Ketner was an amplifier I had some experience with and I think they're on to something. All these amps are elite amplifiers and a person should be elated with their purchase given the size of their investment, these aren't cheap.
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rockinbrewer
August 23, 2012 at 2:41pm
Back in the '90's Aspen Pitman of Groove Tubes fame elected to build amplifiers, one of which was the GT Electronics Solo 75.
When tubed with EL34's tone is similar to a JCM 800 except way more gain onboard with great note to note clarity.
Fantastic feedback characteristics due to onboard oscillator.
Too bad they are out of production...
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reverendhell
August 22, 2012 at 12:31pm
These are all great amps- in part 1 too- but so far no Randalls? Unless I overlooked one in there- I got my greasy mitts on a 1st generation Warhead, and I can say that it's such a great amp, I hope to have my ashes sprinkled inside of it when that time comes, just so I can continue to enjoy it's tone- if all the amps featured here are just newer models, I know there are some others that sound just as good- anyway, keep up the great work!














