I think I’m falling out of love with my amp.  I have a Marshall Valvestate VS265.  My friend Larry owned one and it had a feature that I absolutely drooled over.  Three switchable channels.  One clean, two distorted.  That’s not too unusual, but the part that I thought kicked ass was that all three channels had their own separate volume.  Meaning I could use one channel for rhythm and another for leads and the leads could be at a significantly louder volume and not get buried in the mix.  Abso-freakin-epically-lutely awesome.

I bought it in 2003 before my first gig with Break Even.  At the time I felt it was a little toppy, but Steve the other guitarist played a little bassy and the two tones meshed together fairly well.

Today?  I’m sick of being so trebly.  I can’t seem to find any bottom end no matter what I do.  It’s making me fall out of love with my amp.  So what do I do?  I’m considering buying a distortion pedal and only using one channel.  If I can get a fatter, warmer sound that way, it might be good.  The alternative is a new amp.  I spent the evening watching sales videos for Fender Twin Reverbs.  Yes they are usually on the top heavy side, and I’d need a distortion pedal, but something about it is making me want want want.  Sadly I don’t have $1500 lying around.

Gear… My kryptonite.