What's more important to you in an amp -- clean or dirt?

[Bobby D]

i like it when an amp has a natural reverb and phase, LIKE THIS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luNdoSerRJc

[huckleboogie]

ah, as always-very interesting information from Bjorn's entry!!!
its funny, 4 years ago (before i discovered BJF) i was goin on a long tour and i decided to take only one dirt pedal...a lot of flights would be involved and on the previous tour i had just lost my luggage on a flight with three x-pensive <brand name> pedals. so i went for an analog-man modded DS 1...and what amp did i get the first night? a JC120!! i was like...omg this aint gonna work, but i was surprised i got good results with the DS! thats why i enjoyed to read that You went for that combo too, Bjorn!!

about backline amps: i do about 100 gigs a year where i got to rely on rented backline and it really comes down to what Bobby wrote: BLackface Twin RI, Hot Rod Deville(I dont think theyre that bad actually!!) and-at least on blues festivals(thats were i play mostly)-: Silverface Twins. i hate those, theyre totally inpredictable, lots of times a nasty distorted sound at volume 3 o clock already...probably cuz theyre not well maintained. and yes, no soundcheck but three minute line checks most of the time, hehe! sometimes it has proven useful to take a super hard on (or anything with two outputs) to use two amps simultaneously for those "silver face" scenarios to get decent headroom at least...

of all brands i've tried i must say that BJF pedals work with almost everything...they have been referred to as "little amps in a box" and i think thats true!!

[Bobby D]

a good JC-120 I can almost always get a good sound out of.

but some of those 70s silverface twins with master volumes....UGH......scary

the hot rod series are OK, but there is this ragged high end distortion on the clean channel that i can NEVER seem to get rid of, around 3K or so, and it really just BUZZES in my ears like a mad bee.....

but you are 100% correct -- the BJFE pedals are the closest thing I have ever heard to an "amp in a box"

If I was one of those Nashville or LA session guys, I would want all the BJF pedals I could get. Beats carrying around a dozen amps and paying cartage.....