Hey there,cain777 wrote:hey guys,
The tone im looking for is something between the open sounding rythym that Petrucci has on the awake album and for lead a mix between chris brooks,michael romeo, stephan forte sound because they have warm overdriven but still very clear.
Many of the amps mentioned have great tones and drive.
I personally use a mid 90s 20 channel Mesa DR Solo head. It's an amp that can be pigeon-holed as one kind of amp, and also one that the best tones are not always instantly achieved upon. I currently use it with a PRS Custom 24 with bare effects through the effects loop (Boss DD6, CE5, Akai Head Rush) but a little delay or reverb really opens up to otherwise bare drive tone on the boogie.
Normally when you try the DR heads in a store, the lead channel is set to red, but I've recently been using the Orange mode on both channels, with slightly different gain and eq settings for rhythm and lead. For non-rock/metal gigs (which I sometimes do for $), I'll keep the orange modes but change them to vintage voicing instead of modern (with the switch at the back). I've done blues, rockabilly and cover shows with the same amp and had completely different (and appropriate) tones for all of them.
I think that you may have to delve further into any amp that you try, but don't write them off until you're done exploring.
Your choice of box will change the tones too. I recently got a Mesa endorsement deal here in Australia and changed from Marshall to Mesa boxes, and the eq differences I had to make to suit were massive.
Good luck with the tone search!
...but...
Awesome amp. But you're dead right, no OD without massive volume 
). I set it up so I can't really tell when it's on or off and then max out the level control...so it's usually level maxed, gain almost off ( like 8 o'clock) and tone is about 10 o'clock. There are almost an infinite number of OD/clean boost options out there, even an EQ pedal will yield pleasing results. I guess the deal is to get those power tubes cookin'.
MmmmmMmmmm good. 